Hello wonderful family, friends and loved ones.

          This was our Thanksgiving Day!  We were fed such a DELICIOUS DINNER at the home of Lannie (Laney) and Canary.  We have never had so many dishes to choose from.  There was fried chicken, barbecue pork, turkey and stuffing, sweet potatoes, cold slaw, collards, gravy, macaroni and cheese, green beans, hush puppies, dinner rolls, sweet potato pie, banana pudden and a 3 layer pineapple cake. (I hope I remembered it all.)  We tried the Southern delicacy of collards for the first time.

         
         Our service project last week - doesn't it look FUN!  Elder Perryman and Elder Dewey (fresh from the MTC) helped rake the leaves.  Doesn't the pile look tempting to run and jump into.

          This coffee pot sits on our kitchen table as a reminder of the changes that need to be made in our lives in order to draw nearer to our Savior.  You probably recognize the scripture from Alma 22:18. We have been working with an investigator who is giving up smoking and drinking coffee.  We pray for her and listen to her as she struggles to overcome her addiction.  Change isn't easy even with the no-fail cinnamon, grapefruit, vit. C, 15 step plan. So far - she has gone two weeks but it still is an everyday battle.  It is the same with our weakness.  It will take a lifetime of daily constant work to overcome our challenges and then only with our Savior's help.
 

             Our Christmas Zone Conference.  Sister Oliverson, and Sister Bateman are going home on Dec. 18th  - our next transfer date.  They have served well and we will miss them lots.  Next in line are Sister Bouldin, Sister Tillman and Sister Brown.  We hope to have Sister missionaries back in Greenville by February or sooner.

The Elders serving now in Greenville.  Elder McHan, Elder Mortenson, Elder Perryman, and Elder Dewey.  We have really enjoyed going out with them to teach investigators.  They were GREAT singers at the Conference.

We hope that you are enjoying this Christmas season.  We want to encourage you to go to mormon.org/christmas where you can download FREE Christmas music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir,  Bible videos, e-cards and Bibles.  Our mission is the number one Media Referral mission and we are working to get the news out about this WONDERFUL GIFT from our Church.  We are excited!!!  As with any good thing though - this offer ends on Dec. 28th - so don't procrastinate.  Pass the word along to EVERYONE!

Please keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying everyday.  It will make all the difference in your lives.  We love you.  Love talking to you, your letters, e-mails, your constant help and your support.  You're the BEST!  Take care!

        We had our first District Meeting in Washington, NC on Halloween.  What a surprise! - the church house was all decorated up for a Halloween party.

 Afterwards, we walked by the Pamlico River.
  It is a beautiful place!

We also visited the Eustuarium
and got a couple of contacts.    




      The art work we are standing in front of is made
completely from things found in the Pamlico River.  This is a place where fresh water meets the salt water of the ocean and because of this, there are lots of different kinds of sea life and plants.



          Having received the sad news from President Bernhisel that the Sisters were transferring from our area, we were given permission to take them to see the city of Washington, NC and Bath, NC on our next Preparation Day.

           This transfer, due to a shortage of Sisters in our mission, we said, "goodbye" to both Sisters who are now serving as a trio in Dunn, NC.  Also transferred were three Elders, however two of them will remain in our Zone.  We now have three new Elders in our District and are enjoying getting to know them.

             Last night on Campus as we met with a less active member, we learned an important lesson about staying strong in the Gospel and of bearing your testimony to your children.   To quote a neighbor not of our faith,  "A person without a knowledge of God is a very lost soul."  That is true.  Our less active friend is now going to read the Book of Mormon.  We are praying for him to learn that God is our Heavenly Father and that He knows us personally.  He loves us more than we can comprehend and wants us to be happy.  What a comfort and joy to have this truth in our lives.

          We are so blessed to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to have a wonderful family, great friends and loved ones.  Thanks for everything you do to support us and keep us on our mission.  We love you and wish you a The Best Thanksgiving Ever!

            Well, we were having some technical difficulties (us) but here we are again thanks to our technical support (Jared).

             We have been enjoying some wonderful fall weather!  The leaves were turning red.  People were placing beautiful yellow, orange and purple mum plants with pumpkins and other Halloween decorations along their walkways, and on porches. 

     Looking so ready for Halloween! 

 

            We loved the pumpkin lots on the corners.  We guess there were over 100 pumpkins at this patch which was there for several weeks.  We watched families come and pick out their pumpkins to carve as we drove by in our car.  So fun!!

           We even took a little hike at Green Springs Park along the Tar River with the Sisters on Preparation Day.  Had fun skipping rocks and visiting with other hikers.  We call it hike but it's more like a walk.  There are no mountains here - but it is out in nature and it's the closest we want to get to the woods. (mosquitoes, ticks, and spiders Oh my!)

          Then along came our first tropical storm / "Hurricane Sandy" and changed things around pretty quickly.  It has been cloudy, rainy, windy and colder.  Even though it is a weak Hurricane in our area, it affected our meetings on Sunday.  Greenville was the only place that Church was held in our stake and the attendance was down as the youth were advised not to drive here if there was flooding or danger in their areas.  (Our stake reaches the outer banks of North Carolina.) 
         Life is good though.  Tonight we have a Halloween Party - Family Home Evening in Ayden at the Starne's home.  We, like the other missionaries will swap name tags for our costumes.

            Congratulations to David (our grandson) who got his mission call to Brisbane, Australia - leaving Feb. 27th - one year to the day we left on our mission.  Congratulations to the new babies born to our family.  We loved seeing their cute pictures on Facebook.  To those of you who are ill, in the hospital, or home recovering, we hope that you are doing better.  We pray for you.  We love you all.  Thanks for watching our home, writing, praying and supporting us on this mission.  

          The gospel is true!  We who are members of this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are SO BLESSED!    Take care!

      

Hello family, friends and loved ones,

          We are so blessed to have a Temple in our mission.  We spent another wonderful day at the temple with all the Sisters in the mission, the Couple Missionaries and President and Sister Bernhisel.  We all went over to the Mission Home for lunch together afterwards.

        A few of the couples who attended the Raleigh Temple, Elder and Sister Johnson, Pres. and Sister Bernhisel, Elder and Sister Myers and Elder and Sister Davenport.  There is nothing like a missionary session at the Temple.  The Spirit is here in great abundance.

      This is Sister Carmen who brings us and the Sisters to the Temple each time we make this special trip.  The Sister Missionaries live with her.

          Because transfers were coming up, the Elders, including the Washington Elders, came over for another fun preparation day - this time it was Basketball, barbeque steaks and funeral potatoes.  "Getting together" for the picture on the couch is another creative moment with the Elders.                                                                                                                                We are now the Washington District since our new District Leader is assigned there.  The Sisters came over later - we plan to go hiking with them next week.
Our wonderful district has some exactly obedient Elders and Sisters who serve here.

The Greenville District including our Zone leaders 

  

       It is football season again!  Purple and gold is coming out everywhere.  This classy cow, showing the Pirate spirit is found at the bank.

 We went to the NC Tar Heels vs the Idaho Vandals game with the Couple Missionaries in a downpour.  Some of us went to the Institute while the men went to the game.  pict.-   Elder and Sis. Yerkes, Elder and Sister Davenport and Elder and Sister Myers.      The real excitement of the day came on our way home when our phone sounded a warning and read "Imminent Threat!  You are in the area of a Tornado.  Take cover immediately."  Elder Myers wouldn't pull over - we made it home.   Whew! - another miracle!


We hope that you enjoy watching General Conference tomorrow.  We are looking forward to hearing from the Lord's Prophet and Apostles.  How blessed we are in this Church!!    Thank you again for supporting us on this mission.  Our hearts are with you, we pray for you and appreciate all you do in our behalf.  Take care!

Hello

          We hope that everyone is doing well! 

          We had another great week of sharing the gospel and our testimony with others.  We have been out with the Elders and Sisters, and up on campus with our friend, James.

 Another squirrel picture from up on the ECU campus.  They are so fun to watch!  Sister Tillman got this squirrel to come up close by feeding him crackers.

            One afternoon as we were having the oil changed in our car, a young man approached us.  He is in his 3rd year of Medical School and works in trauma surgery.  At the time,  I was reading an article by Elder Eyring about sharing the gospel and I knew before I finished the article that I had to talk with him.  Johnny is meeting with us on Saturday and we are so excited to share the gospel with him.

          We had a special visit with Lindsey and Adam (our niece's daughter).  They drove down on Friday night from Virginia Beach and it was wonderful to have family with us.  We had a fun evening and the next morning we drove to Apex, to the Raleigh Temple where we went  

through two sessions. 

          Adam and Lindsey were great sports as they accompanied us to our Sunday meetings and missionary lessons.


           Another miracle occurred because of their visit.  On Monday night, a lady from Virginia called the Sister Missionaries here in Greenville, and wanted to receive a Book of Mormon.  We called Lindsey and found out that Adam is assigned to the same ship that she is on. 
          What are the chances that with all of the Military Bases there in Virginia that she would work on the very same ship.  We were able to give  him all of her information and he will soon deliver the Book of Mormon to her in person.  (Adam has a calling as a ward missionary.)

This is the four of us outside the Raleigh Temple.

