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.

Halloween--a weird sort of holiday!

We enjoyed a few Halloween festivities the week before Halloween as we participated in an activity after our zone training.  We went to Schenly Park as a zone, had a barbeque and carved pumpkins.  It was really fun to all be together.  We feel like we could get to know some of the zone members that live outside of Pittsburgh and who we don't see very often.  The elders and sisters have long, hard days sometimes.  They have appointments that cancel at the last minute, people who say rude things, and many times they just feel a little down and rejected.  We have to admire them for being upbeat most of the time no matter what they encounter.  A few activities of fun and relaxation really help them cope too. We try to support these activities as much as we can.  This particular activity even attracted nearby kids who came to join us.


We also took some leftover pumpkins to one of the families we visit and taught them what Halloween is all about. We have always thought the concepts behind Halloween are a little strange ourselves, and so it was a little hard to enlighten them on it's meaning.  Anyway, we tried to make some sense out of skeletons, ghosts, begging for candy, and destroying food that they are used to using every last bit of in South Africa.  In the end we tried to just convey that rather than trying to figure it out that it might be better to just have fun with the holiday and enjoy an excuse to do something a little different.

While we were carving pumpkins with them it was interesting to see the mom of the family snatch up the seeds.  She said one of the foods that they enjoy in Africa is to dry the seeds, grind them into powder, and then make a soup from the powder and other ingredients.  The kids also told us that they usually pick the pumpkins green rather than orange and that they eat the leaves as a spinach type dish.

So the week before Halloween President Johnson's weekly letter told us that all missionaries should be in their apartments by 6 PM on Halloween night.  He encouraged everyone to clean our apartments, get caught up on study, or just try to find useful things to do.  Obviously, missionaries in the past may have pushed the envelope

just a bit too much with


Halloween activities.  Anyway, that didn't really cause too much of a problem for us since it's been quite awhile since we have had the urge to go trick or treating.  The thing that seemed strange though is that no one trick or treats in our apartment building either because of all the locked doors and security.


So we spent Halloween evening cleaning, organizing and getting texts of pictures from home.  We really enjoyed seeing the costumes of our crazy kids and grandkids.   It turned out to be a very fun night for us.




Just have to include some of the cute costumes that we were able to enjoy.......







Luke and Heidi-----a hunter and hunted..........

Brynlee just had to be the cutest mermaid ever.....









Jenna was Pedro from Napolean Dynamite----vote for Pedro!....

         McCord and his friend as  
                really cute nerds......
              
                 

October in Pennsylvania

Theres always so much to do that I have been delinquent in keeping up with the blog...but hopefully I can get caught up now.

We have savored the talks from General Conference ever since the first of the month.  Two of my favorites were given on Saturday morning. Elder Richard J. Maynes talked about the joy of living a Christ centered life and used the example of a potter needing to keep the clay exactly centered on the wheel for the pottery to be successful. He quoted the prophet Isaiah---"But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we are the work of thy hand."  Sister Neill Marriott who is from the South and has a VERY cute southern accent talked next.  She began her talk on yielding our hearts to God by quoting a song that said "Have thine own way, dear Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou are the Potter; I am the clay. Mould me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting yielded and still."  

We have been told that no one who speaks at conference is given a set topic and so I thought it was very cool that the two talks fit perfectly together.  Both talks really "spoke to our hearts" as we considered some of our most personal experiences here in the mission.  It has given us so much peace in difficult situations to feel that we must be pliable in His hands and and flexible to His will for us.  As we still await news of some of our family's health outcomes and also as we have felt the loss of our sweet nephew, Jake, these teachings have comforted and sustained us.

Our mission this month has been especially busy.


We have spent a lot more time teaching lessons with the elders and have had many interesting experiences.  Here is a short synopsis of some of the scenarios that we have encountered.

