Tennessee Southern Belles

One of the four stakes that I have been assigned to serve is Memphis North. The Memphis 1st ward in that stake invited us to give them a presentation on Welfare and Employment for their fifth Sunday meeting. It's 379 miles away, but we were delighted to go. And what a treat it was! The story is too long to tell here, but they have had 70 converts in the last 18 months. Yes that's right 70 in one ward. The sacrament was passed by six precious black deacons, all who have been members for less than a year. When they are baptized the Young Men's President asks them their shirt size and then gives them a white shirt and tie that they wear proudly. It's a beautiful sight. Sister Goodin and I stayed with the family of the counselor in the Young Men. We were pleased to be invited to a birthday party while we were there. We had such a wonderful time. Southern hospitality is alive and well.

Relaxing after a few stress filled days

After working in the center this morning we had the afternoon off. Our p-day is sort of split in half with working half a day Friday and half day Saturday. About 1:30 the Earnharts picked us up and took us for a drive through gorgeous wooded area to a pizza place for lunch. We stopped to enjoy this museum and to give Elder Earnhart a change to sleep for a few minutes. We drove around the cute town before we continued on, stopping for frozen yogurt before heading home.It was a much needed break for all of us. Missions are wonderful but sometimes very taxing. Details intentionally excluded.

Look how adorable this is

As I went into my office this morning look what I saw out the window. Sister Werb, the church service missionary that works in our center had decorated my garden.

From serious gospel reflection to just plain fun I love these missionaries and my experiences with them. The Earnharts are wonderful to gather us together to share our uniting missionary spirit, enjoy each others company and have lunch after church each week. We work hard and play hard. That's the making of eternal friendships.

I come to the garden alone

Yesterday I needed a place to pour out my heart to God. My friend Fran told me that going to the garden helps her feel the Spirit. That is also true for me. But my garden is far away. And to sit outside here in Slidell weather is a crazy thought indeed. And so I decided to open up the blinds and make my office window the window to my garden. So I sat inside with a box of kleenex. It was there in 'my garden' that I had experiences too sacred to share. And today the ultimate answer came out of the mouth of the Gynecologic Urologist I saw. I no longer have blood in my urine and so I'm fine. I don't even need to have the cystoscopy done. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father. I know a miracle when I see one. I want to acknowledge that I know from whence this came. I've had some wonderful experiences lately. I am overcome with this one. I can feel God's love and there is nothing greater than that.

Skirt Burning Party

What a wonderful group of missionaries. Sister Matson brought 1/2 banana's and 1/2 granola bars to represent 1/2 finished. The Earnharts brought a huge watermelon.

Record breaker

From the news today. ... Record high temperature set at Slidell ... a record high temperature of 100 degrees was set at Slidell today. This breaks the old record of 98 set in 1986. Note: With the heat index it's 115 degrees. I'm here to tell you with the humidity,that is hot! When we step out of the air conditioned car our glasses immediately fog up so much that we can't see. And we're going out in two hours for the burning skirt ceremony, a mission tradition celebration for my mission being half over today. I gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. After church we went to the center so I could register an Employment Specialist from Memphis, Tennessee North Stake. He’s a neurosurgeon and is very busy and so set our appointment time today. I was happy to oblige. It was great talking to him. He’s planning a Community Career Workshop in September and asked me to come. I hope I can.

He is the only source of protection

I worry about our young sisters riding their bikes on our streets with no where to get away from cars. They are out until 9 PM when it is double dark. Not only are the streets,even very busy one, dangerously narrow, but we have heat advisories on days like today when they are out on bikes for four hours at a time. Here's today's weather report 97.7 F. and with the heat index 112 F., 98% humidity. The record is 98 F. in 1993. We pray for their safety. The Lord has to protect them. Thankfully He does.

Lexi and me

I loved sitting across the table from Lexi at the 24th of July Celebration and just talking. She is in my Sunday School class. Very special girl who lived the first ten years of her life with her non member mom and now lives with her dad and step mom. She wears a purity ring that says true love waits. I'm proud of her and her values. She shared with me her feelings about love and life. Just a remarkable young girl. She's not a member, but hopefully will be soon.

Our Stake 24th of July Celebration

Our Stake President is a wonderful good sport. The next to the last photo is of jambalaya that my friend Sister Earnhart made. She won first place in the contest. It was fabulous. The white cake with nuts is called a hummingbird cake. It won best dessert. The blueberry pie looked fabulous too. My friend Sister Matson was the photographer. It was a very fun party. You're right... no pioneer clothes. Pioneers were mentioned and honored though.

