Elder D 3.28.13 "Mama C"

Greenville OH Library poster- yes that is me!

Boy howdy is Ohio super!
 

I love this great and rich land.  I also love all the people that I have come into contact with in my service to the Lord. Mama C being on of them. She is a member of the branch here in Greenville and she is so much fun. She really is the area mother for the missionaries. She is a short plump woman, about 37, and just has the most incredible spirit around her. Whenever we don't have a dinner (which is more often than you think) she is always willing to feed us. And she will teach us how to make the meal ourselves so we can make it as we do our missionary things. And she's such a hoot.
 

I have reached the hump day. I have been serving the Lord for 6 months now. I burned a tie to mark this moment. Honestly I never thought I would've made it this long. There has been times when I've thought about giving up. A mission is hard. But I've realized that nothing easily obtained in this life is easy. The blessing of devoting 2 years of my life to the Lord has been worth while and I would never trade the experiences I have had with those I have come to love.
 

I love Elder Riggs so much. We are always having a blast. We're both tremendous goobs. We are always getting in to Nerf battles and snowball fights. We talk a lot about whatever comes to mind. Sometimes, our topic turns to deep doctrine and it's neat to see how we both think about eternity and such. He will talk about home a lot and how he's scared and excited to go back into the world. That's not getting trunky but it's ok to be every now and again.

 

We have a lot of music that we listen to when we take long trips to meetings or going from village to village in our area. We've been listening to all the Pokemon songs that we have and it's crazy how closely they relate to the missionary lifestyle. Songs of companionship's, transfers, teaching, training, and other such topics. We also have some music by an artist named La Cray whose a really clean Christian rapper. He's not a member of the Church but a lot of what he says relates closely to what we believe. He has a song about missionaries called "Go Hard or Go Home".  Another of his songs, he argues with temptation. It's just awesome.

 

Elder Riggs is not trunky. He wont let himself be. We'll talk about home together but that doesn't necessarily mean that he wont work. We've actually been having some success with the plans that we make. We are meeting a lot of less active members of the branch now and have helped with what they've needed.
We have 2 investigators that we are really working with. Nikki is a part member that is pretty much a member. She just needs to get over the Book of Mormon and jump in the water. Brandi is much more delicate. Elders were being sort a pushy with her, so we just want to fix the relationship between us and her. she doesn't hate us. In fact her kids love us. We made a cake for her daughter's birthday on Monday. Other than that, We've been meeting with a lot of less active members of the branch. Things are picking up but we feel that we have a lot of bridges to fix and tread lightly.

This picture is of the oldest Bridge in OH.  What a great Sunset.

 

I was not online yesterday because the weather had been snowing since church on Sunday, which was about 10 am, and the library was closed all day. Also, as a district, we went to the Air Force Museum again. That was a lot of fun. I love my district now.

 

Love,
Elder Ephraim Kade DeCoursey

Sister D 3.26.13 "Family History and Sister Vader"

Home,

I'm doing pretty good. No snow!! I think that it is finally going away. It has been 32 degrees warm! How sad is that? So I forgot to tell you that I was totally at University of Minnesota when they beat Indiana! It's was pretty crazy over there. Of course I was not at the game but just being on campus was fun.  I know that you are into the March Madness Dad.

We have been doing a lot of family history lately and it has been super fun. Also, a great way to get to know some non members that come into the center. We have been going to the ward activities and meeting a lot of great people both members and non members alike. There was a Relief Society activity this week and we did movie skits. I was in the Star Wars group and was dubbed "Sister Vader" because they had me read all of the Vader lines in the classic "I am your father scene." It was really great.  I think that the RS President does have some pictures. I will ask to have her email me a picture so that I can send it to you.

 

Things have been going good. Our investigators were sick this past week but we were blessed anyways by having a hand off lesson from our Zone Leaders. We have slowly been able to teach more and more each week. So that's great. We will be meeting with a gal named Adri next week. She moved in with a member family a few weeks ago and part of the agreement with her living there was that she would be involved in nightly scripture study and prayer. She has come to church the last few weeks and has really enjoyed it. This last Sunday, she had to work on Sunday. When she was at work, she broke down crying because she felt like there was a void in her life now because she wasn't at church. So, she left work and came to church late! How great is that? We are going to be having our first lesson with her this week.

Sister P is doing ok. I can see that she is lacking in the confidence area. I know that she can do all the things that are needed. I know that she can talk to people/plan/make decisions. However, some times I feel like she forgets her ability. So I have been working with her on that. I feel like I have been improving more in my teaching skills and really do feel confident that I can do anything that Lord's asks of me because He has called me here and has promised not to leave me hanging. I love this work.

 

oh and did you mean to make the blog only readable if people are invited. I would really like it if anyone could read it. I'm not sure if you were aware that you have to be invited to read the blog.

Not to much to say this week. We had to move into another member's home this week and we will

only be there until Saturday because the Bishop's wife is gone for two weeks.

The pictures are of our adventures in exploring the church. We found where the organ pipes where hidden at. Probably weren't allowed in there....

 

Love you all,

Sister D