Happenings at the Visitor Center

9 days left. Today at the Visitors Center I met people from Mainland China, Germany, France, and non members from Seattle, Tri Cities Washington and Ontario Canada. The girl from Seattle was here at a  wedding for a friend. She came in I talked to her for awhile. Then she met with the sister missionaries and they brought the spirit to her and she received the Book of Mormon and gave a referral to meet the missionaries in Seattle. She was touched by the Christus etc. because she had tears in her eyes. This girl  was in her 20s and had a few tatoos but was dressed very nice. An old man came in he talked to me for ever her was 80 years old and looking for a woman to marry because he wants to go on a mission. I guess with now success though. He gave me 4 scriptures from the bible that prove the mission of the Book of Mormon. These are pictured here, also a picture of Darolyne and I leaving the Brigham Young

house.

The Addios Trail

A little over a week left and Darolyne and I share some see you later photos from the sites.

Flood the Earth With Book of Mormons

Ezra Taft Benson when he was the Prophet challenged

 us to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon. That has been part of my mission. As my grandson wrote me from Japan we flood the earth with his gospel by one drop at a time. Yesterday at Brighams' I gave a Book to a couple from Syracuse, New York only 60 miles from Palmyra and Mendon where Brigham grew up. They hadn't heard upper New York was the beginning of our Church and Joseph Smith. Darolyne gave a Book to a couple from Indiana. Then yesterday we went to a broadcast of the dedication of the Ogden Utah Temple. Today at the Visitor Center I gave 15 Books to the people from France. Darolyne gave a Book to a couple of which one was Chinese and from Beaverton, Oregon. The great thing today happened when a couple, Mother and her 20ish year old son came in, they were from Germany so I took them inot the Center to see Sister Lipke from Germany. She spent a couple of hours with them and found out the mother had just lost her husband to death. She was on a trip and took her son. They ended up here where she heard about how her and her husband can be together forever by her joining the Church and having her husband sealed to her by the power of the everlasting priesthood. This is why they showed up today. These two wanted all the literature that we had and gave their information to  Sister Lipke who will contact them and continue to teach them and send the missionaries to their home in Germany. The pictures are from the party the other night at the Bowcutts. Picture of Elder Clark, who has been an assistant with me and Elder Watkins. A picture of a Rainbow from our back yard.

Give Away at the Tabernacle

We servered at the Tabernacle and I gave 3 Books to 3 different couples.Two from Texas and a couple from New Jersey. Darolyne did not have any tours with non members. Then we stayed and did the prayers at the Devotional..The Devotional was Dr. Anderson of St.George that went to the Phillipines three weeks after Typhoon Yolanda that destroyed one whole Island and was the strongest Typhoon ever recorded on Earth. He went over for several weeks to help out. A great story by a very charitable man. Today was our P day, we went Garage Saleing together for the first time in a long time. It was a good day. Tonight we are going to Bowcutts in Entrada, they served here with us for a year and are just down at their house and invited all the Missionaries over for a barbecue.  It started to rain which is very infrequent.

Guests of Honor...sort of

Last Hi Bye Party, starring us and the DeWitts. We had our party at Borcherts' condo. We had a pie party with meat and sweet pies. Then Elder Watkins read about us and the DeWitts and then gave 'us a p

icture of the temple visitor center, a photo actually framed, really pretty. Then we had t bear our testimonies. Darolyne just about broke out in tears but held on, she did such a good job, I see a lot of spiritual growth in her on this mission if that is possible.Then we did Karaoke. Our group did Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers. It was a lot of fun. Yesterday at Brighams' house I gave a Book to a couple from Columbus, Ohio. Darolyne gave a Book to a couple from upper New York.

Ho Hum

Not a lot going on at the sites, I haven't seen it this slow for a long time. Only 4 tours yesterday at Jacobs and only 5 today at the Visitor Center. We did have 5 Busses today  from France though. Last Saturday they had 25 busses from France Germany Poland and Italy. The Sister Missionaries gave out 110 Book of Mormons. At the Tabernace Sunday I gave a Book to a couple from Spokane, Washington. We took Sister Hee and Sister Lipke out to Chuck A Rama yesterday and today we had Sister Archanbeau from Manitoba and Sister Martin from St.  Louis over for dinner tonight. It has been close to 100 degrees each day this week, very hot for September.

