Columbia West Stake Conference - "It's like eating a cookie! It's GOOD! And you just want to share it!"

Saturday night session of Stake Conference was marvelous!  A counselor in the Stake Presidency, a young, returned missionary from the stake, President and Sister Holm and our Stake President all spoke.

President Barfield talked about compasses, or Liahonas in our lives...Scriptures, prayer and our patriarchal blessings were three of them that I got written down.  We all need compasses to help us find the way back to God and His Son, Jesus Christ.  God has provided us with many compasses - and we need to use them!

President Holm told of an experience some of our missionaries had this past week.  They were helping a bishop with a job in his ward, and the truck they were in stopped in the middle of the country.  They got out and opened up the hood and went through the process of trying to find out the problem so they could fix it and get on their way.  I guess they worked on the engine for quite some time and were about to give up, when the bishop's 7-year-old son hollered to his dad from inside the cab of the truck, "Try it now, Dad!"  (as if he had done something to help).  His dad decided to humor his boy, and climbed into the cab and try again.  This time the engine started right up.  He said to his son, "What did you do?"  The 7-year-old replied, "I said a prayer that the truck would start."  Ah!  The faith of a child!!!  Love children!!!

President Shurtleff is an institute teacher at USC and Clemson, and he is a stellar speaker!  He started off by asking people in the congregation to share missionary experiences with everyone.  It was a little slow getting started, but in the end quite a few people shared their stories.  It is interesting that almost all of them were young people - one young girl who couldn't have been more than 12!  It is so amazing to see how prepared some people are to receive the gospel.  Heavenly Father is certainly working on the hearts of the people of this state.  He wants all of His children to return to Him, and the only way that is possible is for them to receive the ordinance of baptism by the proper priesthood authority.  Missionary work in the south will be exploding in the next few years!

One young black boy, about 16 or 17 years of age, shared his story.  He had friends at school who kept inviting him to church, and finally he took them up on their offer.  He went and he loved it.  He said he felt like he was home.  (We heard that from a lot of people, actually.)  After he was baptized, he was relentless in asking his other friends to come to church and to join him in church activities.  He told us, "It's like eating a cookie!  It's GOOD and you just want other people to try it too."  He was SO cute!  Beautiful big, white smile!!!

There were more stories - but I'm done for tonight.  Been talking to the family and it's LATE!  Time for this old Sister to go to bed!

Back to Ecuador for Elder Zurita

Thursday was Elder Zurita's last day in the mission.  He never worked in the Columbia area while we were her, so we didn't get to know him really well - but I've heard that he was an outstanding Spanish-Speaking missionary!  When he and Elder Noyes got to the office, Elder Zurita was nervous as a cat!  I told him he reminded me of a soon-to-be new father in the waiting room of labor and delivery!  He was totally pacing.  Pacing the office!  I put him and his companion to work blacking out postal codes on the letters and packages.  We chatted as they worked.  I asked, "So, Elder Zurita, does it seem like your time has passed quickly?"  "Oh, Sister Arrington!" he exclaimed.  "You have no idea!"  (Actually, I do!  I cannot believe 1/4 of our mission is over!)  Elder Zurita plans to go home and work till fall, then go to school.  He would really love to get into BYU, but if he doesn't, he'll go to a university in Ecuador.  I know he will be successful in whatever he does!!!  Bless his heart!

Helping to mark out the postal codes.  Love this young Elder!!!

Senior Training

Tuesday, January 21st, at 2 PM, we met at the Irmo chapel for Senior Training.  We postponed this meeting till the 21st so the Fergusons would be able to attend.  They just got into town last weekend.  It was so fun getting together!  The Towers weren't able to make it, because Sister Towers was sick, and the Schallers couldn't come either - but everyone else was there and it was great!  We had training from President and Sister Holm, then we adjourned to the Mission Home for a wonderful meal, prepared by Sister Contini.  We got home just in time for our call from Dad.

One thing Jack and I both took from the Senior Training, is the fact that we need to be more engaged in the branch.  We have been assigned 3 less-active families to fellowship, and we need to work harder on that!  We got some pamphlets at the preparedness class a couple of months ago.  I'm thinking we should drive out to see our assigned people, taking them the pamphlets...and maybe a loaf of Dilly Bread.

Two New Sisters!

