Stories from Ruth # 49

My companion Sister Wilcken is a cute country girl from Cedar City Utah and the London South mission. Whenever we talk to people I just think that she has the accent everyone expects americans to have. A true country accents with the "american twang." It is funny because last transfer we had the Indian sisters, the Asian elders, and the white girls. Now we just have the Americans and the Indians.

This week we had an amazing lesson with Gilbert. I felt prompted to read 3 Nephi 11 with him where Christ appears to the people in ancient america after his resurrection. As we read it the spirit entered the room and we expounded upon the scriptures. When we finished reading about how Jesus Christ had the people touch the nailprints in his hands I asked Gilbert how he felt while reading this. He said it reminded him of when Jesus Christ appeared to his disciples in the bible. I told him that no false text or text that was not from God could reproduce that same special spirit and power that comes when we read of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I then asked him if he knew if the Book of Mormon was true. Gilbert outrightly said that he beleived it was true and quietly said that he did not know yet. We told him that he could gain that knowledge through prayerful study and application of the truths found in the Book of Mormon. It was a powerful lesson.

We arrived to an appointment late, but the people still were not home, so I felt prompted to go find and we found this guy who had been given a Book of Mormon a while ago but did not know anything about it, so we are going to be teaching him!

Sister Wilcken had her birthday today and she turned 20! She is my only companion that is younger than me! It was a lot of fun! We had cake, laughed, and took a lot of photos.

This week this quote by Ezra Taft Benson came to mind, "The great test of life is obedience to God. “We will prove them herewith,” said the Lord, “to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abr. 3:25).
The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it.
The great commandment of life is to love the Lord."
I know this is true. We have to love God first, that is true charity. As we love God and his ways, we love his children as we does, we fulfill the work he has for us, and we keep his commandments perfectly. We must constantly seek to know God more through daily scripture study, prayer, and obeying th commandments we have already been given. Then we can love him more, develop true charity, and realize our own potential as children of God.

This Week at Our House #32

We got the letter saying that CPS has closed our case. The wording was really strange. It said that we did not qualify for their services. We are grateful we do not qualify for their services. We said a lot of prayers of thanks this week.

1. Well my family gave us their apple computer just in time because John's fairly new and perfectly good computer decided to crash fatally all of a sudden this week. So we are very grateful to have a perfectly good replacement so John can continue his game development. 
2. The weather was dryer this week, so we were able to catch up on the laundry. Kate did a lot of it while I taught school.
3. Ruth got a new companion, but stayed in the same place. She also got to go with her newly baptized sister to the London Temple.
4. Kate did the laundry a lot this week. She is almost finished the 7 volume of the History of the Church by Joseph Smith and has been teaching a lot of it to our family. 
5. Johnny finally started feeling better after more than 2 weeks of having stomach cramps. 
6. Adam kept up with all of Johnny's chores for the time period that he was not feeling as well as getting some of the lawn mowed. 
7. Rachel complained about school everyday. I want her to enjoy school. I hope she starts to love learning rather than yearning for free play time all the time.
8. Anya made a very pretty mansion out of legos. 
9. Joseph has been learning to play the recorder on his own and doing a good job. He has also been spending as much time as he is allowed making animated drawings on the computer. 
10. Joshua went the second mile this week during chore day. He finished his chore really fast. Then he did a second chore I gave to him really fast and then he stayed and helped Kate for longer than all the other kids were doing chores.
11. Arwen's reading is progressing well. She did not struggle at all this week.
12. Suzy is always bringing the kittens in the house to play because she loves them, but I have developed a pretty bad allergy to them, so I am always glad when they stay outside all day. When Suzy got out of the bathtub, I asked her if she peed in the bathtub. she hesitated for a minutes and said, "yes, but it is invisible in the bathtub and then it disappears."
13. Sam likes to be read to and he will give you a book and expect you to read it again and again and again. And when I get tired of the book, I send him off to someone else to read the same book to him over and over again.

Pictures

Stories from Ruth # 48

 

Missionary work is very good. We are teaching a few really good people who are progressing. We actually discovered transfers sunday morning and both Elder Lin and Elder Park are leaving and white-washing Guilford together, and Sister Lotter is leaving for Brighton! I will be receiving a Sister from the London South mission. Our new district leader is Elder Robertson from Birmingham... the one everyone thinks I am related to.

I am going to miss my companion a lot. She is a very good and diligent missionary.

This week has been wonderfully wild! Sunday night President Checketts announced that missionaries may go to the temple with their recent converts. Since we had already helping Leila to prepare to go to the temple this week, we arranged it so that we could go with her! It was wonderful! I really know that the temple is the house of God. We need to make covenants with God and if we are to become like Jesus Christ and to receive the blessings of eternity we must make the same promises to God that he made and do vicarious work as he did. We are to be a selfless as he was!

Gilbert is doing soo good!

Transfers happened! I am staying in Enfield with a new sister from London South and Sister Lotter is leaving for Brighton. The Elders are also both leaving, so it will just be us sisters in Enfield.

