The Eckert's Farm
Monday morning we got up and did a little house cleaning, then headed over to the Eckert's Farm to see Debbie Craig. She is a less active sister that we had visited two weeks before. She invited us to come to the farm where she works for a tour and lunch with her. The farm was beautiful and so fun. They have a great restaurant, bakery and market with fresh fruits and vegetables they grow. You can also pick your own apples, but I decided I would rather shop than pick apples. The bakery was amazing and I wanted everything! We will definitely being going back for more pastries. I felt a real connection with Sister Craig as she told us a little about her story. I put my arm around her and told her we would love to see her back at church. She got all teary eyed and said, "Just let me work out a few things" I think she is close to coming back. She is someone I would just love to be friends with.
I couldn't stand not having any decorations, so I had to buy a couple at the store there!
Tuesday we met with Andrew Perkins again. We loaded the Book of Mormon App on his phone for him to use. It's a great app. You can read, listen or watch the whole Book of Mormon story on videos. He is always interested in talking about Jesus and anything he can learn. Such a good heart. After we were close to the facility that Sister Lane is in, recovering from a fall she had. When we walked in, it looked like she had been sitting on the edge of the bed and had fallen backwards. She couldn't sit back up on her own. I helped her sit up and get back into bed. She was so tired, she couldn't really talk so we called her nurse and left. She is such a sweet lady. At 1:30 we joined the sisters on a phone lesson with Jeremy. He recently was hit by a car and is recovering. He feels the Lord preserved his life and is anxious to learn more about the gospel. One hold up is he is guy and married. A hard one, but such a great guy. We visited with Sister Houston who is an active sister. She looks so young but her youngest sone is 61. I was blown away. Her husband passed away about a year ago and she is still having a rough time but she is active and a fun lady. It was a short visit because she was off to take her 91 year old mother-in-law to the movies. It was late in the afternoon and we were tired so we stopped and had an early dinner at Tres Caminos. We have been looking for a good mexican restaurant and haven't been able to find one. Someone suggested this one and we loved it.
Wednesday was District Council. We have new District Leaders, so we got to know them better. We have an amazing District. In it is our the District Leaders, Zone Leaders, Sister Zone Leaders and another sister companionship that are all so wonderful. Boy do we feel like the newbies. After council we stopped by the hospital to check on Sister Traynor. She had surgery the day before but she was sitting up and looked really well. We just stayed a few minutes as she was tired. We met with Sister Madelyn Waidmann. I love her. She is a single woman and sister of Mel Waidmann that we have visited a couple of times with his sweet wife Judith. Madelyn is a wealth of information about the church and the whole area. She and her family knew President / Elder Kimball on his mission in Missouri. He would come for dinner quit often. After our visit with her we went to see Jennifer Trice and her family. Sister Trice is a single mom with 3 teenage kids. That was a fun visit. The kids are so full of energy and jokes. Sister Trice has some health problems and the kids don't always make it church. Working on helping them come back too. That night we met with the O'Neals. That was the highlight of the day and maybe the whole week. Brother O'Neal is an older black gentleman who joined the church about 30 years ago. He was very quiet at first as we started asking him and his wife about the area. They live in an area you don't really want to be in at night. It was light when we got there and thought we wouldn't be here long. Once he started sharing we ended up there about 2 hours. They began to tell us about the Branch (he called it a twig) the church had tried to start down in their area. They built a chapel there and he was called as the Branch President. Others had told us about this Branch but they had always said that it didn't work because of the rawdy kids and people breaking into the building stealing stuff, like the AC system. But he never even mentioned that. He said it was because there wasn't enough priesthood and they couldn't even get enough missionaries to come there. You could tell he loved those in the Branch and it was hard to dissolve it. But he is one of the people that started working with different churches there and began humanitarian programs for them. It started out pretty small and over the past 20 years has grown into a huge program. They do 4 big things each year. Summer time they did Baby Shower for expecting mothers and mothers with small children. Lots of different churches participated and the our church sent 2 large truck loads of supplies to give out. The Area President has been really involved and Sister Johnson, Primary General President, came this last time. He also talked about at Christmas time they do another big service. I'm excited to be able to be part of it at Christmas. After our visit we were so filled with the Spirit the walk back to our car in the dark didn't feel too scary.
Thursday we went to see Robert Taylor. He hasn't sprung back as much from his 2nd Chemo treatment as after his 1st, but was happy to see us.
Friday was our Temple day. There Dan met a temple worker, Brother Blakemore, and in talking discovered we have the same Great Great Grandfather, Ebenezer Beesley. Bro Blakemore's Great Grandmother, Ella Beesley Ridges and my Great Grandfather Alvin Augustus are brother and sister. It was wonderful making that connection. (How bout that - our grandkids - Ella and August!)
We had an appointment with Andrew that afternoon but on the way home Sister Howe, from the Office, called and said she had a recliner for us and wanted to bring it over. So we changed our appointment with Andrew for the next day. But then we got a phone call from Sister Traynor and she didn't have a ride home from the hospital and asked if we could pick her up. So we went and picked her and got her home and still were able to be there when the recliner arrived.
Great chair for a little nap!
Saturday morning we met with Andrew and gave him a picture that we had taken of us with him. He was so happy! He also had written another testimony about the things he had been reading in the Book of Mormon. After our visit we were close to Orlando's house, who we have left several messages and keep missing. So we stopped by and he invited us in. We talked for a while and set an appointment to teach his daughter, Heaven, next week. We met with Brother Wright and he shared his story with us. He loves the gospel but doesn't drive and feels he can't leave his 90 year old dad along for that long. He told us the he gets the Sacrament a couple times of month. We made a few more visits but didn't find anyone home.
Sunday we went to our first Ward Council and after church the Bishop met with us. He talked about the Ward more and all the help they need. He gave us 4 areas to work on:
1. Getting members back to church and those that do come to get off the benches (meaning except callings and being willing to help out at church)
2. Be with the Youth. Help them have a desire to serve missions
3 All the Leaders in the Ward are new and need help particularly Elder Quorum. Don't take over just help out.
4. Get the Missionary Coordination Meeting working better
We have our work cut out for us.
What a great week. We feel like each week just gets busier and busier with more people to visit and help.
LOVING IT. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!
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