We have been so blessed while we have been on our mission. The Baugh family has asked us to have family home evening with them, that has been wonderful, they are doing such a great job. They are so willing to do whatever is required to help their family to get to the temple. The have asked a young lady that was baptized 2 weeks after they were to join them in family home evening and the new member lessons. Shayna's parents have not been very supportive and so the Baugh's have welcomed her into their home for the things that are not happening in her home. Shayna is 20 and is on fire, she has read the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and is going through the D & C.  She made 8 pages of notes on the first section of the D & C. She has loaded all the scriptures and resources on her phone and uses them regularly, she and the Baugh's are going to be great assets to the church.

Mary Haining a less active sister that had not been to church in at least 10 years, started back to church with us last March. She had been to the temple then, but of course has not been in years.
Mary went for her temple recommend interview with the Bishop and got through that part, just waiting for an appointment with the Stake presidency. She is so happy, I can hardly believe the change in her. Mary insist on feeding us every Sunday and will not take no for an answer she has been our tour guide and we have spent some wonderful times with her and her husband. We are also working with her daughter and her family who are less active trying to get them to come back to church. They are all such wonderful people and have been a rich blessing to us.

We are also feeling very blessed our granddaughter Arysa is going to be married in the Rexburg temple December 28th and we are going to be there!!  We are leaving December 23rd and will be spending Christmas with by Mom, sisters, brother, and Jamie and his wonderful family!!

Kevin sent us pictures of your latest snow storm is looked so beautiful!!  Gary says he is not missing the shoveling, yet he can hardly wait to get back to Minnesota!! He is so funny!! This mission has been so good for us, we are learning to be more loving and kind to each other, what a great blessing that is to us!! It is hard to believe that 10 months have gone by already the time has flown by.

Love and miss you all!!

Mission

We had a wonderful Zone conference yesterday, learned a lot about how to be better instruments in God's hands!! Then had a visit from President Maynes and his wonderful wife in our home afterwards.  They had a meeting with President Taylor our stake president after the meeting and he requested that we stay in Delta for the remainder of our mission.  Gary was thrilled that we would not have to move again and I am grateful too. We love the people in the is area, and we truly pray that we can help many others back into the fold.
Our Elders have another baptism today and I will post pictures later after the baptism, Shayna is a wonderful 19 year old that has read the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and started on the Doctrine and Covenants (she made 8 pages of notes in the first section)!  The young women is amazing!! We have been blessed to have her taught in our home!

Baugh's Baptism

What a wonderful opportunity we had to teach this beautiful family, we have worked with them since March. We have been truly blessed by this opportunity, they have taught us so much and we will be grateful forever.  Seniors don't be afraid to serve a mission, we can testify that God sends you where are needed.

 

 

Joe, Jody, Sarah, and Aleja Baugh

 

                                            Bishop Harris is on the right hand side of the picture!

Grand Mesa colors end of September

Not quite as much variety of colors but beautiful regardless!!

Baugh family

This is the Baugh family Jody mom in black, Sarah in blue, Aleja in pink and dad Joe in plaid shirt.
This marvelous family has decided to be baptized Saturday October 27th. We are so excited. We got to know them shortly after we came to Delta, we spent a lot of time getting to know them doing service and just spending time with them.  Then 2 months ago we started teaching them. The girls wanted to be baptized right away, but it took mom and dad a little longer to be sure this was the right step for their family.
This family was prepared by family that were members and also ward members that they were very good friends with, in fact Bishop Harris is going to baptize them. The Uncompahgr ward had bee wonderful to help by coming to the lesson with us, fellowhiping the great family. That was such a help having them share their testimony and knowledge.
I truly hope and pray that when we get back to Minnesota that we will remember all this things and become a true asset to whatever ward or stake we wind up in.

Work growing and we are still learning

We had a wonderful Zone conference Thursday, August 30th in Grand Junction. Elder Robbins and his spouse came to give us wonderful instruction.
We are still teaching our family of 4 and they are now talking about baptism in October, we are very excited.
We are also working with a couple of less-active families helping them back into the fold.
We have meet and worked with some very special people we feel so blessed to be serving here in the Denver South Mission.
Today Sunday, September 9, 2012 President Maynes and his wife came and visited with the Uncompahgre ward council, the meeting went very well. They also spoke in Sacrament meeting for both Uncompahgre and Delta wards, their talks were different in both wards and were just what the wards needed. They are such great leaders and work so well with the people. One of our less active families invited them to have lunch at their home after the meetings, we had a wonderful meal with the Haining family and they were so impressed with the Maynes. It has been a great day all around!
We truly hope and we can be effective missionaries when we return to Minnesota.

