E10 Photo-Video-Design: Johny Tales

E10 Photo-Video-Design: Johny Tales: My mother insisted that I help her on this birthday present that she wanted to make for her older brother. She interviewed their father, com...

FIVE MONTHS!  REALLY, FIVE MONTHS???  I can't believe that almost a quarter of our mission is over - it's going too fast!
We've had such wonderful experiences here - we've "adopted" some wonderful kids that we feel are our own, and have had a chance to share with others that which we love the most - the gospel of Jesus Christ!
We've had miraculous answers to prayers - those that we have been praying for have called us and asked us to teach them!  We now have six people that we are teaching weekly!

We are helping a young man who has had to say good-by to the future that he had with someone he loved dearly.  He's finding answers to prayers and learning how much the Lord loves him and is seeking for more faith in his journey.

We adopted a young couple, baptised this last year, who are expecting their first child - and wanting to raise him in a gospel-centered home.  They want so much to learn how to do this.

And another beautiful girl who has a troubled marriage and wants to make the right decision about where to go with it - she wants to learn what the Lord would have her do.

A young family, the mother is in the Navy, and they have such sweet spirits, wanting to know more about Christ's love for them.
We've experienced heartache as we have helped a young couple through the death of their second child, having also lost their first child.  But we've also watched the miracle of their hearts being changed and desiring to be sealed as a family for eternity!  The strength of these two wonderful people have really touched my life, as has this little Preslie!

We love these beautiful people and are glad we can be of any small help!

I've felt a refiner's fire in my own life while on this mission - a peeling away of some layers that I've never really liked about myself.  I have quite a few more to go, but this has been good for me - to know that I can cast off those things that can pull me down!

On a more temporal note - I have introduced Brad to Indian food - he's not too keen on it, but I was in 7th heaven!  I now know where to go when I do a "get away" by myself - oh yeah, we can do that!  Sorry all of you young missionaries out there!  

It has killed me to be so close to the beach and not be able to go on a daily basis.  In fact, the summer is almost over and we went very few times.  It is so beautiful and therapeutic!!!  

My favorite time of the day is in the morning when I have a quiet room, a clear mind, and my scriptures for a whole hour!  This is such a luxury, I feel spoiled!!! The exercising and eating right is going really good right now - a few lapses, but they don't last long!  On the whole, I'm feeling great spiritually and physically.

I do miss my family terribly, but I love the Lord and His work comes first right now:  

I love my Lord, Jesus Christ!  I love His sacrificing Atonement so that people like me can find peace and joy through repentance and service!  I know that He loves all of us and wants us all to have joy in this life.  And we can find that joy through His grace and Atonement!!!

ELDER DEBOW HELPING WITH MISSIONARY TRANSFERS

We've been on our mission for three months now - time is going fast!  The month of July flew by!  Brad was in charge of a Stake Military bus trip to the Washington D.C. Temple at the first of the month.  I had a wonderful experience on the bus trip with the Lord directing me to talk to a man about some needed  answers considering some scriptures that were not making sense and that were challenging my faith. We spent the 3 hour trip to the Temple with him answering all of my questions.  I later found out that Brother Shapoule is one of the scriptural scholars in our Stake - and the Lord directed me to tap him, a stranger, on the shoulder and ask him for his help.
I've spent a lot of time with Priscilla, who lives in the nursing home.  We are either working on her genealogy, or I am reading the Book of Mormon to her and answering her many questions about the Church.  We go with the Elders to teach her the discussions, too.  Just yesterday, she promised to pray to find out if the Book of Mormon is truly God's word.  She's an awesome woman and I feel privileged to have her as a friend!
We spoke in Sacrament meeting in one of the Wards and are speaking in another one this next Sunday.
We're now teaching the lessons to not only Priscilla, but a 39 year old Navy guy who joined the church because of his fiance.  His fiance broke it off with him, so now he's real confused.  We challenged him to learn more about this church that he has joined, and he's agreed.
Other than that, we are still teaching a young wife who's husband is deployed, and babysitting and helping other deployed families.  Out of the 109 military families that we have, we have been in more the 3/4 of their homes - our goal this month is to have visited all of them.  Now we visit some of them on a monthly basis, some on a weekly basis, and some we just call to make sure all is well.  We love visiting in their homes - I get to play with the kids and get a Grandma fix!
We're also helping with a Sister Missionary who is having a difficult time with her companionship right now.  So we take her with us one day a week.  She's so sweet and willing to serve.  Just young and far away from home.
The best part is finding people who haven't been to church for a long time.  When we invite them to listen to the lessons, you can see a glimmer of hope in their eyes - hope for something that they've missed for a long time.  And as they read the scriptures with us and listen to the gospel, you can feel the spirit enter again into their lives and you can see that hope grow into faith and peace.  It's such a wonderful thing to experience!

We got to go on a cruise tour of the bay near the Norfolk Naval Base - what an experience!  Besides all the ships and tour of the area, we were hit by a nasty storm with lightening, and sheets of water coming down.  It was exciting to say the least!