• Alecia.  She was converted to the church in Las Vegas a few years ago--almost by accident.  She was dating a man who belonged to a different church with a name she mistook for the LDS church.  She started to investigate our church without telling him.  She said she just wanted to understand him better.  Before she knew it, she was really feeling the Spirit.  She was baptized,  became immersed in ward activity, and made many friends in the church.  Alecia eventually moved back to Pittsburgh and has had some rough times.  She has just started to come back to church here and we are excited to be her friends and help her any way we can.
• Loretta.  She is investigating the church and is a devout Catholic.  She wants to learn more about what we believe.  She loves to go to mass, but says she doesn't feel a connection with other people there.  The Spirit was very strong as we attended a lesson with her and the elders.  We talked about things we believe that can add to the spirituality she already feels.
• Ed.  He is an accomplished keyboard musician and past hairstylist and makeup artist. He is currently working as a music producer which takes him around the world for various ventures.  He is disillusioned with what the world has to offer and loves the tabernacle choir.  He says he meets many members of the church as he travels and he really admires them.  He even sometimes attends our church meetings in different places around the world as he travels  Ed says he really wants to be baptized into the church, but he has a medical issue that needs to be solved first.
• Damoni who is a new nine year old member of the church.  His immediate family has been less active, but his grandmother is active in the other ward we attend. Through her influence and help from missionaries and ward members he was able to be baptized recently.  He is a very sweet boy with a lot of potential in his life.

October is a favorite month of ours and as we have walked, driven, and bicycled around the city and state I have loved the gorgeousness of the autumn colors here. I think I might have just made up a new word there!

We have traveled quite a bit.  One trip to Gettysburg was particularly sobering and spiritual.  We visited the battlefields of Antietam, Gettysburg and the historic town of Harper's Ferry.  I have a couple of ancestors who were in the Civil War and so being on the battlefields was particularly touching.

At the end of the month we also took a trip for a "Senior Couples Conference" to the new Priesthood Restoration church history site in Harmony, PA.  We stopped in Johnstown, PA to pick up one of the senior couples who serve there.  Johnstown is such an interesting little town to me, because I once read a book about the flood that occured there in 1889.  We learned that there were actually two more floods--one in 1936 and another in 1977.  Visiting museums there really helped to tell the amazing story of the survival of this town.




In Harmony we visited the shore of the Susquehanna River where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey were baptized by John the Baptist.  We also saw the grove of trees where they received the Aaronic Priesthood from Peter, James and John.  The home of Emma Smiths parents (Isaac and Elizabeth Hale) and the home where Joseph and Emma lived for a short time have been restored.  We also saw the cemetery where their infant son was buried.  Seeing it all and hearing the history in the new visitors center really brought church history to life for us.

A highlight of our trip was hearing the Visitor Center sister missionaries sing acapella to us

Lots of interesting people and places.  We love serving in PA!

The Twists and Turns of Life

Now for an update about our daughter, Heather.  Through all of the past month we have been watching our phone for daily updates and texts about her condition.

There is a long version to the story that probably only Heather and Mike know.  They have had many personal spiritual experiences that they have related to us, but those experiences are just hard to put into words and should probably only be told by them.  The trouble is that telling just the the short version of the story just doesn't do justice to the many blessings that have come through this experience..... so we will tell what we can of a medium version!

As we mentioned a couple of posts ago, Heather was admitted to the hospital in St. George on September 18th.  Since she had a bout with carcinoid cancer in 2008, a return visit of the cancer was one suspected diagnosis.  She had numerous tests and ended up being scheduled for a 3 day radioactive scan.  The scan was stopped on the second day because the doctors were sure that they saw cancerous cells near her pancreas and liver. The

news of a return of the cancer really shook us all.  President Johnson was out of town when the diagnosis came and suggested that we drive to Butler to deliver the news to Sister Welch (Megan).  It was a hard message to deliver, but we all knew that the only option we had was to trust in the Lord's plan.  It was such a blessing that we could be together with her at this time for a little while.  While we were with her, Megan's companion, Sister Sears, brought out a letter from a young man who is a recent convert.  It helped to lighten and shift the mood to see them get so excited about this convert's testimony of the gospel.

Meanwhile, in St. George, all of the doctors felt that Heather eventually needed to go to her original cancer specialist at Huntsman Cancer Institute for possible surgery.  But they told her she needed to get her nutrition and strength built up first.  They submitted her name for a spot at Huntsman, but things weren't looking too promising.  On September 28th, the social worker came in her room and started making plans for Heather to be transferred to a Rehab facility.  She was on IV nutritional supplements, but was still battling nausea most of the time.  Heather dreaded having to spend weeks trying to battle the nausea and not being able to get some treatment for the cancer.  She was just so discouraged and we felt so bad for her.  Then came the first of many turns of events!

