November 4th through November 10, 2024

 Monday, November 4th, PDay:

Our PDays have settled into a routine of sorts.  We get up, do our laundry and head to the "Lord's Kitchen" to cook the lunch meal served to those in need of a free, hot meal.  While we are gone our younger missionaries come to the house to do their own laundry.  When we get home, we usually hang out with them for a bit.  Here is a picture that Elder Gibbons took of me and the sisters watching an old church video, "The Phone Call."  (I don't know why we are so serious because it is a silly story about a young man who is socially awkward and can't even talk to a girl on the phone.)

Wednesday, November 6th, District Council Day:

Left to right, back row:  Elder Senecal (our District Leader) Elder Dahl, Elder Osborne (a new Zone Leader), Elder Nixon, Sister Nixon, Elder Gibbons, Sister Gibbons.

Left to right, front row:  Elder Sines (our favorite Zone Leader, LOL), Sister Newman, Sister Thompson (who usually has a big smile on her face), Sister Wehrmeister, and Sister Richards.

Zone Leaders come two hours from Traverse City.  District Leaders come an hour from Kalkaska.    Nixon's and Sister Wehrmeister and Richards serve in Petoskey.

Thursday, November 7th, evidence that the weather is changing as the windshield begins to thaw.

Friday, November 8th, Cheboygan Branch Game Night:

Once a month we alternate between a Friday movie night or game night.  The missionaries pretty much make it happen.  Unfortunately, the Branch Presidency doesn't join us, missing out on an opportunity for fun and fellowship.  This time we had a game night.

Dominoes

Left to right:

Libby Whitener

Libby's friend, Sharon

Sheree Woollard

Ann Harris (our RS President)

Mary Rybarczyk

It was fun to hear these ladies giggle and banter back and forth.

  

"Spicy"Uno ~ a crazier way to play the game

Elder and Sister Gibbons hanging out, and loosing to:

Hunter Woollard (grandson of Sheree and not yet baptized)

Sister Thompson

Sister Newman

 

Saturday, November 9th:

We three Sisters headed for Onaway and Pat Bendel's house.  Some of the sisters living in that town invited us for lunch.  Its a beautiful drive and piece of property.  Why didn't I take more pictures?!  The goats were pretty rude!  They were making a ruckus when we drove by.

                                                                              

We took a couple of pictures on the way home.  

The Sisters talked me into taking this silly one.  I can't believe I let them talk me into it.

While we were gone, Elder Gibbons went next door to help our new friends, James Jeter.  He's been putting on new siding on his house for weeks now.  

His three year old son, John was right there with them helping.  At one point, he decided he wanted to fix his "car" so he climbed under it and tinkered with it.  Eventually he got it working again...sorta.  The battery was dying and it had just enough charge to go for a bit.  He was so excited he had to tell his dad. 

Sunday, November 10th:

Sunday dinner here at the house.  Typically the  Sisters don't have a dinner appointment with a Branch member so we have them come here.  They are so obedient.  As much as they want to stay longer and have fun, they will leave and head back out into the dark and cold now to knock on doors and try to share the gospel.  We are not sure we would be that brave!

October 27th through November 3rd, 2024

This week's highlight was TRANSFERS...

First, I have printed pictures of the Elders and Sisters that we have been serving with in the last nine months and they are on our refrigerator, and ever-changing.  

We have had an atypical amount of missionaries coming and going in the last couple transfers due to various reasons.  It actually has slowed the work down here in the Cheboygan Branch.  When missionaries come and go, the next set coming in seem to make and teach completely different friends.  

We said goodbye to both Elder Azevedo (Spanish Fork, Utah) and Elder Haws (St. George).  We didn't really expect that, but hey, it's not our call.  We had them over one last morning for breakfast before they took off for the "transfer van" in Mt. Pleasant.  They were each headed to different areas.

Elder Azevedo really wanted, and thought, he was going to be staying here.  We were all three sad.

Elder Haws (right) kinda felt he was going to be transferred even though he had only been here three weeks.  He was actually returning to the mission after working hard for a year to come back out.  It was kinda of a challenging companionship for them, but that is how it is sometimes.

But, we now have two Sisters serving with us now!  A first for us.  

Meet Sister Thompson, from Utah, but then from Georgia (left) and Sister Newman (right) from St. George, Utah.  We've had a lot of missionaries here from St. George!  Sister Thompson has been out for six months and Sister Newman just finished her training.  They are really cute, young missionaries and have hit it off quickly.  They are out and about working hard at finding new friends in spite of the cooler temperatures and rain that have hit here.  They have been teaching us some of the slang words the missionaries use.  They ask us to guess what they mean and then have the nerve to laugh at us when we say something so far off!  We have them for at least a transfer which is six weeks. 