          I got Roger to stop the car while we were out with the Elders so that I could take a picture of cotton growing in the fields.  Those are soft cotton balls.  They tell us that when the cotton is ripe, the fields will look white from all the cotton.  Can't wait to see it.

     Got to go now, the Sisters are coming over to help us make "Pigs in the Blanket" for Institute tonight.  We are being blessed as we work with our youth.  We love you all,  You are in our thoughts and prayers always. Keep reading your Book of Mormon daily and saying your prayers.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support in our behalf.  Take care and stay well.

          We are having beautiful weather these last two days!  It was nice to leave our windows open to enjoy the breeze and air out our apartment.

          Yesterday we had a wonderful event in our mission!  We went on the ECU campus and held our first Sunday Night Prayer Meeting!  We are excited to see this grow larger and to see the students from the Branch grow closer together and stronger in the gospel.  We also went to Pres. Rappleyea's home afterwards to watch the CES Broadcast with Elder Holland.  Hope you have a chance to watch it.

  On Aug. 25th we went with our Branch to Emerald Isle.  What a beautiful place!  We really had fun!  Elder Myers played corn hole and we got caught in a couple of waves, found seashells and sand fleas.  We're enjoying our last walk on the beach at sunset.  

  


       This picture has some of our Branch members.  We love them a lot!  The beach house behind us belongs to a branch member's family and it was sooo nice!  In my next life, I want  . . . .

          Here are two Elders we go out with to teach investigators.  We have some very dedicated missionaries in our mission.  You can tell that we are in Greenville by the Pirate.  This one is at the Convention Center.  Almost everyone has a pirate sticker on their car and we see lots of purple and gold flags, shirts, wreaths on doors, and even flowers. We have never seen so much school spirit.  They say,"Pirates for Life."

          On the way to our last Zone Meeting in New Bern we were stopped on the bridge to let the small boat on the right pass through.  It was interesting to watch the bridge come up - a new experience for us.

            It's always fun to find a new place to eat out while we are in New Bern.  This time we tried  "The Cow Cafe" with our sister missionaries.  Great ice cream!

          Our Institute is still growing.  We had 28 youth and 4 adults.  Bro. Day, our teacher  is very good!  We are enjoying the New Testament which is very meaningful to us since our trip to Israel.  This was the get-acquainted game afterwards. 
          Time to sign off.  We love you so much!   You are very important to us and we appreciate your love and support.  Take care!

Hello!,

       How are ya'll doing?  We hope all is well since we just saw pictures of the flooding in Huntington Canyon and in Enoch.  Hope your homes were safe Rog & Arlene, and Neil and family.
           We are still having many fun adventures here on our mission and just thought we'd send a few pictures.

   


Just came outside the door one day and these large mushrooms were everywhere!

          This day, we were on our way to meet a new investigator.  The picture was taken out the front window of our car.  We were pushing water as we drove slowly through the neighborhood.  With the water so deep, we were praying that we would make it there.  The white posts on each side of the street are mail boxes.  When we arrived, our license plate was bent up - sticking straight out,  and long pine needles were poking out  everywhere from the hood of the car.  This was a short storm too.  It really knows how to rain here!

       

       Our FAVORITE DISTRICT!!!  It was another fun preparation day with the Sisters and Elders over to play tennis, volleyball and to barbeque.  We really love these valiant missionaries! We have since gone through another transfer (sad) and now have a new Sister missionary and a new Elder from Gooding, Idaho.  (Good friends with our daughter, Kimberly's family).  The Elder - front and center is from Price, Utah.  What a small world!

This picture is of a machine harvesting the tobacco.  There are also fields of cotton, soy beans and corn.

    

        These sisters taught me how to make a "Banana Pudden"  It was a surprise for the Sister missionaries as transfers were coming in a few days and they had been wanting some "pudden." 

  



         Elder Myer's birthday cake - A TRIPLE LAYER CHOCOLATE CAKE!!  We also had a birthday dinner at the sister's house and this was Lannie's delicious creation!               We have such wonderful times as we meet with them and the Sister missionaries to talk about the gospel.

       Our Institute Opening Social  on Wednesday night.  This is the salty cupcake object lesson.  Guess which person got the only sweet one on the tray.  We have some great times with the members of our Young Singles Branch!  We have a Wonderful new teacher, Bro. Day and we look forward to learning about the New Testament.

Well this is the end of our slide show.  You can wake up now!   We think about your always.  We are so appreciative of your prayers and care of our home.  Each time we share about the Gospel of Jesus Christ our testimony grows stronger and we have a greater love for our Savior Jesus Christ.  We love you!  Take care! 

