Monday, October 24, 2011

Changes

Winter Is Coming
We are fully into fall here.  The colors are out and it is getting cooler.  We are afraid that winter is coming.
Who would of thunk it.
Here is a picture of Scott's memorial tree at Fairport high school.  It is a sugar maple and is doing well.  We love how the colors start at the top of the tree and work their way down.  It is a late bloomer this year.  Most of the trees are done now.

Here is a home in Palmyra.  We pass it everyday on the way to the temple.  Some people really get into Halloween here.  The house has been covered with a plastic front to make it look like a castle.  You can barely see the gargoyle on top of the porch roof.  At night his eyes light up red. 

Changes in the Branch
This past weekend has come with significant changes to our assignment.  The young girl we were teaching is moving to Michigan.  We will not be able to visit any more with them.  We feel we may have made some progress with helping her and her mom to understand some gospel principles.  We hope their new ward will be able to pick up where we left off.  Hopefully they will have activity days that she can enjoy.  We did not have those in our branch.

We have five college freshmen in the branch this fall.  One of the young women is a non-member friend of one of the young men.  She had gone to seminary with him in high school but had never attended church.  Her parents are active catholics and would not allow her to go.
 
The young people have not missed church for the past month.  It has been fun getting to know them.  Last week we rode with them from the branch to the stake conference meeting in Jamestown.  She indicated that she was ready to start taking the missionary lessons since she turns 18 in two weeks.  Then she won't need her parents permission for baptism. 

Yesterday we taught her the first discussion.  We have no young missionaries in the branch so we get to teach.  We have also been released from teaching the youth Sunday School class and are now teaching the Gospel Essentials course.  It is composed of primarily this young lady and her friend.  This Sunday we taught a lesson from the Gospel Essentials book that prepared her for the missionary lesson we taught after church.  On Sunday her friend was also set apart as a Stake Missionary.  He is planning on going on a mission next year.  We will be including him in presenting the missionary lessons. 

We are so looking forward to this opportunity.  We really enjoyed teaching the first lesson and are excited about preparing her for baptism.  When we challenged her to read the Book of Mormon, she showed us she has already read most of 1Nephi.  She also gave a very beautiful, personal prayer at the end of the lesson asking Heavenly Father for the courage to learn and know of the truthfulness of what we were teaching.

We trust all of you grandchildren are preparing for your missions.  You will find that nothing makes you happier then helping someone else learn about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

God Bless You All

No comments: