10,000 Miles and Counting

What?  10,000 miles?  Yup!  On Monday, Mike took the car in for tire rotation and oil change.  We have put 10,000 plus miles on our car since March 22nd.  Some of that was our trip across country but most of it has been in New York.  We are in our car a lot.  We travel almost every day.  It's a good thing that the countryside is so beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, I can't help taking pictures of flowers, and roadways, and houses-really just about everything.  There are a lot of black-eyed Susans all around.  I had to grab a picture because every time I see them I think of my sister Susan.  When she was born, the nurses in the hospital called her Black Eyed Susan because her eyes were black as coal.  Our mom and dad liked the name so much that they named her Susan.  My grandma Call called her black eyed Susan all the time.

And, of course, who doesn't love hydrangeas.  We just love how beautiful New York is.

Our week has been full, which we like it like that.  We had the opportunity to meet with several of our branch members.  We took a message to remind them that they are children of God and that he loves them.  We had made a picture with "I Am a Child of God" and "and He loves me" written in a cute colorful font.  After watching the video, we had the little people put their handprints on the page.  They loved the activity and luckily we kept the paint where it needed to be and not all over the place. It's a good thing for all of us to remember.  We also spent time with the Sisters in some of their lessons.  They are such great examples for us. 

Our friend, T, is so fun to watch as she progresses toward baptism.  She reads the Book of Mormon faithfully and makes all kinds of notes.  She loves the Book of Mormon videos and has so many questions.  She comes to church and our Book of Mormon class every week.  She keeps us on our toes and rolling with laughter. 

Speaking of our Book of Mormon class, we absolutely love the Book of Mormon.  We love it's stories, teachings, and spirit.  We have testimonies that it is the word of God and that we come closer to our Savior every time we read from it's pages.  This past week we taught 2 Nephi 2 about the Fall of Adam and Eve and our need for a Savior.  This coming week we will teach the same chapter but do a deep dive into agency.  Through it all, we are so thankful for the beautiful truths that are taught in those pages.  We invite you all to read from the Book of Mormon each day.

Do you like hotdogs?  How do you like them cooked?  Burned or barely cooked? Every year our branch has a free community car wash for three hours at the church.  It was yesterday.  We were excited that we had 5 non members bring their cars to get washed.  We (I) cooked hotdogs to feed the people while they waited.  It has been a tradition for many years.  We washed 9 cars and even gave a hotdog to the AAA guy who came to open one of the cars that the owner had locked his keys and phone inside.  We were few in attendance but we sure had a good time.  The best was when three little boys showed up.  They help to keep us young. They turned the day into a party.  Kind of a riotous party as they fought for control of the water hose but it made all the difference in the world.  Oh how we need kids to liven things up. And to say that most of us got a little wet was an understatement.  Those little boys just giggled as they sprayed us. 

We only had 17 people in church today.  We aren't sure why the number was so low.  We watch as these people struggle with the idea of losing their branch. They are trying to figure out how to get people to come back to church.  It breaks our hearts to see them struggle. We had a fast today to show our faith and plead with the Lord for ideas to help bring lost souls back into activity.   Sometimes it's hard to see how it will ever happen and we pray that we will all be able to have the trust in whatever the Area Presidency decides.   We hope that we will know soon what the plan is.  Until then, we just keep keeping on.  

So onto another week.  We hope that we can be instruments in this work.  That we can be of use wherever we are needed.  Life is good.  We are happy.  We are blessed beyond words.