Our missionaries

We recently sent one of our sister missionaries home and another one to Richmond.

I have been late in posting the pictures, so I will post them now.

Since sending those sisters on, we have been blessed with 2 more. So here are pictures of them as well.

Me and Sister Haws who went home to Provo, Utah. Sister Bangerter, who has been in Virginia Beach as long as we have, finally got moved to near Richmond. Sister Bangerter makes scripture covers out of duct tape. This set is covered with camoflage duct tape. Good luck finding it when it's lost!

Sisters Hopoate and Abbott are our new sisters.

I have already been able to hang out with them as well as have them over for dinner.

We will definitely miss Sister Bangerter and Sister Haws. I really got to love them.

But I am glad now for the chance to know sister Hopoate and Sister Abbott.

All of these sisters carry the spirit with them and have such a great love for the people they teach.

I am so grateful I get to know them.

-Della

Baptism!

I have been going with the sister missionaries to teach a man named Charl.

I haven't been on every visit to see him, but I have been on enough visits starting early enough to be able to watch the change in him as he learned about the gospel and built a relationship with his Father in Heaven.

When I first went to see him he wasn't even sure if God was there. We encouraged him to pray and ask to know the truth about what he was reading in the Book of Mormon, what we were teaching him, and that his Father in Heaven was there and loved him.

The next visit that I accompanied the missionaries on, he greeted us at the door with a big smile, and the first thing he said was "I got my answer!"

He told us that he had been walking around his house that morning talking out loud to God, and the word came out of his mouth "Believe my son, believe". He stopped talking, surprised at the words that had come out of his own mouth, in his own voice, yet were not his own words.

He realized that these words were God speaking to him directly, telling him to believe the things he was learning and pondering about.

He was so excited to learn. He read every book, pamplet and magazine the sisters could find for him. He started coming to church and committed to baptism.

He was baptised this morning.

I didn't get to go, but Chris did, so I sent him with a camera.

From left to right is Sister Bangerter, Brother Shopal, Charl, and Sister Haws.

Bro. Shopal is Charl's neighbor who introduced him to the missionaries. Bro Shopal got the privilege of dunking Charl.

I love my Sister Missionaries too. They care so much about the people and work so hard.

Congratulations, Charl. I am so happy that you have found the church, and know your Father in Heaven loves you.

-Della

Our missionaries/ New use for duct tape

This picture is of our missionaries. At least they are our missionaries as of this moment. Their transfers are taking place this morning and we don't know yet who is staying and going.

Except we do know that Sister Chesney (far right) is going home. (Hooray for her!)

I will miss her because she has been around for a few months and I have become rather fond of her. But I am pretty sure I will get to keep Sister Bangerter for a few more months.

On the left are our Elders Ord (far left) and Taylor (taller than Ord). We have enjoyed both of them. Hopefully we will get to keep at least one of them for a little while longer.

Sister Bangerter has come up with a new use for duct tape that I have not seen before.

She made a cover for her scriptures. Notice the bright green of her quad. No, they are not being sold in that color now. And no, her scriptures were not falling apart. She made a removeable cover for them out of green duct tape. Very inventive. She has even gotten requests from ward members to make covers for them.

I am pretty sure nothing would keep her scriptures safer than duct tape. At least no earthly intervention anyway.

Sister Chesney, (or Kimberly as we can soon call you): Good luck in the real world. We will miss you here in VA.

-Della

Our Sister Missionaries

This is Sister Bangerter and Sister Chesney.

I have one other pic of Sister Chesney posted from a month or so ago when her comp was Sister Taylor.

We love these guys.

Sister Chesney is actually going home to Colorado next week. We will miss her, but I think her family will be glad to have her back.

Sunday Post

Sorry I didn't post till late today. I had a hard time getting a turn on the computer. World of Warcraft is taking over my house.

The whole family made it to church today, which was awesome and a huge blessing. Between Chris feeling sick (again) and some behavior issues, we weren't sure we were going to make it out the door until everyone actually went out the door. Then I looked around and realized I was the last one left in the house.

I was especially glad we all made it, for one thing because I enjoyed it, but for another because everyone else seemed to.

Earlier this week I drove the sister missionaries to another sister missionary apartment for transfers, (Sister Taylor got transferred, -tear-. But now we have Sister Bangerter, who is going to be awesome), and at their apartment they had a place on the wall dedicated to miracles. A 3' by 3' area was covered with colorful post it notes marked with miracles they had seen. Everything from investigators who committed to baptism to a sick member who was able to use the bathroom.

It was a really neat idea, but I think I will try to do it differently and list some of the miracles I witness here.

For example, it was a miracle that we all made it to church today. Some days I think it is a miracle that J is still here. But he is, and actually, -here is another miracle- he is doing really well.

Every day I think it is a miracle that I get to do this job. I have the coolest job ever. Really, I could list at least 20 more miracles without racking my brain too hard, but I will cut it short with one more.

T asked me earlier this week why God lets us live this life if he knows we are all going to screw up and people are going to do bad things.

I answered him as best as I could, which passified him for the time, but didn't seem to fully satisfy him.

Then today at church he found a program from last weeks service (which we didn't make it to) in one of the books. It had a quote on it that I can't repeat verbatim, but it said that God knows what we are going through, and he will help us through it. God gives us trials for reasons, but sometimes he is the only one who knows the reasons.

I think that quote answered T's question and set helped him understand a little better. Even he said God was giving him a sign by helping him find that. He said he has a lot of questions to ask the missionaries next time they come over. Ok, I said I was going to cut it short with one more miracle, but that wasn't really short and it was actually about 3 miracles. Sorry. Thanks for reading. -Della

Our missionaries

These are our missionaries.

Top left: Elder Taylor, right: Elder Ord

Bottom left: Sister Taylor, right: Sister Chesney

(The Taylors are not related). We had both sets of missionaries over for dinner on Saturday as well as an investigating family. The biggest hit was the geotracks.

I have spent several hours with the sisters and have really enjoyed getting to know them. Though they usually ask about me and don't talk about themselves too much I have learned some really interesting things about them really gotten to love them. Both of them truly care about other people and want to help and show love for everyone they meet.

They are true examples to me of Christlike love. Plus they're just really cool.

The elders are great too, but Chris has spent more time with them than I have, so he would have to tell you how cool they are. They recently got a commitment for baptism from a woman that Chris has been visiting with them.

Getting to know them has been a great experience for us.

The other fun thing when the missionaries were here was nerf dart guns. They found out that the little suction cups don't stick to name tags because they are engraved. But they had fun discovering that.

-Della