Heather and Mike's ward in St. George held a ward fast for her on this Monday.  Many other family and friends were praying for her.  Then a little while later in the day, the social worker came back into her hospital room and said a space for her was found at Huntsman!! She called us with tears of joy with the news!  She had to be transferred by ambulance because it would be considered an impatient transfer.  She only had about an hour before she needed to be ready to leave!  It was just then that some of her friends from her neighborhood who were fasting for her showed up unexpectedly.  They quickly helped her get everything organized.  They had just come for a visit and had no idea she was being released.  Mike was home sleeping after having worked all night.  He usually never wakes up early, but on this afternoon woke up suddenly and said for some reason he got the idea that he should start to pack his things to leave!  When Heather called to tell him she was being transfered he was already mostly packed!!  Mike called his work to tell them of the change in plans.  His shifts were covered for him right away.

Mike drove to Salt Lake with Brynlee while Heather was riding in an ambulance.  Jenna decided to stay in St. George with neighbors so that her school wouldn't be too interupted. During the ambulance ride Heather started conversing with the ambulance attendant and found out she was a good friend of Sister Sear's ---Megan's companion (they grew up in the same ward).  The two bonded right away and exchanged many personal experiences on the five hour ride to Salt Lake.

The stay at Huntsman meant more and more tests and doctor visits, but it was a blessing that Heather's cancer specialist was available.  Dr. Scaife usually travels a lot during the fall.  Finally, another turn of events!  On Oct. 1st word came that doctors felt the diagnosis in St. George was a false positive for cancer!  Instead they felt she had SMA (superior mesenteric artery) syndrome which is very rare.  It is basically a defect in the main artery to the duodenum.  The artery is pinching  off the intestine and food does not empty the stomach correctly.  Finally........they felt they had found out why Heather had not been able to eat anything for so many weeks.  It took a few more days for her to be weaned off of the IV nausea medication, but on October 6th she traveled back to St. George after 22 days in the hospital.

Heather still has a feeding tube and can't eat anything by mouth.  She has a long road ahead to get strong enough for possible surgery.  We are all hoping and praying for an eventual successful  recovery.  In the meantime she is still struggling to live in a world that revolves around food and not be able to eat a thing.  On one of Heather's hardest days I happened to mention a video from lds.org called "The Refiner's Fire".  She said watching it really helped her cope better and put things in perspective. It's an amazing video that we highly recommend.

During all of this there were so many tender mercies from the Lord that came through family and friends.  We are so very thankful for all who helped so that we can continue our mission.   It is kind of ironic, but as others were serving Heather, we have been trying our best to help others here.  At the same time Heather was in the hospital, our friend, Ponga, had eye surgery for a corneal transplant.  We helped her through the process and helped her small son get to preschool also.

It just seems that the Lord has a plan for us all to serve one another.  He truly uses our hands to serve one another and give us His blessings.

Baptisms, Visitors, and General Conference

Our area of the mission has been blessed with baptisms

recently.  We missed the baptisms of Rob, Elihu and Sean on September 5th due to Jim's eye surgery.  We were recently able to attend the baptism of Aimee and Belle.  Then one night we had Elihu to dinner with Elder's Ord and Wadsworth.  It was great to hear this young man's conversion story.  He just walked into the First Ward's sacrament meeting one Sunday during the middle of September.  I noticed him sitting at the back of the chapel all alone and I asked him if he was visiting with someone.  He said "no".  I asked if he knew anyone there and he again said "no".  I quickly summoned some of the elders to get to know him.  Then last night we heard the rest of his story.  He attended many different churches over the years and even recently converted to Islam. But he still felt that something was missing.  He was just searching for the right thing when he looked up the Mormon church and decided to attend that Sunday morning.  After he heard about the restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon, he commited to baptism on the first lesson.  Three weeks later he was baptized. He is a student at the University of Pittsburgh and studying to be a criminal attorney.  He attends the YSA (Young Single Adult) ward in our church building and he is really an asset there.  It was wonderful to get to know him better last night.

Elder Davis, Aimee, Elder Whitney

Aimee is also a single adult who was in an accident at one time and now must use a wheelchair most of the time.  She has been studying with the elders for many months---almost as long as we have been here. We attended lessons with the elders in her home several times.  She had many misgivings for awhile, but she was just radiant and had the biggest smile when she announced in Relief Society one Sunday that she had decided to get baptized.

Belle is a single mom raising a young son.  Janelle, Luke, and Heidi were here visiting on the night of her baptism and they were all able to attend her baptism with us.  The

Elder Davis, Belle, Elder Whitney

Relief Society room was filled with people at the baptism and her comment to us was that she couldn't believe they had all come to support her.  We told her that she is really part of a great big family now!

