Mexico?

Alright this past week was another really interesting one!

Unfortunately lots of people were busy and the work slowed down a bit, lots of appointments were canceled. But our investigators are still in close contact and are doing great!

Whitney is just as awesome as ever, she is already living the commandments required for baptism, and is still pondering a date! She has become a great friend out here!

Ben is doing good, we are doing a church tour with him today and teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it will be a good experience for him to see the baptismal font and the sacrament table and to talk about those ordinances with him there.

Bobby and Ed are out of town, but we look forward to meeting with them soon!

So Crazy story! This is probably one of the weirdest coincidences I've had ever!

So there is this member in our ward named Jeff Hall, he has been teaching Ben with us. He is really cool and we have become good friends over the past month. He married into the Robinson family, he's Bishop Robinson's Brother in Law. But Anyways we were all eating dinner yesterday at the Robinson home and Jeff started talking about his mission that he served 10 years ago. He mentioned a city named Oaxaca, and my mind immediately remembered Mexico! I was like...wait, you served in Mexico? And he said, "Yep, I served in the Puebla mission". I was like....oh great this is just getting weirder, and I asked him, "Did you spend time in Cholula?"....He said, "Yes..."

Then I was like, you probably know Esteban, he's a friend of mine who lives there. He responded...."Did you read the Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni?"....my mind popped at that point. I was like, "YES! I know the author personally!"........Then he brought up a lady named Ruth Davila that he spent tons of time with in Mexico....I started to laugh and told him my Parents met her too! 

Jeff has seen the other half of the padilla plates and has lots of the papers that Ruth drew up with translations for some of the pyramid texts. He knows the Davila family pretty well. We just hit it off and were amazed that we ran into each other! We are trying to set up a pday time to sit down and exchange information. 

I am just excited that this happened, I guess i'm used to it because it happened all the time back home where I would run into awesome people like this, but I guess the Lord sees it fit to keep connecting me to people :D.

Ya, so I'm having a great time! No coincidence that I am serving here...

I hope ya'lls week is fantastic!

Elder Dearden

Dinner on the Bay!

Magnolia Place Gardens

Ok so the past 8 days have been wild! So much fun, blessings, and success!

For P-day last week we went to Magnolia Place Gardens and had a great time! I have some pictures :D

  

After going to Magnolia Place, we had the opportunity to go out to eat with some Nonmembers that the other Elder's were teaching, it was a great p-day dinner! We went to California Dreamin, which is a restaurant that sits in the bay at Charleston! It was beautiful! The food was awesome too! I have a picture of us with them, their names are Marti and Dave :D. Awesome people!

Elder Parker, California Dreamin - Charleston Bay

California Dreamin - Charleston Bay

Marti and Dave, Elder Parker, and Me

Charleston is such a cool place! IT was cool enough that we went back again yesterday to go bowling with some Elders there! A really fun day!

Bowling in Charleston

Our investigators are doing amazing! 

Ben is progressing great! He's such a smart guy, he has such profound answers to the questions we give him. He will probably pick a date for baptism sometime this week, so we are excited for him!

Bobby and Ed came to Church and really enjoyed it! We are excited to help them progress! 

We had an amazing conversation with Whitney and she is going to pray about a baptism date too!

Elder Parker and I are working on this really cool Organ Duet, with the songs, "Come all ye sons of God, and High on the mountain top". It's going to be so cool, the assistants have asked us to play when a member of the seventy comes this march. We are excited!

Elder Parker is doing good, reminds me of the good old days when you learn how to adjust to missionary life, he's doing well though!

We had dinner with Bishop and the Ward mission leader, (Father:Son) Bishop's Dad is our ward mission leader. Elder Parker played "This is the Christ" at their home on their piano and it was really quite the spiritual experience, the whole family gathered and just listened, it was a really sweet experience.

I love South Carolina! They love to say here, "Nothin finer than livin in south carolier".

I hope your week is as fantastic as mine was!!!

Elder Parker, Elder Sibers, and me Elder Dearden

Elder Dearden

Super Busy!

Hey People!

So things are going really well here in Summerville! We have many investigators and they are all doing so well!

