Front Porch Sitting

Hello all!

Twins! Exciting! I'll have to write Mason and congratulate him - and tell him Happy Birthday, since his birthday is coming up. I'm glad you liked my present, Mom! I knew you would. I even went to a birthday party on your birthday and had cake and ice cream, so of course I was thinking about you. One of our Investigators, Tabitha’s little girl had her 1st birthday on the same day so we went and played at the park for a little while with her. Did you know that nylons add a whole new dimension to playground equipment as well? You see, usually there is a plastic pad at the bottom of the slides to help you stop so you don’t get hurt, but with nylons on you just keep sliding! We’re kind of bummed, though, because Tabitha and her husband James are moving for the summer to go sell security systems and it didn’t work out for her to be baptized before they left. They’ll be back in the fall, but by then I’ll most likely be gone and she will have already been baptized because she is ready and they’ll be seeing the missionaries in Boston, so that’s good. Just with all the craziness of getting married, custody battles, moving, working double shifts, etc., the timing just didn’t work out.

We’ve been playing a game recently with some of the kids we teach that I think you should play for family home evening – Book of Mormon charades. Since Mom’s so good at charades :) just imagine the fun you’d have acting out Book of Mormon stories! The kids got a kick out of me acting out being the drunken guards while the people of Limhi escaped the Lamanites. We’ve been trying to do anything really to help people understand what is in the Book of Mormon. It’s so important to know the principles it teaches, and of course the easiest way is through the stories. That’s, of course, why Jesus always taught in parables. You know, I’ve been thinking about just how tricksy Satan is. He’s very frustrating to me! He knows how important the Scriptures are for everyone to read and understand and apply in their lives. He knows they are the principle way Heavenly Father communicates to us and how we learn what we need to do to live with God again. So of course, he’s going to do anything he can to stop people from reading them, and he gone so far as to influence most people to dislike reading at all! And influencing the corruption of our language and education so that even if people do read they don’t really understand it. Arrggghh, I can’t wait till he’s bound for a thousand years….. Ok, that’s my rant for the day.

And now for my house building skills update for Dad. I now know how to roof and shingle a house. Ok, well, I know how to help roof and shingle a house. And Joe even accidently got this roofing glue stuff in my hair…it was a pain to get out… but it was worth it :) It’s been fun working at Habitat, not just because I enjoy it, but because we are actually working side by side with people from the community and getting to know them when normally people avoid talking to us because they recognize us as missionaries before they ever give us a chance to show them we’re normal people. Sometimes I think that’s the best missionary work you can do– just really being a part of your community. And that’s always been a hard one for me because I like to just keep to myself most of the time. So if nothing else being on a mission has helped me see the need for reaching out to people more and getting to know them and being a part of something bigger than myself. I’ve probably told you this before, but it’s always stuck with me. Dr. DeMille once said something in class about the word submission. He broke it down to its parts, sub- and mission, sub- being a prefix that means something that is a part of something else or falls under the category of, etc. So when you think of it that way, the word submission – far from being a weakness, something you give in to, is really a way to make you stronger because you are becoming a part of something bigger. So when you submit your will to the Lord, you are really only making your mission in life a sub-mission of His – which is to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”. What greater thing could you ever want to be a part of? Why are we often so focused on the smallness of ourselves when there is so much more out there?

I've also been officially introduced to "front porch sitting" - it's really all people have to do around here. And when the weather is nice, it's actually quite amusing. We've been front porch sitting with Gay and Larry and since everyone in town knows them and they live on one of the main streets that everyone drives down, pretty much every single car honks or waves and we wave back while we chat and talk about the weather and the gospel :) They are so funny.

It's really been hilarious sitting in on PEC before Mother's day while all the priesthood are trying to figure out what to do for all the mothers in the ward. They feel like they can't win with whatever they give the women. Some don't want chocolate, so don't like flowers that just die, etc. Poor men. I really do feel sorry for them sometimes....

Oh, and I almost forgot, we got a new car! So now I'm driving around a brand new 2008 Ford Fusion. It's pretty nice, they're testing it out for a mission car since it's all wheel drive and will hopefully handle better on the windy roads of Virginia and West Virginia - so I get to do the test driving since it's the only one in the fleet, most of the other cars are Corollas or Malibu’s. The elders were jealous and have been trying to race me anytime we're going to the same place....funny boys.... well, I better get going. I'm glad I have such a great family and that everyone is happy and doing well. I love you all!

~Melissa