Oops! Missed a baptism on November 29th!

Tim's wife, Kathy, was baptized on November 29th.  She was originally going for December 13th, but she was afraid one or both of the Elders who had taught her would be transferred on the 10th. So... she moved her date up a bit.  She is an amazing and beautiful new member!  Some of these people come into the church and I'd swear they have been life-long members!  We have been so very blessed in the Branch this year!  Eight new members, including two couples and one whose wife was already a member.  Strong, strong people!  They are going to be a definite asset to the Branch!

Elder Weston, Kathy, 7-year-old Spencer, Tim (who was baptized a few weeks before Kathy) and Elder Arnoldsen.
 What a happy, happy day for this family!  Kathy has just blossomed since she decided to be baptized.
She is truly a part of the branch and will be such an asset!

Chapin's December baptisms...

Priscilla was baptized by Elder Weston and confirmed by Elder Arnoldsen.  When the Sisters met Priscilla, it was not the first time missionaries had come to her door.  She met with them in Walterboro thirty years ago, but moved away and lost touch with them and the church.  So happy that they found her again and brought her into the fold.

George's baptism, as President Bruno said, was a long time coming.  His wife has been a member and George has been through many sets of missionaries.  When their children were you, he helped with Boy Scouts, and he played basketball with members of the Dutch Fork Ward.  When Sister Billin came to the Branch this year, George said, "She touched my heart."  He already had a knowledge of the restored gospel, but he listened to the lessons again and started coming to church and finally knew that it was time for him to be baptized.  He was baptized by his brother-in-law and confirmed by Brother Duvall.  

Prayer at a school choir concert raises questions.

The Chapin High School Choir Concert is held at the Chapin Presbyterian Church.  The Pastor welcomed everyone and then offered a prayer.  It was a gracious and heart-felt prayer, I thought.  One thing I did not understand was how he prayed.

1- He prayed to Jesus

2 He closed the prayer in Jesus' name

I've always been taught that we pray to God, the Eternal Father and pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our mediator - our advocate with The Father.  That makes sense to me.

Clearly, most Christian religions teach that God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are one being - the Trinity.  I wonder how many Christians really, actually believe in the Trinity?  It makes no sense at all to me.  At the baptism of Jesus, God the Father speaks from heaven and the Holy Ghost descends in the form of a dove.  All three members of the Godhead are present at that time.

Jesus prayed to His Father many times.  He begged His Father that the cup be taken from Him in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus din't pray to himself.  What?

I had Catholic neighbors when I was growing up.  I asked one of the daughters about their Sacrament or Communion.  I asked about the wine actually turning into Christ's blood and the wafer turning into His flesh.  She said, "They tell us that, but I don't believe it."

I wonder how many Christian really believe that God and Jesus are one in the same being.  Really, I can't comprehend such a thing.  That is all.  :o)

He jumped the gun!

Jack was recording baptisms on Thursday, December 4th and came across one that had been submitted last week, but had the baptismal date as December 6th - two days AFTER he received the papers from the missionaries.  He called the District Leaders to find out why the date was wrong. They told him that the newly baptized member had originally planned to get baptized on the 6th, but he was at a baptism on the 30th of November for someone else and he had had all the missionary discussions, had passed his interview and had come to church twice...and hey!  The font was filled and ready to go, so he just decided to go ahead and get baptized on November 30th.  The Sisters who taught him had just forgotten to change the date on his papers.  :o)

While Jack was talking to the District Leaders, he also asked how the new member had been found. We keep a record of that too.  Was it a member referral?  A self referral from mormon.org?  Did they find him by knocking doors, or what?  The DLs said that the Sisters were walking down the street and saw the guy talking to a minister.  He was asking all kinds of questions, so the Sisters just kind of hung around till the minister walked away - then they moved in.  :o)  They introduced themselves and told the man they would be happy to answer any of his questions.  I guess he liked their answers, because he scheduled an appointment with them, was taught and decided to be baptized.