Bobby and Ed - we taught them about the book of moron and Baptism this past week. They both agree that if they receive their witness that they will be baptized! I am excited for them, and hopefully the lessons continue to go down the path the are already on!

We are teaching this awesome 17 year old named Ben. He is so amazing! He has been coming to church for 8 months already and has finally decided to take the missionary discussions. He already knows so much! He has agreed that he needs to be baptized and we look forward to setting a date with him when we meet with him this week! He's awesome, it's really fun to work with someone whose age you can somewhat relate to, we're only about a year apart.

Whitney is just as awesome as ever, we visited with her and her family on Saturday and were able to have a great discussion about the church. We will be meeting with her on Tuesday to have another lesson! She had a Mormon friend growing up and already knows a ton about the church which helps a billion while teaching!

Elder Parker has been awesome, if anything his heart is just full of pure love and I know our investigators see it! Our personalities are quite different, but we are both learning a great deal about ourselves and I think things are moving forward in a good direction! 

He is the ward organist now and the ward loves it! He seriously sounds like a Mo-tab organist. I have never heard a ward sing louder in sacrament than when he played yesterday, it like energized the whole place!

I will repent........I failed at getting pictures again!  But hey, proof that we work our fannys off here and we are busy! But today we are going to some Plantation with some other Elders for P-day, I think it's like an old Civil war plantation with a garden or something, but we will definitely get pictures there! I feel bad, I owe pictures, but....ooops.

Life is Good though, the weather is amazing! I hear Utah weather is good too though? 

Hopefully I can go see the Ocean out here soon, maybe next month. 

I hope ya'll's week is fantastic! I know our week will be great! 

Elder Dearden

An Amazing Ward!

Persons who read this....

Hey life is going great here in Summerville! I am already making so many great friends! The Sister Missionaries who were here before us left us many investigators who I am already in love with! 

We are woking with a couple named Bobby (the girl)...and Ed, her boyfriend. They are really cool and we have had some great discussions with them! They like Church and have so many great questions. They are really seeking the truth! We are meeting with them again tonight!

Liz, is an Older black lady who is like another Grandmother to us here, she loves to meet with us and has a desire to be baptized. After keeping some commitments she will be ready soon! I am so excited to work with her. She is so welcoming and I feel at home when I am at her house.

There is this other really awesome family we are working with. The main lady we are teaching, her name is Whitney, she is so much fun! In her Mid-20's, we are teaching her and her mom who just got back from Korea. We talked with them a while yesterday about Korea and they gave us some Korean Candy. They love Church and they love what they are learning! I can't wait to see where their progress will take them!

The Ward has referred many people to us, they keep us busy. I am so grateful to have this ward, they take such good care of us, and feed us often :D. We have a young man (Priest age) who has been coming to church a lot lately and wants to take the discussions and be baptized, hopefully we can meet with him this week and get things rolling! 

Elder Parker and I are learning lots and we are getting along well. It is fun to see a new missionary, I'm remembering all the good times Elder Davis and I had and It just reminds me how grateful I was to have a great trainer! I hope I can be the same for Elder Parker.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures this week....I sort of forgot...really busy with things. 

Next week we might go to Charleston with Elder Lumpkin's mom, so that should be fun! Maybe I'll have pictures from that.

I'll try to get a picture of the outside of the chapel here, we have a new really nice chapel here in Summerville. They actually have 2 chapels! Lots of members here!

I hope ya'lls week is as great as mine was!

Elder Dearden

Serving in Summerville!

Family and Friends, and other people.

I am in Summerville, SC now! It is beautiful here! Very Tropical!

I am Training Elder Parker! A new Missionary from Salt Lake City! I am excited to work with him. He has such a positive and uplifting attitude! He is an amazing musician. He has perfect pitch and can play anything on the piano after hearing it! I am amazed. I am excited to have p-days on the piano with him, I bet we will be able to have some good times with music!

So, guess what?! The area I am in is where Elder Lumpkin is from! I came here on Wednesday of last week and I had a dinner with Elder Lumpkin's Mom! His Family was shocked and it was really funny to meet Elder Lumpkins Family! Elder Lumpkin wasn't to happy when he learned that I was going to his homeward. I can understand that, I wouldn't be to happy if I found out one of my companions was going to eat dinner with my Family!

