July 23rd through July 28th, 2024

Week 24, another great week! 

Wednesday we had another great District Council in Petoskey.  Never get tired of how beautiful the town is along Lake Michigan.  And we never get tired of spending time with our District missionaries.  We learn so much from THEM.

Thursday we gathered with the Branch RS sisters at the Cheboygan Beach Park here in town to celebrate all the July birthdays.  They invited Elder Gibbons too since his birthday is on the 31st.  Our RS President, Cindy Pugh, thinks of everything and brought a photo frame and insisted she take his picture.

The view from our picnic area right along Lake Huron.  

Fun fact Sister Pugh told us.  You can remember all the Great Lakes with the acronym HOMES.

H = Huron

O = Ontario

M = Michigan

E = Erie

S = Superior

One of the greatest joys we experience is to accompany our Elders when they are teaching a lesson to one of our friends.  It is especially wonderful when the friend is so receptive.  On Friday evening we did just that as Elder Sines and Elder Rogers taught Emma (on the right) and her friend, Makayla about The Plan of Salvation.  Every once in a while we contribute a thought or a testimony.

Saturday we drove to Alpena to do an apartment inspection with two sister missionaries we hadn't met yet.  Sister Biggs (on the right) is from Colorado and Sister Fowler (on the left) is from Alaska.  Sister Fowler just got her in this last transfer so Sister Biggs is her "trainer."  We took care of a spider they named "Eduardo" that was in between two panes of glass by their air conditioner.  Replaced some light bulbs, fixed a shower curtain and took them to Walmart to get them a new vacuum after we treated them to lunch at Jimmy John's.  It's always so heartwarming how grateful these missionaries are for whatever we do for them.

Sunday was our monthly potluck after church.  We-- okay, I-- am eating way too much food here.  Don't want to offend anyone by not partaking.  It's a nice "problem" to have that so many want to provide for us.

Amidst all the turmoil in this world and people looking for something to make sense of it all, here's a thought from the Book of Mormon:  

"And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just--yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people that the sword, or anything else, which had happened to them--therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God."

Find your answers in the scriptures! 

Things We Did. Things We Do. Things We See

Not having near enough space in an email to send all our pictures and updates, here are some random things so we don't loose the pictures or memories.  We meet wonderful, kind people.  We do see the funniest and most amusing things sometimes.  

As we have posted, we help each week at a kitchen where food is served once a day to those in need.  On Saturday, July 20th, we were asked to help cook for an event called "Breakfast for Bikers."  Man we made a lot of food!  Bacon.  Biscuits and sausage biscuits.  Hash browns and more.  This gentleman below volunteers and cooks at the kitchen like we do on Wednesdays.  He made all the omelettes.  I asked Ken if I could take a picture of his apron.  Love it!

How cool is this?  One biker pulled in with this in tow.  Elder Gibbons loved it!  When he spoke with the owner about it, they had a gentleman's disagreement as to the year of the car.  Elder Gibbons says it is a 1955 Chevy Nomad and the "internet" agrees.

We love having the missionaries around as much as possible.  As long as we are not distracting each other from the purpose for which we are here.  "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."  Well, OK.  Sometimes we just have to take a break and hang out.

I guess Elder Sines felt the need for a therapy session.

Sister Froelich grabbed my phone (again) when I wasn't looking and took this.  

We had the honor and pleasure on Friday, July 12th to have President and Sister Peckham here for dinner.  President actually came into town to do individual interviews with each missionary so we said let's do dinner here and he used our office to do the interviews.  I didn't get a picture of all of us.  Darn it.

Sometimes we are just able to have dinner at home together.  

Elder Gibbons is Sister Rybarczyk's (self-proclaimed former hippie) "dog walker" sometimes.  Tillie has decided she and Elder Gibbons can be friends.

We never grow tired of looking out our windows and seeing deer at times even staring back at us.  The other day we saw a doe and about four fawns playing "tag" with each other.  I took a video of it and sure  wish I could post it in our book.

This was a PDay when the Elders were here doing laundry.  They turn all three window ACs on and rather than complain, Elder Gibbons just goes outside (if it is sunny and warm) and merely hangs out.

They will let anyone drive here in Michigan!  A scene from the Walmart parking lot.

This is the drawbridge that we cross over every day.  We were watching our Sisters and Elders fish along the Cheboygan River and every so often the traffic was stopped and the bridge went up.  This is the car ferry that goes in and out each day and takes people and cars to Bois Blanc Island that you can see in Lake Huron from here.

This is the ferry that takes passengers back and forth to Mackinaw Island, also a bridge we can see in a long distance from Cheboygan.

Found this on Facebook. Pretty cool.

Not sure who decided to pull this "prank," but one Saturday we found this sign in our front yard.          Anyone that really knows us knows we are NOT garage sale people.

There are paths all over here.  One goes throughout the state. 

This one runs along Michigan 27 and was once where the railroad went through town.

Just another pretty road.

Round bales of hay can be seen in many places.  

