Sisters Bell, Healy, Torgerson, Coley, and Wright at Yogurtland!
Kevin and Karissa with some lovely cupcakes she made.
Not joking! A finch on top of a guinea pig on top of a skateboard rolling through Karissa's family's house.
Judy gave me a pattern for this homely yard dog after she heard I like crafts, and this poor thing was the outcome--but we had fun making it.
Sister Bell decorating a cake at a kid's birthday party.
Our mouth's after eating said cake because of the garish colored icing.
Dearest Judy before her baptism!
Elder Smith with Sister Adrian, our Italian Brooklynite.
Us with the Deans. The dad is a recent convert and the mom and son just returned into activity and they are the most awesome family ever--so fun!
Putting our double sliding doors to good use!
Note from Mom: This letter is from August 27, 2012.
Dearest Family!
This week was superb! The leaves are getting into warmer hues, and the cicadas are quite loud. As are some people on our street at night, I don't know what all the hullabaloo is about, but it's happening more often.
This week was superb! The leaves are getting into warmer hues, and the cicadas are quite loud. As are some people on our street at night, I don't know what all the hullabaloo is about, but it's happening more often.
Anyway, transfer news....I'm staying in Sparta! As are both of my companions! This is Sister Bell's last transfer, so it'll be interesting to see how all that goes when you prepare to return from whence you came.
We've been teaching a lot. One kid, Kevin, is a boyfriend of a member. He is set to be baptized on September 15! He prayed about it and decided that was the day for him! He spends most of his time at his girlfriend's family's house because he doesn't have a great family life. They're well to do, and he has everything he wants, but not a loving family. His dad told him he cared more about his possessions and his money than he did about his kids. If he had to choose between the two, he'd choose the money. And Kevin's girlfriend's family are so amazing. They're a normal family, but they love being with each other and doing things together, and much of their closeness is attributed to the Gospel. Which is why Kevin is interested in the Church, because he wants to be able to have a family like that one day.
Judy got baptized this week! And she was so excited! She said she just couldn't wait! All of her family couldn't be there, but she wanted to do it now anyway. Her son Bill (husband of Dawn, who was baptized a couple weeks ago) is home from his heart surgery and is healing quite well. He wanted so badly to come to Church and to Judy's baptism, but Dawn told him he needed to stay home to heal. He has been asking for us to come over (mind you, before the heart attack, he'd only ever said "hi" to us), but sister Bell has had a cold, so once that's done we'll be over there. He has been praying with Dawn, morning and night, and he prays over his meals (again, a couple weeks ago he wasn't sure if God existed). He had a panic attack one day, and asked Dawn to come home as fast as she could and the first thing he said was, "Say a prayer!" and she did. She prayed the pain would go away and he'd be calm from his panic attack. He was calm afterward, and the next day all the pain was gone. Members have been bringing over meals at just the right times, when Dawn is too frazzled to cook. They've made sure they're heart healthy meals too. Bill used to think they were alone in life, but this week he said, "I guess we really do have family. God has been really good to us." We made him a sign with a heart flexing it's muscles that said, "Wishing you strength in your recovery" and we put a mustache on the heart (you know how I am about putting mustaches on things), and he said he appreciated the stache, as he's got quite a full one.
I'm so blessed to be here. I don't know what we did to deserve teaching this family, but I'm glad we're here. And I'm glad I get to see how all this plays out in the next 6 weeks!
The companionship is great, we do a lot of scaring each other as we come out of rooms. I usually jump the highest (how's that for worst jumper in the world Mikey!).
Oh, and joy of joys! After the baptism, we happened upon a member talking with our Zone Leader in the hall. She found out he speaks a little Italian, and she was talking Italian so fast! And then she'd go back to her Brooklyn/Italian accent. And then, oh, and she's in her 70's by the way, she started rapping about being a Mormon momma and the Word of Wisdom. Then our Ward MIssion Leader came around the corner, and she grabbed his hands and said, "Let's do the coupon dance!" and jumped up and down for about 10 seconds. And earlier in Relief Society she was telling a community story about her conversation with a stranger in the grocery store, and said this, "We had an Italian moment without being around the dinner table!" Only in Joysey would this amazing stuff happen!
Love you! Hope you enjoy your schooling this week kids! If you wink at your teacher, maybe they'll let you go to recess early!
Squeezes!
Sister Mergle
