Mama Rika Updates...Finally

Here is an update finally.  I guess I missed a couple weeks.  Why must one always be so busy?

If you are going to relax, you might as well make the best use of your allotted space.

Here you have two view of Princess making a Norman castle out of Rice Krispie treats.  Quite the feat.  It was a little bit more like the leaning tower of Pisa, especially by morning.  lol

This terrible picture was taken a bit late.  If taken when he started eating, you might have been able to see the enormous amount of food that was there.  This is only about half of it.  Peanut and Sticky have really taken over well to fill in for the huge amounts of food that their older brother's would be eating if they were here.  

She has wanted to make homemade pretzels for a long time, so we did...

Of course, the little boys wanted to help.

They made many nontraditional pretzel shapes.

Here are a couple of the pretzels after having been boiled but before making it to the oven.

The finished product. 

Some letters.  These were super yummy.  Better than any other soft pretzels I have eaten, truly.

Sticky's bday.  He gets a little help with the unwrapping. 

The funny boy only requested one thing.  "Skinny, black," everyday athletic shoe.  Thankfully these sufficed.

MISSIONARY UPDATE

This week had some unexpected turn of events, but I guess that's the life of a missionary isn't it.

 

Monday:

 

Not a ton to report just a pday. E. Stoven and I bought matching ties, suspenders and pocket squares, we'll include some pics. We thought they would be fun to wear to District meeting, and they were only $7 :)

 

Tuesday:

 

Had a district meeting out in bluefield, so most of the day was spent driving. Since this new transfer, we now have 3 sets of elders, and two senior couples here in our district. Last transfer we only had 1 senior couple, and 2 sets of elders. It's new, but really cool, we're excited to have them in our district.

 

Since we spent so much time driving, we didn't have much time for anything else, we helped some members move from one trailer to their neighboring trailer. (it's only about 30 ft away from her old one) We ate dinner with the C family, and taught a new member lesson

 

Wednesday:

 

We drove out about an hour away from our trailer to the middle of some holler out near Grundy. Near Grundy is a relative term here, it wasn't really near anything. He's a less active member, and his fiance is taking the discussions. They wanted to feed us dinner, so we went and had some steak and potatoes and corn on the cob. It was delicious, and afterwards we set, his fiance, on date to be baptized! It was ridiculous getting home though, the fog rolled in and we could barely see 15 ft in front of us for a good part of the way there.

 

Thursday:

 

So we had our normal weekly planning session, and everything was going well when we received a call from a number we didn't recognize. We were extremely surprised when we answered the phone, and E. Hilton started talking to us. E. Hilton was supposed to be going home this past transfer, but Pres. Pitt asked if he would stay an extra 30 days. He said he would, and now he's traveling around the mission to different areas and working with the elders there. He also told us that he would be staying with us for the next couple days, and would arrive in a couple hours. Talk about spur of the moment.

 

So, with our new found "Tri-panionship", we headed over to the M's and helped them move more stuff from old trailer to new. We helped them with the bigger appliances, like the washer and the dryer and the fridge. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get any of the big three up the small, but steep hill, we had to go the long way around the block to make it work. So we must have looked pretty ridiculous dragging some oversized appliances on a rather small dolly around the block. Cars were driving by and people we staring like nobody's business.

 

Friday:

 

Saw a bunch of people, and we had some really great lessons. One of the best ones we had was with an investigator named J. We taught him about changing our desires by using Enos 1. If you want an awesome chapter to read in the Book of Mormon, Enos 1 is sweet! We also used Moroni 7 about praying for Charity. We also used a bunch of other scriptures and examples that were awesome, but for the life of me, I can't remember what they were. I learned a ton from that discussion we had ourselves. It was really great! The spirit really does edify both the teacher and the student, or the missionary and the investigator in this example.

 

Saturday:

 

Another great day!  We tracted a bit, and taught a bit, and did a bit of less active/ service work it was great! We started out the day by helping a member remodel his trailer. He's been mudding and sanding the walls before he paints and puts in cabinets. After we were done sanding we had tons of white dust in our hair. We rushed home and changed for an appointment, and when we finished with that appointment, we rushed back to the trailer, and changed back into service clothes. We did some service for a member, and then rushed back to the trailer to change again into missionary duds. We had a great lesson with R where we taught Lesson 3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. He understood, and knows and understands baptism, and the significance of covenants. It was sweet!

 

Sunday:

 

Had church, unfortunately, our investigators were either sick, going through major family problems, or didn't have a car, so none of them showed up. We did however have a great lesson later that night with a less active member, and her nonmember husband. The husband brought up concerns about blacks not holding the priesthood, polygamy, and blindly following the prophet. Talk about a tough discussion! But the spirit was there, and he helped both E. Stoven and I, and we were able to address some of his concerns.

 

Love ya tons!

 

Elder Brayden Connole

Below, see late snow in the mountains and also goats at random roaming the hillside.