We never thought we'd have to worry about anything but tornadoes here in Kansas but last Saturday morning we had an earthquake!  It was just after 7 a.m. and the house started shaking and we both immediately knew what it was. It went on for a little bit and then it just went away. After researching I found that it was a 5.6 earthquake in Pawnee Oklahoma. That's not a really big earthquake but we sure felt it here in Wichita. That same Saturday morning we headed off to Emporia Kansas for a baptism. We got about halfway there when we were told the time of the baptism had been changed so we turned around and stopped in El Dorado to get some lunch. I have so enjoyed visiting all these little towns here in Kansas that are so cute, so quaint and so filled with history.  This state has a lot of wild west history, I mean Dodge City is in Kansas!

    Every Saturday we get in the car and drive to baptisms throughout the state. In this mission you do a lot of driving! This past Saturday we finally went to Emporia for a baptism, it was the first time we've been there and once again I fell in love with this town.  We had a lot of rain Thursday and Friday and it was pretty obvious in Emporia that they had a pretty intense storm. There were broken trees and branches strewn around but no reported tornadoes!  We attended the baptism of a 9 year old.  We see a lot of young kids being baptized and I am amazed at their faith and desire to be a part of the church at such a young age. After the baptism we drove to Topeka hoping to make it to another baptism but we had the time wrong and as we got there everyone was leaving the baptism. We did get to visit with some of the elders and I even started on a church tour with Elder Call and Elder Brunsvick with a sister that they were introducing the church to.  One of the things the missionaries do is take investigators on Church tours and show them the chapel, the baptismal font and other areas of the church and explain what goes on in these rooms.  I didn't get to be part of the tour for very long because Mitch and I had an appointment with two other elders. After lunch we headed off to Junction City to visit with some of the sisters serving there. I love the sisters! We got home after 7 p.m. and it was nice and cool in Wichita. We've had some pretty intense heat and humidity in this city. it's been nice lately and it's starting to cool off a little bit. We were able to go for a walk again and I loved that!  

     We spoke in sacrament meeting in Hutchinson. Hutch is about an hour and five minutes away.  I'm getting much more comfortable with speaking. That's a good thing because we are going to be doing a bit of it. Next week we have to speak in the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the Wichita Stake Conference. I never really saw myself doing this but here I am and I'm learning so much from the experiences I'm having here on the mission. After speaking in Hutchinson we came home and Mitch headed out again for a correlation meeting with our area authority and the five stake presidents in our mission. His meeting started at 1 and he didn't get home till after 6!

    We've had our first senior couple that served in the office come to the end of their mission. We love the Cocannours and are going to miss them so much. They've taken off on a trip to visit their kids and and go to the Philadelphia Temple open house.  I'm happy for them to get to go and have some fun.  I feel it was a privilege to get to know them. The O'Briens have taken over and they are wonderful people too. All of the senior missionaries that serve in this Mission are such a huge part of this important work. They make a big difference in the mission  and they make a big difference to the missionaries they work with. All of the elders and sisters love them! Don't know how you'd run a mission without them!

    We had MLC  this past week and I did all of the food for it. We picked the theme The Kickoff.  That's perfect for this time of year so all the food I made was game day food. We had chicken wings, meatballs, chicken ramen salad, queso dip, bean dip, caramel popcorn, brownie bites and fruit.  I really enjoy preparing the food for the missionaries and they are so appreciative.  MLC went really well and the mission has set some good goals for baptisms. Mitch and his assistants did a lot of teaching  and it was really good and motivating.  I am always impressed with these 3 guys, they do such a good job. We were pretty exhausted afterwards and as usual after these kinds of meetings, we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut, picked it up at the drive-thru and sat in bed and ate it. It's a fun tradition we started.

  We never thought we'd have to worry about anything but tornadoes here in Kansas but last Saturday morning we had an earthquake!  It was just after 7 a.m. and the house started shaking and we both immediately knew what it was. It went on for a little bit and then it just went away. After researching I found that it was a 5.6 earthquake in Pawnee Oklahoma. That's not a really big earthquake but we sure felt it here in Wichita. That same Saturday morning we headed off to Emporia Kansas for a baptism. We got about halfway there when we were told the time of the baptism had been changed so we turned around and stopped in El Dorado to get some lunch. I have so enjoyed visiting all these little towns here in Kansas that are so cute, so quaint and so filled with history.  This state has a lot of wild west history, I mean Dodge City is in Kansas!

    Every Saturday we get in the car and drive to baptisms throughout the state. In this mission you do a lot of driving! This past Saturday we finally went to Emporia for a baptism, it was the first time we've been there and once again I fell in love with this town.  We had a lot of rain Thursday and Friday and it was pretty obvious in Emporia that they had a pretty intense storm. There were broken trees and branches strewn around but no reported tornadoes!  We attended the baptism of a 9 year old.  We see a lot of young kids being baptized and I am amazed at their faith and desire to be a part of the church at such a young age. After the baptism we drove to Topeka hoping to make it to another baptism but we had the time wrong and as we got there everyone was leaving the baptism. We did get to visit with some of the elders and I even started on a church tour with Elder Call and Elder Brunsvick with a sister that they were introducing the church to.  One of the things the missionaries do is take investigators on Church tours and show them the chapel, the baptismal font and other areas of the church and explain what goes on in these rooms.  I didn't get to be part of the tour for very long because Mitch and I had an appointment with two other elders. After lunch we headed off to Junction City to visit with some of the sisters serving there. I love the sisters! We got home after 7 p.m. and it was nice and cool in Wichita. We've had some pretty intense heat and humidity in this city. it's been nice lately and it's starting to cool off a little bit. We were able to go for a walk again and I loved that!  

     We spoke in sacrament meeting in Hutchinson. Hutch is about an hour and five minutes away.  I'm getting much more comfortable with speaking. That's a good thing because we are going to be doing a bit of it. Next week we have to speak in the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the Wichita Stake Conference. I never really saw myself doing this but here I am and I'm learning so much from the experiences I'm having here on the mission. After speaking in Hutchinson we came home and Mitch headed out again for a correlation meeting with our area authority and the five stake presidents in our mission. His meeting started at 1 and he didn't get home till after 6!

    We've had our first senior couple that served in the office come to the end of their mission. We love the Cocannours and are going to miss them so much. They've taken off on a trip to visit their kids and and go to the Philadelphia Temple open house.  I'm happy for them to get to go and have some fun.  I feel it was a privilege to get to know them. The O'Briens have taken over and they are wonderful people too. All of the senior missionaries that serve in this Mission are such a huge part of this important work. They make a big difference in the mission  and they make a big difference to the missionaries they work with. All of the elders and sisters love them! Don't know how you'd run a mission without them!

    We had MLC  this past week and I did all of the food for it. We picked the theme The Kickoff.  That's perfect for this time of year so all the food I made was game day food. We had chicken wings, meatballs, chicken ramen salad, queso dip, bean dip, caramel popcorn, brownie bites and fruit.  I really enjoy preparing the food for the missionaries and they are so appreciative.  MLC went really well and the mission has set some good goals for baptisms. Mitch and his assistants did a lot of teaching  and it was really good and motivating.  I am always impressed with these 3 guys, they do such a good job. We were pretty exhausted afterwards and as usual after these kinds of meetings, we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut, picked it up at the drive-thru and sat in bed and ate it. It's a fun tradition we started.

   The Gospel is True!