June 6

Howdy from Woodville,TX where Sister Bouwhuis and I are giving it our ALL to accomplish the Lord's will and build His kingdom!  I LOVE THIS WORK!!!

 

Monday was a normal preparation day.  In the evening we went to go visit recent convert Alexis G*.  I just love Lexi, and it was so great to have a good lesson and visit w/ her.  We read a talk by Pres. Eyring from the most recent Young Womens conference, about having a Living Testimony.  Good stuff :)

 

Tuesday we went and did service at Heritage Village like normal and had a busy morning getting our emails and such done too.  In the afternoon as we were biking to visit people, we stopped and talked to a man named Anthony.  He is SO cool.  He looks like someone you wouldn't want to cross, and he definitely used to be trouble.  He told us all kinds of stuff about his rough, violent, alcohol filled past, and how he has turned his life around by developing a relationship w/ God and implimenting the 12 A.A. steps.  He's so awesome now- seriously kind and honest and inspiring.  He has issues w/ the concept of "church" so he wouldn't give us his number, but he did commit to read and pray about the Book of Mormon (he loves to read! and call us when he finishes it.  During our super spiritual lesson w/ him, Sis. Bouwhuis got EATEN by mosquitoes- 40 bites on one leg and 34 on the other.  It looked so horrible.  I had applied DEET to my legs during lunch- and Sis. Bouwhuis is pretty good about doing so as well now.  We also met and taught a couple of guys named Beau and Taylor while we were riding around.  It was a sweet day.  We visited Paul W* because he called us and wanted to meet.  We read from the Book of Mormon w/ him.  We really can't figure him out just yet, but we're doing our best to help him come closer to Christ.  The G*s fed us dinner that night- make your own sub sandwiches, which was very yummy.  Allie shared a bottle of Martinelli's cider w/ me... I thoroughly enjoyed that and thought my family would like to know. 

 

Wednesday we spent an hour on mormon.org.  Go check it out if you haven't yet- seriously.  For lunch we went to try Woodville's new seafood restraunt- Captain Ron's.  I didn't actually have seafood, though I did consider it.  I had a salad and a baked potato.  Sis. Bouwhuis had grilled catfish, dirty rice, and hushpuppies (which she shared).  We agreed that it was pretty good, especially for being so inexpensive.  There's not a lot of places to eat in Woodville, so Captain Ron's definitely gets our stamp of approval.  After lunch we headed way out to the edge of our area to work in Chester.  We hiked up and down little dirt roads in the woods knocking on doors and searching for those searching for the truth... nobody was home back in the woods, but we had fun finding their homes.  We did find one searcher who didn't live in the woods, and actually doesn't even live in Chester.  He's from Colmesniel and was at a friends house.  We gave him a Book of Mormon, and will be visiting w/ him again soon.  His name is Justin S* and he's pretty cool.  We visited less active member- Sheila D* and had a great little lesson w/ her and her friend Earnestine (fascinating woman).  We had dinner w/ the T* family and had fun getting to know them better and showing them mormon.org.  They fed us spaghetti, corn, biscuits, and yummy cake for dessert. 

 

Thursday we did weekly planning which took awhile as usual.  Our plans in the afternoon pretty much all fell through, but we had a tender mercy of meeting a couple of girls at the park, that I'd been trying to find and talk to in a trailer park several weeks ago.  When they told me their names I was like, "So you're Stephanie and Tacara?!"  It was cool.  We had dinner w/ Bro. and Sis. Tolly and Connie L*.  They made fried green tomatoes for us!  Not my favorite by any means, but not bad, and definitely fun to try.  They also fed us delicious chicken and rice w/ watermelon, and key lime pie for dessert.  After dinner we had a miracle happen and were able to see Abdul who were were supposed to see earlier that day.  We had an awesome lesson w/ him at the park.

 

Friday we had zone meeting in Beaumont, so we carpooled down there w/ the Fred elders as usual.  It was a little crazy for me because it was my last zone meeting... some of the elders took it upon themselves to point that out and rub it in, so I learned some more patience.  It was a very spiritual meeting and I learned a lot.  Most of us went to New York Pizza and Pasta for lunch which is cheap and delicious.  We stopped at the hospital in Beaumont to visit Sis. Delores M*, only to find out she'd been sent back to the nursing home so she could be comfortable.  Later that evening the M*s had us over for dinner and fed us brisket, biscuits, corn, fried squash, and some awesome cherry toffee thing for dessert.  Sis. B* was over for dinner and we all had a great little lesson after dinner too. 

 

Saturday, Sis. Connie L* picked us up at 8:45 and we went to pick up Chelsea C*, and then we all went to a baptism up in Jasper. Randy S* was being baptized and he is SOOO cool.  Chelsea had a great time and really wants to be baptized.  After the baptism, we went to the 90th birthday party for recent convert, Gigi C*.  I LOVE that woman and hope that I'm that fabulous when I'm 90.  That afternoon we had great visits and lessons w/ Tabatha R*, Frankie and Donna, Sis. Dolores L*, the D*s, and the B* family.  The B* family fed us pizza for dinner which was great. 

 

Sunday, the M*s helped us pick up Chelsea C* and her little brother Austin for church.  (Their dad Jacob wanted to come, but ended up having to work, and their mom was sick.)  They LOVED church and the branch loved them.  Church was wonderful- the Woodville branch is totally amazing.  After church we went tracting for a couple of hours out in Spurger.... it was at least 104 degrees + humidity.  We stopped by the O*s after, and Megan made us a pitcher of strawberry koolaid which we promptly drank almost all gone.  We had dinner w/ the M* family- breakfast for dinner including homemade biscuits, sausage and eggs fresh from the farm.  So good.  Their sons were over too, so we had a good opportunity getting to know them better.  After dinner we visited and taught the S*s, the M*s, and EarlWayne and Linda O*.  After the O*s we were talking about what we should do next and as we did, the Spirit pretty much told us to go over to the A* and invite Mike A* to be baptized on the 11th of June... so we did.  It was intense.  He agreed to be baptized on Saturday as the Lord answers his prayers.  It's going to be an intense week following the Spirit to help him be prepared.  Apparently Mike has been coming to church w/ his wife Mary, and visiting w/ missionaries after missionaries for 41 years.  We're filling the font for him this Saturday and are praying and working w/ great faith that the Lord's purposes will be accomplished. 

 

 I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK AND BEING A MISSIONARY SOOOO MUCH!!!! I love all y'all so much and want you to know that our Savior lives and loves us.  Be good!!!

 

*~Sister Pilmer~*