We're doing Sunday dinner rotations a little differently now.  Because there are three Sister Training Leaders in the area - and 4 Sisters living with Sister Barlow, there are three of us in the rotation now.  Sister Barlow will alternate with 4 sisters and 3 sisters - and the Fentons and we will have the elders every other week and alternate the 4 sisters and 3.  Jack drew up a schedule so it wouldn't be too confusing for us old folks.  :o) Check out these cute sisters!

Sister Schauerhamer, Sister Law, Sister Davis and Sister Lester.

After dinner we all went into the living room for their spiritual thought/lesson.  As we were walking in, Sister Schauerhamer said to Sister Law, "Did you change your skirt?"  Sister Law replied, "Yes.  This is my eating skirt."  I wondered if it was washable and the other one wasn't...but nope!  The one she changed into had an elastic waist, so she could eat as much as she wanted.  Hahaha.

Making Our Home Our Own

I have not loved the pillows in our living room.  One is a reddish orange and the other three are black.  I wanted some color!  So, we stopped in the fabric section of our local Walmart and found these two pieces of fabric.  Now...if I can borrow Sister Fenton's sewing machine, I'll be in business.  They should be pretty easy.  Sew 'em up and stuff the pillows inside, right?

I can't wait to see them done.  I love the floral print!  Three new pillows for $10 - not bad, eh?

We went to the Fentons' Tuesday night and got the pillows sewed up.
It was so fun to sit and visit with Elder and Sister Fenton.  And...it was nice to finally have my pillows covered.
There are actually two floral pillows, but only one is in the pic.

Elder Sunshine Barker

Here's a shot I got of Elder Barker - nickname is Sunshine - at Red Robin.  I sent it to his mom and she was thrilled.  He's a cute Elder - very young.  I think he just turned 18 in May, so just a couple of weeks older than Tyler.  He replaced Elder Nisson who is up in Gaffney now.

Elder Barker in the lobby at Red Robin.
He's holding up the Book of Mormon as a light unto the world.  :o)

Caught With My Hand in the Cookie Jar!!!

We had signed up to feed the Chapin Elders last night, January 14th.  Usually, when we feed the Chapin Elders, we pick them up and their place and take them to dinner in Chapin, because it's a good 20 minutes away from us, and to bring them to our place for dinner and take them home would be way too time consuming!  Restaurants in Chapin are very limited, so when we heard that there was a zone training meeting all day at the Stake Center and Elders Speck and Barker would be there, we were excited, because that would greatly enhance our options for dinner. What we should have done was bring them to our home for dinner, then take them on to Chapin.  (Didn't think of that till just now!)

Instead, we asked them where they'd like to go.  Elder Speck had a $10 gift card for Red Robin, so he said he'd like to go there.  We put Red Robin in the GPS and it said there was one 28 minutes from the Stake Center.  Well, that would have been fine if we had been heading toward Chapin to get to Red Robin.  Instead, we were heading in the exact opposite direction.  But off we went!  I was feeling very uncomfortable the whole way.  I knew we were way out of our area - more importantly, out of the Elders' area.  It seemed like it too forever to get to Red Robin!

Jack and I ordered the same thing we always get at Red Robin at home (been there 1/2 a dozen times), but it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered.  The Elders loved their burgers, though, and we had a nice chat over the meal.  

Just as we were finishing up and preparing to leave, I noticed that someone was calling my cell phone.  I pulled it out of my purse and looked at the screen.  "President Holm - end/answer."  I passed it off to Jack.  "I'm not talking to him!"  Yikes!  HOW did he know where we were??? 

When I verbalized that thought, "How did he know???"  Elder Barker said, "He has eyes in the back of his head." Haha!  

Turned out that the President actually wanted to talk to me.  He was in the office and noticed that I had several name tags bagged up and ready to deliver to missionaries, throughout the mission, who had ordered them.  He was going to be up in Greenville today and wanted to know if he could take the tags that needed to go to that area with him.  Whew!

The drive back home seemed a lot quicker.  Shortly after we left Red Robin, I heard Elder Speck on the phone in the back seat.  He was calling the APs to let them know what we had done.  Confession!  Haha!  I guess he felt that he needed to come clean.  :o)  Elder Hatch told him not to do it again and have him a "slap on the wrist over the phone."  

The part that made me feel worst was that we didn't get the Elders back to their apartment till 7:00.  We had wasted an hour of their prime time for finding and teaching.  That won't happen again!