July 5

We had a slump week after  vacation; laid around and read, mostly. I think we are finally ready to go back to work (hopefully!).

Tuesday was my brother's birthday: Happy Birthday Kim. We stayed Monday night at a motel in Durham, about 2 miles from the airport. Karla got a wakeup call at 4:40 and caught the shuttle at 5 for the airport. Her flight was to leave at 7 and she was boarded by 6:40, so right on time. After hugging her good-bye, we went back to bed until 7. Had an appointment at the hearing aid doctor at 8 and were only 5 minutes late, so I felt good about that, since we were driving in rush hour. Took only about 20 minutes before we were on our way home. Cleaned out the frig, threw away a lot of stuff that had gone bad, did laundry and napped. That was about it!

Wednesday was a practice day for G1 sisters with lunch. The new sister is quiet, but has a good solid background in the gospel. She will do well. After lunch we had to go to Sam's to fill up the car and the frig. E. Steffler is so afraid that we will run out of meat! Had missionary correlation before institute; nice to have a mission leader again! Took bread and honeybutter for snack for institute. Not many attended; ended up with 10. Sis. Walker had some interesting facts about the apostles that she shared. We are studying Teachings of the Living Prophets, and it is very interesting.

Thursday we took the G2 sisters to a steakhouse for a "graduation" lunch. After 6 weeks of practice lessons, the new missionary will graduate. Everyone enjoyed a steak! Then we read with a member. Her son recently got a scooter and he drove it around for us; E. Steffler showed him how to check its oil.

Zone meeting was Friday. We need to check apartments in Kinston so we had the missionaries sign up. We practiced a new way of introducing the Book of Mormon; very effective and better than with the pictures. We got a thank you note from the G2 sisters thanking us for the "celestial" steak on Thursday. Cute. Picked up two Ensigns at the meeting, plus got one in the mail. Plethora of Ensigns! Will have to give one away. We learned of E. Boyd K. Packer's passing on facebook (our only source of news). That's two apostles since April General Conference. That puts E. Russell M. Nelson next in line.

I was flossing my teeth and flicked out a filling. Just what I didn't need; it is not hurting, just a nuisance. Saturday I got a returned call from an orthodontist who suggested I come in Monday to have my tooth looked at. We declared a swimming day and hit the pool early, before 8, and it was warm already. It has not gotten as hot as out West, but the humidity has risen with the occasional rain and cloud cover. YSA elders had an early supper with us. It was one of the elder's birthdays yesterday, so I made the cake that is pictured below – the best I can do at originality! He was appreciative, and I let them take the rest home! Plus the remainder of the loaf of bread. Then we began our 24-hour fast.

The fun part of the day was seeing our kids and grandkids have fun on the slip n slide. There was quite a crowd – all of our kids and some of their friends. Eliza and family came from Shelley (and their oldest with a boyfriend!) and Deana from Hailey. DJ has gotten the art of slip n slide down to a science! It was awesome. Deana posted lots of photos and a couple of videos, so we enjoyed it vicariously. Made me trunky!

Not a lot at church today, but still had a good fast and testimony meeting. A nonmember even bore his testimony! It was awesome. After church we fed the YSA elders again. That seems to be about all we have done this week: feed the missionaries! But we feel blessed for doing it. We love the missionaries and associating with them. We love the YSA members and enjoy meeting with them three times a week. We (the branch) are hosting a beach party on July 18, so that will be interesting.

Hope all y'all are well and enjoying life and staying out of trouble. We will try, also. Till next week, God bless y'all!

Love, Elder and Sister Steffler