6.27.2016

Planes, change, and ASL

This past week there was a relief society garden party which was a

huge hit. One cool thing about having such a small branch is that

everyone is very close to one another. We helped set up for the party

and Sister B, who hosted it, is really into herbal teas. She

had us try a few different flavors, then made a comment about how some

of the teas were a diarrhetic and that we'd all have soft poop

tonight. In my mind I was thinking, great that's exactly what I need!

We had a great lesson with Ju again this week. She got her eyes

checked and new glasses so she is ready to dive head first into the

Book of Mormon. She was at church again this past week, and it

continuing to soak everything up! During Relief Society yesterday

Sister M also announced that she has quit smoking! We knew she

had been trying to quit, but her official declaration was yesterday.

We were so happy to see how far she has come. Her and her family are

doing great! M also got ordained to the office of a teacher

which was exciting. You could tell her was really nervous to prepare

the sacrament, but he did a great job.

We also went by and saw the S (the couple that the B's

prayed we would find). We had a great talk with R and he kept

saying that we just might be into something, and that he really

admires us for going out and being missionaries. We threw down

testimonies about how we know for a fact that we are onto something

and that it could make him happier. At the end of the lesson he said

we could come by next week and teach him a little lesson. We are

really excited about that one!

The Piper Aviation Museum that we volunteer at had a huge Fly In this

past week. There were over 100 planes that came, so the skid has been

littered with private planes flying around. They also brought in some

huge WWII plane for people to tour. Our job this week was to sell

admission tickets, and during the first part of the shift not many

people came so we decided to watch "Meet the Mormons." It was my first

time seeing it, and it wasn't too bad. Once it was time to us to leave

we walked out and realized that the huge plane they brought was the

Spirit of Freedom, the same plane that the Candy Bomber from "Meet the

Mormons" used! Talk about a deja vu! We obviously couldn't turn down

the opportunity to tour the plane, and it was so cool! 

Once again, we have some more sad news here in the PPM. We got an

email on Thursday saying that two of our nine zones are being

transferred into the Maryland Baltimore Mission, along with the 46

missionaries serving in those areas. None of us are very happy about

that, because we won't see them for the rest of our mission. It's been

a little solum around here, but we will get out of it eventually. 

This past week we got a phone call from a lady who served her mission

in Maryland. She said that someone she baptized recently moved to our

area and wanted to come to church. We were excited to hear that

because our numbers are really small. The only hiccup is that he is

completely deaf. When we met with him we just wrote notes back and

forth, and during church we did the same thing. It was a lot of work

to try and communicate with him, and I am going to eat my words when I

say this: I wish I knew a little sign language. So here is my formal

apology to everyone who took ASL in high school, it is not a useless

language and a skill more people should know. We were very nervous to

see how the branch would react because they don't always have a

positive attitude about things that mean more work. Like we expected,

some people were far from excited or kind when we told them about D

during branch council, but there were a few good eggs that made me

feel much better. Brother R did a great job at taking him under

his wing, and already volunteered to come out to a lesson with us!

So I guess the main takeaway from this week is that Sister Thompson

and I have a love / hate for Maryland haha.

Sister Morrison

Last Pday we went to Ricketts Glenn. It's a six mile hike with 21

waterfalls. Of course we had to stand under one of the biggest :)

Meet D!