February 8th-14th

Monday, Feb. 8th:  We have a family that the husband works at the Co-op & he gives us extra food from there so we share with the Cockram’s & took some by today. While we were there a guy named Dwayne Plunkett came up to us & started talking to us. He wanted us to come by & teach him & bring him some food too so we set up an appointment with him. I could tell that he had been drinking & he acted a little looney. We went by to visit Polly Miller, Ann Owens & Andrew Groberg but none of them were home so we left a message on their door. We went by the Flowers’ home but no-one came to the door—we could tell someone was there & we we drove by a few minutes later they had gotten the note that we taped on the door.

Feb. 9th:  We got up at 4:40 am. & went to the Temple. We did a session & some special family sealings. Melissa came to see me during the lunch part of zone training.  She brought me some godiva chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.  It was so good!  Then we had zone training until 3:00 p.m. Barry took me out to eat at Longhorn’s for my birthday on the way home.  I got a package from Jennifer with a Yankee candle & 2 cute Valentine's kitchen towels.  I loved them!

Feb. 10th: Made some soup this morning. Studied the missionary lesson two. We went to the Dotson’s to teach Brother Dotson (lesson two) but when we got there Sister Dotson said he was sick so told her we would call later & reschedule. Barry went with the missionaries to teach their next door neighbor, Bev the first lesson.

Feb. 11th:  We had a 10:00 a.m. appointment to teach Dwayne the first lesson. We could tell that he had been drinking. He had a short sleeved shirt on & we could see sores on his arms. He told us that he had cirrhosis & hepatitis & it’s not hard to figure out how he got both of those things. We did teach him a short lesson. It was hard to keep him on track—he was all over the place with questions & comments. He told us that if we took him to church he would speak. He kept telling us that he knew a lot more than we thought he did. When we got through he said, “I surprised you, didn’t I?” "I blew your mind, didn’t I?” Elder Sadler said, “Yes, you kind of did!” As we say in the south, “Bless his heart!”  He told us he didn’t have any food & we told him that we would bring him some. We’re not sure how accountable he is but I think he does have a good heart because he does feed the stray cats & has fixed them a couple of beds on his porch & being the animal lover that I am, that goes a long way in my book! We will check on him & take him some more food but probably won’t teach him any more. Barry has started a Book of Mormon class on Thursday nights. We had a good group there & a good discussion. When got out to the parking lot someone had put a bucket of candy on our car for us with a cute stuffed puppy dog & balloon for Valentine’s Day. The card said it was from the branch. It was very sweet & I took a picture of it. They know how much I miss my pets so they added the stuffed dog!

Feb. 12th:  We had a flat tire & Barry took it & had it fixed. Then I bought groceries & got a few extra things for Dwayne. We visited the three ladies in the nursing home & took them some Werther’s candy & they all really appreciated it. They are all three so sweet & really appreciate us visiting them. We took the food by to Dwayne but he wasn’t home. We talked to several of Dwayne’s neighbors there. I think they look out for Dwayne.

Feb. 13th:  Today is Elder Walker’s birthday & we took them out to eat at the Waffle House. We walked over there because we live really close by.  Then Barry & the missionaries took Dwayne the food. I had also picked him up some dry & canned cat food & Barry said he was excited about that because he was out of cat food. Then they went to Katie Hall’s to give her a blessing. They visited with the Mullinax family. They went by to visit Andi Kirby—she was not there—they left a note. They went by to visit the Kamplain family & found out that they had moved. Went by to visit the Flowers’  again (went by Monday) but no-one came to the door this time either.

Feb. 14th: We took Brother Author Price to church. President and Sister Foote, our mission president & his wife spoke in sacrament meeting. They are both great speakers. We rested for the rest of the day.

I will closing I wanted to share part of President Foote’s message—I can’t quote it exactly but he said that on his computer he got a message that said “unrecoverable error” but in the gospel of Jesus Christ there is no such thing as an “unrecoverable error”.