This Week at Our House #31

August is here. Our weather has been wet, wet, wet!!!! We've had serious downpours with flash flood warnings everyday for over two weeks, and it looks like that is supposed to continue for another two weeks. Our 400ft driveway is flooded. All low spots and all the areas around trees are flooded too. It's been quite hard to get laundry to dry, but we are managing that. Some loads have gotten caught in a down pour. The grass in most parts of the yard is knee length now and soaked, since it is too wet to mow. I have not been able to get into my garden and I doubt much is going to survive this kind of moisture. The kids are mostly staying in doors. The fenced in area of the backyard was mowed, but it was very hard to do. Otherwise the conditions for snakes and snapping turtles are too perfect, so the kids cannot be tromping through the yard. In fact, they found one snapping turtle taking care of some necessary house care. The beach is still having red flag warnings, so we didn't bother with a beach trip this week. Apparently, this never happens. To have so many red flag days is rare enough that it has been on the news. Hopefully all of our rain will move out west where it is very needed. It's odd to be in such a flood when all of my friends are complaining about drought and fires. But our ducks are in water fowl heaven!

1. John continues to have no luck with jobs, but he continues putting in applications daily. He has however, made a lot of progress on his third game. My family gave him the necessary apple equipment, so he will be able to put his games up on the apple store now.
2. I drove the 5 hour drive home and back to visit my family on Friday. My sister took me to the homeschool store there and got me some pretty awesome used books that all the kids were very excited about. She also got me a couple of workbooks that Arwen and Josh need. My mom and my sister Monika are going on vacation to Maine, where we grew up. They have invited me to come along, so Sam and I will be going with them. I think they leave in one week from today. I am pretty excited. I will get to see some of my old stomping grounds, eat in my old favorite restaurants, and see my grandmother's grave, as well as have lots of time to spend with my mother and sister, which I never have.
3. I miss Ruth so much. I love her emails and hearing from her. I think she is doing quite well. She is happy on her mission. Her companion is from Australia and they seem to get along. I know that makes Ruth happy.
4. August is Kate's birthday month. She will be 19 and wanted so much to be leaving on a mission now. This is the first birthday in her life that she is not excited for.
5. Johnny's computer died and my family came to our rescue with a computer that they did not use. So he had a week off of programming and is excited to get back into it.
6. Adam is so funny. He doesn't watch much tv and only a few movies, but he has a movie quote that fits in hilariously to every situation. I love to see how Adam, Johnny, and Kate hang out together talking and joking everyday. They are the best of friends.
7. Rachel went with me to my mother's. My mom took her out to buy shoes. Apparently, her shoes were worn out. I did not know, because Rachel never complained. But I think Rachel really liked being singled out by grandma and getting a special little shopping trip with her.
8. Anya was the only girl that did not go to my parent's house. She did not want to be a part of all the driving. She had a really nice time at home. Apparently, she got some one on one time with John drawing and telling stories. John needs to do a lot of art and story writing as part of game development, so he invites the kids to do those things alongside him. 
9. John spent a little money on some animation programs to use for his upcoming game and games. The kids are using it too. Joseph spent much of a day making his own animated story with stick figures. It's actually quite good.
10. Joshua wanted to come with me, but since I was taking all of the other little kids and he is always good at home, I did not let him come. I will need to find something else to take him on to make up for it.
11. Arwen played a game in which she, Joshua, and Suzy ran through the house dumping out toys, and emptying out closets. I made her play a game where she had to pick them all up and put things back together. Hopefully, she will be wiser with her game choices in the future.
12. Suzy came with me to my parents. She loved playing with her cousin and their new puppy.
13.  Sam is learning to talk now and it's cute. My mom gave me a new set of skipbo cards. In the morning, I let Sam play with the old, nasty humid, dirty cards. Kate went to take some from him and he said very clearly, "It is mine." When we got home from the long drive, Kate went to put him straight in bed, because it was 1 am, Kate asked him if he wanted to go to bed. He thought for a moment and said, "I want mom." He is always saying "I want more", and "I want one" because he LOVES food.

Pictures

Stories from Ruth #47

For the past few months there has been an oppressive heat and no rain in England. (Like the highest temperatures since 1979 or something) However, on Friday night it downpoured! And it has been raining ever since.

This week we taught a lot of lessons outside in the heat. 

Gilbert is awesome. He has read past 1 Nephi 6 and is enjoying it although he still feels new to the Book of Mormon. He also does not drink or smoke and loves classical music. Everytime we see him he is listening to classical music.

We are teaching this guy named Veli and he is progressing so well! He knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. 

This week we helped this awesome ward member Liane a lot! She is so sweet! She actually attends the London North Ward, but she lives in Enfield.

Today our zone got together and had a pday. It was a lot of fun. My favorite part was afterwards I got to visit Sister Carol, David, and Daniel! 

Well I know that this church is true. It is Christ's church and the Book of Mormon is his word along with the bible. I know that Jesus Christ is my saviour and it is only by repenting, sacrificing, and becoming like him that we can come to enter into the kingdom of God. We are to deny ourselves of the world, and of all ungodliness, and to take up our cross and follow him. I love my saviour. I am grateful for this opportunity and responsibility t9 serve and to do his work. 

