Week 34 - Dwight

Making our Rounds!

Every six weeks the mission has transfers.  New missionaries come in, old missionaries go home and many missionaries get transferred to new locations.  It's fun, exciting and sad.  Sister Potter and I get to stay in the same district probably for our whole mission, but most missionaries will be in six to eight areas, or more, during their 18 or 24 months.  We love meeting and working with new missionaries, but we're always sad to see them go.  This week was transfer week and we lost all but one of the Elders either to home or new areas and we also lost half of the sisters in our district.  We said "farewell" to our missionary friends and hope our paths cross again sometime.

Our amazing district before transfers

This week started on Monday with a trip to New Bern to have lunch with our friend Jim Walker and part of his family.  New Bern is a beautiful town, close to the coast, where 2 rivers come together before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.  Lunch was great and seeing some of the scenery was spectacular!   After lunch and a tour, we went to see our friend Michelle.  Michelle lost both of her legs last year and is still working to get herself home from assisted living.  Had a great discussion on how we all can have more charity or the pure love of Jesus Christ.  We love Michelle!

Jim with us at New Bern Country Club

Tuesday we spent some time with Gregory talking about the use of symbols in the Temple.  We're excited to hopefully get to go with him back to the temple soon.  Afterwards we went to see JD and his caregiver Angie.  Had another good discussion on charity.  Afterwards we had to run to Greenville to pick up a mattress out of a missionary apartment up there.  Lorie Ann and her husband Kim came to help us get it loaded.  Good thing too, because it was heavy!  Was so good to see them again.

Wednesday was our usual district council meeting in Mt Olive in the morning - happy/sad.  Then we went to see Alex and had a great discussion with him on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a great discussion about life.  Then, we went to see Jean-Claude and Marie Guetty and discussion becoming a life long member of the Church.  He is going to Florida for the funeral of his nephew.  We moved his baptism date to March 10, and we're really excited!

Thursday I got the treat to go with my sister Linda to see my beautiful 1st cousin Carolyn Jean.  We talked about a lot of family history and just reminisced about good times.  Was a wonderful visit.  Then, Thursday night, our friends, landlord, neighbors, all rolled up into one, invited us to their house for a fish fry.  This is the 2nd time since we're been in NC that we're received this specific invitation.  They are so fun to be with and honestly the food was to die for - and I almost did because I ate so much.  We just feel so happy and blessed to have them as friends and that it's worked out for us to be living here in Albertson.  

Dwight, Carolyn Jean, Linda

Friday was a delightful day of service for me.  Susan has been fighting something and was a good day for her to get some needed rest.  I went to the home of Steve and Sheila and helped them make ground meat out of several deer they and their friends had harvested this past season.  They had dressed them and put them in the freezer.  I've never done anything like that before.  It was actually an amazing learning experience.  By the end of the day we think that we had ground nearly 400 lbs of meat working from about 9 am to nearly 5 pm.  It was a very satisfied tired when I went to bed Friday night!

Saturday we went to the stake center in Goldsboro to watch Aarayah and the Albertson/Mt Olive/Woodington girls play basketball.  Her whole family was there, including an uncle and aunt that we'd never met before.  They lost, but was fun to watch.  She has learned so much this season! Afternoon we headed to Warsaw to see the LaFortune family and taught Wendy about the restoration and had a great visit.  They were cooking something that smelled awfully good and had to check it out.  It was a heavenly oven baked pasta casserole.  They invited us to stay for dinner, but we had to go :(

Today was another busy Sunday, but we finally got to go to church in Woodington again after nearly a month going to Mt Olive.  Linda made us dinner at Kari's house (amazing as usual)  Kari made snicker brownies.  The 1st bit was wonderful, the 2nd bit was sinful I'm sure!!  Afterwards I went to Mt Olive and my old buddy, Chester Wiggins (Elder's Quorum President, Mt Olive) became my companion as we went to teach Jovenel and Jean about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then went to see the LaFortunes again to discuss some needs they have.

There are nearly 8 billion people living on this planet, each one of them a child of God.  During our lives we only get to know and share this earthly adventure with relatively few.  Our families, close friends, and people we work with or go to church with or neighbors in our community all become so very important to our existence. Since so much of the eternities depend on the things we're able to learn and who we're able to become in this life, those people have a magnified eternal importance!  It's those people that we have a chance to influence or to be influenced by.  It's those people that help us learn to love, serve, work and grow.  Thanks to Jesus Christ and God's plan for us, those family and extended family/friend relationships can last forever.  We're so thankful for our community of family, friends and neighbors.  Your support, love, prayers and friendship mean more to us than we know how to express.  We love you!