Visitors

This week the Boyacks from Oak City came to visit us. They are full time missionaries up in Delta, Utah. They stayed a couple of days and Al and I and Jim McCoy went golfing on our P day. It was a great visit, they are great friends. Then yesterday Ryan came to St.George with Rebecca Moulton his latest girl friend, she lives in Orem has two kids and is a Corporate Lawyer for a software firm. She served a mission in Brazil. She went through a tough divorce. Oh Dougie came along, they stayed in Joeys house. We took them up Snow Canyon today hence the photos. We have 3 weeks and 2 days left and are feeling ambivalent about the situation, happy and sad. Last blog I said there was 2 inches of rain in Winchester Hills which is true. But Ivins had 3.8 inches of rain in 90 minutes, what was called a 1000 year storm. Alot for a Desert.

Wheres Noah when you need Him

Today was quite the rainstorm,  the weatherman said it was a 1000 year storm for some places, just 6 miles north of us, Winchester Hills there was 2 and a half inches of rain in two hours, here where we live maybe an inch and a half. Any way there were many flash floods, the Santa Clara River that usually runs as a trickle was at flood stage or over, see photos. It again about washed out part of Southgate Golf Course. We went to the Tabernacle today and had a busy day with over 100 visitors. Darolyne taught a couple from Illinois he was a Mason and finding out that Brigham Young was a Mason then he wanted to know more about our religion, he and his wife took a Book of Mormon. I taught a couple from Kansas, he said they were Lutherans but it was evident that he didn't go to Church very often.  He had many questions about our religion. He seemed to be very interested in our Church and they too took a Book of Mormon and the testimony of Joseph Smith. At the end of the day the storm passed on to the east and things started to clear up. The freeway I 15 between here and Las Vegas washed out and will be closed for 3 or 4 days. In the mean time the traffic has to divert some 90 miles more to make it to St. George. This is a major truck route.

Brigham would have been Happy

Today at Brighams' we had a lot of people come through on busses I gave out 11 Books and Darolyne gave 1 Book of Mormon out. Two of my Books went to couples that were interested in the Church they were from Maryland and California. It rained hard again today and there were many flash floods between here and Las Vegas, it wiped out I15 between us and them and will need a lot of repair. Tonight we had the Collins and the Sutherlands over for games and laughs, a lot of fun.

The Lost Manuscript

Funny thing happened for some reason I have been Blogging on Carol Vincents' blog for the last three posts and then I deleted them. I will try to recount some of the activities of the last week. Monday morning I met at Dedes' for breakfast with Elder Watkins and Elder Clark, we are the leadership for the Sites. We had our meeting there. I will miss meeting with these brethren I have grown to love and respect them very much. I can remember that this week we served at Jacobs' three times which is  unusual. We were saying this week how much we love Jacob Hamblins' house, probably our favorite and we are starting to get meloncholy about leaving this mission. We love it because we truly feel like we are in the arms of the Lord. I know this week we have give out several Books of Mormon. I gave one to a man from Washington DC and a family from Los Angeles, Darolyne gave some to a couple from Florida. Wednesday we went to a fireside on Hail to the Prophet. It was part original music and part story and testimony from Gracia Jones. Gracia was the first of Joseph Smiths family to join the LDS Church. She is Josephs' great granddaughter and the grand daughter of Joseph Smith the third, who was the founder of the Reorganized LDS Church, now known as the community of Christ. Anyway when she was a teenager and living in Conrad, Montana she was contacted by our missionaries and joined. She had a great story and testimony. On Thursday was our P Day. We went to Kolob Reservoir with the Collins. We had a great day being away from St.George for the first time in many months. Friday we went to a Fireside put on by Rand Packer. Rands' grand father was a middleweight boxing champion and Willard Bean. Rand wrote a book about his grand father and grandmother called the Lion and the Lamb. Willard and his wife were sent to Palmyra, New York on a mission to live in Joseph Smiths' Sr. house. This was in the early 1920s. 25 years later willard and his wife had bought a lot of the lands the Church owns now in the Palmyra area including the Hill Cummorah. Great story.

The German Invasion

Quite the day. We were at the Visitor Center today. Darolyne is feeling better and we had a good day. First Darolyne gave a Book of Mormon to a couple of  from Florida. I met a young man from Washington DC. I taught him a little bit about the Book of Mormon. He took one. Then I gave a Book in German to a young couple from Germany. Then Rima Avenesjan, Sister Avenesjan from Germany, showed up to say hello. She came all the way from Germany  to go through the temple with her investigator who she converted, The Picture, it was so great to see her, we are great friends. She wants to go to BYU but needs some help to get in and maybe some financial help. Ah, I had her meet with Elder Clark former pr guy from BYU. He told her he will have her get a hold of the person at BYU who can

get her admitted. You see she is from Germany but she is Armenian., and Elder Clark knows Jon Huntsman Sr. who is a Billionare, and wants to help people from Armenian. Coincidence, no Tender Mercy yes. The Lord takes care of his missionaries...FOREVER!