It's hard to believe, but we started the 2nd quarter (3-month period) of our mission this week. 1/6 of our mission is done! Time is flying and we're having a blast!
This week I took a trip down memory lane. The young missionaries in our zone won an extra p-day and decided to spend the afternoon on Monday at Eagles Nest Camp near Dudley, NC. Eagles Nest is owned by the Church and is a 104 acre campground, used mostly for Church youth and other groups camping activities. When I was a young man, it was called Camp Tuscarora (named after the Tuscarora Indians) and was where I went to Scout camp! I remember, swimming and canoeing in the lake, eating in the dining hall, playing games and doing skits in the amphitheater and running all over those woods. No, I never became an Eagle Scout, but all our boys did! It was fun, playing with the young missionaries at a camp where I played as a Boy Scout more than 50 years ago!
 |
| Elder Potter bravely crosses a "lava flow" on a log |
 |
Goldsboro Zone in the dining hall - same wood floor!
|
 |
Sister Potter hanging with the "sistas," mostly.
|
Later that night we went to my cousin, Melissa Wiggins' house to help her with her accounting home work. I can't believe I still remember that stuff!
Midweek, we had dinner with Darry Hargrove and his wife Shelby. Was so good to catch up with someone we've been friends with for as long as I can remember. Did a lot of family history and discovered some interesting things - including that someone has relations with the McCoy's, as in the Hatfield and McCoy's. Thirty years of active feuding and still bad blood between the two families!
During the week we visited with the Ward family and taught a lesson to Claire and Denise. Denise lost her husband and we had a touching discussion about the spirit world and life after death. Steve gave us venison to take home (starving missionaries and all!) I guess it's hunting season everywhere.
I got to use a little bit of my French when we went with the Albertson sisters to teach a man from Haiti. Was a lot of fun, but realized that I'm picking up my native southern language a lot quicker than I am my mission language.
We visited my cousin Johnny Huggins and his wife Linda again. Always a treat to talk about family and the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
My Aunt Teenie (Rosella Barnett) lived to be over 100 years old, but passed away a couple of years ago. We took a few minutes and visited with her son Joe and granddaughter Lynetta while we were in the area and got to look for some old family pictures and journals. Apparently she kept a daily journal for years. Anytime we visited Aunt Teenie, she would ask about each of our 7 kids, by name. I can hardly remember their names! She was an amazing person with so much love for family and friends.
Today we had a busy day for a Sunday. We spoke in the Goldsboro 2nd Ward sacrament meeting. Aaron Sanders, a member of the bishopric, conducted the meeting. Aaron used to come to our house when he was in high school and would eat anything we had in the fridge. He's our son Jacob's age and got quite emotional talking about our family as he was growing up. We got emotional seeing all the friends that we haven't seen for years. We then went to church in Greenville with our dear friend Lorie and later had dinner with Bishop Smith's (Goldsboro 2nd Ward) mother and family. Menu: Chicken and "dumplins," collard greens w/ham hock, fresh corn, butter beans (with essential oils - bacon grease!), sweet potato casserole, hush puppies, banana "puddin" and chocolate pie. I can testify that the Plan of Salvation, that we teach about, is real, because today I died and went to Heaven!!! We finished the day off with our friend J.D. Robinson and his caregiver Melissa actually talking about God's plan of Salvation (the real one).
Seems like we're having more and more to do and more and more fun! Time is flying and we're so happy to be here. Looking forward to another week of testifying of our Savior Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. Love you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment