This IS Us, Piano Bench, Relief Society Self Reliance, Choate's wedding anniversary, Olympics in south Korea, Letter from Todd...

We had a Relief Society Meeting on Wednesday at the church.  There were several great talks. Here are some notes:  When a crisis strikes 1) Secure your ancor in the Lord 2) Use what is available to you already 3) When you can't do what you've always done, do that which is most important 4) Keep an eternal perspective.  I thought these tips were great advice.  

Thursday was Grandpa and Grandma Choate's 54th wedding anniversary.  I called Grandma Choate and talked with her.  She is doing well.  

The winter Olympics started this week in Pyeong Chang South Korea.  So far the Americans have won a gold medal in snow boarding.  A 17 year old named Red Gerard from Colorado won.  He is pretty amazing at snow boarding! The next Olympics will be the summer Olympics in Tokyo Japan and we are planning on being there! Can't wait!!!

We had several nice days in the 60's this past week.  Tim put up the trampoline and May and Lincoln enjoyed playing on it.

 May and Lincoln came over on Saturday night and we had fun playing on the slide...

 Rick and Brian were over  here working in the garage a lot this week and they finished one of my piano benches!  It turned out fabulous and I absolutely LOVE it!!! It has plenty of storage room for music, it has a special hinge that keeps it from slamming shut, it has a holder on each side for hymn books and a lock.  It has a padded seat.  Amazing and beautiful!




 Rosie and Amy

1. My companion is still Elder Turpin, I am way proud to watch him grow from a little Trainee to a full-fledged missionary, he’s totally ready to do anything President Nagano needs him to do! He’s a super hard worker. He’s basically the only companion I have had who is cool skipping dinner to get some more work in. (I don’t make him do that everyday)

2. Investigators are great! They came to church for the first time this last week, which was a way cool experience for them! We happened to have a baptismal service afterwards, so it was way cool to get to teach them about baptism and then let them watch it. They both seemed to really like it, and some of our other investigators that have been coming for a couple weeks now had a good time too!

3. Members are awesome! We are actually about to be taken to Yakiniku today with them!! Way awesome. Also, yesterday we had dinner at one of their houses. I am not sure what has changed, but starting about a month or two ago, we’ve gone over to a members house at lest once a week, but sometimes more. I feel loved!! They are all way on board, and will usually volunteer to sit in on lessons and stuff. Way great members.

4. So, the afore mentioned Ralph. Found him last week, and when we met him, he said “Hello, I am from China. My name is Ruff.” And we were like, “..Ruff?” He was like, “No, Ruff.” Finally we kinda caught on, “you mean Ralph?” “Yes!! Ruff!!” 

That was awesome. We told all the other Missionaries that, and when he came to church he strolled right up to some of the other Missionaries and introduced himself “I am Ruff, nice to meet you!” And it was just way funny. Another funny experience is that the Sisters had an investigator who is giving a presentation on HIV in Switzerland this week, and she had me translate her lecture into English. SO that was a crazy experience!

5. I followed up on Prayer with Ralph after inviting him to pray, and I asked him what does prayer mean to you? and he said that it was “a higher form of talking” then continued on to say that he heard a voice within his heart say that this message is true. He described like a voice down a long corridor. Quiet, but he could hear it. That was a way special conversation, and then he also said he thought the baptism was beautiful. It’s always very uplifting to help people come into the fold, but Ralph definitely understands prayer better than I think I do, so that was way cool!