The Elders and Sisters are very gracious and appreciative. We enjoy them very much. This transfer was a real blessing to the Stake. It is amazing to see them reach out--and up!
Elder Walker is even more handsome than the pies!
It is hard to get an attractive candid shot when people are eating!
This next picture is of our Bishop and his wife, Brendan and Mary Cain. They are both converts to the Church--he joined in 2000. He has been a Bishop now for 5 years! They are very loving, twinkly-eyed, serving, people. They came over and looked at our yard and when we left the next time, they came with their equipment and spent 3-4 hours in our yard cleaning it up! She also made two delicate little flower arrangements for our house. She owned a lovely decorating shop downtown for the first few years they were here. (They have been here almost 12 years. They came to the area on vacation and he turned to her and said, "I think we need to move here for some reason!" She said, "We need to what!?!" So, they sold their home in Chicago and moved out!) 
Two of the three Bishops in Sequim are converts to the Church who felt impressed to move here! The two Bishops in Port Angeles are late twenties/very early thirties! One couple has been married for only 5 years and the other for more like 8 years! The Stake President is also a convert of just a few years and has 6 children still at home and one serving a mission.
We have had some good teaching appointments this week. Monday we met with H... and J... and we got to talk about the Book of Mormon! We also learned that she is partial to the "big bang" theory and he believes in evolution! She has real doubts about the virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus Christ. That was a shocker to me!
Monday evening we had FHE at a members home with Jerry. He knows sooo much about sooo many different beliefs that he is very confused! He decided to forgo believing in God for a while, but inside, we can tell he wants to believe. He struggles to decide if God is in charge or Satan. He tears up often when we talk. We didn't get to meet with him after FHE but the Sisters were pleased because he feels that he should probably do the "repentance thing." Another couple was there, converts, she joined the Church in England after touring the Hyde Park chapel on a missionary tour and felt that "it was right!" I just love her! She was the Primary President when we first came, but now is teaching in RS. I don't ever get to go there because I play the piano for Primary, which certainly has its payoffs. The other day a little 9 year old boy and his sister came over to bring us flowers. They visited for a few minutes (the little boy was worried to stay so long because his mother might be worried and not know where they were, but was assured by his 7 year old sister that she had told the Mom where they were going!!! When they left he said, "I hope you never move!" It was so sweet! We found out later that their mother was out in the car looking for them because they were only to run around the block and they were here for about 15 minutes!)
Tuesday was Ch.. and Er.. The little girls came running and stayed the whole time with feet up to be rubbed while we talked. We found that one of her big concerns, in addition to the Word of Wisdom, is tattoos. We had a good discussion--again mostly on the children's level, but she was much softer and wished we could come twice a week. Well, we were so booked last week that we couldn't, but I ordered a large Bible for her because I had noticed that she had a large Triple Combination, but no Bible! When I told her I had a Bible for her, Ch.. told us that she had had one but when she saw a friend struggling to read the smaller print in her Bible and heard her wishing for a larger one, she gave the person hers! I was so glad that we felt inspired to get one for her.
Wednesday we met the Dungeness Elders and went with them to visit Rebecca Young. She is a little lady in her late 80's that is darling! She has all kinds of religious beliefs mixed together. She loves it when we visit her and this time we talked about prayer. Last time we visited she said the closing prayer and prayed to the great Spirit! I think she needs to read about King Lamoni's father!
S.... is a friend of the Happy Valley Ward Relief Society Pres. She agreed to take the missionary lessons, if we would teach them to her, because her life is a disaster! We met with her at Sister Ponds home Thursday evening where we ate a delicious crab something from Costco and then gave her an overview of the Plan of Salvation and part of the Restoration lesson! A sharp returned missionary is dating her daughter (!) and she asked, if they fell in love, would she be able to go to the wedding in the temple?
We explained that one can only go into the temple if they are a member of the Church who is ready to make sacred covenants with the Lord. She seemed to understand, and then she said, "but you're going to take my cigarettes and my coffee and tea? I said we would take nothing away, she would decide, but read her the promise for keeping the Word of Wisdom. She is very sarcastic, for protection from her hard life, but we loved her anyway.
Friday was the temple. We went with some members of our ward. He is a temple worker so he had specific assignments, but the rest of us just relaxed and did whatever we wanted. Dad and I did an endowment session, ate lunch and then I did Initiatory. We wanted to do multiple endowments, but the temple only does sessions each hour and with the length of the film, only one was possible! We don't know how blessed we are down south! As we crossed Puget Sound on the ferry, I heard him ask her if she had brought the cards? Interesting that I had prepared my response a couple of weeks ago! They are both converts and she had never heard that we didn't play with face cards! Nor had she heard much about the Joseph Smith Translation! I told her that I had just gotten a new set of scriptures so I could mark them more conservatively and how I always go through them first and mark all the JST references in the footnotes, then find them in the body of the text and mark them as well. She only seemed to know about Joseph Smith Matthew in the Pearl of Great Price!
I love those clarifications and corrections! It is amazing to me how the Book of Mormon and the Bible testify together! I love the last counsel of Joseph of Egypt to his brethren and sons, found in the Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 50:24-38. Just think how different the world would be if Satan hadn't encouraged men to take so many "plain and precious things" out of the record of the Jews! I hope we all have them marked in our scriptures and that we love to study them and learn the clarifying truths that come through a prophet of God!
I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
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