Week 45

At the Battleship USS North Carolina 

We started this week out with a field trip. Half (19) of the senior missionaries in our mission met at the Battleship USS North Carolina. Since most of them are from Utah or other Western states, this was a new experience for them. After touring the battleship, we headed to the beach at Fort Fisher where we ate lunch and walked on the beach. Only two of us braved the still icy water. I asked Dwight why it was so cold. I thought the Atlantic was supposed to be warm. He replied with a wink, "Icebergs are still melting out there." One of those chilly waves surprised me and hit me from behind and somehow covered me in sand. I wish we had taken a picture of that.

Some of us before the tour

Dwight on deck

Elder Johnson on deck

"Captain" Johnson

Sister Johnson and me

We kept inching further out. I went
home pretty wet and sandy. I really
do love the beach.

All the other seniors had left, so we asked a nice
lady that was relaxing on the beach to take a picture.

That night when we got home we ran to wish our landlady a happy birthday. She reads this, so Happy Birthday Sandra! :)

I can't count the number of French lessons Dwight taught this week. I hear French so much, I'm starting to understand some of what he teaches. I've started reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish (very slowly) and using Duolingo. With French, English, and Spanish, we'll be able to speak to most everyone in North Carolina.

One night this week we had a great visit with Sister Barbara Howard and her daughter April. They were so much fun. We shared many stories. I especially loved to hear Sister Howard's stories from "back in the day." It seems every visit we go on, we find more people to love!

Dwight, Susan, Sister Howard, April

Dwight has been working overtime to help one of our new members get a job and a new place to live. He thought everything was good until... Dwight took Alin, our new member, to his job physical where they told him he needed glasses if he wanted to start work on Monday. Alin started going near sighted when he was 14. He's never had glasses before. His eyes are as bad as Dwight's (I've looked through Dwight's glasses... that's pretty bad.) It was a little miracle to get an appointment the next day. Then Dwight found a place that makes glasses in two hours. Long story short--Alin can see and can go to work on Monday. He was so happy when he put his glasses on and could see clearly for the first time in over 15 years. He kept hugging Dwight and thanking the lady that fitted him with the glasses.

On Thursday night we did a Family History Class at the Albertson Library. The ladies that were there found a ton of information about their families. It's so fun to watch people discover their ancestors. All the class members had stories to tell. We had them download the Church's app FamilySearchTree (or the website FamilySearch.org). The ladies loved that they could add pictures and stories to each individual ancestor's page. The librarians said we could come back and have another class! Dwight discovered he had a third cousin in the class when we did "Relatives Around Me" from the app.

Dwight and his third cousin, Amy.

We were invited to the Dixon's for another fish fry. All I can say is yum! They should really go into business! Before we ate, Dwight and I walked over to the pond--the one he takes his walks around most mornings. He wanted me to see the Geese and their goslings. They are so cute! I might want to take my bad knees for a walk just to see them!

Today is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful nurturing women in all our lives. I was blessed with two mothers. They both taught me important lessons. Dwight's mom was a wonderful lady who loved everyone.

My mom taught me to always,
 "Remember who you are."

My mom is a wonderful example of love and faith.

Dwight's mother was
always sharing her testimony
of Jesus Christ.

We spoke in the Mt. Olive Ward today. One of the scriptures I used was Ephesians 4:32, "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." If we could all be that way with everyone, there would be peace on earth. We can start in our families and in our wards (congregations).

We love you all!

Sister and Elder Potter

Week 44 - Dwight

Clyde & Melvin Potter (a couple of years ago . . . or so!)

 On April 30th, 1916, 108 years ago this past week, my father Bernice Melvin Potter was born in a small house on what is now named Piney Grove Road.  It was located about 3 miles from Albertson and not too much further to Deep Run, North Carolina.  He and my mom, Clyde, raised us 8 children only about 4 miles from where he was born.  They have left us a lasting legacy of perseverance, determination and faith and I will forever be grateful for them.  We're so thankful to be serving our mission, living in a house 1 mile from my boyhood home and 3 miles from where my dad was born and is now buried.

