26th Post Mon. Feb. 1 - Sun. Feb. 7, 2010

Another Monday and another day in the Hafer Road Office. We enjoy being in the main office as we get to see the other senior missionaries and lots of young missionaries who come in to use the computers on their P-day. Our staff meetings are always fun as Steve, the manager, always has updates on the employment scene in the Houston area and we talk about all kinds of things. We spent our day sending job leads, updating our list, and otherwise contacting our candidates. This afternoon we drove over to the apartment complex where the senior sisters and the Elder & Sister Chesnut live. The apartment manager showed us around the complex and also an apartment. We were asked by our mission president last November if we would serve in the mission office. So anyway, we are getting closer to that happening as they want to start training us Feb. 15th. This will mean that we will need to move at some time in the future because of the distance of our present apartment and the mission office. The employment folks are not happy about this move, but I'm sure things will all work out. We are just blessed to be able to serve as missionaries at this time, regardless of the assignment.

Tuesday we prepared some post cards to send to those candidates who have been on our list for months and even years, who have still not registered on the new website. No one came into the Bering center today, but we stayed busy with our emails, phone calls, etc. We started reading the Book of Mormon again. This time we are marking a copy that our mission president gave each missionary, in the way he suggested we mark it. It is more clear to me as I read that great Book just how true it is and how very fundamental it is to our individual faith. I am learning and seeing things that were "not there" last time. What a great blessing we have in the Book of Mormon!

Wednesday the senior sisters from our apartment complex brought an investigator into the Bering center for us to help with employment. The lady spoke very little English but she can read and understand quite well. It was a real challenge to try to go through the first part of the career workshop with her. One of the senior sisters (Sister Gibbs) speaks Spanish, so with her help we got along very well. In fact the lady said after we got through the material she could understand me very well as I spoke slowly. I think it was because the Lord was blessing her for her faith. Anyway it was a great experience and we feel we are blessed so much in what we are doing.

Thursday we were down at the Broadway building. Alex was there training Sister Rios, our new church service missionary, Steve came later in the afternoon to fix the additional computer we have and to chat with us about our new assignment. We also had four young men come into the center, two at a time. We have not had 4 people in one day at Broadway since we got here. It was great to be helping people face to face and seeing how they respond. The one young man, who is a returned missionary, brought in his brother. They are both living at home, speak very good English, but just not real motivated. We talked a lot about goals and what they need to do in the next week, months and where they see themselves in 2 to 5 years. The spirit really spoke to them I believe. I pray they will move forward. The other two young men were also returned missionaries, but they were not born here and their English was not real good. They wanted to do what ever we asked and seemed to be very motivated. What a blessing it is to be able to help in some small way.

Friday we were suppose to have the lady who came in on Wednesday, back for the second half of the career workshop at 9 AM. Well she came at 4pm with her nephew to meet us and pick up some career workshop material for him. She says she will be back next week. We pray she will. We called the senior sisters (Sisters Gibbs and Oborn) in our apartment complex and invited them to go to a Mediterranean restaurant with us for dinner. We had a good visit with them and the food was really very good (lots of Arab flavor). When we got back home they wanted us to come and play a new board game with them so we did. I think they really enjoy having company. It was a fun evening with them.

Saturday morning we got a call from Sister Lish and wanted us to meet them at the farmer's market not too far from us. It was a fun outing, kind of like being in Mexico. The produce was very fresh and nice looking. We bought lots of grapefruit, oranges, potatoes, nuts, etc. We all went to lunch at a Cuban/Mexican place and then we drove to a place that makes only pies. Oh my, I could have stayed there all day! We had fun visiting with the sisters, they are fun to be with. Today was such a beautiful day, lots of sunshine about 65 degrees and no humidity. David called and told us how much snow they had in Delaware and that they had shoveled snow yesterday and twice today. Oh darn it!

Today, Sunday we drove out to the Katy 1st Ward. It is 35 minutes from our apartment. Fast and Testimony meeting was real nice. As soon as the bishop finished, the folks who wanted to bear their testimonies were on the stand real fast, apparently the time fills up quickly. The new ward employment specialist wanted us to help him register on line as he was having problems. We helped him set up a new email account and then the registration process went real well. We reviewed how to complete his profile, find jobs on the site and other features. He is very enthusiastic about his calling and will do well I am sure.

Michael called this evening. He leaves early Friday morning for Bahrain for a couple of weeks with his Navy reserve group. We pray for his safety and speedy return to his family.

We pray you will have a great week. We love you and are proud of the good people you are!

Love, Dad & Mom