Registering Bishops

One of my assignments here is to register Stake Presidents and Bishops on ldsjobs.org. It has been a real experience trying to get these busy men to take time to do it. When they do, or even promise to, I tell them that they will get stars on their chart in heaven and that I will personally stand at the pearly gate to hand out the stars. We have a good laugh as they tell me they need them, but many still remain unregistered. I have all four of my Stake Presidents (Tallahassee, FL, Memphis North, TN, Jackson, MS, Alexandria, LA) registered, but Branch Pres and Bishops,well there are more of them.I believe that I have finally come upon a way that seems to work. I call them and ask if we can set up an appointment when they can be at their computer for 15-20 minutes and I will walk them through it. I have five appointments set up from calls I made today. They all know who I am from instructive e-mails that I've sent and after I say "This is Sister Dustin" and start to say from the LDS Employment Resource Services they interrupt me and say say Hi, how are you? Usually then they add I know I need to do it, or I know I'm dragging my feet, or some such. One Bishop today after I start explaining that I was Sister Dustin from ... He said "Is there another one?" My funniest response today was one who said "I have 30 unanswered e-mails and half of them are from you". I told him if he'd just do it and give his Ward Employment Specialist rights I'd stop bugging him and the WES can do the work for him from there. We joked around about it and he agreed. The Bishops I serve are generally very well educated, but still sort of country men. Some have PhD's, some administrators of Universities,bigwig military, doctors, attorneys, etc. But the southern accent helps me feel less intimidated and free to be myself.

Professional Network Group

I had the privilege of leading the Professional Network Group today. It's a weekly class we hold for those who have taken the Career Workshop and want the opportunity to talk about what they have learned and what they are doing in their job search, to exchange leads,networking tips etc. This group today was made up of some of my very favorite career workshop participants. It was fun to have them all together. They are so helpful and enthusiastic with each other. Just simply exceptional people. Steve in the back is a candy salesman with incredible motivation abilities. He's not a member. Nor is Antoinette the lady on the right. She's a paralegal. The other two are members of my ward Kerry and Gina. We had dinner at their home a few months ago. (I posted a picture here on March 23rd in their kitchen.) Gina is a Real Estate broker and Kerry was in government intelligence, somehow, I think it was. They have only one son and one daughter who are both serving missions in Brazil. There is an article published in the July 2010 New Era written by the daughter before her mission regarding the bishops storehouse in our building.

Moments to remember with Sister Winters

We were tracting in a nicer neighborhood in the rain yesterday, but didn't want to get the camera wet so today here we are minus rain.

Oak Grove Cemetery

Because of the water level many caskets in the cemeteries are above ground here in Slidell. In New Orleans many more are above ground. We are 6 foot above sea level and they are 7 foot below. Singing "Under the sea, under the sea."

Say cheese

This is Bro. Taylor a nice older man in my ward who bought this huge cheese at Sam's Club. His wife asked me Sunday if I liked cheese and I said yes. He came walking into the center this afternoon to present it to me. I asked to have our picture taken so we could say cheese. The bump on his head is from a brown recluse spider bite.

Mission tradition

The "death" of a missionary. When a missionary is finished with his mission and is ready to go home he is said to have died. Here are the young missionaries in our district holding the funeral.

Swingin' in the Southern Sun

We went to visit less active families with the young proselyting sisters today. I want to share here pictures of one of the homes we visited. The husband works nights and so he was asleep but the sister invited us into her enormous, gorgeous back yard where we had a wonderful visit under her pergola. We enjoyed sitting there admiring the view of the yard carved out of the wooded landscape as we discussed the church in her life. She's a great gardener with the picture perfect yard which I completely enjoyed. We had fun taking pictures in the front yard of her home. We all agreed it is the ideal version of the traditional Southern home. We also visited an adorable in-active young man who is in our class. We love to go out with the young sisters where we get a taste of proselyting. We were told before we came out that the church no longer sends single senior sisters on proselyting missions. Sister Goodin and I are two of the first six single senior sisters in the church sent to an employment center, so we're 'special'. Think so?

Sister Matson and me

Our Employment Center was closed because of the National holiday and so we were able to enjoy an early Family Home Evening. There is no way I can explain the great time we had. We ate at the cute cafe' where I had a fun southern sandwich that they call PoBoy. It's sort of a toasted smashed subway. Well, kind of. It was fun to be with the Matson's. Sister Matson is truly a forever friend. I'll never forget her influence inside the center and out.

Independence Day Celebration

To celebrate the Fourth of July our ward had a pancake breakfast, flag raising ceremony and primary kids parade. This little one is my favorite.

Painter Arnold Friberg dies

I'm especially grateful for this painting of Captain Moroni as he raises the Title of Liberty and its influence on my sons.