Visit with Daddy on his birthday

Had strawberry shortcake for Daddy's birthday (his favorite)

Every week that passes seems to fly by.  We're staying busy and loving our time here.  A few of our activities this week included: borrowing hole diggers to move a mail box for Judy, visiting our friend Greg and having a great discussion, visiting our young friend Logan and helping him with his family history.  Last week, my friend JR and I went fishing one afternoon and had a bit of luck!  This week we had a bros' outing at his uncle Bob's house for a fish fry lunch with those fish.  So good!!

We had an amazing visit with Jeff and Linda Tyndall.  Linda grew up at Albertson (Linda Stroud) and I'm sure I'm related to both of them.

Jeff & Linda Tyndall

Thursday I had lunch with my good friend Doug and then we went to visit Alex to have a gospel discussion and reading lesson.  He's been doing so great and we were thrilled that he made it to church today! 

Friday was going to be a p-day (day to catch up on stuff) for us, but we decided to go pick up Alin, who just got baptized last week in Goldsboro.  He speaks little to no English.  We took him to Mt. Olive and helped him apply for several jobs.  That night we went to a Cinco de Mayo celebration and dinner at the Albertson ward building.  It was crowded and it was a lot of fun.  It ended up being a great day with Alin and hopefully he'll have a permanent job soon!

Local youth doing Mexican dances!

Saturday started by going to Kinston to the BBQ Fest.  The Kinston ward had a booth.  We had a blast working with the Kinston elders and the Stainbacks, giving out free bottles of water, talking to people about family history and giving away Book of Mormons.  That night we went to see the Lafortune family to give them English lessons.  It was a bit amusing.  Teachers and students were equally lost, but we had fun with it.  They are our English student guinea pigs.

Today we had 5 Haitian friends at church and 2 more that are members.  During the week I taught Alin's brother Aly over Whatsapp twice.  He lives in Gastonia, which isn't in our mission!  Resources to speak French or Creole are pretty thin in these parts.  It's amazing how much is coming back to me with a little practice and the "gift of tongues."

This has been a great, busy week.  Starting it out by remember my dad was wonderful, yet sad in a way because I still miss him.  It means so much to me to know that departed loved ones are not gone forever and that we'll be together with them again someday.  I know that is true!  Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, families truly can be together forever and I'm counting on that promise!  Love you all.

Week 43

This week started off like most weeks... laundry, a little shopping, weekly calendar planning, and so forth, but ended unlike any week we've had so far! The rest of the week was fairly ordinary with visits and lessons except for a softball game, a track meet, making a bridal bouquet, and ordering a wedding cake.

Our niece, Whitney Dupree, in her
middle school game right before a 
really nice hit!

Our friend Maeci in her middle
school track meet. She came in
4th in the 800 meter.

A beautiful day at the track meet

While Dwight was practicing French, I was
playing with florist's tape and hot glue.

Luckily Walmart makes wedding cakes!

Saturday was probably the busiest day we've had in the past 10 months. We ran last minute errands for the wedding in the morning. Then partially set up the church in Mt. Olive for the wedding and reception. At 1:00 we picked up our friend Gaelle and headed to Goldsboro for two baptisms. The two men that were baptized were neighbors in Haiti, but didn't know each other had moved here until they saw each other at church. Alin and Romual are both remarkable people. 

Elder Anderson, Alin, Dwight, 
Romual, Elder Gines

After the baptisms, we took Gaelle home, and then went back to the church in Mt. Olive to finish wedding preparations. The wedding and small reception went well. We had about 45 people attend. After we got everything cleaned up, we went to Warsaw (where the newlyweds live) for a family after party. By the time we got home, we were exhausted! 

Saintememe, Luna, Evens

Luna

Saintemene and Luna

I love this picture of the bride at the after party!

Today we went to Woodington Ward Council, Missionary Correlation, and Sacrament Meeting, then we headed to Goldsboro 2nd Ward for Sacrament Meeting where Dwight was able to confirm Alin and Romual members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were both all smiles.

It was an eventful week. I'm glad it's over, but I'm so happy we were able to be a part of these special events in our new friends' lives. New beginnings and lots of smiles. We know life won't always be full of smiles. There will be many trials, but our newlyweds and newly baptized friends and all of us have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior who are always there to help us. We also have each other. 

