The end of
one area and the anticipation of a new area to serve in. We finished up our 3
months in the
Lexington Park
and Patuxent wards on Friday.. I have loved serving these wonderful
sisters.
We met so many fantastic people
and traveled along so many wonderful roads with amazing views.. Our next area
is Calvert and it runs north and south between the
Chesapeake Bay
and the
Patuxent River..
It is a long narrow ward and we will see more water than we have before.
We are excited to start there on Sunday, July
1st.
We made
many phone calls this week trying to encourage many sisters to have us over for
a visit before we left the area.. Since it is the beginning of summer, we
discovered that many were not home. We left many, many messages and waited
patiently for some return phone calls, sadly not happening this week.. I did
have one very funny return call..
Me:
hello this is Sister Harper
Voice:
Who?
Me: Sister
Harper from the churc
Voice: what
church?
Me: The
Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Voice: I
got a call from this phone number and they said to call them back
Me:
Who is this calling?
Voice:
You should know.. you called me
Me: I
called over 15 sister this morning and left messages
Voice: Well
you should know who you called....dial tone..
So we had a good laugh on that one.
We met with
Bonnie, our Stake Relief President and had a great luncheon meeting. We love
working with her and seeing her vision for our mission. We were able to discuss
the sisters we had been visiting and discuss our next area, the Calvert
ward. She lived in Calvert for many
years and knows so many of the people who live there and is excited to have us
serving in that area.
When we
have a cancellation of an appointment we like to find someone to visit since we
are so far away from home..I had a wonderful visit with Pat when Sister Brown
was on vacation in Utah and I
really wanted her to meet Pat and see the amazing yard they have. So we dropped
by their house and both Pat and her husband were home. We had a wonderful visit with both of them
and it was hard to leave their house, but we had to get to another
appointment.. On the way out they gave us cucumbers from their garden and some
beautiful hydrangea's..
Our next visit was with Shelly. She had asked that we come visit her before
we leave the area. What a wonderful sister.. They have three darling children..
She has her degree in Bio Physics and
her husband is a mechanical engineer for the Navy. He is in charge of the hydraulic doors on
planes and helicopters for the base. When ever anyone wants to ship a vehicle
or large item on a plane or helicopter, he makes sure that it is secure and
that all the mechanics are in place for safe travel. It was a really fun visit.
On Tuesday,
Sister Brown's back was really hurting and she was down most of the day. That evening Bishop and Suz Martin brought
over dinner and joined us.. What a wonderful family. We love spending time with them.. It was a
very fun evening. Sister Brown asked Bishop Martin if he would give her a
blessing for her health.. After he finished I asked him if he would give me a
priesthood blessing. It was wonderful..
It is the first blessing I have had since I have been out and I really felt the
desire to have a wonderful blessing.. The Martins are such a special part of
our lives. When we served in their ward
for 7 1/2 months we became so close to them and I am so happy that we have
remained close.
Wednesday
we had a passenger to go with us to the temple.
Rose lives in
South Carolina
and visits her son who lives near us for a month at a time a few times a
year.
She had called and asked if she
could ride up with us and we were anxious to have her join us.. What a
delightful lady she is.. it was so fun having her with us for the day.. I
called my daughter in law Karen and had Rose talk about
South
Carolina to her.. She asked us a lot of questions
about our mission and we think that she is "very" interested in
serving a mission.
She is going to talk
to her bishop when she gets back to S.C.
about a mission.
The day at the
temple was wonderful as always.. just love being there every Wednesday.
Thursday
was our Zone Conference.. the Suitland and Silver
Springs zones meet together in our stake center.. I love being with all those amazing
missionaries. It was very inspiring to
be taught by President Matsumori and Sister Matsumori.. We met two of the new senior
couples that have just arrived to serve in our mission.. A wonderful day filled
with instruction, inspiration and fun.. Our mission is without a doubt the
neatest one and our mission president is so wonderful.. I got to have my one on
one interview with Pres. Matsumori and I love the time I get to sit and talk
with him. He is so pleased with the work
we are doing and so happy that our stake president is really on board with the
vision of this new mission.. He said that he hears all the time how wonderful
our work is going, from our district leader and also the bishops and stake
president..
