What a lovely Easter day!  The temperatures got into the low seventies, with a few clouds.  The really good news was no coat!  As the day wore on we got a few more clouds until it eventually rained, but not a downpour.
We went to our meetings and heard some very wonderful and touching testimonies of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It was a very spiritual fast and testimony meeting.
Our numbers were few because so many people were gone visiting relatives.  I heard it's also spring break here and that always allows for families to get away from home.  We were supposed to go to the Branch President's in-laws with all the family, but last night the missionaries called at about 8:30 and they had an invitation to go to a single female investigators house.  They could not go without someone else so they invited us to go.  Doyle got in touch with the President and explained the situation, so our dinner plans were changed at the last minute.  It turned out very well.  She was a very entertaining lady named Dottie, about 70 years old, with two dogs.  We had a very nice dinner and she told us lots of stories about her life.  She's planning to write a book about it.  Afterwards, we came home and changed clothes and then drove in to Crossbow Lake and walked around the trail twice.  By the time we were halfway around the second time, it was raining pretty good.  I got pretty wet and my hair went totally flat!  Apparently that was an invitation for Doyle to put his hands on top of my head and ruffle it all up.  So now, I'm a flat head!

 This is the same lake we walked around yesterday, but no turtles or momma ducks in sight.  They like the warm sun to bask in.  But the pollen was extremely noticeable on the path and laying on top of the still water areas.  I'm sure it will get much worse as we can see that the pine trees are just loaded with it!

 

 

Tonight we will watch the final installment of The Bible.  It's been a great experience to see some of the bible stories enacted on the TV screen. 

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter with those you love and reflecting upon the life of the Savior.  May we all strive to do better each day that we are given that we may be found worthy at the last day.  The atonement is for us and our daily lives.  It's to help us meet the challenges that we face.  It gives us hope and we are grateful to our Savior for all that he did for us!

 

Happy Easter.  Love y'all. 

 

 

 

Today has been simply wonderful.  We actually took the full day to ourselves.  Doyle had a chiropractic appointment and then we met up with the Milhbergers to go to Barnyard.  What is Barnyard?  It is a very large covered flea market with row after row of stuff...produce, jewelry, garage sale type booths, old records and videos, clothing for all tastes, shoes, food, knives and a very large area for bikers filled with lots of leather things.  One booth was making fresh flavored pork rinds.  I paused to look at the different flavors and was immediately offered samples. I had a bad feeling about this.  They don't look good or sound good to me!   Reluctantly I picked the barbecue.  He gave me a small piece and I knew it was a mistake.  But, there was no place to spit it out and I didn't want to be rude, so I ate it.  That stuff is not nice.  Sister Mihlberger and I were together and Elder Mihlberger and Doyle were together, so we went at our own pace.  She managed to find a couple of vases and a silk ivy plant in a nice basket.  We also found the Easter Bunny so I took her picture.

 

After we shopped the place out, we took off to find a Chinese buffet that they said was good.  We found it and had lunch together.  They had several shrimp dishes which made Doyle very happy.  He loves shrimp.  We then went back to their apartment and Bonnie and I went for a walk around the lake while Doyle and Mike sat and visited in the apartment.  We saw ducks with lots of babies, an otter, lots of big turtles and squirrels and birds.  It is a very nice walk.  I especially like the turtles.  On one log alone there were 12 of them lined up sunning themselves.  The pollen is starting to get real serious.  I picked up a stick and hit a pine tree and a big yellow puff of pollen went airborne.  The lake had lots of yellow globs of pollen all around the shore.  They say the pollen is very serious in the spring.  We are about to find out.  I hope I don't find some southern only plant that I'm allergic to!

Yesterday we went to Harlem, Georgia to do a pick up of furniture.  Our friendly facilities management director called to ask if the mission wanted more of the furniture that was being replaced and we said absolutely.  I think it was the stake center there in Harlem, Georgia but I'm not sure.  So Friday morning we got hooked up to the trailer and took off for Georgia.  With the help of the local missionaries in Harlem, we managed to come away with 2 couches, 3 big wing back chairs and two end tables.  The freeway goes right by Costco, so we really needed to stop and take advantage of that.  We stocked up on some of our favorite items and had lunch there.  Doyle had been wanting to get a Ninja Blender, so of course we got one.  It really is very nice and I used it when we got home to make hummus.  So, bye-bye regular blender and hello Ninja!