          Seems like the time has really flown since we got back from Utah.  With a new Mission President come new changes.  We now meet once a month in New Bern in a  Zone Meeting and once a month in Kinston for a Zone Conference.  On the other weeks, we meet as a District.  These meetings are so great!  We really feel the Lord's spirit here while training to become better missionaries.

          We finished our last Institute lesson and Closing Social.  The Lord really blessed us as the attendance increased each time.  For the Closing Social, we held a Murder Mystery Dinner (Catered) and one student, a Drama teacher, loaned us the weapons (extra large size) for our table decorations and costumes  We had so many things - wigs, canes, fur coats, hats - you name it.  It was SOOOO  FUN!   And no one even guessed that it was from the Book of Mormon.

 Showing our age here with the Sister Missionaries.

 

          We've had lots of fun with the Couple missionaries as well.  We attended a Baseball game at Duke University where  Roger got the foul ball.  Our Mission President has a son-in-law who is one of the pitchers on the team. We also enjoyed a meal of Mongolian Stir fry.  Last week-end, Pres. and Sister Bernhisel invited the couples to a bar-be-que at the Mission home and then we enjoyed a session at the Raleigh Temple the next day.


            Greenville is still as beautiful as ever!! So many trees are in bloom everywhere - lots of  pinks, purples, white and reds.   And if we didn't already tell you, it really, really, really rains A LOT here.

                                                                             

         For the grand kids -we got a picture of a new friend we found one night hanging out with the roaches.

        The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true gospel here on the earth. Our Savior, Jesus Christ leads and directs His church.  We love seeing His hand in the work that we are doing.  We feel so blessed when all the pieces come together like many little miracles and we are able to find someone new (Keisha),  help teach a lesson (Jordan), give a Priesthood blessing (Sis. Best),  give a little service (Katie) or share a little love to someone lonely (Charlie).  This is a great work!  There is power in it and we feel so blessed that we can serve here.  Please help the missionaries in your area.  They need YOU - your prayers and referrals.  Thank you for all you do for us.  We love you!

Hello,  Just thought we'd post some highlights from our trip to Utah.  We added a cute new granddaughter on Monday.  This is Melati, the latest Peacock addition.

          We went hiking with the family on Wednesday at Ceacret Lake, (yes, that's how you spell it) up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  It was so nice to see the mountains again! This was picnic time at the top with the Chipmunks.

          On Saturday our son, Russ married Lara in the Draper Temple and they held an Open house on Friday night.  Thank you family for driving up to the wedding.  It was so good to see you there!

            Sunday we attended our Mission President's Welcome Home in Draper and enjoyed seeing the Sister missionaries who had previously returned home.  

          This past week we met our new Mission President, Marc Bernhisel and his wife, Julee.  They are very nice.   We've traveled to New Bern twice, Kinston and to Durham to attend a Durham Bulls Baseball game with the couple missionaries.  We finished teaching our last Institute class and will enjoy a Murder Mystery Dinner for our final event on Wednesday.  It will be so fun!!!  Thank you everyone for your love, prayers and support.  We thought our home looked well taken care of.  We love you all!

          Just a quick note.  We went with the Missionary Couples on a trip to Bath to see the Pageant, "The Promised Land."  It's a true story about one family's search for freedom from patriot to pioneer.  It was so fun to get away, visit the historic buildings in the area and picnic by the water. 

     Can you find Joseph Smith in the cast? 

    Bath is the oldest incorporated city in North Carolina.  It was once the home of Blackbeard the Pirate.  There are a lot of painted crabs located around the city - each different from the other. 

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!  We will be welcoming a new grandchild and daughter-in-law into our family this week.  Couple missions are the best!  Have a  happy 4th of July everyone!!

          How is your summer going?  We are having a great time here!  We traveled to Havelock to watch our YSA branch play a soft ball tournament.  We also helped cook a lot of hot dogs that day!

          Stopped by the beach on our way home.  Another time we took the sisters for a picnic and on Preparation Day we all went hiking at River Park North (unfortunately I forgot my camera.)

         The temperature is really starting to warm up now - 95 degrees plus humidity.  It is funny to get out of the car and have your glasses fog up.

         Many beautiful plants are still blooming - Crape Myrtle trees are now in blossom - whites, pinks, and purples. 
          Today we spent time on ECU's campus with our Branch Pres. and Institute Director from Raleigh trying to move the Institute program forward and set up a class there for the fall.  As we were walking, we were stopped by a young man who hasn't come to Church in a few years.  He happened to recognize our  missionary name tags and stopped to talk.  A blessing from Heavenly Father - we now have an appointment with him next week.  We are so thankful for the tender mercies of the Lord.  We really are blessed!  We look forward to seeing you soon.  Love you very much!