The visit of Janelle, Luke and Heidi only lasted for a few days, but we were able to fit a lot into those days.  We spent time at the Carnegie Science Center, a day in Kirkland, the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, and a ride on the riverboat.  They were also able to  attend our weekly district meeting with the elders.  Janelle attended the whole meeting which Jim taught to two districts. They all heard everyone's weekly "highlights" and then during the lesson portion

Luke, Heidi, & I walked to the Natural History Museum where they had a wonderful time.  Jim's lesson was one he has taught many times at home and now many times here.  It is a lesson about implementing the atonement of the Savior in our lives to improve our relationships and bring us peace and comfort as we navigate through the challenges of life.  He has come up with a little chart that illustrates what he is talking about really well.  It seems like some of the principles that he teaches all begin to fit together for most people who hear it.  He really enjoyed having Janelle be there to be part of the lesson.  Jim has taught the lesson to the MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) and at various other times.

President and Sister Johnson have been very encouraging and supportive of senior couples having their family members come to visit.  Their comment to us was that each of our children and grandchildren are really our most important "investigators" in the gospel.  They feel that having them spend time around missionary life is a wonderful teaching opportunity.  When Heidi was asked what her favorite part of the trip was she said "meeting the elders".

Our fun family visitors left Pittsburgh Saturday morning and flew home to enjoy the rest of conference in Salt Lake.  We spent the day Saturday watching conference in our apartment and then

Jim attended Priesthood meeting that evening with the elders at church.  On Sunday we had 8 elders to watch the afternoon session with us and have dinner.  Two more elders (our zone leaders) showed up for dessert afterwards.  Tuesday is transfer meeting so it was a fun way to get together before all the changes go into effect.  Elder Whitney is going home and Elder Johnson is being transferred, so we will have two new elders to get to know soon.

General Conference was amazing.  It was hard to pick a favorite talk.  The teachings about the Sabbath Day as a sign between God and man and also the many references to dealing with adversity in life especially resonated with us at this time.  Hearing from the three new apostles, Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund was also a highlight.

We can hardly wait to have time to read, listen to, and try to digest the printed talks. Before you know it we will spend our last General Conference here in April!

We also attended the transfer meeting in Greentree on October 6th.  Megan sadly said goodbye to her companion, Sister Sears.  Megan will stay in Butler with a new companion, Sister Bills, and Sister Sears will be quite far away in Hanover, PA.  We feel that we got quite close to Sister Sears and so it was hard for all of us to make this change.  We are learning all about making lots of changes on our mission--but not nearly as many as the young elders and sisters have to make.

Anyway....change is good...we will keep telling ourselves that!

Family Updates

Many fun things have gone on at home recently.  We have sure missed being there and also especially missed summer in Utah.  But there is also an overriding feeling that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing right now.  Luckily, we have pictures, emails, phone calls, and Skype.

We have been busy enough that we haven't really thought too much about the house, yard, and cabin.   We are really glad that Jared and Janelle and their families are taking care of things for us.  We know that it is ALOT of work in the summer and we are so thankful for their help!  We are glad that some of them have been able to enjoy the Utah summer there for us.  We got these cute pictures from Jared's family that did make us miss High Mountain Drug, the good ol' Smith and Morehouse, and good times at the cabin.  We will be looking forward to next summer!

We think Carson looks like he has grown two feet and is almost as tall as his dad, Jared.  We are glad that Jared is teaching his family to fish since being fishermen has never been a strong point with Jim and I.  Out talent seems to be eating the fresh mountain trout that others catch.




Another fun family activity that we heard about this summer was Grandma's Irresistible Raspberries.  This little business was started by Janelle, Luke, and Heidi.  Since they were already helping to take care of our large raspberry patch at home they decided to make the most of it.  They asked our permission to advertise, pick and sell our raspberries to some of their neighbors and friends.  The kids each put in an initial investment to order containers.  With Janelle's business and accounting background, she helped them to plan their business strategy, advertise, make a logo, and even created financial statements!!
The kids said it was a lot of hard work, but they both think it was worth it.
We think it was a wonderful learning experience for all of them and it makes us feel good that the raspberries have again had a successful summer.