This Week at Our House # 30

This week we went to the beach twice and had Arwen's 6th birthday. The first beach trip the waves were coming at us from at least three different directions and there were obvious pockets with serious riptides. I have a pretty strict rule that all who want to swim must stay together in a close group, when there is any danger at all. Joseph did not want to follow that rule and kept swimming off and getting caught in the waves. Adam was a champion constantly picking him up and bringing him back. John, Adam, Kate, and I all talked to him, but he just feels too confidant and does not care. At one point, I just held onto his shirt, which he hated. Not too long after that, an old man came up to me and told me that some one had drowned the day before in the spot the ocean kept pulling is toward. So instead of giving Joseph another chance to obey the rules, we went home. We went back to the beach Saturday evening planning on going for a late swim. Well, when we got to the bridge that goes onto the island, there was an electric road sign that said "red flag, rip tides, do not go in the ocean". We thought that was odd. When we got to the parking lot, there was another electric sign with the same message. On the beach, there were red flags every 10 feet and no one was in the Ocean. We have never seen anything like that before, so we are pretty sure that some one else must have drowned between Thursday and Saturday. Joseph had stayed home with Johnny because they both had stomach aches. The rest of us, played in the sand, walked on the beach, and got our feet wet. We have had thunderstorms and down pours everyday this week, and I expect that had something to do with the stormy seas. I am sorry for the people who paid thousands of dollars months ago for their beach vacation.

1. No job news for John. I am feeling rather impatient. This has been a very hard year. I know the Lord will bless us soon either with John being able to make money on his games or a job coming up somewhere. 
2. I did enjoy our trips to the beach and our fun little day for Arwen's birthday. I also loved that we're getting many delicious things from our garden. This week, we had corn on the cob and watermelon.
3. Ruth is praying hard for our family. She has gotten a number of priesthood blessings from the elders in her area to help her with the knowledge of how things are at home.
4. Kate is doing well, even though, she has spent the whole year preparing for a mission and she has not been able to put them in. She teaches us a lot about Church History and Joseph Smith. 
5. Johnny's had a virus with some pretty hard stomach cramps, but he still gets a chore or two done each day. He says he wants to be careful not to milk being sick for all it's worth. I had this sickness the week before, and the pain does come and go, and I think he is taking from my example. There is always a lot to do in this busy big family, so I appreciate how carefully he tries to put his own needs aside to be a blessing to his family. 
6. I bought cans of soda for the kids to drink outside the house. We had set them in the house, but there was a lot of sneaking soda, spilling soda, and fighting over soda. I asked Adam to move it to the garage. He went out, came back directly and dropped it on the floor, where 3 cans broke open. His problem: there were wasps making a nest by the garage door! I took the soda out, and Kate cleaned up the mess. Now I can laugh at how scared Adam was at those wasps.
7. Rachel's been on a dairy free diet and that has been good for her, since after only three weeks, she was obviously taller. She has also been free of headaches and stomachaches she was having weekly. Another positive side effect of this dairy free diet is that Rachel has been learning to cook. If we are having something she cannot eat for dinner, I have her make her own little meal. I think this has been good for her as she is learning to cook and since the portion is small, it is not intimidating like it was before.
8. Anya loves her legos and spends a lot of time in her room alone building them. She built a pretty cute house boat this week.
9. I am hoping Joseph will be a wiser boy after our beach trips this week. He was not taking the danger of the ocean seriously this year. Everyone in the family has reminded him daily of his foolishness and I think he is finally becoming convinced.
10. I have enjoyed teaching Joshua this week during school. He is on his third year of school and becoming an enjoyable student as well as enjoying it himself.
11. John had this interesting conversation with Arwen. It went like this: Arwen (tragically): "My potion, I worked so hard on it". John:What did you put in your potion? Arwen: Water, and sand. John: Where is it, outside? Arwen: No, I brought it inside. I hid it. John: Can I see it? Arwen: No. Its all gone. It spilled. John: Where did you hide it? Arwen: In my closet. And Kate who shares a closet with Arwen sat listening horrified.
12. Susan is probably my easiest kid at the beach right now because she understands her limitations and is very careful.
13. I was asking Sam to say certain words. I asked him to say "Happy Birthday" and he started to sing the song with the correct tune, even though he didn't get all the words.

Pictures

Happy Birthday, Arwen

Little Arwen had her birthday. She's 6 years old and still a sweet angel. She's generally quiet, though you can get her to talk a lot if you try. She's naturally obedient. She will do what she is told without thinking about it and without resistance. Arwen is very capable. I can rely on Arwen more than I can rely on some of her older siblings because I only need to ask her to do something one time. Arwen loves stories and My little Pony. She likes Anya to read to her late into the night. Arwen never likes to be alone. She always has to have someone with her to feel safe and comfortable. She will not go to bed alone or to the bathroom alone. She will not even change her clothes if someone else is not there. But as long as she has one or more of her siblings around, she is perfectly comfortable and content. Thus, she usually asks Susan to go to the bathroom with her. Arwen is a sweet little angel and we all love her.