Happy Halloween from Elder LeBaron

A "Wally World" House all decked out for Halloween on the way to Church!

Happy Halloween: Should I wear this hat to the ward Halloween party tonight?  Is Thanksgiving like Christmas and the turkey is really your father?  The branch president’s wife thought she was ordering sheet caramel for 70 candy apples but actually ordered 700 so we may be serving candy apples for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Spring Break.

We had an LDSSA leadership mtg. yesterday and Sister LeBaron and I filled it with Halloween puns.  The LDSSA Pres., James Taylor, was dying.  It was still a good ghoul setting session. 

I often play the piano for institute classes or lead the music – which I also do in our 

Way too much time on his hands

Sunday meetings for the branch.  It is thrilling to see the new converts, who were baptized earlier this month, teaching a class or blessing the sacrament.  Many institute students come from extremely difficult circumstances, have health problems, travel an hour or more to get to school, and have no support from home, or (worse) have to support their parents or have no parents. 

Sister LeBaron  gave a great Book of Mormon lessonthis morning to two students and me and made German pancakes, plus several loaves of bread with spinach and roasted garlic.  We have approval to buy a 7 cu. ft. chest freezer.  The supervisor said we needed to make a case for it.  I said, “Make a case for the freezer or our need for the freezer?”  Having a small freezer will allow us to store ice, items that come on sale, etc., and keep us from having to make a thirty-minute trip to Sam’s Club in Conroe every week or so.  We will also get a small BBQ grill  for the institute building.

We currently have about thirty students who attend some class or activity during the week.  It is still a bit discouraging to have only one or two students attend a class.  I told our supervisor this story: “An old rancher struggled through the deepening snows of a sudden storm one Sunday morning and finally reached the church.  The preacher saw him come in and confessed, “You are the only one here.  Should I still give my sermon.”  The rancher said, “All I know is that if I went out to feed the cattle and only one cow showed up, I’d still feed her.”  The preacher was delighted, pulled out all the stops, gave a two-hour sermon and quickly approached the rancher to ask how he had enjoyed the service.  The rancher said, “If only one cow showed up, I’d still feed her – but I wouldn’t give her the whole load.”  A couple of years ago, Bob and I showed up in Nauvoo on New Year’s Day.  Those church missionaries at the historical sites were like coiled springs waiting for someone to show up so as the only tourists there, we did get the “whole load” – several times.  (We just wanted rings made out of horseshoe nails!)   Now, the “no nonsense, sturdy” missionary shoes are on the other foot and we just wish we had Justin’s calf roping skills.

Teaching how to make Mary's White Lasagna

We have lots of chances to teach and work with the students.  This student, Megan, wanted to make the Lasagna we had at one of our devotionals.  Ruth Ann is going to teach cooking lessons next semester on Thursday nights and plan Devotional food around those lessons.  It will all be part of a Provident Living Institute Class.

Friday Devotional Lesson

We all learned how to do this from a utube video

Serving in the branch presidency is a quiet succession of callings, sustainings, interviews, settings apart, conducting music, meetings and feeding the branch members.  In Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream, he didn’t mention that the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands to go forth to fill the whole earth wasn’t always going to be rolling downhill by itself.  We feel more, sometimes, like we are part of a handcart company and there are some long uphill pulls.

One of the challenges for us is that both the branch and Family Ward boundaries are huge and many members travel 20-30 minutes.  It is about 80 miles wide and 80 wide with Huntsville in the middle.

The lake in the upper right hand corner is a reservoir called Lake Livingston and is fed by the Trinity river.  As you can see, there is a lot of green area.  The trees are tall and beautiful but they have shallow roots.