Tomorrow is Easter and I've been doing some reading about the atonement and the resurrection.  Elder Bruce R. McConkie says, "His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or ever will occur from Creations dawn through all the ages of a never-ending eternity.  It is the supreme act of goodness and grace that only a god could perform."  As we ponder all that Jesus has done for us, may we all resolve to try harder to be more Christ-like in our thoughts, deeds and actions.  Happy Easter everyone!  Love y'all.    

It's Saturday again!  Time for another installment of the France Mission.  Sometimes I think that the blogs are pretty repetitive, but I guess that's just the way life is, repetitious!  That's how we become better at all things...doing them over and over and making each time or each day a little better than the one before as we learn, grow and strive to be better!
Monday was a typical Monday at the office.  Catching up from the weekend and putting out fires of one kind or another.  On Tuesday we went to Moncks Corner to open a lovely new townhouse apartment for two sisters.  I was very pleased with the apartment.  It had new carpet throughout and was very nice.  I called the two Elders who are already in another apartment in Moncks Corner and they came to help us move in.  That was a real blessing because hauling furniture into a two story apartment is not as easy as it once was.  When we finished, we took them to Subway for lunch and then they showed us where the WalMart was so we could pick up a couple of small items.  They planned to find and purchase matching ties.  They knew it was their last day together as companions.

Elder Rasmussen and Elder Douglass

 

After we finished at WalMart we went to a couple of thrift shops to look for lamps and managed to find a few.  We finally got back to the office after everyone had gone home for the day and unhooked the trailer from the truck.  These are long and rewarding days.  I feel such a sense of accomplishment as we prepare living quarters for the missionaries. 

Wednesday was transfers and it was very emotional because some of the Elders and Sisters that we had gotten to know were going home.  I imagine that will be the case from this point forward.  We've been here long enough to really get to know and spend time with so many of them.  Transfers last until noon and then we go back to the office for a couple of hours before we go to the temple with the departing missionaries.  Afterwards we went to the mission home for dinner (which I must say is always very delicious-thank you Sister Contini) and a brief testimony meeting and then the slide show of pictures of the missions of the departing missionaries.  Then, our goodbyes!  Oh my!  I'm such a cry baby.

These were our four departing sisters.  From left to right is Sister Kloepfel from

Spokane, Sister Cottam from Blackfoot, Idaho, me, Sister Chai from South Jordan, Utah, and Sister Robertson from Boise, Idaho.  For Sister Kloepfel and Sister Chai the afternoon and evening was very special because their parents were here.

This picture is all the departing missionaries and their parents, plus one of our senior missionary couples that are also going home to Independence, Missouri.

 

This is Elder and Sister Benedict and Elder and Sister Berry.  They are our departing senior missionaries.

This is Doyle with Elder Abankwa.  He has returned home to Ghana.  What a very special missionary he has been.  His father is the Stake President in his home stake.  He is a future leader of the church in his country.  What a fine young man!  When he bore his testimony he said, "Don't just go through this mission, let this mission go through you!"  It is true...the mission goes through you and changes you!

On Thursday, we had an IT guy come in to do some work to fix problems from a crash in a system we use so the computers in our office were pretty much not available most of the day.  I went out to pick up items for these next apartments coming up.  Friday (thankfully) was a much more quiet day in the office to get caught up from the previous two days.  There are definitely ebbs and flows in the activity in the office.  Sometimes it's pretty quiet with only the senior missionaries, but other times it is the hub of activity with all of us plus Elders and Sisters coming in and out needing media or something else.  What a special time for all of us as we share this mission experience together, helping to lift, support and love one another while sharing the gospel with others. 

Today was a very rainy and wet day, but we went out and braved the wet and cold.  We had several furniture donations to pick up.  As long as we had the truck and trailer, we went to about 6 thrift store to look for needed items.  We scored with about 7 lamps and 2 bookcases in the thrift stores.  I have a list of 44 different thrift stores in the greater Columbia area and today we began checking them out!  5 down, 39 to go!  So glad that Doyle wants to help me do all of this...I couldn't get apartments set up without him.