Elder Gibbons has been telling everyone that they make bales of hay here round, but they won't be making them anymore because cows weren't getting a square meal.  Elder Gibbons loves "Dad jokes," but here the younger missionaries call them "Grandpa jokes."  

We were surprised to see just how many of these windmills are here.  But then we realized just how often it is windy here.  

We love the State of Michigan.  

We love the places here.

We love the people of Michigan.  

We love the missionaries serving in the Michigan Lansing Mission!

The Fullness of Life and God's Goodness - July 1st through July 22nd (MANY MORE PICTURES THAN SENT IN OUR EMAIL!)

We are coming to realize just how often and abundantly our Father in Heaven is in the details of our everyday lives.  Not just on special or certain occasions.  Maybe we are just getting better at seeing it and feeling it.  Surely being able to devote 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to His work blesses us with the opportunity to live in the fullness of life and God's goodness.  In the words of Elder Rogers (one of our younger Elders serving with us here in Cheboygan), We are "living the dream."  We will be forever grateful for what we are adding to the choice memories of our lives.

We have now been serving five months and ten days, having left home and reported to the Missionary Training Center on February 12th.  Hopefully we are gone, but not forgotten.  Has anyone noticed an absence of emails coming from Michigan over the last almost month? Not sending emails doesn't mean we have forgotten people we love, but means life is indeed full.  We are sure your lives are as well.

For about three months now we have been teaching a young couple that moved into our Branch.  They have recently returned to activity in the Church and asked us to help them learn more.  Austin joined the church as a teenager and Madison was born into the Church.  They were not active in the church for two or so years.  They have a two-year old named Amarah and they are expecting a second daughter in October.  The Troops have a desire to be sealed in the Temple.  Austin has been blessing and passing the Sacrament for a few weeks now.  He was able to give a Priesthood blessing to Amarah in our Sacrament Meeting which officially places her name upon the records of the Church.  It has been such a joy to watch them grow and to watch as they have felt the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.  

Amarah wasn't very happy about having her picture taken.  

Her Grandma was holding her and she didn't want to leave her.

We attended a baptism in Petoskey of a man named Travis. Sister Froelich and Wehrmeister have been teaching him for some time.  He lives in a home for recovering addicts and has been so eager to be baptized.  They wanted to provide him with a set of new scriptures.  What we call a "quad" because it contains the Old and New Testament, The Book of Mormon--Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and the Doctrine and Covenants."  They weren't able to get one here in time so they went to the church library to see what they could find and the only thing they found was a used set that had been donated and that didn't feel right.  Long story short, the Branch President heard of their need and went and got a brand new set that had been sitting on his desk for several years.  The previous Branch President had bought a few for the purpose of presenting it to new members and this one book was still there.  It meant a lot to Travis and made the sisters cry when they gave the book to him.  

Travis with his new Quad in hand

On July 4th the Elders and Sisters in our District were at our house for a BBQ.  Our first BBQ here.  Our landlord, Brother Olson, was kind enough to provide one for us.  We had bought a corn hole game and decided to have everyone sign it.  It will be left here at the house when we leave so that every other missionary serving in Cheboygan going forward will be able to sign it and it will be a "legacy" of missionary life here.  

Not everyone can say they have deer watching them play corn hole!  Look closely.  

We had an outdoor Zone Conference on July 9th at Sleepy Hollow State Park about 2 hours south of here.  It was spiritual and fun at the same time.  After lunch and a hike we had a competition between Districts.  There were 9 challenges.  The first part of each challenge was spiritual in nature and taken from the Preach My Gospel manual and then there was a physical challenge.  Sit ups, jumping and Leapfrog.  Our District was the only one "handicapped" with two sets of Senior Missionaries so our younger missionaries had to make up for it.  BUT, Elder Gibbons and I were able to Leap Frog!  

NOTE:  More pictures of this Zone Conference are shown in a previous post.  I just hadn't sent an email in which I included this picture.

We spent one afternoon on a pontoon on Lake Mullett with two other couples.  

On the lake

The two women are members of our Church Branch.  

Left to right:  Mike Gotz, Kathy Gotz, Cindy Pugh, Elder Gibbons, Sister Gibbons and Garry Pugh

Lake Mullett flows north to the Cheboygan River that runs through our town and meets Lake Huron.  What a beautiful area.  The homes along the lake and river were extraordinary.  

Pontooning along the Cheboygan River

More pictures of our day on the lake:

Entering the river from the lake

Yesterday was our PDay and all eight of us met as a District, which we do once every 6 weeks or so.  After having lunch here at the house, we went to the Cheboygan River here in town so the younger missionaries could fish.  The Sisters had never caught a fish.  

Elder Sines helped Sister Wehrmeister reel his fish in and even took the hook off.

A couple of young boys nearby actually caught this bigger fish and didn't want it.  Sister Wehrmeister just wanted to hold it and "kiss" it so Elder Rogers offered it to her.

After they had enough of that we went to Duncan Preserve on the north side of town as well and hiked a short way to a fairly private beach area along Lake Huron. 

Another fun day surrounded by happy, good-hearted and dedicated people.  We have all become such great friends.