It snowed again!

Elder Lovell checking the snow depth.
 It was 5" deep at that time and still snowing.

We got another snow storm (January 10). Bro. Hill says he doesn't want any more missionaries from Idaho because we bring the snow with us. This has been the coldest and snowiest winter since 1979 we have been told. I'm just hoping that if we bring cold winters, it should make for colder summers as well.  We're not looking forward to 110 degree summer days. The whole state of South Carolina closed all of their state offices for about 3 days. School was out in some places for the whole week. (Latta got 7", Marion got 4")  The funniest closure we saw was on Tuesday. The roads were really pretty dry and we had to check the heat situation for an investigator.  We headed to Burger King  (in Marion) to get them something to eat about 2:30.  They had just closed because of the weather!? Our next effort was down the road a short distance to McDonald's.  You could hardly find a parking place and when you did, you had to wait for a break in the drive through lane to get out. We think some workers just wanted to go home early.

Temple Trip #2

We again had a wonderful trip to the temple.  Part of that experience began with helping members find family names to take to the temple.  Everyone who attended today had their own family name - there was a sister, grandmother, greatgrandmother, niece, and cousins. Sister Lisa Jackson hadn't been back to the temple since she got her own endowments about 5 years ago.  We helped her get her grandmother's name ready for her to do the initiatory and endowment.  When she came out of the initiatory, she was so overwhelmed that she was sobbing. She has been so appreciative of the opportunity and her goal is to get the rest of her family to the temple. We had so many stumbling blocks getting the baptisms done so they could have the rest of the work done, but the baptismal workers were so wonderful and helped us get it done. Bro. Weatherford came in just as they were to do the confirmations and they asked him if he would like to do them.  What an emotional experience. He confirmed his sister-in-law first and the spirit was so strong that all who were in the room was affected.

We stayed for another session with the other Senior Missionaries in our mission. Afterwards we went to the mission home where we had dinner and a white elephant exchange.  It was fun getting to meet and get to know the other senior missionaries. 



 

Elder Lovell checking out his gift, an old phone that doesn't work









Sister Hadley with her do-it-yourself grapevine wreath.  Actually, she was excited as she wanted one since I told her about them.  I ended up making it before we left.



We left home about 6:00 a.m. and got home about 9:30 p.m.  It was a very long day but so spiritually fulfilling!

Music



Elder Jones & Elder Linford trying out the new keyboard.
They have the same expressions that Lisa, Kellee, and Kara
had when they played their first song.



After we received our call, we got a letter talking about the Harman Music Grant. This grant provides wards and branches with keyboards and all the keyboard & conducting music material for the purpose of teaching those with the desire to learn to play & conduct music. We applied for three keyboards and course material kits.  The Primary Presidency asked to be the first to take the course.  I didn't expect such nice keyboards. They have a lot of bells & whistles.  Lisa, is the president as well as the branch chorister.  She does quite well but has a strong desire to do better and to understand what she is doing.  Giving these sisters their keyboards, which has opened up a new talent they didn't know they have, has been a wonderful experience.  When Kellee played her first song, the excitement she had was uncontainable. She and Kara are sisters and their father has expressed how he can feel their excitement every time he talks to them. Each one has had only a couple of lessons but they are like sponges, they have set a goal - which song they want to play or conduct and when. When they have finished the course, if they still have the desire to continue using their new talent to benefit the branch and be willing to teach others, then they can apply for a grant to receive their own keyboard kits. There are others who have expressed their desire to be the next one to learn.

Jam

Elder Lovell needed some apples and we finally found a stand that had them by the box. We also found many of the stands sell jam.  This particular stand had some very  jams: frog jam, traffic jam, and toe jam.  We have tried the traffic jam and and the frog jam - they are really good. I especially like the frog jam.

Frog jam: figs, raspberries, orange, ginger

Traffic jam: blueberries, raspberries, strawberries

Toe jam: tangerines, oranges, elderberry juice

Christmas Decor

(I had problems with downloading pictures so back to catch up mode.)

I wondered what we would do for Christmas decorations without too much expense. 

We found a tree at Family Dollar and some lights on sale. We then decorated with a popcorn and cranberry garland, and pinecones from Weatherford's.  Along with one of the grapevine wreaths we made we thought we were doing well.  This poinsettia was the one from the church.

We had dinner at President Harvey's and they gave us a tinsel tree which is a tradtion in their family. Sister Weatherford loaned us a Santa Claus, and along with the poinsettias that we were given, we really did have a festive home.

This is a magnolia tree in Marion.  I don't think the picture can show you how big it really is, but it's huge! 

And then they lit it up for Christmas!  It was beautiful!