Another big family event was Kennedy's baptism on

September 5th.  It was wonderful to talk with her, receive pictures, and hear about the event from other family members.  With Emily's help, we continued our family tradition of giving each of our grandchildren a "Heritage Book" at their baptism.    We were able to get most of the book done before we left on our mission and her mom finished it up for us.  We got a "thank you" note from her the other day saying that she has been reading the stories in it each night before she goes to bed.  It sounds like she is almost done with the whole book!  All these things have really helped to make us feel like we were "almost" there for this important time in her life.


Most everyone is back in school now also.  We got some good pictures sent to us of Courtney, Jackson, and Natalie as they started their first day of school in Georgia.  Courtney is a junior in high school (yikes!!).  She is a straight A student and loves science.  She is also playing the flute in the school marching band this year.

Jackson is also a very good student and is growing tall... right along with Carson.  We have heard that he and Carson are looking and acting more and more alike even though they live across the country from each other!  Jackson is in 9th grade and is still really involved in basketball and scouting.  From what we hear one of his other outstanding talents is "eating, eating, and more eating"!

Natalie is in 7th grade this year.  She tried out for cheerleading and was delighted to make the basketball cheerleading team at her school.  She has also been excelling in science and last May received a special award as "Student of the Month."  She turned 12 at the end of August and has really been enjoying being part of the "Beehive class" in the church Young Women's organization.

We are hoping to write some more "family updates" about other family members again soon.  The only bad part of them all growing up is that it makes us feel SO old.   I guess we can't do anything about that though.

 We hope that we will still all feel close as a family even though the years and the miles separate us at times.  We just LOVE everyone SO much.

The Antidote for Worry is Work

President Johnson's weekly email to all missionaries in the mission this week included a quote from one of our favorite prophets, President Gordon B. Hinckley.  It said, "Why are missionaries so happy?  Because they lose themselves in the service of others.....The best antidote I know for worry is work.  The best medicine for despair is service.  The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired."


That quote will definitely become one of our favorites.  We've had a few worries recently and we have found the remedy of working and focusing on the mission to really help us out.  Besides Jim's slow but steady recovery from eye surgery, we have also had major concerns over our daughter Heather's health.  She has had some history of digestive problems which got to a crisis point during the last few weeks.  She couldn't even drink water without intense cramping and vomiting.  This went on for about 4 weeks until she was finally admitted into the St. George hospital on
September 16th.  Even with numerous scans and tests, visits to her primary care doctor, ER visits for fluids, and phone calls to her specialist at Huntsman Cancer Institute, she didn't really get any relief for most of the 4 weeks.  Friday night, the 18th, was her lowest point and she had another priesthood blessing while in the hospital.  That same night we got a call from Salt Lake telling us that Jim's sister was rushed to the hospital.

In the midst of our worries we had a wonderful missionary meeting with all the missionaries on the west side of the mission.  The featured speakers were Elder and Sister Stanfill.  Elder Stanfill is a general authority of the church from Salt Lake (member of the 1st Quorum of Seventy).  Their words were so uplifting to us.  It was especially fun to sit with Megan again and be able to visit with her.  She played the piano for most of the music in the meeting.  She has been very worried about her mom and so we tried to fill her in on what we knew about the situation.  Megan and I had an opportunity to speak with Elder Stanfill after the meeting.  We told him the situation with us being Megan's grandparents.  He said multiple times what a "miracle" that it is that we are all in the same mission.   We don't know all the reasons Megan is here in this mission, but we think being able to help and support one another during Heather's illness may be one of the reasons.  Just another 'tender mercy' and 'hug from above' that let's us know our Heavenly Father is truly aware of each one of us.

By Sunday night we talked with both Heather and Marie on the phone. Marie is home from the hospital and doing much better.  While Heather is still in the hospital for a while longer, it lifted our hearts to hear that Heather was not only feeling better physically, but she had received a lot of spiritual strength as well.  She had many visits and calls Sunday from family and friends.  She has had wonderful nurses including an extra special one that had helped Emily in the same hospital a year ago.  Her comment to us that night was that no matter what the outcome of all the tests, she feels their whole family has been very blessed and will continue to be blessed.

We know there will probably be lots of ups and downs with Heather's condition, but she said that she has felt such strength from everyone who has called, texted, and visited.  Even the smallest show of love and support seems to mean so much and lift her spirits.  

We also reminisced with Heather about all our family has gone through the last few years--Gram's declining health and passing away almost 2 years ago, surgeries, hospital & ICU stays and other ailments of immediate and extended family members.....the list goes on and on.  And yet with each adversity that we discussed, it was wonderful to recount how we had been and are still being blessed.  We just feel that the Lord is ever near to us.  It all seems part of the earthly experience that will help us one day return to our Heavenly home.