Well, because we were out and about today, I'm later than usual with this post.  It's almost 10pm and for me that means it's bedtime.

Until next week...Love y'all!!

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful experience today.  Last night at 9:30 the phone rang and it was one of the Irmo missionaries, Elder Wilkinson.  He told us that a contact we had a couple of months ago was taking the lessons from him and his companion, Elder Wery.  They had asked if we could come to church and be with them for the sacrament this morning.  We said absolutely!

We met Greg when we cleaned out our storage shed for the mission and donated desks, headboards, foot boards and a few other things to Habitat for Humanity.  Greg and another man came with a big truck to load these items and of course we talked with him about the church.  He said he had been interested for a long time, but just never did anything with it, so we got his name and phone number and gave it to the missionaries.  They visited him and he and his wife are now taking the lessons.  They have two very well behaved young sons who sat patiently through the sacrament meeting without any complaints.  We are excited that they are taking the lessons.  Through a contact as simple as giving away furniture and opening up and talking with this man he and his family are learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  You simply never know when your influence or example may help to lead someone toward our Savior.  It's wonderful!

We are having dinner guests soon.  It's such a wonderful day, we set up the picnic table to eat outside.  Doyle is trying out some of the lounge furniture to make sure it's OK.

Our dinner guests for tonight Sister Brand, Sister Petricek and Sister Rothman.

The forecast was for temperatures in the low 80's and that's exactly what we got.  What a beautiful spring day here in South Carolina.  I have been feeling the need to get outside and do some walking.  It seems that most of the time we are in office or driving somewhere for ourselves or for the mission and for me some nature time was really calling me.  Finally today we had no deliveries or pickups and we did go for a walk around a small lake that's near to our friends, the Mihlberger's, apartment.

The azalea's are blooming along with multiple types of trees.  The turtles have come out of hibernation and we saw many of them not to mention the hundreds of squirrels that are everywhere. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to photograph, but I'll keep trying. There were several people fishing along the bank of the lake and one young man had about eight perch.  I loved it!

Elder and Sister Mihlberger from St. George.

We were at their apartment so Doyle could help (hopefully) get them hooked up to Skype so they can talk with their three old grandson.  They just bought a new Windows 8 laptop and since we had just gone through the same thing, Doyle thought he could get them hooked up.  He was not successful but they sure tried.  Windows 8 is a real challenge, so if any of you are thinking about getting a new computer...beware...it's much more challenging than Windows 7.

After our walk, and the failed computer set-up we decided to go to Chic-Fil-A for lunch.  We could not even get onto the property!  They were backed up out onto the street!  The Lord is blessing that business for NOT being open on Sunday.  All locations we have seen here are always jammed up.  Of course their food is very good too!  We drove around a big circle of businesses and ended up across the street from the Mihlbergers apartment at a Tokyo Grill.  Doyle and Mike both wanted to try it so this worked out well.  We all had the bento box for $4.95 each.  It was very good.  Fresh salad with ginger dressing, shrimp, egg roll and rice.  We will go back.  We had some shopping to do so off we went for that.  The Mihlbergers had a wedding so they went home to get ready for that.  We did our shopping and then stopped by the office to drop off a case of water.  Doyle has decided that we should keep cold water on hand for our wonderful missionaries. 

We are home and just hanging out enjoying the beautiful day.  We are so blessed.

One of our Sisters that come into the office a lot is Sister Petricek.  She lives in a nearby apartment with Sister Brand and our office receptionist, Sister Rothman.  She is from Wisconsin and is here in South Carolina on loan from Nauvoo while they are shut down for the winter.  She will be leaving very soon.  We took them out to a buffet for lunch a couple of weeks ago and discovered that she doesn't like fruit!  Can you imagine that?  So Doyle has been teasing her and a few days ago she came into the office eating a banana.  She promised she would try to eat more fruit and she's doing it!

 

We had a new senior couple, Elder and Sister Albrecht, come in this week from Utah.  This is their second mission.  They served on a small island in the Pacific where he did not wear socks or shoes the entire time he was there.  Everyone used cool sandals and he did too!  They were telling a story about seeing a business man on the street with a briefcase in one hand, a cell phone in the other wearing only a loin cloth.  People are fascinating don't you think?