One thing to say for the week of October 20th through October 26th... "That deer is D-E-A-D"

 We had our once-a-transfer District PDay on Monday, October 21st, but we did not attend this one.  We were helping at the Kitchen longer than normal.  That was alright, because we didn't really want to travel to Petoskey to look for Petoskey stones again.  LOL.

Wednesday, October 23rd was a day to remember.  We picked up Elder Azevedo and Haws from their apartment and headed to Petoskey for District Council.  It was just beginning to get light at about 7:45 a.m.  We were following behind another vehicle, but not too close I promise.  It's a good thing Elder Gibbons doesn't hardly drive the speed limit, because out of no where I looked up just in time to see deer eyes staring at me just outside where Elder Gibbons sat driving.  We did NOT hit the deer.  The deer hit US!

Poor thing.  It was a doe and a fairly young one at that.  You can't even tell it's hurt, but when the insurance representative jokingly asked if we got the license plate of the other person, I quipped, "Yep.   D-E-A-D."  Aren't I clever?  The good news was none of us were hurt and our car was still drivable, but...

We actually made it to our District Council on time and called insurance right away.  I am writing this 13 days later and we just took our car two days ago into the Toyota dealer here in Cheboygan to be fixed.  They say it will take about two weeks.  We feel very blessed because we have heard horror stories about how long it takes to get parts up here.  No kidding we know a man at the Kitchen that hit a deer and the body shop was three months getting the parts in.  I think since the car is a Toyota it made a big difference.  We feel very blessed, really.  The insurance company has been amazing.  They say it won't affect our insurance record because it was a no-fault accident.  I guess deer don't count.

Here is the picture of our missionaries at District Council that day.

We still like the deer in our backyard.  We just prefer not to have them meeting us on the road and because hunting season has started, "they" say the deer are moving around and this is the time of year deer run ins increase.  Here is a buck we saw "rubbing" one of the trees.  It was cool to watch him.

During this week we began to see the weather change.  One day it was 75 degrees.

A couple of days later it was cold and misty.

October 12th through October 19th, 2024 - Can You Say, "Busy, busy week?!"

Fall is beautiful here in Michigan.  It did not disappoint.  It was a glorious time to be putting all those miles on the car.  

On Saturday, October 12th we drove the Nixon's down to Lansing for the annual Senior Missionary get together (pictures above.)  It was held at the Mission Secretary's home, Sister Steed.  It was the first real subdivision we had seen in Lansing and it was a very nice one.  As we waited for the Senior Missionaries to all gather, they invited us to go downstairs where their basement was full of games.  This is as close to playing that Elder Gibbons got...  

There was a potluck dinner with tables set up in various rooms of the home.  We participated in some silly games that helped us get to know one another.  We don't know most of the other senior couples, because they serve around Lansing.  So that was nice.

You can barely see us in the back left of the photo.  Picture doesn't include President and Sister Peckham.  That is unfortunate.  They are amazing people.  They spoke with us for a bit and expressed their love and gratitude for us all in a way that you just believe they mean it.

Left and around the table to the right:  The Sawyers (work in records preservation.)  The Nixon's who serve in our District up north from Holden, Utah.  The Jensen's (the vehicle coordinators and boy they keep busy).  The Kesler's (the housing coordinators, and yep, they keep really busy too!)  Then us.

Two days later the Peckham's hosted all of the young Sister Missionaries in the mission home.  Just wanted to add this picture for the record, even if I didn't go.

Can't say enough about how capable and wonderful these young missionaries are.  The fact that they choose to serve a mission instead all the other things they could be doing tells you all you need to know.

Gotta post updated pictures of our District.  The District changes almost every time there is a transfer and we get to meet more amazing missionaries.  The Nixon's and we are "eternal."  Meaning we will never be transferred for the year we are out.  We meet every Wednesday, except the week of transfers.

Left to right:  Elder Sines (now our Zone Leader) joined us. Yay!  Miss having him here in Cheboygan.  Elder Azevedo, Elder Hom (the other ZL,) Elder Haws, Elder Dahl, Elder Senecal (our District Leader), Sister Richards and Sister Wehrmeister, who had been to the thrift store and found her Halloween robe?!

Friday of this week, we traveled again to the Detroit Temple.  This time we were with a group that included the Woollards (their third trip to do baptisms for the dead) and Ashley who was baptized in August and this was her first trip.  She loved it as was evident in her little giggle when she was coming up out of the water in the font.

Left to right:  Arthur Woollard, Scott Hill, Joshua Hetrick, Sheree Woollard, Elder Gibbons, Chris Amundson, Sister Gibbons, Cindy Pugh and Ashley

This was the view from the back seat as Elder Gibbons drove and Arthur has "shotgun."

The next day was the Branch RS monthly birthday get together at the Karen and Mike McDonald's house in Onaway, which a town actually 30 minutes "out of the way." Only got one picture sitting on their back porch.  Most of the women were inside.

Left to right:  Cindy Pugh, me, Karen McDonald and her granddaughter, Emma