Is "Studliest" even a word?

This has been one of those weeks that we have to remind ourselves that missionary work is more than knocking on doors!  We have been very, very busy,  just not out visiting a lot.

We did visit an elderly, vision-impaired single sister, Irene Kesner, outside of Maysville one day.  She had given me a little African violet plant last Fall and it is blooming so beautifully that Wayne took a picture of it on his IPad to show her.  She was very impressed at how well it is doing and that I successfully repotted it recently.  She likes us and gave us Honey Tangerines this visit.

On Monday Wayne spent the afternoon taking an older gentleman to the doctor in Winchester (oops, the guy is younger than Wayne, just in very poor health).  I did household chores, a little laundry, walked to the library, and did check up on a neighbor/member.  

Tuesday we had District Meeting here in Petersburg.  On the chalkboard, in the graph where our District Leader writes the weekly statistics, for Wayne and I he had written "The Ortons - the Studliest Couple in the Mission!!"  We are assuming (hoping) that is a compliment.  Fun meeting.  After the meeting we went to Robin Martin's neighbor, Tracy Johnson, where we reviewed the lesson we taught her last week, then taught about the Book of Mormon.  She is pretty fun and very interested.  We then met Elder Bell and Elder Mordecai at the home of one of their investigators and sat in on their lesson with her. She is a widow named Lou Black,  very nice lady and seems quite sincere.  We visited a couple more members in the area and drove 12 miles to Moorefield to see our dear friend Woneda who is out of the nursing home and back in her apartment with family tending her.  She was thrilled with Kyle's hummingbird picture, we are hoping there are more pictures coming for her.  We had a good but short visit because  we got a phone call from an inactive member needing help.  It was complicated, but the Grandmother was in the hospital in Morgantown with four-year-old Clarissa again, and needed a car seat from their home in Wardensville taken to Keyser, where the people who were giving them a ride home from the hospital Wednesday needed it.  Grandma Sheila said her son Will could meet us in Moorefield with the seat if we would take it on to Keyser (30 miles) for them. Actually we had been wanting to go to Keyser and it worked out fine for us.  It was a nice afternoon and a lovely drive.  We delivered the car seat, looked around the town,  found a Denny's and had a really good dinner, then drove the 40 miles back home.  No Bingo at the nursing home - they are quarantined due to a flu outbreak.  We had a fun visit with our granddaughter Cassidy who was turning twelve!

The rest of the week just flew by with a few visits, getting the van serviced (again), Relief Society night meeting and guys' jam session,  Wayne taking a couple of men home teaching, etc.  This weekend was our Winchester Stake Conference. We took our four elders to Winchester Saturday night for the Adult meeting - it was great, the theme was Hastening the Work of Salvation, are you all following that theme for your stake conferences this year?  My favorite quote was  "If you share yourself, your faith will follow."  It's true,  I have seen it again and again the past several months. For the intermediate hymn we sang "Hark All Ye Nations", with the full-time missionaries singing the first verse,  then joined by the youth for the 2nd verse, then with the whole congregation for the third verse.  Tried to show the power when everyone works together (and shows how puny the effort of just the missionaries alone...). Today the session was broadcast to our building and it was a regional broadcast from Salt Lake.  Very good with Bruce Carlson, Jean Stevens, Paul Johnson, and L. Tom Perry speaking.  After the meeting, John and Audrey Parks came to our apartment for dinner again, then John went visiting with Wayne while Audrey and I worked on genealogy at the church.  Five investigators at church today - they are enthusiastic and just soaking everything up. We hope to take John and Audrey Parks to the Washington DC Temple visitor's center next Saturday,  they are pretty excited about that.  But we will have to wait and see what the weather is like - because it is SNOWING today.
Again.

Our love to each of you.  We are excited to be a small part of this amazing work.  You are in our prayers, please pray for us.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and thanks to my maternal grandfather Closson Scott's ancestors who originally came from Ireland.  Here are my Irish sayings for the day:
"If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough!"
"May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far."
"May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks. May your heart be as light as a song.
 May each day bring you bright, happy hours that stay with you all the year long."