7 Months

Hey Family...

So i'l appologize right off...I didn't get any pictures....sorry about that.

This past week was a strange one. Time to me seems to be warping and it doesn't make sense. I've been out 7 months now? Huh, strange.

But I have had such a great time. 

Last week the Sister Missionaries had a Baptism for one of the Litchfield students, Angel. We made a really cool arrangement of Cannon and Angels we have heard on High mixed. Sis. Lower Played the Violin and I played the piano, and wrote a second piano piece that Elder Reed played on a second piano. It is probably the coolest song I've ever come up with. I will try to find a way to send you the audio of the song. I call it, Christmas Cannon. :D. But we actually played the song for the Missionary Christmas party, I just forgot to tell ya'll about it. But WE thought the Angel theme applied to Angel's name :D. Elder Gardner and Sister Johnson sang during the song.

I have been feeling lots of emotion for the passing of Jaynie. I loved her, she was my other neighborhood Mom! I will miss her so much! I know she is alright in Paradise right now. I owe so much to her! Thank Goodness for the Plan of Salvation! She was more prepared than anyone could be! 

My heart was touched to hear that Scott was able to be with Ian! Wow! Two Great people in my life! My Mom sent me this picture of Scott and Ian, two Men of God! Ian is my best buddy! I sure hope he knows how much I love him and how much I feel for Him and his family! I love all of them! 

John Mitchel, an Older Black man who we ran into one night a few months ago, a less active. He has been coming to church now for 3 months actively! He is also now living the Word of Wisdom and faithfully paying tithing. We are so proud of him! He has become my Southern Grandpa out here! He is going to be ordained a Priest next week, he has asked that I do that. I love John, we've been meeting with him weekly for 3 months, he's definately had the light of Christ Awakened in his soul! He was baptized 20 years ago and the missionares and ward members just forgot about him and he fell into inactivity for 20 years. But Elder Davis and I were the first missioanres to begin to visit him regularly and that's what brought him back. He just wanted someone who would care. 

I was pondering on the significance of Ordaining a Black Gentleman to the Priesthood in of all places, South Carolina! I am so pround and happy for John. We Hope to see him attend the temple this year.

I will try harder to get pictures for next week. Maybe i'll find a way to send ya'll the song I wrote.

I find out what happens this weekend in relation to transfers, I have no idea what to think.

Love ya'll! Have a blessed week! (they say that alot, have a blessed day :D)

Elder Dearden

2015!?

2015?! Huh, oh well. I will just pretend it is still 2014 :D. I always had 2014 as a mile stone in my life because that's when I would leave the prison of the public education system. But now that it is 2015 I am weirded out, reminds me how much of my life I still have ahead of me!

But we had some cool experiences last week. We picked up a former Investigator that Elder Davis and I had met. Her name is Judy. 

We were driving down a road, and I had this weird Idea to randomly pull off into this neighborhood to the right. As we were driving around in it I had some flashbacks and remembered Elder Davis and I knocking on that street, and remembered the lady we had ran into! So we knocked on her door and she was thrilled to see us! She invited us in and we said a prayer with her family! 

She had us come back on Saturday and teach her the restoration. We are excited to see where her progression goes.

We spent New Year day with Kathy! She took us to Cracker Barrel. Good food. Kathy is just as awesome as ever :D.

Bryan is doing fantastic, came to Church Sunday, we talked about his progression towards baptism. He still wants to be baptized, he just hasn't decided how soon. He feels that he shouldn't rush into it. We hope that he makes his decision soon though :D.

Many other people we are working with though! But nothing super fantastic or "wow" enough to share. 

I spent time making some goals for 2015, it was strange to realize that the year 2015 is going to be spent 100% on a mission. For those of you who know what the number 15 means to me, that'll make great sense :D.

Elder Lumpkin and I are having fun though! We are like brothers now, things are going really good.

Sorry, no pictures this week. Sort of an uneventful week. But, next week, I will have pictures! 

Hope ya'll have a super-duper-freakin-fantastic week!

Elder Dearden

This is a picture that Kathy sent me (Stacie) I believe it was taken at the Fosters home on Christmas.

Christmas was Amazing!

Hey Family Friends and People!

Christmas was amazing! I had such a fantastic week, we did so many fun things and had some great spiritual experiences!

Christmas day we started off by going to Kathy's place and opening the gifts she had for all of us and giving her our gifts. She got us a bunch of board games so we have more stuff to do on P-day! Super thoughtful of her!

After that we went to Sis. Foster's home to have a Christmas Lunch! Sis Foster had made a fantastic tasty meal! Good Southern food! I wish I could have been able to eat all of it! It was so good. Kathy came with us to eat. We watched "He is the Gift" and sang songs and it was really just a picture perfect Christmas! Sis Foster Bore her testimony about Missionary work and talked about how important it is to her! She is just amazing, I will always remember her!