Feeding the fowl

As we walk around the lake, we attract a few ducks and geese.  They know who we are, because we always take a bag of treats for them.  There are 5 ducks - one white one and four mallards and also two geese - one with a broken wing - who follow us around the lake till we get to a bench where we sit and feed them.  The ducks will come right up and eat out of Jack's hand.

A great way to get rid of stale cereal!  The ducks and geese love it!

Sister Stoker's Perch :o)

Whenever the missionaries come to dinner, they take the last 10 minutes of their dinner hour and present a spiritual message.  Sister Stoker has taken to perching on our stationary bike as she delivers her thought.  This picture was taken when 4 young Sister Missionaries and also Sister Ta'ala were here, but even when it is just the Irmo Sisters, Sister Stoker and Sister Clark, this cute little one removes the pile of pillows and climbs up on the bike, using the dashboard as her lectern.

Sister Stoker delivers her message after dinner.

An apology from the Zone Leaders...

We heard second hand a few weeks ago that the Zone was having an activity on P-Day.  I was giving the ZLs a bad time for not inviting us.  They planned to get together and play volleyball and basketball.  I'm sure they didn't invite us because they didn't think we'd come - and they were right. Still I felt like I should badger them a little.  The next time they came to the office, Elder McAllister presented me with...

A rose!  :o)

A new addition to the family!

Bronson, and Magda holding baby Teddy

Dann and Dalena and baby Teddy

Theodore James Arrington...Isn't he beautiful?!?!?

Object lesson at DDM

We love to go to DDM when ever we get the chance!  District Development Meetings are wonderful! The missionaries talk about their investigators and get suggestions from one another on how to help the investigators progress.  We are invited to pray for investigators to help them overcome obstacles to their being baptized.  There are always a couple of trainings, which are very well presented.  The Chapin sisters also had an object lesson at the end of this particular DDM.  Each companionship was supposed to plan and then work together to flip over a hand towel while standing on it.  Neither companion could touch the floor while the towel was being flipped.  It was pretty hilarious!

The Dutch Fork Elders (Elder Lund and Elder Sprunt) came pretty close to accomplishing the feat!  (Elder Daynes is looking on from across the room.)  When everyone had tried and failed, the Chapin Sisters took their turn and showed us all how to get the job done.  Planning and cooperation and working the plan = SUCCESS!

What NOT to pack in a missionary care package

A package came to the office for one of our Elders on a Friday.  We put his current address on it and set it in the pile of mail to go out on Monday.  Monday, however, we noticed that it's contents were leaking inside the box and out.  We took it to the back of the office and opened it up.  It STUNK so bad!!!  A sweet, 82-year-old grandma had packed up two plastic containers with her missionary grandson's favorite for his birthday.  Two batches of lasagna with a note that said, "I'm all cooked - just warm me up in the micro-wave and enjoy."  We tossed the lasagna and the box in the trash outside.  Couldn't wait to get it out of the office!  We managed to salvage some candy and other sealed-up treats.  I gave the missionary a call to let him know what had happened.  He just laughed and said, "My grandma is so old!"  But she did know that he loved her lasagna - and it was his birthday, after all!

Moldy lasagna!  It wasn't the mold that smelled bad though - it was the rotten tomato sauce.  Yuck!!!

Cola pit stop on the way to a cruise...

Lisa and some friends booked a cruise out of Charleston months ago.  She picked that one specifically so she could come back to visit us in SC.  :o)  The kids got in on Saturday morning morning and spent most of the day in Charleston, then they drove up to West Columbia.  We took them to dinner at Farm Boys' BBQ and then they stayed overnight with us.  After a quick breakfast Sunday morning, we all went to church at the Fort.  We caught Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society at the Chapin Branch then came home to finish up dinner.

It was our turn to feed our wonderful APs that Sunday and we also invited Sister Ta'ala, since she wasn't feeding missionaries that day.  Dinner was good!  We had Cafe Rio Pulled Pork, beans and rice, as I recall.  It was fun having Lisa and her friends with us a couple of nights!  They went on to have a memorable cruise in the Bahamas.  How fun!