Hello Y'All  
 March has been a good month and here are some highlights!
 A week ago went hiking with Sisters Smith and Tillman on preparation day knowing that we were coming up to transfers soon.  The weather was cold but we had a fun time anyway!  This is our usual picnic on the bridge (Town Commons) before going to River Park North. As the water was still high we were only able to walk half way through the park but we saw lots of awesome birds.

 This flower is a gardenia which bloomed all through the winter.




          Our next adventure was to Wilmington with the Couple Missionaries.  We toured the Poplar Grove Plantation which built in the 1800's.  It was a peanut plantation which hired 65 task slaves.  Their tenant houses were out back.  Our guide presented our tour as Harriet, a daughter of the Foy family who built the home.  We also enjoyed walking around the property and watching a weaving demonstration.  These people were very frugal people - they grew, and harvested everything including their salt for cooking.

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                                        The tree on the right is Spanish Moss.   Lovely to look at but do not touch as it is full of ticks and chiggers.   

On the boardwalk at Wilmington by the ocean.  

Our Branch has been extremely blessed this month.  The first week,  Lauren was baptized.   She is a very sweet girl who is loved by everyone.  

         The second week was a day of baptisms in all three Greenville wards.  First we had a very special baptism for a lady named Trish who is fighting cancer.  We felt priviledged to get to know her as the Elders taught her.  The second ward then held a baptism for a young man and next our Branch had a baptism for Alicia.  Again we learned how much the gospel can change lives, and the miracles that happen as we follow our Savior, Jesus Christ.

          And finally this WAS our Greenville District before Tuesday.  We grow so close to the Elders and Sisters as we serve with them.  We love them so very much!  It is hard to have them transfer as they feel like our family here.  
                                                                    
         We have enjoyed doing service with Elder Perryman and Elder Dewey - from raking lawns,  putting in a toilet, to working at the Food Bank as well as singing with them in Lannie and Canary's home and Christmas Caroling.

          Elder Mortensen has been a wonderful district leader with his companion Elder Balaich.  We have enjoyed going out with them to teach lessons and singing with them as well at the Rest Home in Grifton.  We enjoyed Christmas with them also.

       The sisters have served with us in the Branch.  We have gone shopping for clothes, jewlery, traded hair cuts, hiked, gone to lunch, remodeled clothes, traveled to many meetings and have appreciated all their help fixing the food for Institute and Break the Fast too.


       And as these three missionaries move on, we know that we will learn to love Elder Jensen, our new district leader, Elder Jensen and Sister Hoyt as well. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is TRUE.  Miracles are happening here everyday and our Heavenly Father is preparing people to hear the gospel. This is a GREAT TIME in our Church's history to be a missionary!   In the Raleigh Mission we have grown from 12 sister missionaries to 31 in two transfers and are looking forward to more coming here soon.

     Thank you for reading your Book of Mormon and praying everyday.   We are so proud of you and the good things you are doing.  Thank you for your support and prayers.  We love you very much!!!  Take care.

 Hello Family, Friends and Loved-ones,

This is how Greenville was looking a couple of weeks ago.  Very spring-like!  It was even sounding like spring too.  We could hear the song of a bird that we heard last summer.

 This was the very next day when we drove to the Raleigh Temple to celebrate Valentines with the missionaries from Raleigh who work in the office.  Elder Myers, Elder and Sister Davenport, Sister Arkell, and Sister Burdick

And this was how Greenville looked when we got home.  We were so surprised!  We got 1" of snow.

Tradition has it, that when it snows here, everyone goes to the grocery store to stock up on bread and milk.  So that is what they did. (We heard about it on Monday from the Store clerks.  They said it was worse than Superbowl Sunday.)  Our friend in the branch said, "I don't know what people do with bread and milk - make milk sandwiches I guess."

          Next, everything gets cancelled.  So the Fireside in Kinston was cancelled that night as well as church the next morning. We attended church in the afternoon with Greenville 1st ward and I got called from the congregation to share my testimony.    One fun recipe we learned about is "snow cream" made from the newly fallen snow.

