Life is Going Great!

Hey Family-Friends-people!

Life is going great! We have had a fantastic week! We picked up some new friends to teach, James and Nicole. They are a young couple with a toddler. Super nice people. We taught them the restoration and they loved it, and have read a ton of the Book of Mormon already. They came to church on Sunday and are super excited to keep coming. They are awesome! They already have friends in the ward too!

Elder Christofferson will be here over the weekend and we will be seeing him Saturday! They said whoever drives the missionaries to the meeting also gets to stay, so Bobbi and Ed will be taking us to Columbia for the meeting! It will be great! They are super excited just as we are to be with an Apostle! 

I really wish I had pictures, but I dont, but next week I will.

We got a new Elder in our Apartment. His name is Elder Appleton, He's from Canada, we get along pretty well. 

So, President Turner called us Yesterday and asked Elder Parker and I to play a musical number for Elder Christofferson on Saturday. We are really excited. President made a special request for it to be an Organ and Piano Duet. We just so happened to be at a member dinner when he called and so we asked Sis Jeffs if she knew of a song like that. She did! She found a really cool piece for us to play, "All Creatures of our God and King". It will be awesome! We are excited!

I hope your week goes great, life is fantastic here! So many great things happening!

Love Ya'll!

Elder Dearden

I (Stacie) had this pic sent to me via Facebook in February from a member they were with.    I didn't see it in my message box until now  :{

Staying in Summerville

Family and Friends!

Last week was amazing! We were able to go to Columbia to have the training about the ipads. Elder Zwick of the First quorum of Seventy came and shared with us some amazing insights. 

https://www.lds.org/church/leader/w-craig-zwick

He said the first reason we are getting ipads is because it will help us to be effective.

The Second reason is because the Brethren want to train us to be righteous users of technology. He says there are to many return missionaries going inactive because of the misuse of technology, mostly because of Pornography. It was startling to see how big of an issue it has become among my generation. 

We learned that we will be getting the ipads in the next 3 weeks

While at the training I was able to see past missionary friends! It was really fun. I have a picture of Elder Lumpkin, and Elder Parker with me!

More Great news!

On June 6th, Elder Christofferson will be visiting our mission! So we will have another mission-wide gathering to see him! it will be great! I am thrilled!!!

Life is good, the Lord is in Charge! Many great things will be happening!

Elder Parker and I will have another 6 weeks to enjoy this amazing ward and to be with some of my favorite people ever! 

Love Ya'll!

Elder Dearden

Ipad training this week!

So to start off I'll apologize for no pictures! I forget to take pics a lot.

But things are still going great! Our investigators are continuing to move forward and their testimonies are growing!

This Friday we will be trained on Ipads! I'm excited! I don't think that we will get to keep them that day, but hopefully soon!

I love being on a mission! Transfers are next week. I am starting to get nervous wondering who is leaving, me or Elder Parker? I want so bad to stay here, I LOVE SUMMERVILLE! But, then at the same time it would be great for Elder Parker to stay! Oh well, whatever happens I know the Lord's will is involved! We find out this Saturday what is going to happen.

The members here are awesome and we've made so many great friends, both member and nonmember! I feel super attached to this place! 

I wish I had more to tell ya'll, but my mind is drawing a blank right now. 

Oh! Last Saturday the ward had a scout fundraiser where they auctioned off desserts! It was fun, Bobbi brought some fancy cupcakes and they were really cool! Her Mom also came and built a fancy wooden chair to donate to auction off for the scouts. Bobbi's Daughter Taylor came too and it was a great evening!

Next week I should have more pics! I promise!

Love ya'll!

Elder Dearden

I (Stacie) found this pic on Facebook.  It is old and I have no idea where or what it is.  Since Taylor didn't have any pictures this week I thought I would add this one, ha ha ha. 

Families and the Gospel

Hey Family and Friends!

Mother's Day was super fun! I loved talking with my family and seeing everyone! Buba is twice the size he was?! Way tall! He's grown to much, someone tell him to stop! haha

I love my Mom and Grandmas! They do so much for me and for my family! 

But talking on Sunday with family reminded me how important the work of salvation is! I am always reminded when I email or communicate back home how amazing my family is and how much they have done for me! It motivates me to increase my efforts to help others here in the south have what I have! 

Our investigators are doing great, all of them are pretty much in the same place as before. Had a great time with Bobbi the day before Mothers day, she had a family cookout and invited us, it was really fun and her family is awesome!