We love you all and pray for your success and happiness! (Now I think I'll go join Dwight and take a nap! :) )

Week 42 - Dwight

 

Milo and Mildred Harper Home - After Fire

When we heard the fire house siren go off Monday, we never thought they would have been called to a home that I've been familiar with for as long as I can remember.  A few months ago, a truck ran off the road and drove right through the end of the house.  Then, this week, some brush was being burned near the home and some sparks apparently got into the opened end of the house and started a fire.  Not sure if the house will be saved and it feels like an Albertson dynasty is coming to an end.  Milo and Mildred raised I think 9 children in this home.  Many of those family members now live close by.  This block home represents something good for me - a good family, most of whom I grew up with.  Milo and Mildred are gone and now the house may be gone too.  Sad.  But, their legacy lives on in their children and grandchildren!

My children will be thrilled to know that I made a carrot cake this week (long story).  For some friends that had birthdays one week apart, I made a carrot cake birthday cake (no picture, sorry) and it was as good as I've ever made.  We took it to them on Monday.  Well kids, when we get together I'll just have to make another one!

We went to a junior high softball game Monday afternoon to watch my great-great-niece, Jenna, play softball.  She did really well and the Woodington team won!  That brought back a lot of memories.

Linda and Donald were here for quite a while and left this week.  Sunday dinners will not be the same:( Before they left we had dinner with our good friends Darry and Shelby.  Always fun to catch up with them!

Tuesday was temple day for the missionaries, which is always a treat to go to a session with all the missionaries and our mission leaders.  Zone conference followed, which made it a double treat!

Missionaries gather at the temple

That night we attended the Ruritan Club meeting and were officially voted in as new members!!!  Carrying on the tradition my daddy helped start 71 years (Daddy was a charter member of the Albertson Ruritan Club, started in 1953.)  Later we had a discussion with Alin (Haitian) over Whatsapp.

On Wednesday we continued our missionary and reading lessons with Alex.  He's doing amazing!  Went to the church in Mt Olive to meet with the bishop to try and get Vaguens's Church records recorded.  Unfortunately it's more complicated than we thought - so some work to do still.  So, in case we didn't say, we have Haitian members of the Church.  Haitian Church records are infamous for being inaccurate.  So this one family was showing one brother as deceased (he's not) and one sister as deceased (she's not) and another brother is not showing at all.  We got the two deceased persons' records resurrected, but the non-recorded brother we're still working on.

We've been helping two of  our Haitian friends prepare for their marriage.  We helped them find wedding clothes, rings and flowers.  I think I've been elected as the official photographer.  The wedding is this coming Saturday and it's going to be a blast!!

Thursday I took my friend JR to lunch for his birthday (belated).  He suggested that we go to pizza buffet in Mt. Olive.  All I can say is "never again"  It hurt too much!  Then we drove around to see two of his uncles.  One of them has built a western town in his back yard, completed with saloon, jail, church and other buildings.  He's now building a "hotel".  He has a lot of antiques there and it's really quite interesting.  The other uncle has a nice pond we'll fish in one of these days.

Friday night Sandra invited us to the Dixon "man cave/she shed" for another fish fry.  I told her if I knew we were going to regularly get invited to dinner, she could have doubled our rent!  She might take me up on that, but it will be worth it.  We love spending time with the Rouse family!

JR and our "Fish Fry Feast"

Saturday we went to see our Haitian friend Wilguerson.  He and his fiancée are working on a marriage date and he's loving our gospel discussions.

Our son Jacob and wife Anna were moving some furniture into a new house in Beaufort.  We asked the New Bern missionaries if they could help them move everything in.  Well, not only did the New Bern missionaries show up, but our dear friends Elder and Sister Johnson and the Hermanas (Spanish speaking sister missionaries) showed up as well - so they had plenty of help and were so grateful!

New Bern Elders, Johnson, Hermanas help J&A move in

Today we drove to Snow Hill to pick up Alin, yet another Haitian friend.  Drove from there to Goldsboro (we spoke in the Goldsboro II ward today).  They did a linger longer (pot luck lunch at the church) and we drove back to Snow Hill and finally home to Albertson.  It's been great! And, it's always good to get talks in church behind you!