Opposition In All Things

So, as I mentioned in the last blog post, we had a really good lesson in District Meeting about how we receive promptings from the Holy Ghost, but then fear sometimes creeps in and we have to push through the fear to keep doing what the Lord wants us to do.  Little did we realize that we would have the opportunity to put this lesson into practice so soon after our meeting!

We drove away from the meeting with the plan to stop and visit

with an investigator named Annie. Annie is a great lady who is the Sunday School superintendant of her Baptist church that was started years ago by her now deceased husband.  She has taken lessons from various sets of missionaries in the past.  She knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that President Monson is a prophet, but it has been understandablly very hard for her to progress towards actually being baptized in our church.  On our way to her home, Jim mentioned to me that he had been having vision problems and seeing black spots in his right eye since the day before. The symptoms that he described sent up a red flag right away in my mind.  I started making phone calls to determine the best ER to go to in the city.   We went ahead to deliver a special edition of the Ensign about temples to Annie as I was calling doctors and hospitals.

Right after we left Annie's home we went to the UPMC emergency room which is the one in the First Ward where we go to see members of the church who need visits and blessings.  All of a sudden we were there for ourselves instead of to visit someone else and it was a weird feeling.  So many blessings then started to unfold.  We were there in the hospital on a Thursday afternoon right before a holiday weekend.  There is a major eye institute right next to the hospital.  The eye clinic personnel were starting to leave, but we were seen really quickly by a resident, attending ophthalmologist, and finally a retinal specialist.  UPMC is a teaching hospital and many people looked in Jim's eye within a very short time.  It was determined that he had some tears in his retina and it was beginning to detach.  We were told over and over that it was good that we had come to the hospital right away or blindness could have been the result.  They tried to use a laser on the tears, but that didn't work.  When we asked what caused the retinal problems we were told something we are hearing all too often....."old age"!!!  He was put on the surgery schedule for later in the afternoon the next day.

The problem with the surgery time was that we had been working for weeks and weeks to help get Sister Page ready for going to the Columbus temple to have some sealings done for her to her deceased family.  Her living family are not members of the church, but have become more supportive of her desires to attend the temple at least once in her later years.  One extended family member drove her quite some distance to talk to a stake presidency member and then she was willing to make the 6 hour round trip to Columbus since they were worried about her oxygen and wheelchair needs.

When we realized what a conflict this was, Jim said he felt a strong impression that I should go ahead and go to the temple as planned. He said that he felt everything would work out.  I definitely didn't feel quite so peaceful about being almost 200 miles away while he was waiting to be called into surgery at any time.  He kept reassuring me that he was absolutely sure everything would be just fine.  I ended up riding to the temple in a van with the First Ward bishop, Elder Gille, Elder Simmons, LaShaun, and Vikkiy. We had a wonderful experience in the temple and the workers there were so patient and kind to help Sister Page with her special needs.  As we started home I got a text from Jim saying that he had been taken to the hospital early by the elders.  The hospital was able to fit him in for surgery and he expected to go in around 4 PM. I knew it was good to get the surgery done as soon as possible, but my heart sank because I knew we could not make it back in time.  An hour or so later I got another text that said there was a surgery that was more of an emergency put ahead of him.  They didn't expect that he would go into surgery until 6 pm or so.  We got back to Pittsburgh at 6 pm and I had the bishop drop me off at the hospital.  The surgery ahead of Jim went slower than expected so he didn't actually go into surgery until 8:20 pm.  I had time to visit with him, talk with the doctors and the anesthesiologist.  We felt relatively peaceful about everything and I was so relieved to be there with him.

My peaceful feeling started to give way about 3 hours

later when I hadn't heard anything from the operating room.  They told us earlier that the surgery would only last about 2 hours.  I was nervously waiting by myself in a lonely surgery waiting room when all of a sudden Elders Ord and Wadsworth showed up.  They waited with me for another few hours as the doctor came to reassure me that everything went well and Jim spent time in the recovery room.  We didn't leave the hospital until 2 AM.  The elders drove us to where our car was parked at the church and then helped us into our apartment.  They live in the same apartment building that we do.  What a blessing it was for us to have the elders close by to help us through this ordeal.  Getting to know such great young men has been such a bonus of our mission.