Here are a couple of recent activities in the Branch.  We went to "Bladez on Ice" and skated for a couple of hours.  President, Sis. Rappleyea, and daughter skating. (below)

              Sister Smith and Sister Tillman who serve in the Branch with us.                                      

                           This night was broom hockey.  We have some very fun activities - just stay out of the way!

       Our happy news is that David, our grandson, enters the MTC tomorrow for his mission to Australia.  Tomorrow is also the day we entered the MTC for our mission, one year ago. Time   is flying SO FAST!

       This cute little girl, is our newest grand-daughter.  She will be blessed on Sunday. Wish we could be home with everyone for these special occasions.  Just know that our hearts are with you and we love you very much!  We are so grateful for our blessings!

We are thankful for the experiences we have had on our mission, for the Elders and Sisters we have served with, for the Branch and for all of you that are supporting and praying for us.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true!  Keep reading your scriptures and praying until you know it for yourself.  We love you!   Take care!

   

Hello All!     It's a cold rainy night -  a good time to write our Blog.  

In January, we took a trip to Fayetteville, NC to enjoy some time with the other Couple Missionaries.  We loved seeing the buildings and arrived during a parade for Martin Luther King Jr.

On the way home we stopped at the Averasboro Battlefield where a battle took place during the Civil War.

IT REALLY SNOWED!

Yes!  It snowed - for a very small moment and then it was icy for a couple of days.  When the weather warning came out - everyone headed home.  It looked like rush hour traffic at 2 in the afternoon.  

          We were out working with the sisters the next day trying to find the longest icicle while trying to find people to teach.

This was our Wonderful Greenville District.  We know because we have been out teaching with everyone of them and we love them all.  We have had some great times together!  Check out the ECU colored ties - purple and gold and obviously we all didn't get the memo.

l - r  Elder Henderson (in back), Elder Adams from Logandale NV, Elder Gibson from Price, UT, and Elder Johnson.  Picture taken at Zone Conference in New Bern, NC.

 

  Elder Balaich, Elder Dewey, Elder Mortensen and Elder Perryman. Sister McPherson and Sis. Tillman

               This was our last get-together.  As the weather was too cold to play outside at the apartment, we went to the church house for lunch.  Sister McPherson has now gone to open up New Bern and to train a new sister missionary.  We will miss her.  Sister Tillman is still with us Yea! and is training Sister. Smith from Springville, UT. Our mission is GROWING  We just had 10 Elders and 8 sisters join our numbers.

Our Branch is doing great also!  This is Sister Paries, the first sister missionary to leave from our Branch on her mission to Mesa, Arizona (Spanish speaking).  She will be a great missionary!    

As you know, the Gospel is true!   Missions are lots of work and lots of fun at the same time.  We love the people of North Carolina and most of the time the weather too.  I'm looking forward to summer even with the humidity.  Don't know what I am going to do when I get back to UT and it is REALLY cold.

   Please keep reading your Book of Mormon daily.  We love you and we miss you.  You are in our thoughts and prayers always.  Thank you for all you do in helping us serve the Lord on this mission.  You are a  blessing to us.  Take care!

     Approaching 11 months now and all is well.

We have been traveling to LittleWashington, New Bern, Deep Run,  Kinston,  Ayden,  Grifton,  Dover and on Sunday we were assigned to go to Havelock.  We have taken the Sisters, the Elders and youth to visit a few singles  in our stake and invited them to come to the YSA Branch.  For some of them, the trip to Greenville takes over an hour.  The sacrifice that they are called to make will strengthen their faith and "bring forth the blessings of heaven".  There are some GREAT youth in the branch!


Thought this was an interesting Church house in Washington.  We have never seen so many different Churches - and each with a different name.  There are also many cemeteries everywhere.

Saw lots of Geese another day while traveling between Greenville and Washington

             Elder Perryman, Elder Balaich,and Elder Myers trying to find the front door of this house (2 levels).  

This house had a welcoming committee of 2 roosters and 16 cats.

