The value of our young women October 15, 2015

I probably sound like a broken record as I extol the virtues of the Sister Missionaries and of the Young Women in the Branch.  Serving with them is a real privilege.  Elder Dixon and I were bemoaning the fact that at the next transfer we will be losing our temporary set of Sister Missionaries.  They have been wonderful.  I have been so proud of each of them.  Neither came in the usual way.  We were privileged to have Sister Oliveira with us for two transfers from Temple Square.  We have also been privileged to  have one of our own Branch members step forward to be her companion for that time.  They have been a great addition to the Branch.

So, not only have I served with those two great young women, I also get to work in the Young Women for the Branch.  I LOVE those young women.  They are so bright and wonderful.  We have fantastic discussions in which I learn from them.  Today, I was teaching about patience.  Their insights and comments were terrific.  I showed them some quotes on patience and this one became a favorite for all of us:

 "When the veil which now encloses us is no more, time will also be no more. Even now, time is clearly not our natural dimension. Thus it is that we are never really at home in time. Alternately, we find ourselves impatiently wishing to hasten the passage of time or to hold back the dawn. We can do neither of course. Whereas the bird is at home in the sky, we are clearly not at home in time - because we belong to eternity! Time, as much as any one thing, whispers to us that we are strangers here. If time were natural to us, why is it that we have so many clocks and wristwatches?" ---Neil A. Maxwell.

Wow!  It has taken me years to understand these deep quotes from Neil A. Maxwell, and they understood it immediately.  There is tremendous power in these young women.

I had the privilege to share one of life' greatest moments this week.  Bala and Srvanthi brought a beautiful little girl into the world.  They invited me to be there in the hospital after she was born because her mother had a C-section.  That little girl was so aware and so darling.  I am grateful I could be part of it.

On Saturday, we were going to attend some baptisms in Gainesville, so we took a little time and went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden in Gainesville to see the Lego sculptures.  They were amazing.  I can't bring my grandchildren to the sculptures, but I can bring the pictures to my grandchildren.  Enjoy!

The baptisms were so great.  I hope that when I return from my mission, I will always attend baptisms.  I used to think that it was a private, family thing and I didn't attend.  Now I realize that I was not welcoming those people into the ward.  

Have a happy, but safe, Halloween.

Kirkpatricks October 18, 2015

Saturday, we took some time to attend the Scottish Highland Games at Stone Mountain.  It was quite fun.   There were many, many people dressed in kilts or ancient-types of dress.  I had to laugh when I saw these kilts, made of camouflage.  I commented to one of the attendees (who was wearing a kilt) that perhaps it was just me, but that seemed a bit strange.  He laughed and said, no, it was not just me.


I found it especially interesting that there were tents for each of the clans.  The clans posted their names in large letters and were manned by people who knew the history of the clan.  I didn't expect to find anything because I could not think of anyone in our genealogy with a Scottish name.  I found that Kirkpatrick is actually one of the clan septs. (like a subset).  The clan spokesperson told me that our clan crest is a bloody dagger because when Sir Robert Bruce was once ambushed and used his dagger to escape, he returned to the safety of the Kirkpatrick clan and they asked if the man was dead.  "I think so" he replied.  The Kirkpatricks then responded "We make sure" and went back to be certain he was dead.  That, my friends, explains a great deal about us.  From stories about my boxing grandmother, "the fighting Grimms" (my father and his brothers) to my own personality traits, I see where we live by that motto.

The other thing that I found to be hilarious is that my brother, Tom, hates bagpipes, yet the two clans I could find were the names of his children's spouses.  Maybe he needs to take a trip to Scotland!

There were some very interesting events. One event was called caber tossing.  The competitor lifts something that looks like a telephone pole on the very end.  It has to be lifted straight up, then tossed.  In order to be a countable toss, the pole must land at a 90 degree angle before falling.  Pretty amazing!

We ate haggis.  Can't say that I liked it, though.  There was a great man who explained how to make haggis.  Technically, we do not have real haggis in the United States because our Food and Drug will not allow the use of the sheep lungs.  It was an entertaining explanation and I was designated as the one to hold the intestines (make of fabric)!  All in all, it was fun and informative.


We also had some other wonderful things this week, but I will have to save those for another chance to write.