We went to the Manley's home afterwards to skype. The Manley's are my other favorite people! 

Skype was really run I thought, when we were talking I felt like it had only be a few days sense I had entered the MTC, it was fun to see how fast time moves!

Bryan was ill over the weekend! He wasn't feeling to good. Anways he asked us to give him a blessing. We brought a ward member with us, Bro Quinn. Bro Quinn looks like and sounds just like Elder Bednar, I always feel funny around him because he reminds me so much of him. But Bro Quinn sealed the anointing and gave Bryan a special blessing. I know Bryan loved it. 

Bryan is reading the Book of Mormon regularly now, and I know if he keeps doing that he'll finally commit to Baptism. :D

Lots of other things are happening, I love my mission most because of how much I learn each day! The Lord is very real!!!

I know that my mission is not about Baptizing, but inviting others to come to Christ, and I receive so much joy as I focus on the invitation, although many will reject it, or be slow to accept it I know the Lord is in Charge.

I love the Friendships I have made, and I hope they last beyond my mission.

I am looking forward to the New Year! Holy flip, 2015? How? I thought it was still 2012, the end of the world?

I hope your week is as great as mine was!

(In the picture we are squinting our eyes because the sun was right in front of us! But that is Sis Foster and her Husband Ellis, and Shomarkus, and investigator of the other elders, and Kathy behind me!)

Also, Thank you Freeman family-  I got your Christmas card this week!  Thank you so much!  Thank you everyone!  I had an amazing Christmas!  I feel so blessed to have such great family and friends!

Elder Dearden

Excited for Christmas!

Hey Family and people

Merry Christmas! I know my Christmas is going to be super awesome!!! Hopefully ya'll can have as good of a time as I have planned!

On Christmas we will be with Kathy, The Manley family(For Skype), and Sis Foster was going to talk about having all of us plus Kathy at her place! And Bryan said he's going to cook us up some food to keep in our fridge this week!

Last week was really really fun, we had some great things happen.

At the Cemetery we worked again and cleaned up some Grave plots. Sis Foster was her usual awesomeness and a guy walked by and asked us what we were doing, she told him everything.

It resulted in us gaining a new investigator, Shamarkus. He was so fascinated with what we were doing and is going to help us clean every Wednesday now. Sis Foster invited him to Church and he came! Sis Foster is on board, she knows how to do things. 

So....remember Dikerous, the strange guy who smoked in the church bathroom....well...he's out of jail now. So he contacted us and we have resumed the lessons. So quick miracle (I guess a miracle, or just a strange convenience)....because he was in jail he was kept away from drugs, and he is no longer shaky and doens't need to smoke a pack of cigarettes every day.

He came to Church again and loved it, he really has a countenance change and I am humbled that he has such a desire that he reaches out to us, we didn't really reach to him, he is coming to us.

Bryan has a second Job now so it has been difficult to set up a time to meet with him, especially during these holidays. But we stay in frequent contact. :D

Kathy is as awesome as usual. She gave us a large Christmas Tree and decorations to put up in our apartment. It was so fun as a district to decorate the tree, Kathy is so kind and I know we'll be friends for a long time! Love that lady! I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'll put it on next week.

Many other things happened but that was the highlight!

Hope ya'll have a great week :D

Thanks to these people for sending me cards, packages, and stuff :D

Grandma Dearden

Grandma Dixie and Grandpa Glenn

My parents :D

Kraig and Kim Dearden

Kyle and Kylie Boren

Linda and Kelly Batt

Leslie

Don and Connie Dearden!

My awesome ward and the youth!

And all the people who write me each week!!! Love yall! 

Loving Greenwood!

Family, Friends, People...

Life is going really good here in Greenwood. I am loving it!

Elder Lumpkin and I are like best buddies now, we seem to be able to read each other's mind and we're getting along real nice. 

Nothing super amazing has happened really. 

Just the usual. Our investigators are moving along nice and we are gaining more investigators as we go.

We have gained 3 investigators because of the service we do by cleaning the cemetery each week. People will come by and thank us for cleaning their cemetery and then ask why we do it....then we talk about family history and set up times to teach them how to use Family Search at their home.....which in turn leads to gospel discussions. Sis. Foster deserves all the credit though! She is amazing with her creative missionary efforts. 

The ward here in Greenwood is doing so great in missionary work. They seem to really be on board now with Hastening the work!

We got a new Elder in Our apartment...Elder Gardner!

Elder Gardner and I get along real nice, he is a fantastic addition to the apartment. He lightened the mood and things seem a lot brighter now. 

I am so excited for Christmas! It is going to be so fun here during Christmas.

The Weather has been so nice and I've decided that I prefer Carolina Winter over Utah Winter. 