And this little guy lives at our apartment (outside).  We think that you grandchildren would like it here.  

             Yesterday, we had a Missionary Conference and received some wonderful training from Elder Paul B. Piper of the Seventy.  We learned a very important lesson right at the beginning.

  We had arrived early, but we were sooo excited to see each other again.  There was lots of talking and hugging going on in the chapel. When Elder Piper arrived,  he saw that everyone wasn't seated quietly in their seats preparing for the meeting.  He got the microphone working and told us that he didn't bring the spirit.  It was up to each of us to do that.  Heavenly Father had lots for us to learn but if we weren't prepared, we wouldn't receive it.  And he wanted us to receive everything that Heavenly Father had planned for us.

We sat quietly in our seats praying and studying until he felt that we were ready to begin.  

It was a great meeting and the spirit was there!

 We thought about the difference it could make for us in the revelation we would receive personally in our Sacrament and other meetings if we were quietly preparing before the meeting began.  

As usual, we love you, miss you, and appreciate all you do for us continually - we couldn't have gone on this mission without your help.   The Gospel is true.  Please keep reading your scriptures and praying everyday.             It is vital to your spiritual well-being!     Take care

Time for New Year's Resolutions - Don't put off the Blog

          We had a wonderful Christmas as we hope you did too!!!  Thank you so much for your Christmas cards and gifts.  We had fun opening up the 12 Days of Christmas - Thanks Gaylynne and Bill.

        Transfers came the week before Christmas.  This was our last Zone Conference with Elder McHan and our District leader Elder Fuhriman.  So sad to see them go.  They are terrific missionaries!



       Our new District leader is Elder Mortensen and we also got two sister missionaries back in our District - Sis. Tillman and Sis. McPherson.  Yea!

We were surprised to find this place for people who love their dogs!

            We saw lots of wreaths in windows and on doors of homes and churches - even our Church had wreathes on all its doors.  We've seen lots of candles in the windows too. 

          Have always wanted a Joshua Tree but never had time to sew one.  So as we drove around, I cut out the pictures from pass-a-long cards to show Jesus' life.  Covered candy canes became the shepherd's staff and a shiny star on top was also a symbol for Christ.  The shiny balls on the tree didn't fit our Christmas message about Christ, so one rainy day on the way home from Zone meeting, we stopped and gathered some cotton left in the fields after it was harvested.  I loved it because it was bumpy.  We dried it out and made our lambs with it.

        During the holiday, we saw a new version of Santa in a fish-filled aquarium.  He took Christmas wish orders while the mermaids swam around, and gave out wishing wands.  We missed the parade of boats with their Christmas lights - but saw a few decorated cars. 

      On Christmas Eve, the Elders and Sisters came over and baked cookies, ate dinner, went Christmas caroling, told about their family's traditions at home and of course we watched Luke 2 (my favorite).                

      Jordan Harrell and Sis. McPherson making cookies.

 David Callaway and Sis. Tillman preparing the dinner.                                                                                

Elder Perryman and Elder Dewey serving in the Greenville 2nd ward.

 David with Elder Mortensen and Elder Balaich serving in the Greenville 1st ward.

Leaving to go Christmas caroling, myself, Sis. McPherson, Jordan and Sis. Tillman.

                Christmas Day found us at Pres. David and Karen Walker's home.  They fixed a very delicious dinner, Sis. Walker shared her Christmas story and then passed out some gifts.  There were four very happy Elders as they unwrapped their new Nerf Guns with extra bullets.  They had a fun stop at the Church on the way home where they tried out their new gifts.  And you know the rest.  We got to call home!   Love you so much!

We  have some  EXTRA SPECIAL NEWS!!!!  On Dec. 29th another cute little dark-haired, baby girl entered our family.  Her name is Kately Veda Myers  - the daughter of Christopher and Christina.  We are so happy!!!  Got to see her on Google Chrome last night.

We feel very blessed.  The great work of spreading the gospel is continuing on.  Our District has always had such wonderful missionaries and the Lord is blessing us.

Love you all.  We appreciate all your prayers and support.