Week 41

This week was jammed packed with regular missionary stuff and not so regular missionary stuff. We cleaned our house, planted a garden, made several visits, taught several lessons, went to a high school tennis match, checked out houses for the housing missionaries, went grocery shopping, went to lunch with friends, bought a house, shopped for wedding clothes, and went to dinner on a farm.

Dwight and Gregory at Starlight Inn in Ayden

Some of the lessons we've had lately (even though they have been in French) have been amazing. I can feel the Spirit testifying. Today Dwight was teaching a young Haitian man, Alin, over WhatsApp, and Alin said he's ready to be baptized. Dwight and I taught him his first lesson a couple of weeks ago. He always seems happy and ready to learn.

Another memorable lesson this week was with a sophomore in high school. He's just starting to come back to church and agreed to let us teach him the lessons. This week we brought Dwight's first cousin twice removed (think about that for a minute) with us. He is also a sophomore in high school. We let them be the missionaries and had them teach us the Plan of Salvation. When I told them what I wanted them to do, they looked like they were going to be sick. However, they did a great job and knew a lot more than they pretended to. I thought it was really fun. They might tell a different story. They are both great kids.

Sometimes we teach people that have been "married" for years but not legally. That's why we went wedding clothes shopping, so we could have a wedding and then later a baptism. We had a lot of fun at the mall. I haven't done that much non internet shopping in a long time. I was with the wife and used my phone to translate into French. After the mall we went to the grocery store.

Our shopping crew

Yesterday we went to dinner with our friends from the Albertson Ward area Mark and Patricia Pate and Mark's sister Tammy (who I haven't seen in years) and her husband, Alan. We went to Mike's Farm for dinner. It is a place way out in the country that is truly amazing. They serve family style Southern cooking. We wanted to go at Christmastime but couldn't get a reservation. It was worth the wait.

Alan, Tammy, Mark, Patricia, Susan, Dwight

We went to Morehead City and Beaufort one day this week. It was rainy all day. That night the sunset was spectacular, the clouds were beautiful, and I wish I could have caught a picture (believe me, I tried) of the lightening... it was fascinating.

The picture does not do it justice.

At Beaufort house shared with
Jake and Anna

I am still on a General Conference high. To me Conference is better than Christmas. I look forward to it for six months, but the only preparation I have to do is spiritual, as opposed to working on Christmas basically all year. After it is over there is no clean up or "after Conference blues" like there is with Christmas. AND I get to listen to Conference every day for the next six months until another one comes. General Conference is my favorite holiday!

One of my favorite quotes from last weekend (and there are a lot of favorites) is from Elder Alexander Dushku, "Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a ray and there a ray--one small, treasured spiritual moment at a time--there grows up within us a core of light-filled, spiritual experiences." He talked about Joseph Smith seeing a pillar of light. Not many of us have grand experiences like that, but we do have spiritual rays of light that little by little build our spiritual cores.

We love you all,

Sister and Elder Potter