A lot has happened, but I'll write more about what our investigators are doing next week! I've got quite a few emails to respond to this week!

I love ya'll and Hopefully my blog/letter next week can be a little longer.  

Elder Dearden

My Greenwood People

Hey Family and Persons!

This past week flew by! I can't believe I will have been out here for 6 months this week! What an Adventure. 

Rather than send a lengthy letter, I figured I Would send lots of pictures of the people I love out here! 

This is Sis Foster! MY FAVORITE! She is doing this project that we help out with where she is excavating a graveyard site from the 1800's that was covered under a forest. She has contacted the families of these graves and many of them are actually slaves buried here. It has been a great missionary opportunity and she has touched so many hearts as she has helped families here in Greenwood connect to their ancestors! I use my GPS to plot the locations of the graves and she is recording all the information so that people can come find their family. She actually found her Great grandfather here, and she has done the temple work for him and his family :D Such a cool thing!!

This Dan West (Left) and Brian (Right)

Bryan....He's ready to be baptized, he's just praying for a date now. 

Dan West actually grew up in Ogden Utah, and was a world famous gymnast believe it or not, and he was friends with one of my old Gymnastic Coaches (Dustin). Dan served here in Greenwood on his mission too! And he just ended up moving back here after his mission. Funny story.

This is Sherry Ingerto, she is a recent convert, Baptized in October. I played at her Baptism and we are becoming great friends! I can't wait for the day that she goes to the temple! She is an amazing person!

This is the Litchfield couple! They are so good to me, they make life fun and interesting out here!  Also the couple that visited my family in Utah.

This is Bishop Wren and His wife. They are so kind to me and I love them so much! They fed us Thanksgiving breakfast  2 weeks ago! 

This is Brother Pate, the Ward mission Leader! He's such a great support and help to everything we do here! He frequently gives rides to our investigators and does so much to help out! I'm really close to him, it will be a hard day to say goodbye.

These are my really funny redneck truck drivers I go see every once and a while. 

(Right: Claude) (Left: Jeff)

Claude is a Blackfoot/Cherokee Indian, his father was a medicine man (or so he claims). 

I love visiting with them, we have funny and interesting conversations. When I am in need of entertainment, I visit them. haha, funny people.

Wow! December?!

Wow! December?! What happened!!!!

Things are fantastic here!

Last week we got to eat Thanksgiving with Kathy! It was really good! We went out to Cracker Barrel and had a great dinner! We also ate Breakfast with Bishop Wren that Morning. It was a tasty day. 

This is Kathy, my favorite person to eat out with.

Bryan is doing sooooo good!!!

We went over to his home last week on Wednesday and talked from 2 pm to 4 pm....during which we broke the ice and invited him to be baptized! He actually agreed! He says he knows that is what he is supposed to do, he however doesn't know when. He says he feels it is around the corner, but he is going to ponder on a date!

So after that visit, we went home for a bit, and then came back...! We talked again from 6pm to 8pm (His family was out doing sports and his wife was working, so we had some good quiet time to talk.)

He had never said a Prayer out loud before. We invited him to pray with us to see if this is the right path for his life. He was hesitant, but he finally mustered up the strength to say a prayer. It was a beautiful prayer, he started to cry in the middle of it, and said to us, "You don't know how much it means to me to call you friend". It really touched my heart! It has been amazing to see Bryan progress to this point! He said, "This is so close to my heart, what the missionaries have taught me causes my heart to burn".  It was so cool, he was able to describe to us how he felt, and he knew it was the spirit! He was filled with so much emotion and it just melted my heart to see the light of Christ awakened in his soul!

Bryan is truly one of the closet friends I have out here on the east coast! He is truly a brother to me! I love him to death!  Bryan came to church on Sunday for all 3 blocks again, it was so great. He participated in all the classes and he is really understanding everything! It is just so cool to see this happening! 

I actually gave a talk on Sunday I talked about how Missionary work for the Living goes hand in hand with Work for the Dead. I centered my talk around Elder Bednar's talk, "Missionary, Family History, and Temple Work"

You can read it here.

The ward loved my talk and I know the spirit was there when I spoke, it was a neat experience. We had a total of 3 investigators at church yesterday! It was another great week full of success!

So many things are happening here! Greenwood has really changed from the time I got here! It seems the missionary work has exploded, the members seem to finally understand what this is all about! Love it!

I find out this Saturday if I'm being transferred or not! I really don't know what will happen? I think I might leave? But who knows?!

The people in Greenwood are so close to my heart, it will be hard when the day comes that I have to say goodbye! I'm going to get lots of pictures of my favorite people here in Greenwood this week, so ya'll can see what they look like!

I hope your week is as fantastic as my last week was!

Elder Dearden