I was able to connect quickly to the members here after telling them that I served with Elder Lumpkin for 4 1/2 months. The Ward members here are so on top of things.

The missionary work here in Summerville is amazing! The Ward is on fire and they are bringing in referrals to us like it's candy! The Sister missionaries who's area we are taking over left us the entire Nephite Library record of missionary work in summerville, color coded. So we have plenty of records and plans to accomplish the next 12 weeks! Haha.

Summerville is also where Elder Cook served for some time, so that was a cool connection too!

I love the climate here in Summerville, it is perfect! We have a car, but I think we will do lots of biking because it is flat here and the weather is perfect. My former area in Greenwood was the half the size of the state of Delaware. But my area here is small and dense with member families. It is going to be so much fun!

Man, I miss greenwood though! Argh, I am slowing recovering from past-area-depression syndrome.

But I know the Lord will comfort me.

Not much else to tell, other than the strange coincidence with Elder Lumpkin's Family and that Elder Parker and I are on fire and we have lots to accomplish here!

Hopefully I will get more pictures next week! 

Love ya'll!!

Elder Dearden

This is Pam Shumway, President of Republican Women here in South Carolina. We reactivated her in Greenwood. She lives on the border of SC and Georgia, but her ward boundaries are in Greenwood. 

Anyways she took us to a fancy country club cafe to have lunch last Tuesday before I left. She is awesome! 

Moving Forward!

 Wow, this past week was one heck of a week! So many great things came to great conclusions!

I'll start with John Mitchell. 

John has progressed so rapidly the past 3 months! He became worthy to receive the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday and he asked me to ordain him. It was such a great fulfillment to help John to do that. He will be ready to go to the temple by the summer!

I love John! We will be staying in really close contact!

John Mitchell

This is Bro Tim Pate, our Ward mission leader! I'll be coming back to see him for sure!

This is Bro Rapley, a ward missionary, we spent a lot of great time in the summer teaching people when he was out of school.

This is Josh Woolridge, he just started his mission papers two days ago! He went out with us quite a bit to teach lots of people!

This is the Manley Family! Bro and Sis Manley remind me so much of my own parents!

We got to work at the Cemetery again last week. Sis. Foster certainly has some very inspiring ideas about missionary work! I'm grateful I have that friendship with her so that we can stay in contact and I'm going to try to implement some of her Family History Proselyting ideas!

She gave me a bunch of pictures of us at the cemetery working! I'll attach some of those.

The forest in the background, there are still dozens of graves in the forest. The Graves shown in this picture were once lost in the forest.

Many of the grave stones are underground and need to be excavated.

Elder Cook is actually in this picture! We were able to have one last exchange this week before he goes home tomorrow! Elder Cook and I went out to eat with Kathy and it was great! Elder Cook was such a great inspiration and connection to have here! I love the guy! It only makes it better that we are 2nd cousins! I know the Lord was involved there! When I first arrived here in the South, I knew I was in the right place when he said to me, "You know we are related right?" ......haha

At lunch with Elder Cook

President Turner Called me Saturday morning and asked me to be a trainer! He also told me that I will be whitewashing an area! That means the area I will work in will have a totally new set of missionaries and we will have to start from ground zero and build up from there! Certainly going to be a wild adventure! I am excited to meet the fresh missionary from the MTC tomorrow! I hope to give him a good first impression of the south like Elder Davis did! 

Btw! Kylie Boren sent me a letter that her and Kyle were Sealed! So excited for them! Congrats! 

I'm eating tonight with Kathy! She is a great person in my life! Tonight when we eat, it won't be a goodbye. But Rather just the closing of a chapter! I owe so much to Kathy and all that she has done for me.

It is impossible for me to express everything that happened last week! Way to much!

Bishop had me give a final testimony in Sacrament Sunday. I Sure hope the Greenwood ward here knows how much I loved them! They are so great!

I am excited for this new Chapter of my mission!

Elder Dearden

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