February Fun - Week 1

Went Antiquing on Tuesday. What wonderful therapy!!! I loved this little vinette and found a darling little silver on brass sugar bowl to make a pin cushion out of.
THE VOLCANO. When I was growing up we had a coffee maker like this one. It sounded like a volcano early in the morning. Thank goodness that coffee doesn't taste like it smells or it might be a temptation, but it is still one of those "comfort smells" that I go down the coffee isle of the grocery store to enjoy.

This is "Hawk". He landed in the woods and hung out for the afternoon. Everyone else was laying low except the fiesty little male cardinal. Isn't he gorgeous!?!

Our beautiful ice covered tree

Doesn't this tree look gorgeous with the sun shining on the ice!?!

After the layer of ice (see posting below), then we had a heavy wet snow.
The tree branches aren't bent from the wind, but from the weight of the ice and snow.

So beautiful and quiet in the back yard.

Our little tree is bending, hope we don't loose any branches, or the whole thing.

The birds are really disturbed by the branches on the feeder and that it is tilted out of whack. Hammy came by but couldn't get to any food, and didn't care for the slippery branches.

Ice Storm 2009 Pictures

After the ice. The tree on the right is covered in 1/4" of ice. I think the garbage cans are stuck in the ice!
My Ivy pot by the front door

Everything is encased by the ice.

So beautiful on the trees. So deadly on the roads. We are on a "Level 3 Snow Alert", which means that if you are caught driving you can be sited or arrested.

Ice Storm 2009

We are holding on to our hats tonight as a huge ice storm is here. We got a call from sisters W & H (chrissy you know who these are) and they were stranded at a members home when the ice storm hit. We were going to go get them and return them to their apartment, but the spirit said no, and when I checked the front porch, it was already covered with over 1/4" of ice. Thankfully, the members will let them stay overnight until tomorrow after the roads are clear.

If we have electricity I'll post some pictures in the morning.

I found a blog through Brooke Christiansen's blog with the most darling hair styles. The Babie's hair is still a little short for the styles but I thought you might enjoy them just the same. Go to: shedoeshair.blogspot.com

Transfer 1 - 2009 - Zone Conferences

This week we had Zone Conferences and they were great! The missionaries were so ready to learn and we had a terrific time being with them. I did my laundry training and Greg trained on teaching correct doctrine. (we have heard some really crazy stuff that just gets sensationalized and perpetuated as each missionary generation hears it from their companions.)

We are now working on a project to help the missionaries study more effectively. By taking each doctrine separately (from Preach My Gospel), such as: Apostasy. Then having a simple 1 sentence statement explaining it. Next are a list of scriptures that talk about it and then a paragraph or so expounding on that. Once they have a page for each doctrine they will teach in their "study journal", they can pull from that and copy it onto a 4x6 card for each lesson. After the lesson, they toss the cards.

By doing this they have the CORRECT doctrines to teach. As they make up new cards each time it gives them an opportunity to refresh their understanding and repetition will help them remember. Writing it more than once helps the kinesthetic learners, seeing it helps the visual learners, and hearing it in their planning and while giving the lesson helps the audio learners. We have many missionaries with learning disabilities, ADD and just poor study habits. But they genuinely want to be good missionaries. We hope that this will be a tool that will help them as we teach them that having learning disabilities is not an excuse to not study, but is instead the reason we have to find additional learning tools.

Greg and Chrissy were discussing what the missionaries listen to in the car. It is usually music, their selection is meager and they complain about getting tired of it. Chrissy said that she listens to Truman G. Madsen. The doctrines on those are a little advanced for investigators and if the missionaries listened to that, they would be inclined to teach it. (can't have meat before milk)

So the idea came to us, what if they had Preach My Gospel on CD? We contacted Brother Watson in the missionary department (he came and did some training last Feb and we get to have him come again in March- just love him!!!) He said no one had ever asked for that before. So Friday he copied it from his MP3 onto a CD and mailed it to us to make however many copies we need! We figure the missionaries can make better use of their time in the car, because we know that whatever we are listening to as we drive, we have a dialog going on about it, and thus a learning experience. Keep us in your prayers as we implement this.

Lots of Baptisms

We just came home from a baptism in our ward. A couple with children (toddlers) was baptised. We had a total of 6 this week, and 31 for this transfer period. We are so excited!!! This is huge for the northeast area of the U.S. especially in the winter.

We have enjoyed being with the missionaries and have visited wards each week during this transfer period and 3 of them have baptised families. We have worked long and hard to get to this point. As the missionaries have been working hard and improving their teaching skills, they have had success.

Ok, so here is a funny if not unusual missionary story. One of our "bombers" and his companion decided to make some cookies and then go caroling. In a normal world, this would be a great thing to do. But it went somewhat awry when they chose a retirement home and went inside to sing, only to discover that there were stars of David around and no hint of Christmas decorations. They had picked a Jewish retirement center by mistake. LOL. Only those two...

Elders B & B Thanksgiving Story

Here is a story from "day 363" of Elder B's letter. He gets into such funny situations and has a really funny delivery of the stories, so we really have a good laugh and he loves it!
He says:
First, I have a story from last week that I forgot. While at the VanNatter's house for Thanksgiving, we were given four frozen squirrels, which had been skinned and gutted, but not washed enough, as they still had hair in some places. Elder B. really wanted to cook them, so we put two in a pot and boiled them, because we misheard the cooking instructions. They were really creepy looking when they were finished. I peeled all the meat off and put it in a sandwich. Elder B. put barbecue sauce on his little friend, and ate it like chicken. I think eating it did something to his head, because ever since, he's been plotting to kill the squirrel that lives in the tree in front of our apartment.