Ogden Mission Blog: Howdy, all ya'll!!

This week has been exciting and rewarding! We have begun teaching three young people. Two girls (who were among those who brought us cupcakes our first day in Murphy) and a boy, cousin of one of the girls. Their grandmothers are members, one is less-active and one is very active. We have taught them three lessons so far. We will teach them two more next week before two of them leave to return to Florida, where they live. We pray that they each will pray to know the truth and then follow it.

We have been baking banana bread enmass and taking a loaf to each home we visit. Our first 20 loaves disappeared in only a few days. I guess we must bake 40 loaves on Monday so that maybe we will have enough to last for a week.

While visiting a less-active family Friday night, I had a thrilling discovery. The great-grandma of the family, Dolores May, was married to a descendant of James May. That is the same James May that Grandpa Ivan May descended from. Small world! Then she told me that she had Rees from Wales in her heritage. So do I! We already have a bond due to family history. Her family was so welcoming and warm.

The down-home, dust-of-the-earth people throughout the hills here just touch my heart. They are easy to love and are mostly good people. It is extremely common to find that nearly every family has experienced death, divorce, and/or some terrible trauma, if not many. It is also common for members to become less active, because they live so far from the church and it takes a long time to get there. Some just get burned out and recede into a sort of shell.
We pray they will remember their testimonies and rejoin us.

We have been searching for a suitable apartment that could house a set of young Elders. One of our neighbors came walking down the street and saw us on the porch. He stopped to talk and invited us to visit him. Turns out he has a lovely apartment that he built for his mother years ago. He may consider renting it for the Elders! Our President is thinking of placing some here in Murphy. We'll see if that happens by the end of August.

We have had some inspiring moments this week while teaching, receiving instruction, and visiting with people. Thank you all for your prayers. We know they are helping us. The Lord is good to us! We love Him! We feel so strongly the truth of the gospel and love it!