We've had a wonderful month of visiting Military families, teaching lessons, service projects, and enjoying Virginia!
We have about 100 military families, some moving in, and some moving out.  Our goal is to visit in each military home.   We've gotten to know about 2/3 of these families so far.
We have weekly visits with some families:  families of the deployed, and people who want weekly gospel lessons.  We've had some good success with reactivating some people, and are working with some who are still not sure if that's what they want.  The Spirit is strong when we work with these families and it is such a comfort to know that we aren't in control, but that the Savior knows these people and is teaching them through the Spirit.
We are still visiting the family with little Jonah and Caleb.  I promised Riley I'd post pics of them:

Jonah was a 23 week preemie - so has complications because of that, but he is sharper than a whip!  I sang a song once to him, and a half hour later, he's singing it word for word.  He wanted me to read him the story about Nephi building a boat - then he got frustrated with the way I was telling it, and he told the whole story, word for word out of his Children's Book of Mormon book.  Then he reminded me that someone else built a ship - Hagoth.  I had to look it up, because I didn't believe him!  Caleb is just a cute, little munchable kid that I can't get enough of, too!  Their mom is awesome - carrying quite a load while her husband is deployed!
We're also teaching a wonderful woman in a nursing home.  She and I are working on her genealogy and she's very sharp - I spent 4 hours with her today and enjoyed every minute!!
Brad is enjoying his cat - but the birds who built a nest in the roof of our little patio are not!  While the cat sits leisurely on our table, looking out the window, these birds are standing guard on the railing, cussing like crazy at her!

We're still not liking the traffic around here, but we're getting a little used to it.  We do A LOT of driving every day - hope Brad's old car holds out!!

We had a marvelous experience last week, when they split the Richmond Virginia Mission and created the Chesapeake Virginia Mission, which we are now a part of.  Our new Mission President and wife are wonderful, wonderful!  Also, we're expecting 22 new missionaries this week - the work is increasing and it's so awesome to be a part of this.  We love to see peoples' hearts touched and lives changed as they listen to and accept the Doctrines of Christ.

AND - yes, I'm homesick for Karl, our dog!  We went to this house and I couldn't keep my hands off their dog - Karl look-alike!

My only excuse for not blogging is that we've been delightfully busy!  Here's a run down of some of the stuff we've done this last month.

1.  Attended Church meetings for 5 congregations and their Leadership meetings called Ward Councils.
2.  Make calls to visit Military people of our faith.
3.  Visited Military people.
4.  Helped with Single Military Sunday dinners.
5.  In charge of Military Women's Support Group help 3 different times a month.
6.  Service to families with a deployed parent:  Yard work, baby sitting, painting.
7.  Making lists of where our attention should be focused:  babies to be born, families with deployed parent, illnesses, etc.
8.  Helping the young missionaries any way we can.
All I can say is that we are extremely happy and fulfilled.  Serving others is our drug of choice!!!

We've had some good times with family and friends.
Joe and his family came to say stay for a few days before they finish packing and move to Utah.

Then Jenny and her children came to stay with us before they finish packing and move to Idaho.

We were able to take them to the Beach a couple of times, to a Carnival, playground, and a Movie Cafe.  All great fun!

Then last monday we went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to see where the Wright Brother's flew for the first time at Kitty Hawk.

You can tell we are crazy busy in that I haven't gotten on here to report.  Here's a list of what we have done since my last blog:
1.  Gone to Sunday meetings for 5 different Wards, plus their Leadership meetings called Ward Councils.
2.  Helped with the Single Military Personnel Sunday dinners.
3.  Call to make appointments to visit Military families of our Church.
4.  Visit Military families.
5.  In charge of Military Women's Support Group held one morning a month and one evening a month.
6.  Paperwork - making lists of special needs:  when babies are due, families who's parent is deployed, illnesses, etc.  Making sure we visit and call them regularly.
7.  Teaching the gospel to those who want to know more about the gospel because they've been away from church so long.
8.  Painted shelves for a woman who's husband is deployed, did yard work for another one.  Helped another woman clean house and yard work.  With their husbands gone, and no family nearby, they are so appreciative of our help!

This work is very rewarding!  Nothing brings greater happiness than helping someone out!!

We've had some good family and friends time, also.  Joe and his family came and stayed with us for a few days before they finish packing up and moving to Utah.  Then the next week Jenny and her children came for a few days before they finish packing up and moving to Idaho.  We went to the Beach,  to a Carnival, and to a Cinema Cafe.  So much fun!

Last Monday we went down the North Carolina Outer Banks to where the Wright Brothers launched the first flight at Kittyhawk!  It was such a good day.  I even ate my first soft shell crab!  Mmmmm

Wow!  I can''t believe it's been a whole week - that went fast!!  We've been so busy and loving every minute of it.  No wait, that's a lie!  HATED last night while we sat in traffic for 2 hours waiting for an accident of 4 cars in a tunnel to be cleared out!  Other than that, all is going fantastic!  Our visits with military families are picking up now that we have most of the lists done from our wards.  We've met some wonderful people, some sad people, some interesting people, and some who need our help.
Today we took a beautiful young girl to church to introduce her to the Young Woman's program.  She's 17, was baptized at age 11, but didn't go enough to understand much, except she remembers how wonderful she felt at the time of her baptism and wants to get involved again.  Her mother, who used to be an active member of the Church ended up being highly addicted to pain meds, and is now wasting away because she won't accept that she has a problem.  Her husband comes home from Afghanistan in two weeks, so we'll be spending a lot of time with them helping clean the place - she's a shopping hoarder - this is going to be challenging!
We met with a wonderful family, Coast Guard, who are expecting their 4th baby.  While there, I helped fix a dress that she wanted made for pregnancy pictures that her husband had been trying to remake to fit her.  What a guy!  He was grateful that I could figure it out.
We had a wonderful temple session at the Washington DC Temple yesterday - went with the Norfolk Ward.
I'm so grateful to be on the mission - I love teaching the gospel and helping those who are in need.  We're loving Virginia, too (I can say that because we have central air and an air-conditioned car!)