I love to
walk, but Sister Brown isn't able to do it, since I don't feel comfortable
walking alone in the evening .. So now Suz Martin and I are going to walk
together. We started on Thursday evening and walked 3 miles in this "hot -
humid" weather.. I loved it and we are going to walk 3 to 4 evening a
week..
We met for
lunch with Billie, we had never met her before and were so happy we had the
opportunity to spend some time with her. She is the mom of "10" from
10 years to 28 years of age.. She has just finished getting her nursing degree
and is waiting to take her state boards.
She wants to be a nurse practitioner and work in the critical care
area. He husband is an engineer and
doesn't work for the military.. we were so surprised.. he is one of the very
few we have met that doesn't work with or for the military in some form.. It
was a great lunch with all my favorites.. fun time..
We have had
many storms since we moved here.. Friday night was one for the record books..
We saw emergency announcements on TV about a major storm that was on it's way
to the DC /
Maryland area.. There
was an excessive heat warning and tornados were spotted on the radar.. They
were advising everyone to stay indoors if possible.
The temp. on Friday was 104 degrees. Setting
a record for the hottest day in June in the history of record keeping.. with
the humidity it had a heat index of 115 degrees. The experts say that is the
makings for a severe storm called :
A derecho (Spanish: derecho "straight", is a widespread and
long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line
windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line. A warm weather phenomenon,
derechos occur mostly in summer, especially June and July in the Northern Hemisphere.
The wind was blowing at hurricane force
speeds of 70 to 82 miles an hour.. We had lightening was so bright it
illuminated my bedroom and thunder was so loud and rumbled forever.. The after
effect of this storm that hit the areas of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania
was devestating. Over 4 million people
were without power; 3 people have died due to the storm, trees and power lines
are down all over the area. They have
called on another 1,000 teams to help with the downed trees and power lines..
Some trees look like a huge power saw cut off the top halves of the trees.. It
is all the TV stations have been covering on Saturday.. We talked to one man
who was in his back yard trying to secure the family trampoline and he and the
trampoline were air lifted into his neighbors yard.. What a frightening night
for everyone in the area.. So glad that everyone we know is fine and no major
damage. They have declared many areas disaster areas.. so very sad.
Saturday evening we attened a
bar-b-cue with several couples from White Plains 2nd Ward for a pre- 4th of
July celebration.. We met at the home of Doug and Pat Gorley who live at the
beach of the Patuxent river. They live
in a darling little house that was built by the Amish many years ago. Pat and Doug are the couple I went with on
Memorial day to Arlington to see the President.
They are the cutest couple ( in their 80's).. We had a wonderful dinner
and fun conversation then headed down the street to the beach about 8:00 to
gather for the fireworks.. Both Doug and Pat are part of the beach security for
the neighborhood, so we got in the back of their pickup and were able to drive
through the roadblocks all the way to the beach. It was a beautiful evening,
warm but a nice breeze blowing. I walked
down to the edge of the water and put my feet in. The fire department wouldn't
let the fireworks start until the wind died down and the crowd that had
gathered was very patient and finally at 9:40 the spectacular display of
fireworks started.. It was worth the wait.. A very fun evening..
Today was our first day in the
Calvert Ward.. they have a membership of 600 and fill the building and the
cultural hall. We were welcomed by
everyone and already booked several appointments for the coming week.. After
church we met with Bishop Isaacson and shared with him the nuts and bolts of
our mission and the vision we have for serving in the Calvert Ward. He had several
sisters that he asked us to contact and visit.
The Relief Society President is on vacation but told her counselor to
tell us that she is sending us her list of those she wanted us to visit. So we will start making phone calls tomorrow
morning setting up appointments for the week.. and get to know the sisters of
the Calvert Ward.
"To be
cheerful when others are in despair, to keep the faith when others falter, to
be true even when we feel forsaken—all of these are deeply desired outcomes
during the deliberate, divine tutorials which God gives to us—because He loves us.
These learning experiences must not be misread as divine indifference. Instead,
such tutorials are a part of the divine unfolding."
--Neal A. Maxwell
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