Hello!!!! - 10/17/16

We had the baptism and I have never seen anyone so happy and with such a bright light in their eyes as her!!!! That made everything worth it!!  I am so happy for her and nothing can taint that for me!!! Heavenly Father and His Spirit trumps all!!

So here is the crazy...

We had the pianist hop on to an emergency flight to Utah for unknown reasons. The baptism talk never hopped on her flight to Norfolk (the nearest airport) so she was not going to make it. So we had to find replacements for both, which we did and it all worked out. The the water in the font was green. Apparently it is normal and no one said anything. So that worked out. Then Katy Perry was supposed to sing Amazing Grace with the daughter of her member boyfriend and the one performing the baptism.

Yes, you read that right.

Katy Perry.

Like THE Katy Perry. The one who is comparing people to plastic bags in Firework.

It was over FaceTime but Miss Perry didn't show her face, but Eddy's daughter did and it was a nice performance. Apparently Eddy's daughter is a backup singer and writes music for Miss Perry and they are pretty tight. I don't buy it all though. It seems like all talk and nothing to show for it. But that would have been cool if Miss Perry did sing there!

Sorry that this email is coming to y'all the next day. We were at the mercy of the library closing yesterday and turns out that the computers shut off early by themselves. Who knew? So everything beyond this point was typed on Tuesday.

We are still chugging along. We are in Moyock (pronounced Mow-yaw-ck) today at the library here and it is so much nicer! And the internet is faster too! So I will send all of the pictures today!

Now that she is baptized, we don't have anything going for us again. We have at least half a dozen solid potentials from people who have recently been baptized that we are hoping will turn into something!! I will be keeping my fingers crossed!

We are still seeing if anybody needs help cleaning up after Matthew. Down on the Outer Banks there was a lot of damage, and the missionaries there have been doing a ton of service. When we were down there yesterday for P-day I saw many piles of furniture and textiles from people's homes that got flooded. On an exchange we helped a lady move out of an apartment that had 7 inches of water in it! But most of the people in our area have already gotten it all cleaned up, or are going to have a professional do it. Things like replacing carpet or rebuilding homes is a bit above my skill level! But we are keeping an eye out!

Anyway, I will write y'all next week! I love you!!!

Elder Ciminski

The weather was less than agreeable this week. - 10/11/16

Excuse my hair - it was windy.  There was no amount of gel or hairspray that would keep it in place!

It was definitely an interesting week though. I know that the Lord was looking out for his missionaries.

We have been following Hurricane Matthew very closely, perhaps too closely, but as residents of the Outer Banks it would be dumb not to. On Monday it was doomsday for us! They were forecasting for it to be a Category 2 when it his us and the eye was forecasted to be a direct hit in Barco, where we live. Then all the sudden on Tuesday it changed to miss us entirely. Next to no rain and no wind. This didn't sit right with Elder Kingsford and I. Also on Tuesday, it got cloudy and windy and it continued like that until Sunday evening. But we still prepared like it was going to hit. The Government was still preparing and FEMA was still everywhere. They were taking down all the billboards and clearing drainage routes. On Thursday Verizon went down as a result of "pre-storm testing" and they were getting all the ships and planes out of the Military Bases. As the week went on the forecast got steadily worse. On Friday, we went down to Nags Head for District Meeting and several homes and businesses were boarded up like you see on TV. This whole time we heard very little from the Mission, so we both felt very uneasy about the whole thing. Then we found out that our safe house was with a couple in the Branch. We would ride out the storm in their guest house. At this time the forecast was calling for 3-5 inches of rain, so we didn't believe it.  Then the forecast escalated quickly to 8-10 inches of rain and 40 mph winds. So we were very grateful for a place to go. We packed up everything Saturday morning and headed over. The storm didn't arrive until that evening, but man did it pack a punch. Our car we could see out the window was shaking and the trees were being whipped around. The house was shaking and rain was coming in the gaps in the window and door that was facing the wind. The power went out about midnight. No one got any sleep that night!

When we got up we decided to go and walk to the sound and see what the water was like. By this time the storm was mostly passed, but now I know what 60mph winds feel like! This is what the water looked like Saturday Afternoon,

and Sunday morning about 8.

I don't even want to see what it was like during the storm! From what we saw, all the waterfront people lost their docks and whatever was tied up to/on them. Possible windows blown out too. And there was water everywhere! On Aydlett Road, not too far from us, there was a 1/2 mile stretch that had flowing water across it, and it is still there this morning, but slower. There is going to be lots of cleanup this week! Several homes are flooded and cars were lost. Many people are saying that this is the most flooding they have ever seen here, and they have lived here all their lives! We were safe and while I was scared, I knew that we were safe. We are back in our trailer as of this morning, and we got power back about 12:00 last night (we think it was out for somewhere between 48-51 hours, I dumped the milk), but some people won't see power until Thursday! We were very blessed! 

One thing that I was impressed with was that the Branch had everyone accounted for so fast! There were many calls going out and people driving by to see property damage. There is now a list of needs and within a month I am sure that everyone will be as back to normal as possible! This Church is amazing like that! And preparedness too. One of the reasons that I wasn't too scared was because I have a 72 hour kit and I knew that if we needed to bug out quick, I would be fine. So get food Storage!!! It is such a peace of mind. As someone who can check off riding out a Hurricane, I speak from experience!

Our investigator is still doing well. Phone service has been spotty all week so we are struggling to get a hold of anyone, but she is still on track for this Sunday! She had her baptismal interview last week and passed! We had to cancel our Monday meeting (she has a tree on her home and is part of the group that won't get power back until Thursday) but we will meet with her tomorrow and catch up! We didn't have church on Sunday (Surprise... haha) so we will be making a lot of visits to members this week to see what we can do to help! 

We had a mission tour scheduled with Elder Bennett of the Seventy coming to meet with us, but that got cancelled because many roads are still impassable and all the flights coming into and out of Norfolk were cancelled.  So that will be rescheduled. Bummer.

That is all I have to share this week! I love you all and am so grateful for you all!!

I love you!

Elder Ciminski

I am staying! - 10/3/16

We didn't get a transfer call on Saturday which means that nothing is changing for the next six weeks! This means that I will officially served in the Chesapeake Virginia Stake for over a year and the Currituck Branch for 6 Months! It feels like home here, not sure if that is a good or bad thing!

The person we are teaching is still doing great! As of now she is on track to be baptized on October 16th! We are meeting with her again tonight (surprise!) at a member's home. She is awesome and I look forward to seeing her get baptized!

Other than her, we don't have too many people who are progressing that much. We did have a lot of lessons again this week which was very good. This week is looking promising as well. That is assuming that Hurricane Matthew doesn't blow us all away! That has been quite the topic of discussion here. Probably because most people live within a mile of the sound here.

General Conference was great! I came up with three questions that I wanted answered and wrote them down. All were answered in the first session! I then went back and came up with another one for Sunday and it was answered too! Conference is truly amazing like that! I can't wait for the conference issue of the Ensign to come out so that I can go back and study and mark up all of the talks again!

This weeks email is a bit short, I know, but not much happened! It was just a normal week in North Carolina! Expect some pictures though!

Have a great week!!

Elder Ciminski

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