November News

We started the month of November by seeing a small flock of wild turkeys walking down one of the sidewalks here.  Of course, I had to have Elder Butler stop the car so we could get a picture!  We were only quick enough to catch one of them with the camera, but it was a fun moment and very appropriate to start this month

                                                                                                                                                                                    We also held two Family History Workshops at the Vintage Senior Citizen center.  The people we help there are not members of our church, but we have

loved getting to know them and help all we can with their search for their ancestors.  At the end of the second session we offered to schedule one on one help.  We had several people sign up.  Two of the people who signed up were Sonja and her friend, LaVerne.  We were so happy to help them because they are so excited about family history.  We referred them to one of the Family History Centers in one of our church buildings near their homes.  They got lots of help there.  We later met with them to sign them up for FamilySearch and give them a little tech help----yes, we are actually helping someone else with technology!!!  Sonja was so excited to show us pictures of  her 2nd great grandfather that she had found at the library along with a picture and biography.

Then on November 8th Damoni was confirmed a member of the church.  He was baptized a few days earlier but we had to miss his baptism due to a senior conference.  His grandmother, Vikkiy, has been in and out of the hospital so we were especially glad that she could make it to the confirmation.  He looked so good in his new white shirt and tie.

A few days later the Southside Spanish speaking elders had a missionary's dream come true--a whole family coming into the church.   Missionaries and ward members  were able to help arrange for the marriage of Armando and Remelios after months of paperwork problems with the Mexican government.  Then right after the marriage ceremony the couple were baptized along with two of their oldest children.  They have the cutest little family. They will be such
a blessing to the Spanish group here.

We also had a great P-day this month by visiting a place called McConnell's Mill.  It is an old mill and covered bridge.  We went on a beautiful hike on both sides of Slippery Rock Creek.  It is hard to describe the peace and beauty that we experienced that day in nature.  It was such a great break for us.

On our way to the mill we also stopped by a members home who had recently moved out of one of the wards here in Pittsburgh to a new ward in the suburbs.  Her name is Martha and when we met her almost a year ago she was totally inactive in the church.  She was also a little antagonistic and resentful about past wrongs she felt had been done in the church.  We tried to be accepting of her feelings and just tried to become friends with her.  As we visited several times with her we ended up having some spiritual discussions especially relating to her

Utah pioneer ancestors.  One of those ancestors was Dr. Shipp who is pictured on the right.  We are now seeing positive changes start to happen in Martha's life.   She just seems much happier and more at peace.  We get glimpses of her underlying testimony of the gospel.  We feel that a few things led to this change. One was that she started working on family history.......she had a couple of people in the ward reach out to her who related well to her......and the ward young men's group provided service to her by helping her move.  She is now attending church in her new ward!!  We had a wonderful visit with her and her mom.

We feel some of her ancestors on the other side must have gotten very busy after our visit because a few days later, we happened to meet a woman in her new ward at the grocery story here by our home.  As we talked to this woman we realized that she is a perfect fit to be a new friend to Martha.  She said she only comes into Pittsburgh every 4 or 5 months to shop!!  An interesting side note is that Elder Butler was going to go to the store alone, but at the last minute we both had a feeling that I should go too.  As we spoke to the woman at the store I was the one who made the connection with her about the fact that she lived close to Martha.  We realized that (as usual) it was a good thing I didn't send Elder Butler to the store alone.  Then, that night after we got home,  guess who called on the phone just to talk.....Martha!

We had a fun zone training on November 12.  First we had a good meeting together and heard about the new Christmas initiative that will go into effect on November 29th.  We can hardly wait.  We are already getting ready to put the cards on little gifts and thinking of any other way we can to share the beautiful video that we saw.  It really got us in the Christmas spirit a little bit early.  Everyone wore yellow or black shirts commemorating the "Stilers"(local pronunciation) and then we signed and decorated each other's shirts.  They also played a new game (to us anyway) of toilet paper dodgeball in the gym!  Lots of fun!

Then before we knew it, November 17,  "transfer day", was here.  A change in procedure was made and this time everyone got news of changes in areas and companions on the Saturday before. We had one last lunch with both Pittsburgh districts together at Boston Market.  It was a great time together.

At the transfer meeting we met Megan's new companion, Sister Wall.  Megan's new area will be Monongahela which is about an hour away from us.  Yeah!  We are so blessed.  It is also in our zone!!!  This means we will see her at even more meetings and be able to still spend P-days with her and her companion.  It still doesn't quite seem real to us.