Missionary "Training" at FHE

Tender Mercies

I wanted to start out this post sharing two wonderful experiences I had on Sunday.   I was just getting ready to leave Sunday School to go into the YSA Branch Sacrament meeting.  I was sitting next to Kate Dickenson, one of our students.  I always think of her as sweet Kate.  She was diagnosed with a brain tumor about 18 months ago.  When they did the first operation, they cut the nerves for the left side of her body in order to get at the tumor and so even though she can walk, she doesn't have much strength in her left arm or leg.  She has since been through chemo and radiation.  Before the cancer, Kate had beautiful long hair, but she loved to wear wigs and other funky things.  Lucky for her, she already had a collection when all of her hair fell out.  So, back to the story. . . I was sitting there and this tall, strong older man who was a prize fighter and once fought Cassius Clay, appeared out of nowhere to take Kate's arm and lead her back into the chapel.  He was so gentle and caring as he helped her up.  It really touched my heart and makes me teary just thinking about it.  It was especially sweet because my talk was about developing Christlike love for others and then this kind man was almost an immediate personification of those qualities.

The next tender mercy was in Relief Society in the Branch.  Maddie, who is one of our new members of a month was called to be a RS teacher.  She couldn't get hold of the RS President and asked what she should teach.  Since I didn't know if the Branch had chosen 4th Sunday Conference talks, I told her to just choose one of her favorite talks from conference and go with it.  It was a great lesson!  It was well thought out and well presented and best of all there was such a special spirit about it all.  The gospel changes lives.

1950's Singer Featherweight

I got an early Christmas present this week.
When my sewing machine went on the fritz a few weeks ago,  a sister in the ward let me borrow this little featherweight.  She has three of them, but was wanting to sell this one.  It sews only a straight stitch, but those stitches are beautiful.  She called the other day to see if I was finished with my project because she had a buyer for the machine.  I said, "Oh, that's too bad, I was thinking I might want to buy it" and voila.  I am now the proud owner.  I am happy to get my other machine back just in time for Tiago's baptism this Saturday.  He needed a special baptism towel.  Tiago is the first of 7 baptisms that will take place while we are gone.  Does this mean I can count him as one of my baptisms?  "The greatest work we will ever do is within the walls of our own home."  Pres. David O. McKay


I was asked to speak on Sunday in the family ward.  I was doing just fine anticipating my talk when one of the Sister Missionaries started to give her talk and I realized we had both used Preach My Gospel as the main resource for Christlike qualities.  I found it so ironic that the best and most complete resource I could find on Christlike attributes is in Preach My Gospel.  I guess that is a big criteria for missionaries as we go out to share the gospel.  Good thing I'm quick on my feet so they didn't hear the same talk twice.  Ha, ha!  I was just fine until the rest song before my talk was "Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words" and we came to "Like the sunbeams of morn on the mountains", I started to see the mountains in my mind and then I just started crying.  I told them that even though I miss the mountains terribly, I do like listening to so many birds all around us.  There seem to be many more kinds of birds here than in Utah.  They wake us up most mornings with their lively chatter.  We have also been learning a lot about the different kinds of trees that grow in Texas.  There are 4 or 5 different types of oak trees.  There are River Oak that have leaves like an ash tree, but the bark is like oak trees and they have little bitty acorns.  There is also a live oak, an Heritage Oak and a post oak where the branches grow downward and then run along the ground.  They are great climbing trees.  We went to visit a member and he showed us his post oak.  It is covered with a fern called a resurrection fern.  It looks totally dead and you might think it is a kind of moss, but when it rains, it comes alive within minutes and looks like a regular fern plant that is rich and green.              

Resurrection Fern on a post oak limb.

We have been busy this week doing bulletin boards.  Isn't it great that you can find such fun things on the internet.  I don't think I have created a bulletin board in over 40 years from when I first started teaching.  It was fun putting it together with Neil and cutting out letters, etc.  A big thanks goes to Kimberly Sylvester for the scrapbooking paper.  She gave me two pads of it when we were packing up.  Thanks, Kim!  The blue bulletin board beneath is at the back of the Institute in the common area and is used for announcements, calendars and now the quotes 

we just posted.  The other bulletin board is in the front of the building just across from 

Sister Vann's office.  She is the smart one who

 figured out how to put the quotes in the ovals 

we found at JoAnn's.

