November 9

Another week gone by and winter is settling in; at least cold weather is!

On our walk Nov. 3 we saw frost on windshields of cars not under the shade, and on the rooftops. I wore a long sleeved shirt and hoodie and jeans. The walk did warm me up some. When we returned the laundered tablecloths from break the fast, we inventoried the YSA closet to see what paper goods we needed to buy. Then to Sam's to buy the needed items, plus a few things for us. The church building was being used as a voting precinct Tuesday and they set up on Monday, so did not return with the paper goods. Invited the zone leaders for warm bread and hamburger stew because they are not completely moved yet. They enjoyed the bread and honey butter. FHE was in the dark at the park playing some game. We couldn't even see who was there, so we went home. One of our member sisters got her mission call to Sacramento and enters the MTC Dec. 17! She is so ready.

Tuesday was warmer; suppose to be a couple of days in the 70s. G1 sisters came early for their practice lesson because E. Steffler had a echo cardiogram scheduled at noon. The technician said it did not look like his heart was enlarged. Zone leaders came by to borrow some wrenches to unhook the washer and dryer at their old apt. Some members were helping with pickups to load the bigger items. Had correlation meeting at Pres. Lewis' home; had to plan for Luis' baptism, so Spanish elders were there too. Luis wants me to give a talk! Sis. Lewis fed all of us spaghetti with baclava for dessert. Yummy.

Water aerobics on Wednesday was a bit on the too cold side – but I persevered! E. Steffler got in for about 30 seconds. He is convinced they had turned off the heat, but it had been 30 degrees not long ago. The YSA sisters came for a practice lesson on Word of Wisdom. So I met them with a coffee mug in hand and invited them to try some. Continued to sip from it through the lesson until it came time to announce that I could not drink coffee anymore. Their arguments were very convincing: how it frees us from unhealthy habits. They left us with about 3-4 pages of potential contacts to follow up with; some from 2012! Had a meeting with Bro. Paries, stake high councilman over missionaries. He wants us to check missionary apartments in Kinston and Woodington instead of Greenville. One of the members of the branch taught institute and it was not the right lesson! He taught the lesson he had prepared and it went over fine. Got an invite to dinner Sunday at the Paries. Talked with Deana and she had advanced to soft foods, so she is starting to heal.

Thursday I made a pumpkin sheet cake from scratch for zone meeting tomorrow. Read with Joanna, Alma 5. She had made a carrot-pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting and pecans to decorate. To die for. Started working on the potentials list and right off the bat, no addresses; it had the name of apt complexes and we didn't know where they were, so came home to look up on the computer. So now we are ready to try again. Zone leaders needed some help changing the plug-in for their dryer so E. Steffler offered his advice while one of the elders wrestled behind the dryer almost in the dark. Then they finished cleaning their old apt and we helped do a final inspection; not real clean, but they were determined to finish and turn in the key.

Since the pool was so cold, we did a workout and soak in the hot tub, only it was more like a lukewarm tub! I think they turned off all the heat. Zone meeting centered around conversion. We read scriptures that identified what was needful for conversion: faith, action, change of heart, scriptures, then had a testimony meet of sorts. Some volunteered and some were asked by the zone leaders to bear testimony. E. Steffler and I were asked to bear testimony on the plan of salvation and yes, we both got teary eyed. There was a beautiful spirit there. Sis. Robinson the picture lady was there to take photos of all the missionaries. She brought brownies and I took the pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. The sisters from Kinston had low tires (according to their car computer) and E. Steffler hauled out our trusty little air compressor. Then we took them to lunch at Panera. Spent the evening getting ready for tomorrow's baptism: cutting up fruit and thinking about how to present a talk on baptism to someone with limited English usage.

Had to hustle to get to the church by 9:30 so I could plate the fruit and banana-zucchini bars and banana chocolate chip muffins. Sent E. Steffler to buy milk; some of the sisters from another ward brought cookies, too. The baptism was simple and short. I took about 3 minutes. One of the branch members game a talk on the Holy Ghost in Spanish and one of the brethren baptized him in Spanish. His mom and brother attended, both nonmembers. They were touched by the spirit. I had found "I am a child of God" in Spanish and we sang it for the closing song. That afternoon we got prepared for the apartment inspections next week, making copies and making sure we had all of the proper papers. Read in the prophet's manual lesson #20, hoping that was the correct lesson (it wasn't). Finished watching all the sessions of conference; now just the women's conference to watch. So we are getting lots of reading done for Sunday School, Institute, Book of Mormon and conferences. We are learning so much.

Want to get through Dan's nuclear stress test on Monday; that has been on the back burner for 10 days now. Hoping and praying for the best, but will accept whatever the results. God's ways are not always our ways, but we have hope that we can finish our mission. Deana got the splints out of her nose, so she is doing much better; maybe even went to work Friday!

Hope all is well with everyone. We love all y'all. God lives and loves each of us and knows us by name; His arms are outstretched to us; we only have to reach out to Him and He will help us. This I know. We thank you for praying for us. Elder & Sister Steffler