Working going very well!

We are now teaching 4 families each week, the work is so rewarding and exciting we can hardly believe that we have been out almost 7 months already.
 The fresh fruit and vegetables are amazing and just found out they will be available until the 1st part of October!! 

Mom and Cindy

 

My mother and sister were here for a visit in July!

Family visits August 9th through August 17th

With Paul and Kevin's children at Black Caynon

Crazy Paul and Jen at Black Caynon

                                            Kevin and children at Black Caynon

Kevin and Emma and kids at Black Caynon

Whole family at church on Sunday!!

Andrina told her Papa she could pick peaches all day long!

Adella found some low enough for her to pick!

Axel was picking everything he could find on the ground!

Work going well

We are still very pleased to be working with the Delta and Uncompahger wards, the work has slowed down some, but we are looking forward to the fall. It has been hard to get hold of people this summer. We are still excited to be serving a mission and are very grateful for the opportunity.

Jeeping from Lake City to Ouray Monday July 9th, 2012

Road on the way up to Engineer Pass

Engineer Pass

Old Mine shack on the way down.

Worst part of the road on the way down!!

Road on the way down.

View from 13000 feet~!

Beauitful water fall on the way!!

Mary Haining grandson Glen took up jeeping it was a wonderful trip!!

Chipmunks at Lands End on the Grand Mesa

July 14, 2012

We have been so blessed we are teaching a family of four that we have been getting to know since we came to Delta! We started teaching 3 weeks ago, the Bishop and his wife came with us last week and were amazed at how much the children knew (they were so excited they are good friends with this family). The children have been to church with us several times, and the parents have been a few times, but they all came last Sunday and the talks that were given were awesome for them!!
We took the girls to a baptism for a child from the Delta ward today and they really enjoyed it.
Please pray with us for the Baugh family!! 
We had an interview with President Maynes last Sunday evening he said we would be here at least 9 months which bring us to the end of October 1st part of November. He also said we could be here 18 months providing that they keep us busy.  I am a little concerned about that we are really getting attached to some of the people that we have been working with. Everyone here is wonderful. Sometimes I think I would like to move here, but Gary says NO!!:)
We love you all and are thankful for your prayers and support!

P - day at Ouray

Box Canon Park pictures this was a beauitful water fall, the water was very cold.

Finally we are teaching a wonderful family of four!

We are so blessed to be teaching a family that we have been doing service for sometime now. They are a wonderful family, fat, her, mother, two little girls 8 and 9. They are the Baugh family please keep them and us in your prayers. I will post pictures of them later.

Brothers Wedding

We were so blessed to be able to go to Utah from Thrusday June 7th to Monday June 11th for Erb and Sarah wedding. Here are a few pictures. 1st picture bride Sarah, 2nd picture groom Erb, 3 picture background for where they were married, the white boots were my dad's temple boots. 4th picture are the flowers in Sarah's watering can, pink boot one of mygrandniece's. Cindy my sister did the flowers. Roxie, Jill, Jeanne, Cindy and Mom made the food. All the family that was there helped put everything together. It was a lot of fun!

Tuesday June 5, 2012 Vernal Temple Day with Johnson's

We had a wonderful time at the Vernal Temple with Quimby and Doris Johnson, they had not been to the temple in at least 5 years.  We are so happy for them. Has you can see it was a very windy day! We had a wonderful drive through the mountians to get to Vernal.

Monday May 25, 2012 P-Day!! Fishing was great!!

Week of May 28th to June 2nd 2012

We are so excited we will be teaching a wonderful family of 4 on Tuesday June 12th the missonary lessons. This family was a referral from the Bishop, and we have been doing service and getting to know them for a couple of months. The mother has been reading the Book of Mormon and had lots of questions when we visited with her last Tuesday. Please keep us in your prayers that we will be able to be effective teachers. We will also be teaching a member that was less-active but has been coming most Sundays on the same day.
Another exciting event will be this coming Tuesday June 5th, we are taking a couple to the temple in Vernal that have not been for several years, they had been less-active but had started coming back before we got here. We have been doing some service for them and have gotten to know and love them.
What a great oppurtunity this mission has been.
Gary is very excited that we got to go fishing last P-day with a less active family that have been coming to church.  He got 5 nice trout. I will post picture next week.
I am excited we are going to take a few days off with permission of course to go to my brothers wedding in Utah this coming week, we are leaving Thursday afternoon and coming back the following Monday. It will be fun to spend sometime with my family and our kids!!