She also printed off the quotes from the apostles

and the first Presidency.

Doubt Your Doubts was the all time favorite quote of the students

Fall in Texas

It’s fall in Texas.  I don’t know what that means because the only apparent change is the temperature.  Our leaky pipi reminds me of a joke:  A man took his friend from Texas to Niagara Falls to finally show him that there were big things other than in Texas.  As they stood next to the roaring falls.  The man said to his Texan friend,  “Do they have anything this big in Texas?”  “No,” said the Texan, “But we have plumbers who could fix it.”

Maggie’s visit was a welcome respite from our regular routine.  We watched kid’s DVD’s, drank chocolate milk, went swimming, and went to McDonalds.  I told Maggie that McDonalds never advertises “Unhappy Meals” at McDonalds.  They tout McRibs but never McMisery Meals. (2 Ne. 2:27)

Fune time

We stopped at a city park in Conroe, TC and the kids were transported with a variety of fun options.  There was a fat tree squirrel lying on the cool, wet sand.  I thought at first that it was road kill but he was just enjoying the cooler fall weather. 

I took a picture of this old tractor at the park.  We also got a picture of several new tracters at the District Mtg. in Huntsville after the first transfer. 

Anticipation was high at the snow cone booth

I took a picture of this old tractor at the park.  We also got a picture of several new tracters at the District Mtg. in Huntsville after the first transfer. 

Back row l to r Elder Field, Elder Smith from Huntsville, Elder Perkins,
Elder ?(temp), Elder Schiffman from Madisonville.  Front row
Elder & Sister LeBaron, Sister Seymour, Sister Gutierrez from Huntsville
and Sister & Elder Lane from Crockett

After the park we stopped at TJ Maxx (the Haj equivalent of Mecca.)  A couple of ladies at the entrance said, “What ward are you from.”  Maggie was taken aback.  They continued, “We’re from the Conroe Second Ward.”  After we left the store, Maggie furrowed her brow and queried, “Was my shirt askew and were my garments showing?”  She couldn’t figure out how she has been profiled as being a member.  I said, “You may not have been showing your religion. It was possibly our name tags.”  #oh yeah right.

This week I bought this sign that I found at an Antiques Fair in Huntsville.  It says: Counter Lunch (which makes me think it was made by a dyslexic sign maker.)  Maggie said that dyslexic poets always write “in verse.”  

   

Note the spelling of Theraphy in this picture with Mom.“I’d like to challenge that!”

Last week’s FHE activity was at the game room of the student center: pool, darts, Ping-Pong, air hockey, foosball, etc.  The institute is going to be doing a Primary activity at the ward on Halloween so we’ve been gathering props.  I so wish that we could have all of the extended LeBaron family there in costume.  I have to curb my natural sadistic desire to scare others and have a kinder, gentler, name-tag wearing “spook alley.”  We’ll just jump out and say scary things such as: “Will you stop smoking?” or “Will you be baptized next Saturday?”   Laffy Taffy riddles:  What did the pig do in the kitchen? Bacon  What kind of shorts do clouds wear?  Thunderwear

One of the quotes I liked is,  “In the sight of the Lord, it is not so much what we have done or where we have been but much more where we are willing to go.”  …  “In the service of the Lord, it is not where you serve but how.”  -Elder Edward Dube

It may not be on the mountain’s height, or over the stormy sea;
It may not be at the battle’s front my Lord will have need of me;
But if by a still, small voice He calls to paths I do not know,
I’ll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in Yours,
I’ll go where You want me to go.

