3-2-1-BLAST OFF!!

Yesterday was a little bit out of the ordinary as far as missionary work goes. We had helped the missionaries next door with an investigator when one of our YSA's , Nicci, called. She is our rocket scientist--anyway that is what we call her. She is doing an intern for the summer testing rocket fuel ratios in regard to the amount of oxygen to fuel. She called yesterday and invited us to watch the test where they fire the rocket. We thought that would be fun and so met her at UALR where the test was being conducted.


They explained what they were doing and that the rocket would just be firing not flying. We were given our headsets because of the noise and were ready to go. The count down began and went but no rocket fired. This happened three times with the same results. They had to make some adjustments which would take a while, so we left. Nicci called us a couple of hours later and said that they had fired once successfully and that they would be firing again in about 1/2 hour. So we headed back with the missionaries next door. This time the rocket fired. It was fun to watch and support Nicci. She has been accepted next summer for an internship at NASA. She is so excited about that. Nicci was baptized in March. She is an asset to the Young Single Adults and we enjoy knowing her!

The Sweet Fruit of a Mission-- Baptisms

When I started blogging, I planned to enter a new post each week on our P-day, but as you can see it has been a while since we have updated. We have been very busy the last three weeks. We have been busy with the North Little Rock Stake and Little Rock Stake Seminary/Institute graduations. We were busy making sure that the teachers had all the kids make-up work recorded, attendance rolls were in, and those who were lettering would be recognized. Both graduations went well. It is good to have a year of seminary and institute finished. We learned so much that we didn't know about these programs and especially their workings in the mission field. It is a lot different than Utah. We have a great love for the students, teachers and parents who are so diligent in getting up early everyday and going to seminary. Great teachers who prepare a lesson a day along with working jobs and taking care of their other responsibilities. What a great program for the youth of the Church. We have seen it bless lives.

The week of May 18th to 25th was an awesome week in the Little Rock Ward. We had three baptisms! They were all awesome. They were all three young single adults. We were really involved with one of these--Jessica Workman. We went with the Elders to most of the lessons. We heard her questions and concerns, we were there when she recognized the truth of a gospel principle and saw the light in her eyes. We were there when she returned from telling her family of her plans to join the Church and have them threaten to disown her. We cried with her and were touched by her testimony and strength, and courage. We were with her on her baptism day, her confirmation day, and this week when she taught the lesson at the Young Single Adult FHE. What a blessing this has been in our lives. We have felt the Spirit through the lessons and have felt the witness that the missionaries that taught her were prepared by the Lord to teach her. We have seen the Lord's hand in her life and in each one of the lives of these recent converts. I don't have the words to express the joy that I feel. Those of you that have served a mission know how we feel. We are so blessed and priviledged to be part of this great work! Our testimonies are strengthened in the truthfullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We love the Lord and love serving our brothers and sisters here in Arkansas!

Pictures of Us and Jessica. Jessica and the Elders. Courtney and her family and the Elders. Chris and the Elders.

Dancing, Eating and MORE. . .

May seems to be getting very busy. We seem to have more going on as the month goes along. On May 10th we had a very busy day. We had our monthly training meeting for the Seminary and Institute teachers. We had a celebration of a great year and ended with serving lunch. It was really fun. We have some awesome teachers. They are so dedicated and diligent and really love the young people. It was great! Brother Blain our supervisor from Memphis was here and also gave us a run down on our responsibilities for Seminary Graduation. He will be in Memphis at two graduation programs, so we will represent the CES at the North Little Rock Seminary/Institute Graduation.

The evening of May 10th was the Little Rock Stake Gold and Green Ball. We hadn't been to a Gold and Green Ball for years and so we were excited to attend. Robyn Harmon, one of our YSA's is the Stake Cultural Arts Director and was over the Dance. We helped decorate and were excited to go and support her.

We left our apartment and noticed that it was cloudy and may rain, so grabbed our umbrellas. As we got closer to the Church it rained harder and harder. The wind blew and we realized we were in what the weather men here call Severe Thunder Storms. We thought as we drove along, that we should have checked the news for the latest weather report. It let up a little as we got to the Church, but we saw only a handful of people there. Everything looked lovely. The decorations, the food, those who were there. It soon started raining really hard and we heard that there were hail stones the size of quarters. Next thing we knew we were asked to leave the cultural hall and into the hall. There was a tornado warning, one had been spotted south of the freeway and they weren't sure if it would cross the freeway and head our way. About 20 minutes later all was clear and we went back into the cultural hall and had a great time. More people came and it was a lovely night. Certainly one to remember.