The Christmas stockings filled with candy and other goodies from Bro. Hill was a nice touch as well.

Christmas in South Carolina

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Christmas Eve was spent quietly at home and Elder Lovell commented on how unusual it was not to have family with us, or a nativity program to take care of, or finishing up the last of the Christmas presents. Our family has spoiled us along with the branch. We had supper at the Weatherford’s and was able to meet some of their family as they came in.  Christmas morning I made bread for dinner, then went to the Weatherford’s for the rest of the day. More family came and some of their daughter’s in-laws. It was loud, active, and there was lots of food. The Christmas dinner consisted of 3 turkeys (2 fried and one roasted), a ham, plain rice with giblet gravy, greasy rice, corn, cornbread dressing, macaroni & cheese, green bean casserole, relish plates, homemade bread, kidney beans, cookies, cakes, pies, etc  It was all very good. I spent a lot of the day practicing sons with children & grandchildren as they were to do the Sacrament meeting program on Sunday and since they were all very talented singers, I was privileged to be their accompanist – and some songs were not easy. However, I guess we were as ready as we could be. 

Christmas Day - it was a beautiful day!

Watching the weather, we are discovering that there are actually some days that are warmer in Ririe, ID than here in Latta, South Carolina!!!! Bro. Hill said that they’ve got to quit sending missionaries from Idaho as we seem to be bringing the cold weather with us.  They say that this winter so far is the coldest it’s been in a long time. I kept telling people that having Christmas without snow is hard.  They assured me that Christmas will still come. It did, but the snow didn’t come until the next day. During the night it actually snowed! We woke up to about 2 inches of wet snow and it is still snowing.  Church was canceled so I don’t have to worry about playing and messing them up!  However, we have really noticed that without church, the rest of the week was really hard - many of us just felt down and really had to work at getting excited about doing anythng. 

Sunday morning, the day after Christmas!

We were told through a text message from the mission office elders, “Because of the snow, leave your cars parked except to drive…” We got a chuckle out of that, then later we received the rest of the story, “to church if your unit has not been canceled. Be safe.” That made more sense. The snow is very wet, cars continue to go by. We are told, however, that we need to stay off the roads even though we can drive on these roads, the people here don’t know how and that’s where the danger is.  The snow is very wet and as it melts on the roads, the temperature drops and then its black ice.  We have been warned to get to the stores and make sure we have food, and have some water on hand as the power will probably go out, and if it does, go to the Weatherford’s as they have a wood stove and we can stay warm there. It’s nice to be looked after!

Christmas activity and program

The Primary did a panorama of the nativity while we
sang “Silent Night”.

Getting ready for the Christmas activity on the 18^th and the program for Sacrament meeting on the 19^th kept us very busy that week.  The Primary met at 2:00 on Saturday for a service activity where they visited homes of hospice patients. Not only did we have primary children, but we also had our special needs adults and those who could drive.  We went to 3 homes and it was a wonderful experience.  The children were very well behaved. At each home they played a Christmas song on the chimes, and sang a few more.  We had enough children and with the special needs we took turns on the chimes and I was amazed at how flexible they were at playing a new chime and being willing to take turns. We returned to the church where we had a wonderful dinner and then had a program.  

There was a lot of singing and then Santa came. 



We had 75 in attendance. It was a great evening.



The branch was very good to us.

We came home with a bag of oranges, a stocking each filled with candy, tangerines, oranges, pencils, a planner, pen, and highlighter, and instructions that the huge poinsettia decorating the chapel was ours to take home after church.

Sunday, the Christmas story was told accompanied with music. The primary played “Away in a Manger” on the chimes, the congregation sang, and we had special musical numbers. For the closing song, the story of the American & German soldiers during World War I joined in singing “Silent Night”. Sister Weatherford’s granddaughter and Pres. Harvey sang the first verse, she in English, he in German. The 2^nd verse was sung by the Priesthood as they stood up wherever they were sitting.  Then the congregation and piano joined in on the 3^rd verse.  We were told that the branch couldn’t sing without accompaniment but the brethren proved them wrong. It was powerful! 

Relief Society Christmas Activity



Elder Lovell helping our special needs members, Keith ......

Our November Relief Society activity was a light supper and then we learned how to be creative with very little cost. With the generosity of Bro. Weatherford and the help of Elder Lovell, we had plenty of grapevines for everyone to learn how to make a grapevine wreath.  It was a lot of fun and even Elder Lovell got into the act by helping make them.  It has been an ongoing project in our spare time.  We sent one to Alease (DelRoy’s wife) for the funeral, and then made one for each of our kids for Christmas. By the time we made some for a few of the branch members and for ourselves, we made about 15.  It was a lot of fun, but I think Jim was glad when we finally quit. He was a good sport and a lot of help.