I’ll go where You want me to go, dear Lord,
O’er mountain, or plain, or sea;
I’ll say what You want me to say, dear Lord,
I’ll be what You want me to be.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock

Sister Vann, our secretary, gave us a great gospel lessons when she told us that most of the trees around here have shallow root systems.  The trees get lazy about digging deep because most of the time they hsve an abundance of water, but this area has experienced several years of drought and so now when we have big rains or winds, fallen trees are very common because the trees are so tall that when the ground gets too wet, the roots can no longer support the tree.  It reminds me of one of the scripture mastery(they didn't have those in my day) scriptures that I am trying to memorize - 2 Nephi 31:19-20.  For those of you young enough to have done scripture mastery, try to repeat it before you look it up!

Unfortunately our apt. is like the foolish man and has no roots, or rock so to speak, at all.  We awoke Monday morning to squishy carpet in our bedroom, hallway and 2nd bedroom.  The great joy of renting is that we can just report our troubles and they take care of it.  We thought it might be a crack in the cement floor and high ground water, but we found out later that an iron pipe in our ceiling sprung a leak.  They took up the carpet and had fans blowing for 2 days, and finally put the carpet down last night.  They should be repairing the wall and ceiling today.

Gracie, Gunner and Maisy at the Houston Temple

We had a wonderful weekend with our daughter, Maggie and her children.  Maggie spoke at our Friday Forum on personality types and how to work together in groups by honoring the differences in those types.  The high point was when her 3 yr. old daughter, Maisy came up to her and said, "I need to do poopies!"  This visit was a great way to test out our accommodations for visitors.  The blow up bed was a great temptation to become a trampoline!  I also realized just how small an apt. is and that I need some toys on hand if I want to be an adequate Nanny.  I loved showing off family.  Unfortunately we didn't get to play outside a lot since we had major downpours all weekend.  We had over 5 inches of rain in less than 24 hours.  Maggie said, "I guess that is why everything looks so green."  We are surrounded by forests and beautiful trees.   On the picture below, it is hard to see Maisy the 3 yr. old, but she could hold on for several rounds.  That girl is crazy.

The swinging mushroom at the park

Doughnut Country

One of the things I have noticed about Huntsville is how many doughnut shops they have.  I have counted over 5 just on the main boulevard and there are even more off the beaten path.  With that in mind, I offered to make doughnuts for conference.  We opened the Institute on Saturday to host conference on the big screen from our computers.  We served homemade doughnuts(actually spudnuts) in the morning and homemade pizza before the afternoon session.  It was all well received.  I also made a batch of rice krispie treats.  

I was impressed with how invested the students were in the conference sessions.  This is coming from the woman who hasn't watched a full session of conference uninterrupted by children in almost 40 years.  The great thing is that the talks are always so powerful that even being interrupted doesn't diminish from the Spirit.  This year was no different.  There is power in the word of God being shared by His prophet and apostles.

I had to smile when I listened to Elder Gifford Nielsen talk about exclamation point!  It reminded me of a time when our son, Joseph, was mocking me as he read aloud a letter I had written to our son, Bob.  Almost every sentence ended in an exclamation mark!(i added that last one for fun!)  If there is one thing I cannot be accused of, it is being undramatic!

Clayton Eves and Maddie Becker, our newest members.

Maddie and Clayton were there for all of the sessions.  It puts a special spin on things when you realize they are seeing a prophet of God for the first time in their lives.  They both went to the temple the week after they were baptized to do baptisms and are now excited to do family history.  They are both also talking about serving missions.  There is such a light about them.  I really love them.

I read a great article in the October Ensign on becoming men and women of God.  I want to design a bulletin board around it.

Elder Cardon quoted several of my favorite scriptures that are pertinent to me--"Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be?' and "Wilt thou be made whole?"  Unlike Jesus Christ who knew exactly what His mission in life was, I feel like I sometimes fail to see the small picture.  I know I have a mission to accomplish, that I am part of a grand design, I just seem to flounder as I pursue the course.  I think we all experience that in our lives.  We're not leaving the path, we just are having a hard time reading the fine print on the map.  Good thing they make bifocals!  I am loving this experience of learning more about myself and my capabilities.  Don't worry-- I still overprogram and have bigger ideas than I have capability, but I am growing in good ways.  My life is still an exclamation point!

