My Mission Adventures: March 5, 2017

I can't believe it is already March!! It seems like I have been here for a long time, and yet it seems like we just got here - how can that be?! In spite of being 17 degrees several of the sisters we have been visiting lately came to church today! Our sweet sister who is nearly blind and in a wheelchair came with her daughter-in-law and grandson - I was so glad to see them go to all that effort to get her there!
We were surprised to realize that we knew most of the sisters today and felt the spirit so strong as they bore their testimonies. One of these is Sister Amoah who had open-heart surgery in January and this was her first time back since her surgery.

Sister Amoah

We had been to visit her earlier in the week. She is from Ghana, Africa where she joined the church and then came here to America with her husband. He is in the bishopric and her son is just now waiting for his mission call. I loved hearing my parents share their stories of serving a mission in Nigeria and Ghana over 30 years ago. Now it is exciting to see the growth in the church and the gospel passing on to another generation!
Our sweet Iris had her baby girl a week ago and we were so thrilled to visit them in the hospital and see them a few days later at home adjusting to new schedules! What a beautiful family this is - and oh, how we pray for them to go to the temple to be sealed as a family forever! We will be teaching Iris the new member lessons when she is a little rested!

Joel, Iris and Kimber Elise

Visiting the Labtic family

We also saw the debris from last week's tornado as we tried to find a sister living in these apartments. There were quite a few trees uprooted and branches everywhere in the apartment complex. A little girl is playing in the broken window left from the tornado. This is only a couple of miles from our apartment, so we were glad we were visiting some sisters 10 miles further east of here at the time!

Uprooted trees from tornado

Girl playing in window

Saturday was a Senior Missionary activity as we all met at the Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. to see where Abraham Lincoln was shot and then taken to the Peterson House across the street from there. This was our first trip into the capitol, so we had an interesting day meeting with the other senior missionaries, then eating lunch together, and trying to find our way around to see the monuments, white house, and demonstrators.