Rain Rain go away..... - 9/26/16

...come again whenIgethomefrommymission!

We got a foot of rain this week, in about 24-36 hours. Lots of flooding. It was impossible to not drive through any of it, so my philosophy was that as long as I could see the yellow line while going down the center of the road, I would be good. The water was dirty so it wouldn't get any deeper that 4-5 inches before it would disappear. We actually had to turn around several times. There was also a neighborhood where their 3 foot ditches filled up and then the water went into their homes. Crazy. I couldn't believe it! We are safe and no ark was needed!

When it was drier, we were able to get out and we taught a total of 12 lessons! It was a great week! Our investigator is still progressing and just as excited as ever for baptism! We are meeting with her and at a member's home tonight as a dinner/FHE thing again.

Also, this week we had a Returning Less-Active pass the Sacrament for the first time in many years! He has come a long way from the do-not-contact he was only six months ago. I LOVE to see people change their live and come back into the gospel! It makes all the screaming and slammed doors worth it!

In our meeting we learned how to plan. We have had this same training a couple times since I have been out, but I still tried to learn a couple new things, and I succeeded! We also learned about the importance of time management. All good things to learn and master here so that when I get home, I don't have to waste time trying to master it! I am sure that it will help me a lot in a future career and in college!

Other than all that, it was a pretty normal week. We are heading down to OBX again today to see a lighthouse. I will perhaps get me a Polar Pop on the way back up. :)

Have a wonderful week y'all. I love you!

Elder Ciminski

Hello! - 9/19/16

So, this week I will start off with a joke that I got from Jesse Evans Smith, wife of Joseph Fielding Smith.

What is the Garden of Eden's phone number?

ADAM-812

That made me laugh so I thought I would share. I heard it while listening to a lecture by Truman G. Madsen. I am really liking them! I have been listening to them a whole lot more lately! In the Lectures on the President's of the Church series I am on Spencer W. Kimball next!

This week was a good week! We had seven total lessons! That is thanks to the fact that we had two member present lessons with our investigator. We have set her with a date for October 8th! We have another dinner/lesson/family home evening with her and some members tonight! She is progressing so smoothly and so excited you can't help but be excited with her!

We are still meeting with the less-actives that we have been and are working with them. We are hoping that one of them will come to church in the next few weeks! That will be exciting!

I did give a talk in church yesterday. I didn't feel that I did too hot but everyone says otherwise so maybe I didn't do so bad? I don't know, I tried! :)

This Thursday we have a big meeting up in Portsmouth and President Weed will be giving us some instruction. I am excited for that! These large meetings are always fun!

Unfortunately the computers don't want to send pictures this week. That is a bummer, but next week I will have some good ones for you!

With love,

Elder Ciminski

P.S. Here is a pronunciation guide for some of the major cities around here. :)

Portsmouth = Portsmith

Suffolk = Suffick

Norfolk = Norfick/Nawfick

Currituck = Currytuck

Corolla = Corawlla

Some are kinda funny but this is what everyone says around here. They give you a funny look if you pronounce it how it looks!

You can't put an Emoji in the Subject line. - 9/12/16

I tried. :D

This week was one full of service! We are still helping a lot of the members of the Branch clean up. We had one tree that during the storm, decided to go bowling through the rest of the garden and while rolling across the lawn, took out a smaller, second tree, a retaining wall, and a birdbath while narrowly missing 2 other trees. We are making good headway! I think we did almost 20 hours of service this week!

We taught 5 lessons this week and we are getting a new investigator! Finally! The Elizabeth City Elders have been teaching her and they have passed her off to us now! We have a meeting with them tonight with a member and apparently she wants to be baptized! As you know, we haven't found any new investigators in a long time so it will be nice to have one! Yay!

One thing that I have been doing differently lately is using a study journal when I do my personal studies in the morning. A couple weeks ago I got a new study journal in hopes that I would be more inclined to use it. It worked! I haven't been perfect, but I have used my study journal a lot more now and I was honestly surprised at how much more meaningful it has made my studies. It has been amazing to see the difference it has made in my daily activities too! So if you aren't already, may I suggest that you use a study journal when you study? It came make your gospel study 10x better!

We went to the beach to view the sunrise again. I took over 200 pictures! I will be sending some home today so you all can enjoy the beauty of the Outer Banks too! :D

Anyway, other than that, we are chugging along and working. I hope that y'all will have a good week!

Elder Ciminski

If you serve in this mission and don't have a picture like this it is because you didn't serve on the coast!

Kittyhawk

This was a tough week! - 9/6/16

Wait! I Need to be more positive!

I am positive this was a tough week!

:D

It was a good one though. The real exciting part was Hermine. She caused a lot of damage, though as far as I know no one in the area was hurt. Although, we know of 1 trailer, 2 houses, and one Ford Ranger that got crunched by falling trees. The computer is being slow so I will send as many as I can throughout my time here. We were safe and our trailer has only minimal damage (the skirt underneath is now loose and bent, makes it sound like we are sliding off the cinder blocks every time the wind blows!) Perhaps the saddest thing is that a member in our congregation lost their 45 foot Weeping Willow tree. It was so pretty and full and is now being chopped up.

Before

After

There are down trees and limbs everywhere and some billboards got blown over too. One was for an adult store though so that isn't much of a loss. ;)

The storm blew in at around 2 A.M. with high winds and rain, the rain was literally falling sideways. It woke me up and kept me up. The power would blink on and off all night but it stayed on. Then the storm intensified and the wind changed directions at around 8:10. That is when we think all the trees came down. Our power went out for good at 8:13 A.M. (I made a note of it). Driving around afterwards was weird because we actually saw down power lines with limbs and trees on top of them. It was like living the news! Needless to say, we did not go out that day. We toughed it out and stayed in all day. I don't like staying in for that long. I was anxious because we didn't know anything about the storm! All we knew was that it was here! The trailer was shaking from the wind all day and the loose skirt and lack of power wasn't helping. I never felt like we were truly in danger for two reasons, 1. The Mission wasn't giving us any instructions so I figured it would be all right. and 2. The Branch kept texting us and checking up on us so I knew that they would let us know of there was anything serious. The storm finally subsided at around 2 P.M. I was so desperate to get out and do something so we got dressed in service clothes and went out seeking service. We did that until around 6, when we went over to a members and hung out with them and had dinner since we couldn't do anything else and the power was out. We came back home around 8:45 and started searching for flashlights since the power still wasn't back on. It finally came back on at 9:16. And that was it. We were very blessed and I am glad that no one was hurt in the storm. I also have a 72 hour kit now and know what it is like to shop when a storm is approaching. Never again. I will always be prepared! :)

So that was the exciting part of the week. Other than that is was a very slow week. We only taught 3 lessons and no new investigators. I told President Weed this morning in my email, I feel that I have grown the most here and have done a lot of good, even though there is not much outward success. There is always things to learn from others and I am trying to apply that and I get to know my companion more.

We almost taught a new family though! We ended up having to cancel because she is going through cancer treatments. We are hoping to be able to teach her soon when she is feeling better.

That is all for this week. Be expecting more pictures!

With love,

Elder Ciminski

Storm Damage

Currituck Sound