Of all the reasons I might have thought we were called home to serve a mission, teaching the gospel in my mission language from 45 years ago (French) was not one of them I would have ever considered, but God knows what he's doing and he puts us in places where we can learn and where we can be of service.  We're loving it!  It's not slowing down and we're so happy to be here.  Thank you for your love and support.  We love Jesus and we love you!

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

Week 40 - Dwight

Jordan's Family

 Another generation gets introduced to Paul's Place Famous Hot Dogs!  So many memories from my childhood are brought back every time we visit this place.  The hot dogs are good, yes, our grandson Mikah even said it was his best meal yet. But it's the memories of traveling to Wilmington to visit my Aunt Doris with our family that make me smile.  We used to stop here all the time near Rocky Point, NC.  It makes me miss my dad.  I guess he loved hot dogs - I do too!  When we used to sell vegetables on Saturday morning to the folks in Kinston, we'd stop at a place on highway 11 on the way home and get a footlong hot dog!  Ah, the memories!

Ordered onions, got cheese, but still good!

Jordan, Mandy, and family came to NC this week to visit and we spent as much time as we could with them and had a very busy week.  We continue to teach Haitians in French, including Alin in Goldsboro on Monday with the Goldsboro II missionaries.  Super nice guy that left his wife and child in Haiti as he's trying to find a way for a better life and find an escape from the mess in Haiti for his family.  That afternoon we took Evens and his wife and daughter to Raleigh to look at a car as she's pregnant and they have nothing to drive.  They're still waiting on work permits and trying to get by in the meantime.

We've been helping the Mt. Olive missionaries teach (on Whatsapp) Gaelle, a Haitian single mom.  She's trying very hard to improve her situation and Susan took this photo of the phone propped up on a small statue of Jesus.  Susan commented, that Jesus really is watching over her.  Gaelle agreed!

Visited with Sister Susan Howard in Woodington Tuesday night.  She lost her husband about a year ago.  She gave us a treat of Strawberry Shortcake, which also brought back a lot of childhood memories, as that was the go-to dessert anytime we had a BBQ or celebration dinner.

Wednesday was a jampacked day.  District council meeting in the morning with the young missionaries, then some visiting in Mt Olive early afternoon, including our old friends Joe and Jewell Whitfield.  Then we pickup the Sister missionaries in Goldsboro to head to Raleigh.  We got to see Jordan and Family, as well as Jake and Alyssa and their families at a celebration for our grandson Von's birthday.  Then we ran to dinner and went to the temple where a new member was able to do baptism for deceased relatives for the first time.  Got home pretty late after all the activities.

Family Gathering at Von's Birthday Celebration

The birthday boy (Von) takes a swing!

There are 12 Spanish Speaking Sisters, 9 were at the Temple!

Chancey visits the temple for the 1st time, with her husband and Hermanas

Thursday we spent most of the day with Jordan's family at the NC Aquarium, past Wilmington, at Fort Fisher.  We hit the beach for a bit (too windy and cool) and visited the Fort Fisher site.  Stopped at Paul's Place for hot dogs on the way home.

Jordan & Family at NC Aquarium

Andrew & Bella observe a SHARK!

This extinct Megalodon Shark could eat us all!

Dwight w/grandkids - Canon at Fort Fisher

Friday morning and afternoon was more teaching of our Haitian friends Alin and Jean Claude.  Then we headed to Raleigh again to spend the evening with family at the Durham Bulls baseball game.  It was sad to say goodbye to Mandy and Jordan and the kids.  So glad they came and we got to see them after being here over 9 months!

Saturday and Sunday have been wonderful with our Church's General Conference where we got to hear from the prophet and 12 apostles and other Church leaders.  Between session we ran to Warsaw to help the Lafortune family finish buy a car and today I was able to take someone, that could not get conference at home, to the church in Goldsboro.  We watched a session in French.  It was great!

This week we have been reminded just how important family is.  We are so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father, that included in His plan for us that families are forever.  Seeing family come and go was good yet sad.  Because of our Father's plan and the atoning grace of Jesus Christ, we may be separated in life and in death, but that separation is but a moment and we'll be reunited, never to be separated again.  We love Jesus, we love all our family and we love you!