Notes from Neil (Elder LeBaron)

On preparation day, I was loading an antique for the apartment into our enclosed cargo trailer.  A man who was also a customer helped me to lift the piece into the trailer.  I said, “Thanks, you saved me.”  He said, “No, Jesus saved us.”  I love how freely and openly fellow Texans embrace religion and talking about Christ.

 On Sunday, the College Stations stake presidency called me to serve as a counselor in the Heritage (YSA) branch.  In the stake, there are four wards in College Station, home of Texas A&M, and one ward in Huntsville.  There are also branches in the prison system (covering 10 units) and in outlying communities: Madisonville, Crockett, Brenham, Caldwell, Hearn, and Navasota plus YSA branches at both colleges and a Spanish ward – fifteen units in all.   The President of the branch is James Olson, a history professor at Sam Houston State University, who is also a prolific writer.  He has researched and written on diverse subjects: cancer, the Vietnam War, John Wayne, and dozens of other subjects.  Pres. Olson was in the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy and also served as a Regional Representative.

During our branch conference on Sunday, President Olson was speaking.  One of his grandsons had been playing at their home with some Star Wars figures.  The young boy accidentally misplaced a couple of them and, some time later, found them again.  He ran to his grandfather exclaiming, “They came back!”  The grandson’s observation was that they had wandered off by themselves and then, when they ‘came to [themselves,’ they returned home.  We were reminded by President Olson that we sometimes feel that God has “wandered away” from us in our lives.  In reality, through our own neglect, we often create the gulf ourselves until we can rediscover the Savior in our lives again and mistakenly believe that “He came back.”

Cafe Rio and the Bread of Life

We decided to give the students a taste of Cafe Rio for our Friday Forum.  It is hard to believe that a cultural institution in good ol' Utah is unheard of by most of the country and world.  I think it was a hit! We did black beans, sweet pork, lime cilantro rice, tomatillo dressing and cornbread with honey butter. We topped off the meal with mock fried ice cream and the ever delectable caramel almond sauce.  Most of the students have never heard of Karo (pronounced Ka-long a -ro-long o).  It is used in both the ice cream coating and the almond sauce.  I like it that I can keep them guessing.

We have instituted a new offering of Wednesday bread.  That means every Wednesday I come up with some kind of bread to serve all day long as students come in to the institute.  Last Wednesday I did banana bread.  I think this week I will do Nutella cinnamon rolls, but. . that is not the bread of life referred to in the title.

One of the sweetest experiences I have had so far happened on Wednesday when our lesson was on Lehi's dream and the tree of life.  In the morning as I was preparing to leave I was thinking about the tree of life and then my mind turned to the temple and I had some of those ah-ha moments when I experienced another level of understanding.

I am so impressed and touched by these students.  Over half of the young people we work with are fairly recent converts and most of them are the only member in their families--kind of like our dear Luci.   We had a very insightful discussion and I wish I had sat down to write this post immediately after teaching when it was all fresh in my mind, but I loved the comment from one student about Nephi's own quest for understanding.  From Lehi we have a synopsis of the dream, from Nephi we get a look into the whole plan of salvation.  In 1 Nephi 11:25, Nephi is told the meaning of the fountain of living waters and then he sees John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.  I love that he saw the future of not only the Savior, but also of his own posterity.  We talked about how the Book of Mormon is a constant witness of Jesus Christ.  Did you know that in the Book of Mormon Index, there are 11 pages of references to Jesus Christ in all of His different roles?  I love that Jesus is the tree of life and the bread of life, that the fruit of that tree is white beyond all whiteness, sweet beyond anything we have ever tasted, desirable above all else.  That is why we are here in Texas, not just to serve the bread of baking but to  hopefully serve the bread of Life to these students we are learning to love.

Cafe Rio

This is an outside view of our Institute building.  It is on the edge of campus

There's "muffin" we can't do

I just made a batch of bran muffins this morning (yes, Tommy, I put in craisins, dates and pecans, yum, yum) and so I couldn't resist the silly pun.

I can't believe we just finished another busy week.  I haven't run out of things to do yet, so that is a good sign.  I taught my first lesson last Wednesday and survived the trauma of it all.  I had the lesson all prepared with how I thought it should go.  On Tuesday during training with our coordinator, Brother Hull showed us a couple of techniques and methods he wanted us to implement in our lessons.  It completely threw me off and hacked away at my self confidence as a teacher.  I just couldn't seem to wrap my mind around how I should do it.  After a lot of heartfelt prayers and considerable anguish, 9am arrived and I went in to teach the lesson.  I had some major parts of the lesson on my computer to show on the overhead projector.  There was a minor hitch in that my computer doesn't have a VGA port, but rather another kind.  The students were great and we had a good discussion, but I was emotionally wasted by the time it was over.  One of the principles we discussed were tender mercies from Elder Bednar's talk and 1 Nephi 1:20.  After class, I had my own tender mercy when I went to Office Depot to try to find the right connector for my computer.  At first it seemed like the only thing they had for an mac that would work was about $125 or I would need to order something online.  Just as I was ready to give up in despair, the sales clerk walked over to a table and said, maybe this would work.  She had a cable that a customer had returned that they had ordered online and it wasn't the right connection.  It totally worked and best of all, it was only $12.  I felt so touched because it was so obviously meant just for me.

