Weekly Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

This week turned out to be busy and very eventful.  We had zone conference on Tuesday in Clarksburg, WV at their stake center.  We had good instruction from our Mission President and his wife, the Assistants, our zone leaders and the sister zone leaders.  We really like our Mission President and his wife.  President Lindahl is very tender-hearted.  He knows how to chastise without making you fill like you were chastised.  Sister Lindahl really has a soft spot for the sisters.  She gave us some training on how to use family history work to help us do missionary work. We love being around the young missionaries.  Their enthusiasm and testimonies are contagious. President Lindahl and I talked briefly about how training these great young men and women is the Lord's university.  And Mom really liked the Subway sandwiches we had for lunch.  And to top it all off she got to go up and have all the missionaries sing happy birthday to her.  We always leave zone conference feeling uplifted.

Wednesday we got our blinds installed!  Saying Mom was happy is an understatement.  We ordered them the week we got here and they finally came in and were installed.  We do feel like we have a lot more privacy. 

We weren't initially invited anywhere for Thanksgiving dinner. We had made plans to go to Perkins for dinner and were quite excited to eat at a place that was familiar to us.  On Wednesday, the young Elders told  a couple in the branch that they hadn't been invited anywhere for dinner and didn't think we had either. So they called us and invited us to Thanksgiving dinner.  To show you how kind that was, they were having their own family Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. So they cooked a whole separate meal just for the missionaries.  We didn't have any turkey or stuffing or pie, but we were well fed and enjoyed their company.  After dinner we got to come home and visit with several of our family members who Facetimed us.  Isn't technology wonderful!

Friday we had our District Council meeting in Masontown, WV. The zone leaders came in and did a little training.  We had suspected that our Oakland elders were going to be moved out and be assigned to another area.  That was confirmed and they will be leaving as soon as they can find another apartment. For now they are driving to their new area and driving back here to sleep.  We fed them dinner tonight and may feed them again before they are gone.  We are pretty sure this will not affect us at all, but it will be weird to be here without elders.

We are having our Branch Christmas party on Holli's birthday, Dec. 9.  We have created some invitations that we are taking out to some of the people who don't come to church.  We don't think any of them will come, but we want them to know they are wanted. We took some out on Saturday and got to have a couple of good conversations.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our pretty little Christmas tree.  Let the Christmas season begin.

My scripture this week is one that I have loved for many years.  It was kind of my motto scripture while I was bishop.  Doctrine and Covenants 64:33 - "Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. For out of small things proceedeth that which is great."  I believe this scripture with all my heart.

Have a great week. We love you and pray for you every day.