Catching Up. . . Again

Marci and Ruth Ann and some of Marci's creations

My life seems to be the hurrieder I go the behinder I get!  I can't believe it is October already.  My daughter, Flori, asked me the other day if now the "bloom" so to speak of our arrival is past are we missing our old life.  To be honest, it feels like we have been here forever and we are so engrossed in teaching and serving that we don't have time to think of much else.  Don't get me wrong, we miss children, grandchildren, family and friends, but it is more wondering what they are up to rather than homesickness.  I should have prefaced those remarks by saying we haven't been faced with any major holidays and events (like grandchildrens' baptisms) yet, so we'll have to wait and cross those bridges when we come to them because that could be a completely different story.

We are getting excited to see Maggie and her kids in 10 days.  They are coming for the weekend while Justin is at a conference.  It will be our first "space" test.  Maggie will also be speaking at our Friday Forum so I am looking forward to that.  I think we will do pulled pork sandwiches that week.

Marci and Brackon Curtis

We have been busy the last two weeks.  We went to Houston twice.  Once to the temple(it was a Spanish session and I foolishly thought I could keep up with it so I didn't use the headphones, aargh!) and once to see our cousin, John Livingstone's daughter, Marci Curtis and her husband Bracken.  They just moved to Cypress from California.  We had a great visit.  Marci is so talented and can take anything and make a useful piece of furniture or decoration from it.  I am always envious of her imagination and get after it ability.

I have had some great experiences in teaching.  I always feel like my ability to share great moments after the fact is diluted when I go to share it, but I had such a sweet moment last Tuesday.  As I have mentioned before, I struggle trying to remember exact scripture references and have been trying to increase that ability to more easily draw upon the scriptures and teach by the Spirit plus try to ask questions that help make the discussions we have more personal and meaningful.  Often, as I study and prepare lessons, there will be a scripture that talks about how to be taught by the Spirit and I was frankly feeling pretty discouraged about why I didn't seem to have that help when I was seeking it so earnestly.  Last Monday evening I was expressing my discouragement to Neil who is always so encouraging.  The next day when we met with our Coordinator, he gave us a handout that was just what I needed to hear.  It was entitled "How to Ask Questions that invite Revelation" and one paragraph helped me to approach my study from a completely different angle that I had considered before.  It said:
"When a gospel teacher searches the scriptures with a question, the teacher's learning is more intense and focused.  The process of asking questions and discovering answers creates excitement and invites inspirations. . . As gospel teachers prepare to teach by searching the scriptures, they should ask themselves questio0ns such as "What is the intent of the gospel writer?, What are the converting or lifechanging principles?, What would God like my students to know that would be most beneficial to them?"

In the past, I have been so focused on figuring out what the students should learn that I forgot all about what I should be trying to learn.  It was one of those tender mercies that hit me powerfully.

There were 26 missionaries for Lunch

Serving table/mini pool table

Neil and I hosted a senior missionary conference at the Institute on Saturday.  We made Cordon Bleu, Rice Pilaf, my Mom's famous rolls, a pear gorgonzola salad with cranberry vinaigrette and apple tarts.  I think they liked it.  The highlight of the day was a baptism that afternoon of two young freshman students.  They are truly "golden" converts.  I made baptism towels that were a hit.

The new Branch Presidency

Sister Gutierez and Sister Bartholio hard at work

L to R
Brother Ballew= he make amazing catfish and
jumbalaya, President Olson - best story teller and historian, Elder LeBaron - best missionary companion ever, Brother Adams - our supportive High Councilor

Cupcake in a cup - a conference treat the children can make for themselves