Huntsville has about 7 antique stores right in the downtown area.  We have combed through all of them on more than one occasion.  On Tuesday, Neil left to pick up one, possibly two pieces and came back with 5.  We now have a baker's rack in the living room, a lamp, a Hoosier cabinet in the dining area, a mini filing cabinet serving as a nightstand in the bedroom and a storage cabinet in the office.  I couldn't get too upset since I love them all.  Here's what they look like:

I forgot about the folding rocking chair

Baker's Rack

My favorite, I think.  Notice the "belly drawers on the bottom
they are made to hold flour and sugar

I have never seen a filing cabinet this small before

I stopped in at the local Bernina store to introduce
myself and saw this adorable fabric, so I had
to make some pillows.  I love these!

I have all of my sewing tools, patterns, et

Our Labor begins in Earnest

We had a "playdate" yesterday with the Ballew's, a great couple from our new ward, Huntsville 1st ward.  Brother Ballew is also the first counselor in the Heritage YSA Branch which we also attended on Sunday.  We met yesterday morning to go exploring the countryside.  It is so green and beautiful.  There is a flowering tree, the Crepe Myrtle,  that is along all the freeways and basically everywhere else nestled among pines that are quite a bit different than our Utah Pine trees.

We visited Lake Livingston which is a reservoir formed from the flow of the Trinity River.  The Lake is about 50 miles long and is a great spot for boating and bird watching.  The reservoir is controlled by an earthen dam, and is the main water supply along with Lake Conroe (25 mi. to the South)for Houston.  The Trinity River flows out of Dallas, so when they have rain, it sends a lot of water to the lake within just a few days.  There were lots of unique beach houses along the edges of the Lake.

The first Institute class begins today.  It will be taught by Bro. Hull, the Institute Director, who comes over from College Station.   I teach my first Book of Mormon class in the morning.  I feel quite worried about it.  I keep thinking, what if I can't remember what I have studied or what if they don't like me, etc.  I'll probably have the old beginning of school dream where I can't find my locker and have missed a whole semester of a class that I was signed up for.  I am sure I will be fine once I get started, I just need to have something to feel insecure about.

I wanted to post this picture we took on Saturday at the Mission Home with Pres. and Sister Pingree.  You can just tell by the picture how wonderful they are.

Still Learning

I was able to post pictures from my phone, but I couldn't figure out how to add comments, so I will need to find someone to help me in the composition department.  I just thought you would all like to see our new home.  We started with the bedroom and have been working each night and morning on putting little finishing touches and organizing everything we brought with us.  As you can tell from the photo of our second bedroom (office) that is still a work in progress.

I thought I would tell you about our weekend and then try to catch up over the week about all that has happened since we left SLC just a week ago today.

Friday night we were invited to dinner, along with the sisters and elders, to a member's home.  The Payne family are a wonderful couple about our age.  They are related to the CES missionaries that were here in Huntsville just before the last couple before us.

We left early Saturday morning for the temple after checking another 4 gas stations for Diet Pepsi on tap.  I have now officially given up and realize I am truly in Coke country.  We were going merrily along when I looked up to see a Highway Patrolman scanning cars and then saw him start into traffic right after we passed.  Fortunately, he only gave Neil a warning.  The speed limit changes from 75 to 65 just as we enter a new county, so now we are much smarter.

Can I just say that cell phones are amazing and the gps makes it so easy to find our way.  We attended the 9am session at the Houston temple and then I did 3 more family names in iniatory.  Neil delivered some things to the mission office that we didn't need for our apt. and then we met President Pingree (our mission President), at the mission home for lunch.  We also visited with Sister Pingree and some of their children.  We really felt their great spirit and love for us and the missionary work.

We started pin balling our way home.  Our first stop was the Conroe Aldi store (a wonderful, German owned store Flori first introduced us to in Bloomington, Indiana.  We then found a TJ Maxx, Ross and Bed Bath and Beyond where we found some bedding, dishes, etc. to help us feel a little more settled.  We also picked up a wireless router to go with our internet and cable box that we rented on Friday.  Fortunately, cable and internet are included in our rent.

Church was so amazing today.  We went to both the family ward and the YSA Branch, so we got about 5 hours of church in.  Everyone has been so friendly and so welcoming to us.  We feel kind of like movie stars because of the special way we are treated and greeted.  The testimonies that were given were very sweet and tender.  I made a Friendship Cake this morning to take to the "Break the Fast" activity after the Singles Mtg. this afternoon, and then we rushed home to make more cookies and pizza dough for dinner.  The LDSSA president and his counselor and wife came for dinner this evening so we could discuss goals for Institute this coming year.

We will meet up with a couple from the ward in the morning to go to Lake Livingstone and to see the surrounding countryside.  They also want to take us for some raved about cajun fish from a local restaurant.  We'll share pictures tomorrow. 

The Place we Call home

Our nightly nest