This is transfer week, so it will be very busy.  We have a large group coming on Monday, mostly Sisters.  On Tuesday Doyle and I will go to Moncks Corner which is down by Charleston to open a new apartment for two of them there.  Transfers are exciting and fun.  It's my favorite time.

God's blessings everyone.  Love y'all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a beautiful day here in South Carolina!  The birds were happily singing this morning because they already knew how glorious this day would be.  Clear, blue sky all day long with the temperature topping at about 61 degrees.  That is getting dangerously close to flip-flop, sandals and pedicure weather.  It's supposed to stay this way with highs going into the low 70's.  So ready for this change in the weather...spring is here!  There are some new blooms on some of the trees, there have been pansies all winter in more protected places and we've seen the landscapers freshening the well kept areas.  Interesting to note that here they do not use rock or wood chips for ground cover, but instead use the long pine needles that have been gathered into small bales.  When we first got here we just thought that they had fallen off the trees, but we've actually seen the small bales and the needles being raked into place.

We had a 10:30 appointment to pick up some furniture, lamps and lots of kitchen items from a member in Blythewood, which is about 30 minutes from the office.  So...even though we had told ourselves we would take a full day to ourselves, we ended up getting the van and trailer and doing a pick-up.  It took about 3 hours to get it all taken care of.   Last Thursday, we did deliveries again to another 2 zones moving a few beds, frames, lamps, chairs and other furniture supplies to our appreciative missionaries.

 

  While in Orangeburg we saw a vendor set up on a street corner selling furniture.  We ended up buying a couch, love seat and swivel rocker (at a fraction of the store price) for the next senior missionary home that I will open next month.  Much of my week was spent searching for apartments for our new elders and sisters coming in on March 18th.

Once we got home today, Doyle decided to take advantage of the spectacular day and clean up the car.  We park on a gravel-dirt mix, so when it's wet, we drag lots of stuff into the car on our shoes and it gets dirty quickly.  We've been so spoiled for so many years to have our vehicles garaged! What a blessing that is!!

 

There are so many different churches here in the south, sometimes on every corner and a lot of them have the changeable reader-boards.  I find them pretty fascinating and write many of them down.  I'm going to end with the reader-board quote of the week,

"Learn to doubt your doubts,

and believe your beliefs."

What a great thought.  Most of us spend too much time dwelling on our doubts and letting them have too much influence on us.  Instead, we need to concentrate on the positive and let those positive beliefs be the fuel for our lives.  Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, while Satan wants just the opposite.  Who do we want to believe??

Have a fantastic week and believe your beliefs!

Love y'all!

 

March already...wasn't it just New Year?  My goodness how the time races quickly by.  I'm looking forward to spring and a little warmer temperatures as it has been pretty cold in the mornings with the temperatures not wanting to rise much above 50 or so.  We've had more rain in the last few weeks than we've had since we got here.  This must be winter in South Carolina!
This week was the Elder Nash tour of our mission.  He was here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  We went to see him speak on Wednesday in Lexington with all the Elders and Sisters from three zones.  He took the time to speak with and shake hands with everyone that was there.  He has the phenomenal capacity to remember names.  Many times throughout the conference he addressed the Elders or Sisters by their name (without being able to see the name tags).  He was a wonderful speaker and it was a wonderful day. He taught that we must love the people as the Lord loves them.  We have been called to serve and so we must give our all.  As we represent Him, it becomes very personal.  We must show that personal love, one by one as we meet people and talk of Christ. We must try to do the things that He would do if he were here.

We made a personal connection with him because he is from Bothell, Washington and knows the Merrill family that we go to church with. 

Thursday was another day in the office doing the things we always do.  We truly enjoy our work and the people that we work with.  It is always productive and fulfilling. On those days that we have more to do than we can accomplish, we know that we can come in and get it done the next day...it's not going anywhere!!  Friday we opened another new apartment and moved a set of Sisters and a set of Elders. 

 

Today we moved our single senior sister into a new 3 bedroom apartment.  She will be sharing the apartment with her current companions and the third bedroom is in preparation for two more sisters who will come after the next transfer.  It's a lovely apartment and it looks great!  We had the help of two Elders and another senior missionary couple, so it only took 3 hours. 

I know this is shorter than usual, but after two days of moving, I'm pretty tired.  Love and blessings to everyone!