..... and Robin making their grapevine wreaths.



One of the finished wreaths





Thanksgiving (a little late)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We invited some non-members, a new convert and Angelina over for dinner. Bro. Moody (the new convert) is the only one who was able to come. We had a great time as we were able to get to know him better. He has a sweet spirit.  He just received the Priesthood and wants to “do it right.”  We have the opportunity to pick him up for church each Sunday, and the more we get to know him, the more we appreciate his testimony and his attitude about life. He never complains.The day after Thanksgiving we took leftovers to the investigators and had a good visit with Lasonya.  We talked about how important it was for her and Jimmy to come to church.  We picked them up along with Bro. Moody and Cynthia, a friend, and brought them to church.  I had a class of 5 today (Elder Bethers joined us).  It was a good class as they participated well and the spirit was strong.  Cynthia knows her scriptures and commented often. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would like to come again. We know that we have many praying for us while we are here, please add Jimmy & Lasonya, Crystal and her family, and those who are now being introduced to the church that they will have the desire to make the necessary changes in their lives that will allow them to be baptized. There are so many things that we take for granted that so many others have to do without. We are so blessed.



Bro. Moody at our 1st Thanksgiving in South Carolina.  We had a great time.



Sample of my learning to cook again. We were "thankful" for the ones on the left.





Missionaries singing for the cooks - it was a great dinner!



We finally got a picture with Pres. & Sis. McConkie



We had our first zone conference on December 8.  It was very interesting.  The first gathering was mostly on car maintenance and safety.  We especially enjoyed the video on the proper way to back up.  I was reminded of the time when we picked Jalin up from her mission. We stopped in Indepenence, MO at the visitor’s center.  When we came out, the Elders were  backing out of their parking space but the companion forgot to get out and direct the backup.  Jalin, still in her missionary dress and badge, immediately ran over and directed the driver.  They looked so embarrassed!  We think our two young sisters would’ve enjoyed a video of that! The dinner was fantastic and each table was decorated with Christmas candy and chocolates with a nice poinsettia in the middle.  The one sitting on the chair with a sticker on the back that said “I am special” got to take the poinsettia home.  Elder Lovell was “special” that day.  After the dinner and some play time, they had a talent show – some with home video’s and others with a song that they wrote.  It was fun to watch them.  It ended with the Christmas Story by President McConkie.

New Elders

We have two new Elders in the Marion Branch.  It’s interesting to see the differences in these young men and to see their individual strengths and personalities. We spent the day with them today (Dec. 15) visiting less actives and meeting with a new investigator for the first time.  It’s one of those days that make missionary work very rewarding.  This new investigator was a member referral.  These are the best kind as the friendship and fellowship are already there. She also gave us the names of her son and her daughter and asked us to contact them as well.  She showed us her Bible that a very nice young man sold her.  She was surprised that these two nice young men would give her the Book of Mormon for free.  They’ll start teaching her again after the holidays.

By small and simple things...

It’s amazing how little things have the potential of becoming big things – if we listen to the promptings of the spirit. We had received our water bill and debated whether we should go to Dillon to pay it, or just mail it in.  The thought to go to Dillon just to pay the bill wasn’t feasible so decided to get groceries as well.  Then we wondered which to do first, but Elder Lovell just drove to the water office.  When we entered, there was a black man paying his bill.  He turned, and when he saw us he said, “I know all about those badges.” Elder Lovell replied, “I hope it’s good.”  He said it was all very good.  He introduced himself as Brayboy (his last name) and for the next 15 minutes we had a very enjoyable visit.  He hasn’t been to church for a few years but still has a very strong testimony and invited us to come visit him anytime.  He then left, but came right back and said, “I knew I was inspired to come pay my bill right now.”  We did go visit him (for over an hour) and he was a joy.  We met his wife and youngest son, Charles.  He knows he needs to come back to church and bring his 3 children.  He says he’s coming.  We hope he does.  The first time back after a long absence from church is hard, but we feel he will come.  (Just a little note, the day we first met Bro. Brayboy was the day and time we would’ve flown home to DelRoy’s funeral.  Had we gone, we would’ve missed this opportunity.  Another testimony that there are blessings in listening to the spirit – even if part of that listening is not exactly what we want at the time.)  We went back another day (with a loaf of fresh bread) and was able to meet his two girls as well as other family members and some friends.  What a great time!  I visited with the girls, the mom and the friends while Elder Lovell visited with Bro. Brayboy.  He has mentioned several times that he knows that it is for him that we were sent here.  We always leave him feeling so uplifted. We are still confident that he will come back. We will be setting up an appointment to teach his family.  Keep the Brayboy's in your prayers.