Time goes by quickly and we had our last District Meeting with this district. Transfers are next week and we have some Elders who will be going somewhere else, Sister Zarbock leaves to go home after completing her mission and so we could have alot of changes. We have a great District!! We have had the opportunity to go with most of them as they have taught. They are Great! Elder Jorgenson from Bakersfield, California has been in our District for 9 months. We will miss him. He has been in Little Rock almost as long as we have and lives in the apartment next door to us. We love the missionaries! They are AWESOME! We are still going with the missionaries to teach Jessica and she has committed to be baptized next week. We are really excited!

We just got home from the Greek Food Festival here in Little Rock. Our friends, Walter and Tanya invited us to go. It is sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Church, which is where they go because there is not a Russian Orthodox Church. We tried some new food which was very good and watched some great folk dancing. Little Olya is getting big and will turn 1 year next week. We had a fun time! It was great to spend some time with them, they are amazing young people. We also went for about 2 hours the night before with a couple of our young single adults. We had a P-Day split over two days. It was great and we have a few pictures to share.

We have been so busy with Seminary graduation that it was nice to get a break and do something different. We have spent most of our week working on that. We love what we are doing. We have met some great people who have touched our life. Our testimonies continue to grow in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have more to do and our time is going fast. We have a great family who we loved hearing from on Mother's Day! We love all of you! Life is GOOD!

Toad Suck Daze and Cinco de Mayo

The first activity we did when we arrived in Arkansas the 1st of May, 2007 was attend Toad Suck Daze with the office couples. This year we have new office couples and decided to treat them to their first Toad Suck Daze in Conway, Arkansas. We went with Elder and Sister Coffey, the Allen's were unable to go. We enjoyed the Toad Suck Parade, Toad Racing, wandering around and checking out all of the many booths, listened to the singing groups and just enjoyed a relaxing and unique day.

The legend of toad suck goes like this. . . Long ago, steamboats traveled the Arkansas River when the water was at the right depth. When it wasn't, the captains and their crew tied up to wait where the Toad Suck Lock and Dam now spans the river. While they waited, they refreshed themselves at the local tavern. The dismayed folks living nearby were heard to say: "They suck on the bottle 'til they swell up like toads." Hence, the name Toad Suck. The tavern is long gone, but the legend and fun live on at Toad Suck Daze. We don't care much for the name, but all of Conway come out to enjoy the celebration of Toad Suck Daze. They also have many sports events associated with it and some of the proceeds go to scholarships and education. It is a one of a kind celebration!

We meet every Monday night in Family Home Evening with the Young Adults. This Monday we were all invited to Wally and Nancy Goddard's for a Cinco de Mayo Party and Family Home Evening. We had a great time, great food, and enjoyed being around great young people. The Goddard's yard is quite unique with a zip line and fire pit. Everyone had a good time.

The highlight of our week has been meeting with the Elders as they teach a Young Single Adult, named Jessica. She is awesome and we love being there and seeing her get excited as she learns. She is an amazing young woman and she asks some pretty deep and tough questions. We are all learning. It is a great opportunity and testimony building experience for us. Our prayers are with her, that she will get the answer to her questions and have witnessed to her the need for a restoration, a testimony of Joseph Smith, and also understand Priesthood authority. Missionary work is great and challenging!

Lights, Action, Camera and more. . .

We have had a busy and varied couple of weeks. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday of this week and it was GREAT! We always feel the Spirit and hear just what we need to help us become better missionaries. We really feel the power of the missionary force when we all come together in Zone Conference. We were encouraged to have more faith and talk to everyone about the Church. We need to find more people to teach. We have some great missionaries that we work with. We had an interview with President Batchelor this week. He is an awesome Mission President. We are really blessed to be here in Arkansas.





We have been busy with YSA Activities. We had a Little Rock Stake Activity last weekend where our young adults made a movie. It was fun watching them work together and share ideas and eventually come up with the finished product. Ernie got into it and was helping them with props, etc. They had him be the commercial in their movie. They all thought it was great. And love to tease him about it. The camera focused in on his cupped hands as he said, "Are you in Good Hands?" That was it. They all had a good laugh when he said it. We enjoyed popcorn and watching the finished product.

