LET IT SNOW********

Our usual day starts with Rick getting up early and then he comes and gets me to read a conference talk together. After breakfast and being ready for the day we have companion study. We take turns doing it and what we are inspired to study that day. We have Preach My Gospel that is amazing and it'll probably take our whole mission to get some of the way through it. It has some great insight to missionary work and studying and improving your own commitment to Jesus Christ and His gospel. We sometimes have meetings during the day with the district, some days we schedule to go to do a Temple session. It's a beautiful, large temple but could be busier. They are only open on Tuesday and Wednesday for the evening. Thursday through Saturday is more like our schedule back at home. It's such a beautiful spirit in the Temple. We end up going at least once a week and twice if we take a new member to do baptisms. Missionaries can only go through with the new member their first time. We often go for Branch and Stake Temple trips. Seeing two of our recent baptisms Andrew and Keivon baptize each of the missionaries who baptized them in in the Temple was an event that we'll remember for a long time. There is great power in getting people to the Temple soon.

 

This is Jon who first got baptized.

We had to find Costco and Sam's Club. Single Adults like to EAT. It seems like after everything they eat or have refreshments. For our Break the Fast we had a waffle bar. It was fun to serve them. Our Branch President's wife is a decorator. She makes things look so nice for even the simplest food. We meet in the Institute building for Church and have a lot of Stake materials stored there for our use. They loved the social time after Church. We had about 40 people at church and in the Basic Gospel Essentials 14 of them attended it. The Branch is young in age and in experience in the gospel.

 

Rick making waffles

We have apartment checks for our mission. We were assigned 6 apartments. 5 of them have two Elders each and the other had 3 in it. They were decluttering this month and then the regular checks. We saw and were "Trained" on how to check. They are pretty thorough. The ratings are Best, Better, Good and Evil. We were a little nervous knowing we had an apartment that got EVIL last time. We managed to get all 6 checked and only one was virtual due to the snow that came and grounded everyone inside. 3 of the apartments had to send me pictures of their stove and bathtub cleaned after the lst check. Yes, when the walls of the bathtub start to look orange/brown it's time to scrub. I'm glad I'm not mentioning names. One apartment had two mouse traps on the floor because it'd been a problem. The stove top (gas) looked pretty good but then you have to lift up the top. They said " Oh, we didn't know you could do that". Grease city underneath and then a mouse trap. How long that trap had been there I don't know. We survived and ended up with 1 best, 3 better and 1 good. Evil moved up to good. I LEARNED A LOT! Rick let me do the dirty work of telling them what was wrong. He handled the decluttering, taking items back to the mission home and then checking the Vacuum filters.

 I finally have gotten over a sinus infection, not new to me. We established doctors for us and seem to now have our mail coming here and bills paid online. Our district loves to go to Olive Garden after our meeting. It is my favorite restaurant here. There is NO mexican restaurant I've been tempted to try. We've been to Shoppers, Giant, Safeway, Food Lion and realize we miss our prices back home. Rick has without a doubt been able to find a brand and store that carries his favorite Ice cream(s). We have a small freezer but we can pack in 3 half gallons of ice cream to keep his energy level up. 

 At first we thought we had so much spare time and how can we make ourselves more available. Now that we have added Branch council, District council, Mission correlation meeting and then FHE, Institute and game night on Fridays it seems the time gets filled up fast. We do have a service activity at the Meals on Wheels for the College Park area once a week when the schedule gets made. Working with Young Single Adults is a real blessing. We wonder with their strong testimonies how they could go inactive. Just a reminder that we must all keep our guard up and must continue to do the small and simple things that keep testimonies strong. Rick gave the spiritual thought at District Council. Helaman 10:4-5 and correlated with the Missionary Purpose in 3 Nephi 5:13. Rick pointed out the promised blessings given Nephi in Helaman 10:5. He said, I hope the Lord can trust me like He trusted Nephi. Love my companion! 

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Our District Silver Spring played for basketball champion of the mission and won.  We got to go and cheer them on during their P-day. They get to have a basketball tournament every 2 transfers.

 Rick (Elder Hinton) is helping the clerk clear up 360 on our membership with only about 40 coming. Many have moved or do not contact so that we with the Elders and Sisters can contact them personally. We sent out a post card to all 360 to get a start. We'll see if it brings responses. I have taken the challenge to teach the church conducting course so that several members can then take the church keyboard class. If they finish both of these they get to keep the keyboard through the church music program grant. Many of them could not afford lessons or keyboards. We have about 7 signed up. We have just gotten an additional calling while serving here in Washington DC North mission. The current teachers of the Addiction Recovery program go home next month. We will be teaching it for all the Young Single Adults in our Stake. We have about 5 wards and 2 branches of single adults. We love the program already and know it will bless their lives. We are teaching 3 lessons a month on zoom and then one in person. We don't say where it's being held for those who attend to keep confidentiality. We start in 3 weeks and get to observe in the class now that the members know of the change. We have included that workbook in our monthly study.

SNOW AT LAST! It came with a few flurries during Relief Society. The women know I'm from Arizona and it was beautiful. Well, later when we really got dumped on in the night the Mission President called and said no going out with cars. We were glad to not have to worry about driving. We got a call from the French Elders that could we drive them to their area. They wanted to go see some of the area but weren't allowed to drive their cars but wanted us to brave it. We told them we probably are going to adhere to the Mission President's advice even though we didn't have a mission vehicle. It lasted for several days but the rain yesterday pretty much got rid of it. 

 We are sad to lose two of our district members to transfers and two of our ward missionaries. We took the out to Panda as a final activity. We look forward to going to watch transfers and help out. We are on a 40 day fast. They fast this Sunday and then for the 40 days try to work on 2-3 behaviors that need to change to help you draw closer to Jesus Christ and be a more effective missionary. We are doing it with them. I enjoy doing things for our district and branch missionaries to encourage them and show our appreciation for them.  We love having them over whenever we can. They are good to us and remind us of our worth as well.  We hope we are a help to their missionary service.

   

I'll leave you with 2 messages I've learned:(1)  I have learned to rejoice in my weaknesses - they have been opportunities for growth in so many ways. (2)In all of our teachings, driving new converts, attending baptisms and interacting with the Branch --there is more joy in feeling the Lord did something through you than feeling you did it yourself.#loveourmission