Growing pains October 11, 2015

Ever since Elder Dixon and I began working with the Branch, we have had a goal (and have prayed) that before we leave their membership would be up to 120.  President Tedjamulia said today that the Branch had reached 107 members, then lost 8 families very quickly.  That was about the time that we arrived.  President Tedjamulia had lost a large number of his leaders.  Elder Dixon was called into the Branch Presidency as the Second Counselor and to do Public Relations.  I was called to teach in Primary, to help with the upcoming activities, was Secretary of the Relief Society and acting President of the Young Women for a time.

But, our dreams began to come true.  First one strong family came, then another. . . .  There finally came a time that my callings were needed for other people who had joined us.  So today, Elder Dixon was released as Second Counselor.  We will still be working with the Branch until we are thrown out or complete our mission.  It was bitter/sweet.  We love President Tedjamulia and Brother Nogueira.  We will miss the close association, but we are certain that the Branch is ready for this member of the Branch to take over.  Elder Dixon indicated that when he began in his calling there were about 50 people who attended church each week.  Today, we counted about 85 (and some of the faithful members were not there).

It was a little hard to look forward a few months and see that the release would be as missionaries and not in callings.  Several people thought Elder Dixon's release meant that we were leaving.  No, they are stuck with us for 7 more months.  I really love these people.  They have taught me so much.

I was thinking today about a sweet friend I had many years ago who worked hard to teach me to give hugs.  My children have laughed over the years at my hugs (or lack thereof).  Now, I find myself hugging almost every Sister I meet.  Sometimes, there is even a hug for a departing Elder.  This Branch is full of wonderful, kind people.

I love the young missionaries who are serving in the Branch.  It has been awesome to have some sisters.  They are both here in unusual ways, one a temporary mission to her home ward and the other a "loaned" missionary from Temple Square, yet, they have been amazing.

After the crazy week two weeks ago, Elder Dixon and I decided to take a little time for getting to know Stone Mountain.  We wanted to see the plantation that they have there, and stumbled across their Pumpkin Festival.  Here are a few of the pictures.

This is the main house.  There was also a Doctor's house, the overseer's house, the office, the school, and slave quarters.  It was fun to see.

This is a magnolia seed.  The seed pods are about the size of my fist.  The tree from which they came was huge.  

I had a moment of sadness as I saw this garden of Dahlias.  Mom, yours were prettier!

We were also able to attend the celebration for Richard's second year of the gift of life.  He had cancer and was able to beat it after a stem-cell transplant.  It was wonderful to be there with so many friends celebrating this journey and success.

I am a Christian October 4, 2015

I have so much for which to be grateful.  This conference has been wonderfully spiritually nourishing for me.  I was tired, discouraged and lacked the confidence that I could fulfill my assignments.  So, this weekend, I had the opportunity to be filled, to be inspired, to be counseled.  I had new insights, new hope, new energy (although I did take a couple of naps!).

If only the world understood what we have.  We have hope.  We have a promise of an eternal plan that is beyond what we can understand now.  We have a divine design created by our Heavenly Father and his son.  These things are reasons that we should have joy!



All of the new missionaries are now in their apartments.  It was a rush, and some of them do not have all of the furniture and other things that would complete their housing.  I am so grateful for the help from the Lord.  There was one location we had opened and the lease was one that we cannot buy out.  The Stake and Ward felt that they did not have the ability to support more missionaries in their Ward.  The decision was made to never move missionaries into that apartment.  I was very sad.  Then I remembered that the complex had a policy where we could terminate a lease for any reason within the first 30 days.  Fortunately, we have done so.  I will be closing that apartment, but at least it will not continue to cost.

I also had help in finding a beautiful little home for Sisters in a new area.  The Branch President had been looking and thought he had found something for us, but it all fell through.  I prayed for help, then searched the same source one last time.  There was a nice little family home in a good location.  The Branch President was thrilled.  It turns out that the man who rented to us had been trying to sell it but had not been successful.  He had others who wanted to rent it, but agreed to rent to us.  They are a wonderful family and the feeling in the home is special.

We also had the farewell for the outgoing missionaries.  I don't think we appreciate the sacrifices that these young people have made to serve.  One young Sister will be returning to a small island.  Her travel itinerary would require that she travel for several days.  When she received her call, she was supposed to report the following day and had to run after the person who delivered the letter to have him read it to her because she neither spoke, nor read, English.  Because the call took so long to arrive, she missed a months of the language training she would have received.  She was promised that at the end of her mission she would be able to read the entire thing.  She speaks fluent English and testified in the fireside that she was able to read and understand every word.

