Fourth of July in Kentucky

 We had a great 4th of July and weekend.  We worked in the office on the 4th.  It was fun to put up the American flag in front of the office. 

 We were visited by a group of Elders and Sisters who are all Spanish speaking and work with the Louisville 5th Branch.  They were at the nearby chapel to have a district meeting.  

After taking their picture they wanted to spell out AMERICA using body signs.  The Sister on the end was the exclamation point.  

We left work a bit early and went home to enjoy a few minutes of the holiday.  We had a lot of fireworks in the neighborhood.  We watched a new BYU movie on the internet entitled "We the People" about the creation of the Constitution of the United States. 

Saturday we were out shopping and ran into a caterer who was selling barbecue pork with all the trimmings.  We bought some and then brought it home and ate it on our patio.  

The Last picture is a map I had made of our mission showing the branches and wards.  It goes from Olney, Illinois, to Beattyville, Kentucky.  The drive time from one end to the other is roughly 8 hours. 

Sunday Mom and I taught Gospel Principles and had a investigator in our class who had been talking with the Elders in our branch months ago and then stopped.  He said that on the Saturday he was walking down Bardstown Road praying to know what God wanted him to do.  Two of our Sister Missionaries came up behind him on their bikes and started to talk with him.  He took this as a sign that God was trying to tell him something.  He called the Elders to get the address and came to church.  We hope he will continue to be taught.  

We had a small group at church but still had  a wonderful testimony meeting.  It was the Lemmons' turn to host lunch for all of the Missionaries.  It was a real treat  to have someone else do lunch and have it at their home.  In the evening we visited a Sister in the Branch who is having some health problems.  She just got home from the hospital and needed help changing the bandages on her arm.  I was glad I've had some first aid training. 

Today we took our next door neighbor who is 80 + years to visit his wife who is in a rest home nearby. He has a friend who is able to take him a few days a week. We had offered to drop him off any time on our way to work so he took us up on it in order to go with his wife to some Dr. Appointments. So we are able to spend some time talking to him about we do.

We loved seeing all of your Fourth of July pictures and hearing about your Holiday. We miss you all but are grateful for our opportunity to serve here. We are also grateful for the wonderful country that we live in and  the sacrifices of all who have come before us.

Mom's birthday and saying goodbye to the Woodbury's

I had a wonderful birthday last Friday. Thanks for your love and support. Here is a picture at the office with some of the missionaries who came in on my Birthday. Dad brought me roses that you can see behind my head and he had the missionaries sing to me. 

That night, we went out to eat with two missionaries. One is in our branch and his birthday was last week also. 

I got lots of calls and texts with singing and birthday wishes from the family and the missionaries.    

Saturday, the 21st, we took a ride to Brandenburg and then down to Madisonville to deliver mattresses to missionaries. We are getting a lot of new elders this transfer and so they are forming a few threesomes.  It was a long day. We took the van and drove 400 miles but we got to see a lot of the mission country. Both towns we went to were pretty small but they both had a chapel, which we went to see. It was very hot that day and were glad to have the missionaries help to unload.

One day Dad and Bro Lemmon went to set up a new apartment and left Sister Lemmon with me in the office. She was trying to catch everything up before they left for a week for a medical apt in California.  We had six phones to answer and it became pretty comical which one to answer, because they all look alike. 

Tuesday was transfers.  I put in a picture of the parking lot with dad putting a bike rack on the back of a senior couple's car. It was a crazy day- but we did it!  We had a car transport come right after the parking lot cleared from transfers to pickup two cars sold by the church.  We just barely got them loaded when it was time to drive the departing missionaries to the temple for a session.

We have a picture of the Woodburys - their last time to be at the temple. This is a bitter sweet time for them. They will leave on Friday. They have been great and we wish them the best!  

The Woodbury's and Assistants went to pick them up the new mission president the next day. President Brough (the new mission president)came into the office on Friday afternoon, so we got to meet him for a few minutes. Saturday morning, Jason went over to the mission home and set up the computers for the new President. He dropped me off at the office to pull Media (sister Lemmon's job) because we were getting so behind. I also had lots of baptismal forms still to be processed. It was our best month in the number of baptisms .  When he was done setting up the computers we went out to lunch and then we went grocery shopping and did laundry and cleaning in the afternoon.