Week 78 - Dwight

A lot of cool things to write about his week, with it being Christmas and all, but one of the seemingly small things, that means a lot to me, happened today.  We took someone home from church and as we were driving through town, we saw Jean Claude sitting on his front porch.  Jean Claude is a new member of the Church, for about 8 months, that used to come all the time, but hasn't been for a couple of months.  He's older (76ish) and is going blind because of glaucoma.  We've been trying to reach out to him for a while with no success.  We had a great, short visit and he seemed happy to see us.  He promised to come to church next week.  That will be fantastic!

Also, I now have two people that seem eager to help me translate sacrament meetings.  It's Elder Bates and Wolffencia (not yet baptized).  Translating for these meetings is a burden, that's been very rewarding and hard. I've learned a lot, but it's so good to have people that can start to help that gives me a break and actually will allow us to occasionally take other assignments if needed.

It's been great having our daughter, Caroline, here all week as we celebrated Christmas together!  Monday we went to lunch (Mexican Monday) with Jim Walker (originally from Mt Olive) and the Kinston sister missionaries.  Nichol McPhail DeVarona, also originally from Mt Olive, was there with them.  She babysat our kids when we lived in Mt Olive years ago.  It was so good to see her again and catch up a bit.  That night we were able to help the elders teach a few people close to being ready to be baptized that are working through some things in preparation.  Both of them are amazing people.

Mexican Monday with Nichol, Sister Missionaries Kinston, Susan, Caroline, Dwight and Jim

For Christmas, our tradition has always been to open new pajamas on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning, we parents would make the kids line up and wait. Then, we'd go by the tree so we could see their faces and take pictures as they came in.  This year we got the pajamas, but we all waited in the hall to come in together.  It was fun!

Dwight, Susan, Caroline seeing what Santa brought us!

On the afternoon of Christmas we had a baptism.  Wilgimps Jean was baptized, and we had a lot of people show up!  It was great and he was so excited!  Later, we went to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner and just enjoyed a lovely meal and time together.

Wilgimps

Wilgimps with his favorite senior couple!

Wilgimps with the young missionaries that helped teach him

Christmas Day baptism attendees

The day after Christmas we headed to Raleigh to spend the day with our son Jacob and our daughter Alyssa and their families.  We decided to cook Mexican tacos, making the corn tortillas ourselves.  We had a blast playing games and hanging out with some of the coolest people in the world!

The family gathering for dinner

 

Jacob, Caroline, Alyssa, Daniel (Alyssa) and Anna (Jacob)

Jacob, Dwight, Alyssa - chef and sous chefs at work!

Friday night we had dinner with someone that's been on our minds a lot lately, Darry Hargrove and his wife Shelby.  Bishop Young and Lynetta (my cousin) were also there, along with some of Darry's family.  Then on Saturday we were able to spend some time with the Lafortune family and the Fils Aime brothers (Susan claims them as her kids!)  They had been at the baptism on Christmas day and we were delighted that they both came to church today.  Jean Edrice will be baptizing his brother Christmonor next Sunday if all goes well.

Jean Edrice and Christmonor

We miss our family that couldn't be here for Christmas and so many friends back home in Utah, but we love what we're doing.  Perhaps we're helping some few as we serve, but we feel we're the ones being helped by all the people around us.  We're thankful the Lord trusts us enough to send us here at this time.  Thanks to you all for your love and support!  We hope you all had a merry Christmas, and we wish you the best in the new year!

Love Elder and Sister Potter