A Rewarding Invitation, Gary, and A Very Special Baptism

This post began the week of September 22nd.

I'm once again behind in publishing my posts.

A Rewarding Invitation

In my last post, this picture was shared of the broken box springs 

we were replacing with a slightly better model. 

While there, I had to put on my "housing hat" 

and do the dreaded inspections.

These particular Elders, wholeheartedly 

accepted my challenge to spend their P day cleaning

and organizing their messy apartment. 

Then I asked them to return and report. 

Tuesday morning I received a wonderful email with photos 

and a video that shared their experience with me. 

They were all busy completing different tasks, working together 

as united team. The results are spectacular and I am so proud of them! 

I only wish I could upload the video they sent to my blog. 

It was so fun!!!!

All four beds are neatly made.

Clean and well organized closet!

Brave  Diligent Missionaries

wearing the armor of God in fighting for cleanliness!

I can see my reflection in this sparkling clean bathroom.

What a difference!

A neat, well organized study area,

and another study area... much improved! 

 A clean kitchen

These valiant warriors even tackled the refrigerator!

Four great Elders who made this Sister very happy!

Elder Rasmussen, Elder Smart, Elder Phelps and Elder Lino

I'm so proud of you!

Not only are they the Cleaning Machine Team

they are Valiant Representatives of Jesus Christ!

Gary came to Charlotte on September  25!

 It was wonderful to spend some time with him. 

We didn't do anything new and exciting....We spent a little time in uptown Charlotte, 

which is really quite beautiful for a city.
Gary loved Panther stadium and wanted to take a tour, 

but there were no tours available while he was here.
So maybe he'll come back....

We drove to Union Grove to the Cook Shack to introduce him to some Bluegrass music.

We took the back roads to enjoy the countryside and stopped at the 

Amish Shiloh General Store to have a sandwich.

enjoy the pretty flowers

and wave to the little boy peeking out the back of this buggy.

Saturday afternoon we took Gary on our favorite walk to see the cows.
This was the reaction I got when I asked them
 to pose for a picture with the cows!

With a little coaxing, I got some smiles!

It was our lucky day! The horses saw us and came to visit.

Even they smiled for me.

I think Gary enjoyed the walk.

Kathleen and Kaitlyn Zaleske's Baptism

Sister Zampieron from Brazil had a little bike accident 

just before the long awaited Baptism.

I helped clean her up and she was good to go!

 I think that the highlight of Gary's visit 

was attending this very important event. 

Brother Flatt, Kathleen's next door neighbor, 

introduced the gospel to the Zaleskes.

It was not so long ago that he became active in the church again. 

He admits that he is a different person because of the gospel in his life.

 He was honored to be able to baptize his neighbors.

Kaitlyn and Kathleen with their current Sister Missionaries, 

Sister Phillips and Sister Zampieron. 

Sister Pace, Sister Lambert, and Sister Robertson 

as well as Elder Youngstrom, Elder Durfey and Elder Valgardson

all had a part in this conversion story.

We met Kathleen in January at our first Book of Mormon class. 

She and Kaitlyn faithfully have come to the class. At first Kathleen just wanted 

to listen and would pass when it was her turn to read.

Slowly she became more comfortable with the words and reads confidently now.

The Book of Mormon is the word of God and testifies of Jesus Christ.

We are privileged to be able read it and share it with others.

We love these two beautiful daughters of God!

After the baptism we took Gary out to Don Pedro's for an early Birthday dinner.

It was hard to say good bye to my brother 

but we were so grateful he came to see us in North Carolina!

We send our love to y'all!