Zone conference Friday May 25th

We had a wonderful conference Friday may 25th, we were well taught by President Maynes. He taught us about desire and how important it is to have desire to be able to teach and help less active back to church. He also taught us how to find new people to teach by using members more effectively.
Gary and I had the assignment to invite 17 people from the Delta and Uncompahgr wards to help with a role play with the missionaries. We were amazed at how willing the members were to help out, there were only a few no's and they D & C 20:37 I will put it in today's news.


37 And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All those who ^ahumble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and ^bcontrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the ^cname of Jesus Christ, having a ^ddetermination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their ^eworks that they have received of the ^fSpirit of Christ unto the ^gremission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.

We are still loving the work and appreciate the prayers and letters we have received!!

Another less active family we are working with from the Uncompahgr ward we had them over for dinner after church yesterday.

Delta Ward pinic pictures Friday May 18th we had 3 less active families there is was a great party!!

Brother Walker our ward mission leader and our Elders

Week of May 7th through May 12th

We had a great experience Wednesday night the Stake President come to the council meeting the previous Sunday and we discussed less active families. Then on Wednesday night we met at the church and they gave every team (10) two families to visit. Everyone came back with positive information about every visit that was made!  It was a wonderful experience, I except we will be doing this with the Uncompahger ward.
We had another good week meet with some members that we had not meet before, people are wonderful here.
We are still enjoying are mission!!
Posting pictures of our Uncompahger mission leader, he is a great leader we love him and his wife who is a ward missionary.

Week of May 1st through May 6th

Had a wonderful week meeting lots of new people, we have had a few couples come back to church after a few years a way, it is so good to see them there. Everyone we have meet have been wonderful.
Yesterday we were invited to a picnic by a less active members, non member wife. They were having a neighborhood get together and we were introduced to a lot of great people there.

I love this scripture:
2 Nephi 3: 24
And there shall rise up one mighty among them, who shall do much good, both in word and in deed being an instrument in the hands of God, with exceeding faith, to work mighty wonders, and do that thing which is great in the sight of God, unto the bringing to pass much restoration unto the house of Israel, and unto the seed of thy brethren.


We really want to be instruments in God's hands bringing those who are seeking after Him unto Him.
We truly love this work we have been called to do and know that we are in the right place!

April 20th Missionary training with President and Sister Maynes

Monday April 23, 2012

We are very excited for this week, tomorrow we drive to Denver will be going to the Temple and staying the the mission home overnight and then tomorrow we have a couples in service. It will be great to get to know the other couples that are serving in our mission. We hope to get some good ideas from them.

Harold and Mary Haining

This is a wonderful family we are working with, Harold is not well and cannot come to church with us but Mary came last Sunday and is going to Stake Conference with us tomorrow evening for the adult session.  It is the first time in 10 years that Mary has gone to church!
They had us to their home for Easter breakfast and dinner!!
Last Monday Mary taught me how to make the best toffee ever and then she went with us to Grand Junction with us. She has become our P day tour guide! 
We love this family so much, we have been blessed with their friendship!
This is also the family that took us to FFA fund raiser to eat Rocky Mountain Ostyers thank goodness they also were serving chicken strips!!

Week of April 3rd through April 8th

We have had wonderful a two months we have now been into homes 26 less-active families and have been warmly welcomed.  We love working and serving these wonderful people. We are excited it be instruments in God's hand at this time of our lives. We were invited to have breakfast and dinner with one of those families and they will be coming to church with us this coming Sunday. What a marvelous work this is!
Please remember to always support your local leaders in fellowshiping when you are asked it is so important. Also we have found that some of these folks have not had a home or visiting teacher in a very long time. 
When we were at our District leadership meeting last week they suggested that we make pray list and pray for every family every night and I really believe that is working.  We ask Heavenly Father to help each of these families in whatever we believe that they need. I believe we are learning to pray in a more meaning full way.
We are thankful for all of your support and prayers!!

Colorado National Monument pictures