The farewell fireside was really powerful.  These young people glow brightly with the testimony of the Savior and the Plan of Salvation.

Moving, Cabins and Apartments September 27, 2015

For some reason, today I felt that I was supposed to make cheese bread to take to church.  I wasn't sure why, but I started making the cheese bread.  Unfortunately, my math function in my brain shut off and I accidentally made six times the recipe.  Before you think I am really crazy, I frequently make four times the recipe.  The problem was, I did not have enough eggs to make that large a batch.  Our Assistants live downstairs, but they were already in church.  I went ahead and raided their refrigerator and left a note saying I had borrowed 5 eggs and it was a long story.  This is the picture of the note they left on our refrigerator later.

We have so enjoyed living with the Assistants.  I will always be grateful to Elder Flake and Elder McArthur for helping us in our adjustment to the office.  Their wonderful, goofy interactions made me laugh and reduced the stress.

And now we have Elder Pond and Elder Gosar with their funny notes!  I am so grateful for the opportunity we have of spending a little time with some of the Lord's choice sons.

There will always be a special place in my heart for these young men.

 While we have been here, Barry and Jana have almost completed a project we have worked on for about 15 years.  Years ago, our two families committed to building a cabin.  We had the idea that it would be a great experience for our children to learn construction and that we would build it large enough that we could have youth groups or family gatherings.  The problem with the plan was that a short time later, all of the boys got jobs, then went on missions, then got married.  As a result, we didn't have much of a work-crew left.  So, every summer we worked hard to complete the cabin.  Every year, there was still too much left to be able to complete it.  I think every year I told the people at work that when it was finished we would have them come up. We left for the mission without it being completed. Since we have been gone, Barry and Jana got the kitchen finished and carpet in.  It is now usable!  I can hardly wait to have friends and family come up.  It is hard for me to believe now that we actually built this ourselves.  This place is filled with so many memories.  I remember making meals in a crockpot when we would work until dark.

This is the view from the loft into the great room.  Up in the right-hand corner you can see the door to one of the two bedrooms on that level.

This is the game room downstairs.  I think it will be a place for a pool table etc.





























 This is the kitchen, obviously.  We didn't build the cabinets, but the tiling was a family success story and Jana did paint one of the pieces in an accent color.

The past six weeks have been hard.  We have the privilege of having more missionaries come in than leave, but that does put a little stress on me.  I have had to get 7 apartments ready (finding them, getting leases and furnishing them).  One of our sweet sister companionships ended up without a bed for a night.  I laughed when we went to deliver the beds and they had built a tent in which to sleep.  I am still short one apartment, but hope to get one set up for later in the week. I have cleared out a lot of our furniture from storage.

I know I could not do this assignment without the help of the Lord.  One of the locations where we want to put missionaries is in Greensboro, Georgia.  I had looked for weeks for a place with no luck.  The Branch President was also working on it and his options fell through.  I turned to the Lord and asked for his help.  I found a delightful home with a sweet spirit.  The Branch President is thrilled.  I know the Lord helped us after our prayers and all that we could do.

We got to go to Mara and Leo's home for dinner this week.  Mara makes some wonderful dishes.  I hope to spend some time with her to learn to make them, then have Kaina teach me some things.  I already learned cheese bread from Daniela!

Can you believe. . . September 20, 2015

It is hard to comprehend how quickly our mission is passing.  We are over 2/3 of our time.  I had one of the sisters at the Branch ask me about our release date.  Her husband thought we were going home soon.  It is soon, but not as soon as she thought.  Her husband thought we were leaving at 18 months.  If we had been, we would be leaving in one more transfer.  Wow!

So many good things happen every day in the mission.  On Saturday, we had the privilege of attending the baptism of a man whose wife had joined the church 12 years before.  Immediately when he came up from the water she raised her arms and said "Yes!!!"  She had waited a long time.  The Ward came out in great support.  It was just a wonderful baptismal service.


We had some wonderful things this week.  We had a wonderful evening catching up with Tyler Winegar who grew up in our Ward in Utah.  What a fun time with two terrific people.  I am so grateful that we were able to have them come over.