This weekend we have had two parties. The Institute Party at the Goddard's and the Ward Picnic that ended up at the Church. With all the rain we have been having, the park we were going to was all mud. It had flooded and earlier in the week the pavillion was under 3 feet of water. We enjoy getting to know the members and the young adults better. The Goddard's have a zip line at their home and the boys enjoyed a ride or two on that. We had hotdogs and enjoyed the evening just visiting. We had a small group. With finals just a couple of weeks away, most of the kids were busy studying and working on papers. We had fun with those who came.

We don't just have party after party even though it sounds like that. We are busy working with our seminary teachers making sure all the make-up work and rolls are in so that the young people can get their certificates and the seniors have everything in order to graduate. We are also working with the priesthood leaders in both stakes to have teachers lined up for next year. We have learned ALOT about what it takes to run the seminary program in the mission field. We really have a deep appreciation for these teachers and young people who get up early every morning and have a lesson before they go to school. We love the spirit we feel when we visit these classes. We love what we are doing!

Edmonton Connection

We are realizing what a small world we live in, especially in the Church. Sister Dyer came to Arkansas a few months ago and recently transferred into our district. She is from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is a great missionary and it has been fun to get to know her. Janet served in her ward while she was on her mission. How amazing is that! She was too young to remember Janet, but they had people in common that they both new--the Mo's, the Lawrey's, the Durwoods, and possibly more. I am sure that I killed the spelling of these names. It is great to have a connection to people! We find connections here all the time. Our latest--our Edmonton Connection.

SPRING and a MISSION

I am new at this blogging thing, but I so enjoy reading the kids blogs, I decided to give it a try. I decided that I could update it every P Day and let you know what is going on in our life.

We are fast approaching our 1 year mark on our mission. Next Wednesday, April 16th to be exact. We have had an awesome experience to this point. The best part of the mission is the people we have met. We have met some of the best people. They have blessed our lives in many ways. It is so amazing to watch people come into the Church and see their life change for the better. It is really exciting! We have been moved out of our comfort zone and stretched, but in the process we have grown. We are not the same as we were 1 year ago. We have learned many lessons and have been changed. Our testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ has grown and been strengthened. We love bearing our testimony of Him! We love missionary work and service. We love the YSA's that we work with. They are really amazing! We learn so much from them. We can't forget our dear seminary and institute teachers who are so dedicated to the youth of the Church. They teach us of diligence, love, and service. We love the people, here in the South.

Last weekend we were priviledged to watch the proceedings of General Conference. We attended the Church and viewed it with other missionaries and the members. It is an amazing experience! I know that I have learned more and got more out of conference than any other time in my life. This conference was very special as we sustained our new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. On Monday in Family Home Evening with the Young Single Adults we talked of what we liked and learned from conference. It was so fun to hear what touched our young adults and which talks really made them sit up and take note. Nicci, a recent convert and Jessica who is investigating the Church really liked Elder Holland's talk. They loved the way he explained continuing revelation and additional scripture. The list of what was liked and what they learned could go on and on. It was one of the best FHE's we have had.

The one thing that we have experienced lately is "Severe Thunderstorms" and Tornados. We now realize why people listen to the weather in the morning and also in the evening here. The weather here can be very changeable. We are in tornado season and they have had 11 tornados in the state recently. Last week we had a tornado develop 3 miles from our apartment. It then passed within 1/2 mile from us. The missionaries who live next door were at our apartment as we watched together the weather updates--well, actually when severe weather storms are in the area that is all that is on the tv. The tornado sirens went off, it was pouring rain, thundering and lightning, and kind of scary. The missionairies were in and out of our apartment, trying to see for themselves what was going on. We went outside this one time and it was very strange, the rain had stopped and it was very quiet and calm. We learned that is not a good thing. A lady in our complex from Arkansas told us that everything is being drawn into the funnel cloud and a tornado is forming she told us that if we hear a sound like a train we are in danger. As we looked to the west the sky was dark and kind of green color. We could see lots of lightning in the darkness. We later learned that we were watching the tornado. It toppled a lot of trees, damaged roofs, etc. and picked up strength as it went along. We were very blessed and were all safe. We survived our first tornado and I don't ever want to get any closer to one than we were. It is amazing the power that these storms have.

Today the weather is absolutely beautiful. Spring is in the air! Everything is turning green and the trees and flowers are BEAUTIFUL. It is a Beautiful Day! We started the day off with our monthly meeting with our seminary and institute teachers. Brother Blain, our CES Coordinator, from Memphis taught us how to be better teachers. His lessons are so good and inspire us to do better. We had a GREAT time together. On this mission we do a variety of things and get to travel the State of Arkansas. We have the best mission in the Church and we love it!!