Birthday Celebration and Baptism

Saturday, March 22, 2014

This has been an eventful week. Sunday was High Council Sunday. We had two brothers from the stake who came to speak to the soldiers. The brother who came with the high councilor to speak gave a wonderful talk about his experience of going into the Marines and not living the gospel. He told how he was unhappy with the way his life was and subsequently how he got his life back on track. It was inspiring and probably hit close to home with some of the soldiers. Attendance was about average. We did have two female soldiers who are not members of our church attend at the invitation of one of our soldiers. He was teaching priesthood//Relief Society and did a great job. He is a convert and bore a very strong testimony of Joseph Smith and of eternal marriage. He is a priest and is working to take his wife and two sons to the temple. We have 4 new soldiers that I hope will be able to attend tomorrow.

Monday, Lori’s family came down from Tucson to celebrate Ben’s 8th birthday.  We went to Tombstone and had a great time with the kids. We attended a wild west shootout. It was not the shootout at the OK corral, but a comedy based one. It was a bit corny, but the kids really enjoyed it. They had their pictures taken with the stars afterward. 

Threats before the shootout

Shootout

Bad Guy

Grandkids with the stars of the show

We had lunch at the local park, played some miniature golf, before heading back to Sierra Vista. The kids played ping pong at our complex clubhouse, grandpa is still the family champ as he barely defeated his 8 and 11 year old grandsons. Another year or so and I am sure I will lose the crown. That evening Lori and Dusty took us all to the Golden Corral before they headed home. It was great to spend a day with family.

Tuesday was spent at the Turnaround Point. It was a very slow day, then our appointment for the afternoon fell out on us.

Missionaries singing "Called to Serve" for Sisters who prepared and served lunch

Sierra Vista Zone March 19, 2014

Wednesday, we drove to Tucson and met with two other Zones in a Zone Conference. It was really inspiring. They invited two recent converts to come and be part of a panel. The mission president asked several questions of the two members, then opened it up to the missionaries to ask questions. It was very touching and the two sister members were great. We then had some instruction from the Zone Leaders followed by a lunch prepared by the local stake Relief Society. The conference was held at the Rincon Stake Center which is Lori’s stake. Some of her friends helped with the meal. Following the meal, President Killpack spoke about the doctrine of repentance.

I spent much of Thursday preparing for our Institute class which was enjoyable and I think a success. We only had 4 soldiers but we are happy they came and we had a very frank and spiritual time together. RoLayne met a lady in the complex who saw the picture of Christ in our window and asked her if we were Mormons. She said that she would like a picture of Christ so RoLayne took one over and visited with her on Friday. The lady has been to our church in the past and said that RoLayne could bring the sister missionaries over to visit and read together. She is a Catholic and I think she is lonely. She lost her husband several years ago and still really misses him. I think the doctrine of eternal families may touch her.

Today we drove to Tucson again to attend Ben’s baptism followed by a nice lunch at Lori’s home. Dusty’s parents were able to drive down from Kanab so that was really nice. Following lunch, we chatted for a while then headed home to prepare for Sunday.

Newly baptized grandson