One of our traditions for many years has been to go to the State Fair around Elder Dixon's birthday.  The State Fair here is not like the one in Utah, so we did not try to go to it, but chose the Gwinnett County Fair instead.  In 20 minutes we had seen everything there that we wanted to see.  There were goats and cows, no other livestock.  There were no vegetables, no crafts, and some jugglers who I saw drop things quite a bit.  No matter, we did our best to keep tradition.  And our children did a good job trying to keep it up in Utah.

 This picture is for my little Lego-lover grandchildren!

We were going to meet Richard to go to the fair, but called him and suggested we do something else.  We met at the mall and went to a movie about a man who died and went to heaven.  The seats in the theater were lounge chairs.  Richard suggested I try milk duds melted in my popcorn.  I should have tried it, because now I am wondering about it.  Had a great time, even though the movie was not great.

Had to throw in this picture for Barry Jessen.  We knew it would make you miss us!

Rodizio de Pizza- September 13, 2015

The Branch had a fun activity yesterday.  They prepared homemade pizzas and had invited everyone they could find to attend.  The attendance was not what we hoped but it was a great event.  One of the members told me that if something is edible, it could be put on a pizza.  In Brazil they have this party and bring different pizzas to the tables like Rodizio's does meat.  I had so much fun trying different pizzas.  They had one with cream cheese in the crust (yummy), several with cream cheese on top.  There was one that I would call a "sloppy-joe pizza" I  because the meat on the top reminded me of my mother's sloppy joes.  To top it off, they had "sweet pizzas", ones made with mozzarella cheese and chunks of chocolate, some with peaches and chocolate.  The Sisters worked very hard for many hours to make it a success.  This time, Elder Dixon and I did very little.  This Branch is growing and getting lots of great people to strengthen the Branch.  They are also great about cleaning up!

The Sisters then presented a message.  They had one of the Elders sit on a chair and asked our sweet young woman to lift him up.  She could not.  The Sisters invited someone else up to help her and they could lift the Elder a little.  They then brought up our tiny new convert and together they were able to lift him.  Finally, they invited our sister who does military training (everyone laughed).  Of course, with her help, they lifted him very high.  The message was about how it takes everyone together to lift him.  The Sisters also tied it to the things that we need to be doing in the gospel in order for us to reach high.  It was such a great analogy.

We had one of those "the Lord is preparing His people" moments.  Out Sisters were out tracting and a man pulled over and gave them the information to contact his wife.  They did, and she loved the message.  She agreed to come to the party.  She had some roadblocks that nearly prevented her from attending.  When she arrived, she had an amazing experience.  Years ago, she lived across the street from the LDS church in Brazil.  Every Sunday, she would see a sweet family all walk to church.  One day she didn't see them and she found out they had moved to the United States.  When she walked into the party, that family was there.

My week in the office was spent trying to find housing for these new missionaries.  One of the areas is many miles away (I drove 170 miles round trip that day) but I haven't been able to find anything so I drove there in hope of finding something.  I asked at the County offices and they referred me to the Chamber of Commerce.  On the way, I stopped at a Family Dollar store.  When the clerk asked me if there was anything else she could do for me, I answered "Not unless you know of some place to rent".  She said that it is sort of a hobby of hers to keep on top of such things and she was aware of something so call her back.  Then I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce.  That lady was a sweetheart.  She tried hard to help me, and then just before I left, she asked me if there was some way she could do genealogy without having to pay.  I left her the information for Family Search, and my name if she has questions.  The trip did not result in anywhere to rent, but those two ladies made it feel like there was a purpose.

I have met some wonderful neighbors lately.  There are so many good people in this world.

I was released today from teaching Primary.  It is hard to leave those children.  They are so wonderful.  When I first started teaching them, they were pretty naughty, but we have learned together and I really enjoy them now.  Today, they asked why I was released and I explained that the Branch is growing and that I already have a call as a missionary so they need to let someone else teach their class.  They are so smart and have listened so well.  I teared up as I told them I loved them and one of them said "Do I need to go get some paper for you to wipe your eyes?"  How can you not love that!

We also went to the Temple this week to do baptisms for the dead.  Our two new converts, a mother and daughter, each were baptized.  That mother positively glows.  She has found a family in the Branch.  Love them!

I don't think I blogged about Elder Cruz being a trainer.  He is in an English-speaking assignment and is training a new missionary.

Elder Castro wrote the sweetest note to Elder Dixon for his birthday.  We really love these Brazilian missionaries.