A Little Bit of Many Things!

When we left home to attend the gym last week, there were huge snowflakes falling all around us. By the time we left, the snow fall had stopped, but the world was beautiful!

The Elders and Sisters have a reputation of parking crazily at the church whenever there is a district or zone meeting. So...when we attend our District meetings on Fridays, it looks something like this. Elder Lemmert tries his best to block them in so they can't leave, but they find a way out!

Elder Gunderson, far left, is at the end of his mission and goes home tomorrow, so this is our farewell picture of all of us together, January 28, 2015, in the Ada Ward.  Elder Gunderson, Elder Owen, Elder & Sister Lemmert, Elder Tanner, Elder Garner, Sister Drinkall, and Sister Moore.  These young missionaries are exceptional!  We will miss our Elder Gunderson.

Our wonderful Bishop Niblett!  He can't get a picture without some goofy faces in the background, but he is a great support to us and is the first bishop of the Ada Ward.   It was previously a Branch and his goal is to grow the Ward and get us a new chapel.

a very busy Bishop and works hard for the members of his ward. He also believes in calling people up from the audience to speak occasionally (like President Decker). I was the lucky one last Sunday.

We volunteer at the Care Center every couple of weeks. We helped with a craft project. Today we will attend National Eat Corn Chips Day and I will play the piano while the residents eat chips!

Our First Oklahoma Temple Trip

We had the great opportunity to attend the Oklahoma Temple with Mary, our dear friend that we've learned to love here in Ada. When we first met her, she had just come home from the hospital and didn't have much strength.  As we visited her, we began talking about her brother who had passed away many years ago before he had the opportunity to be sealed to the family.  So,  Mary was fortunate to regain her strength and wanted to attend the Temple to complete her brother's Temple work.  We were blessed to drive her and attend with her.  Elder Lemmert was proxy for her brother, Jackie, and we were able to perform all of the ordinances for him.  The drive to the Oklahoma City Temple from Ada is about two hours each direction, so we experienced a long but joyous day! 

Car Wash Fun!

Our car gets so filthy dirty after driving so much along the highways and many dirt county roads, so we found a carwash where someone pre-sprays our car with a goldish soap, then scrubs the whole car with a brush,  We then drive into the car wash. This colorful rainbow soap goes all over our vehicle, is rinsed off, and then the car is waxed.  We get the underside of our car washed also for the great deal of the day....$8.00!
Two missionaries in the carwash.....

Transfer Day, Jan 7, 2014

Sister Rigby and Elder Fuller pointing to their new locations on our mission map.

Every transfer day we host our traditional early morning breakfast for the missionaries for our last hurrah before transfers. This breakfast we ate french toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, orange juice, and hot chocolate.
Elders Garner, Fuller, Gunderson, Owen
Sisters Drinkall and Rigby 

Elder Fuller, Sister Lemmert, Sister Rigby, and Elder Lemmert

The bikes are the first thing to go into the truck!  Then all the luggage. Elder Fuller is supervising on a cold morning!

Sister Chappell's loaded truck for the 1-1/2 hour drive to Moore for transfers. Then she brought the new missionaries back to Ada with their companions.  A long drive, always exhausting!

New Year's Eve 2014

On New Year's Eve we decided to do some visiting and met three new members that we hadn't met to date.  One of these fun people is Billy Ray Ringwald, who is 82 years old. He lives with his wife in Stonewall, OK.  The reason I took his picture is that he is the first and only person we have ever met who has actually been picked up, carried and dropped by a tornado.  Several years ago, a tornado came up suddenly before he could get cover, picked up his mobile home and smashed it in pieces, and then picked Billy up, carried him one quarter of a mile, and then dropped him through some trees into a meadow. He lost consciousness, was in the hospital for awhile, but survived it. We thought this was a fascinating story!