Elder Parker and I are doing really good, we see miracles in others lives daily!

Last week I discovered that there is a native american reservation in my area, the Kusso Edisto Tribe. We went to visit and it just so happened that there was a POW WOW that day! I'm so mad I didn't have my camera! But we had fun, watched them dance and talked to some of them. We have the Chiefs address and will be returning next week to try and meet him!

I just want to share my testimony of the reality of the Lord, I know Him and I love Him. He is more than a friend, he is everything to me. My family is awesome because of Him! I love the Church he has restored to the earth for these crazy last days! He calls representatives who truly can call upon his power to perform miracles in the lives of others! I love Joseph Smith, I feel that he is my friend, I won't be able to thank him enough for the sacrifice of his family and his life, I love the Hymn, "Praise to the Man!". I know the Lord places individuals in our lives for a reason, and there are many of you who read this blog who have played an intimate part of love in my life and I thank you for that! 

LOVE YA'LL!

Elder Dearden

This is a picture of my District.

 Here is a picture of us being weird, I'm drinking Dr. Pepper in the picture :D

Love the Spirit at Baptisms!

Family and people!

Last week was really great, we had interviews with President Turner and it was a little different because everyone interviewed as companionships. Elder Parker and I had a good time telling President how well everything has been going. 

We didn't do anything super awesome for p-day last week though, but we still had a fun week! 

We started teaching Bobbi and Ed how to do family History, and they are hooked on it now! They love it! It will be so cool for them when they get to do the temple work for their family after they are baptized! 

Harley was baptized yesterday and it was great! I love the spirit that is felt at baptisms! Harley was so ready for that day! She did great and all the young women came from the ward to support her!

 

Today we will be going to downtown Charleston so that will be fun! We'll probably go on the bridge again because it is really cool.

I can't believe that Garit is 3 now! Holy Cow! The pictures I've seen of him remind me of Nic! Their faces are so similar! I'm glad that he was able to have a fun b-day!

I hope ya'lls week goes well! We have lots of stuff planned for this week and it should go great!

Love ya'll!

Elder Dearden

Great Progress!

                                                                      

 I've had a great week! Lots of great progress!

Next Sunday, Harley will be baptized, so we are excited for her! She is thrilled to be baptized, after many sets of missionaries, she is finally ready. So we are looking forward to that on Sunday!

Bobby and Ed are still doing great, coming to church and working towards baptism! We are so excited for them. This week we will be focusing on family History with them, so that they can be prepared to do their ancestors temple work shortly after they get baptized. So that will be great!

All our other investigators are doing fantastic, and are making amazing progress, I don't really have time to go through all of them, but we love them all!

It's starting to warm up here, but the weather is still amazing!

I am so excited to be getting Ipads in June, that will be a big change!

Elder Parker is doing amazing, I greatly look up to the Love that he has for all the people here and for the energy and diligence he puts towards this work! Great guy!

I love Summerville, I want to stay here forever! But I don't know if that will work out. 

Anyways, My mom should have some pictures of us with Bobby and Ed, I think she'll put them on the blog :D.

Love ya'll!

Elder Dearden

Great Things are Happening

This past week was really good for us! We had some great things happen! Our investigators are doing better than ever and we keep on finding new ones!

Bobby loves relief society now! Says it is her favorite!

We had a guy named Chase come to Church yesterday that we invited, he really enjoyed it!

We are excited for him to keep progressing.

I could go on about all the work we got done last week, but I don't know that ya'll want to hear it, just same old...same old.

We went to Magnolia Place again last week and explored more of that place. It was pretty fun.

The New apartment is a great set up, I really enjoy being with 4 missionaries in an apartment again. These are not the two we share an apartment with, these two Elders moved into our previous apartment.

This is Elders Hatch, Newton, and Us.

I'm lovin being on a mission! I cant wait for Ipads in June, it is FINALLY OFFICIAL, we will be trained by headquarters people in May and get our Ipads in June. The Hour has come! I really think Ipads will change a lot here!

We have a 12 year old Girl name Harley on date to be baptized, it is really solid. We didn't find her, she was taught by missionaries for a while and we are just reaping the harvest, we were just assigned to make sure the baptism happens. But She will be baptized on May 3rd. So that will be fun.

Hope ya'll have a great week!

Elder Dearden

Easter Sunday, The Wells Family