The next day we called Sister Page to see how she was feeling after such a big day.  We all missed having Jim there with us, but it made us both so happy to hear the pure joy in her voice.  She told us that it will be a day she will never forget.  She said it was so healing for her to be sealed to her husband who died over 50 years ago, her parents, and her two babies who died in infancy.  One of the babies was her only girl and I was able to stand in as proxy for her daughter.  She said she will always feel close to me because of that.  Somehow we feel that the Lord wanted those ordinances done in the temple that day.  The experience in the temple was worth any fear or uneasiness that we felt.  What a mission payday!

It has been a week since Jim's surgery.  We have managed to get along with him sleeping in a recliner (not fun and not much sleep), eyedrops four times a day, and our biggest challenge of having me be the designated driver in Pittsburgh traffic. The doctor says Jim needs to take it easy for another week or so and then can probably start driving again.   All in all, we are surviving and are so grateful for our blessings.  Our hearts go out to others with challenges in life, but our testimony is stronger than ever that the Lord is right beside us through our pain and sufferings.  We are anxious to get back to work with full steam.

End of Summer Highlights

It is really hard to take pictures of some of our missionary experiences and also really hard to actually put these experiences into words that do justice to the situation.  Most of the time, for every missionary highlight,  it takes many visits and phone calls and countless hours of effort by us and others.   Sometimes all the work leads up to a little moment of joy and happiness.  That little moment, though, makes all the work worth every minute spent.  It is just an indescribable feeling.

We have had a few of these experiences come up over the latter part of the month.

HIGHLIGHT #1 We have been working so hard since June 30th to help the Matembu family get into a low cost internet program.  They were taken advantage of by telemarketers to sign up for an internet package that was way beyond their budget and so we decided to step in to help out with the situation.  We made trips to the provider and eventually went clear up to the corporate headquarters with phone calls.  It took us almost two months of wrangling through privacy laws, company bureacuracy, and MANY ups and downs.  We were blessed many times along the way to make calls or visits at just the right time or to the right person.  FINALLY, on August 28th, with the help of Elder Johnson, we got their internet up and running on a new computer for a very

affordable price.  It will help them so much with schoolwork, job searches, church work, and budgeting.

That same day we took the Matembu family to the Carnegie Science Center with our passes.
They had such a great time and it was fun to see them enjoy each other together.  We spent the whole day there with them and really enjoyed it.  One of their favorite parts was finding a room of African musical instruments.  They all joined in and came up with some really good rhythm in just a few minutes.  They also enjoyed the roller coaster simulator, the climbing wall, and the weightless space walk.

HIGHTLIGHT # 2 We were able to attend the Columbus Temple with Mel.  Mel is a recent convert

to the church and is so excited about all that he is learning.  He has now given a prayer in stake conference, received the Melchizedek Priesthood, stood in the circle for a confirmation, and received a calling as assistant ward clerk.  It is great to see how quickly he is progressing.



HIGHLIGHT#3  We had another fun P-day where we went to Ohiopyle and did some biking along the Great Allegheny Passage.  The section of the trail we rode was incredibly beautiful, level, and shaded with tall trees on each side. Our kind of biking!  On our way home we happened to see a sign for a Visitors Center for Fort Necessity.  The fort is one hastily constructed by George Washington for a battle that started the French/Indian War.  We are finding that the history here in Pennsylvania is so rich and interesting

HIGHTLIGHT #4 On September 2nd Elder Whitney and Davis came to our apartment with Elder Whitneys favorite recipe from home -- his mom's Manicotti.  They brought all the ingredients and cooked it up for us and we provided the extras.  It was a fun meal together.  We feel like we have
acquired a few dozen extra grandsons as they come and go in our area.  What a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the youth of this church.  A few days later the two elders were walking in a park and stopped to play basketball for a few minutes with another couple of young men in the area.  A newspaper reporter happened to be at the park and snapped some pictures of them.  It was in the Pittsburgh Tribune the next day!


HIGHLIGHT #5  Then on September 3rd we went to District Meeting and were surprised to have President and Sister Johnson drop in. We had a great lesson by Elder Whitney on overcoming fear and following promptings.   The Johnsons even went to Chipotle for lunch afterwards with all of us.  It was such a big group that there wasn't room for everyone in the restaurant so we brought it back to the church and all enjoyed lunch together.

 It was right after this meeting and lunch that another set of circumstances exploded!  Another post will be needed to explain.