Week 10--October 27-November 2, 2019

 At our monthly Senior Couple Family Home Evening we had to say good-bye to Elder and Sister Olson. They have served in the mission office for 23 months. He has been the Car Czar and she has answered the phones. They have also served with us in the Hill Park Ward.

 The sisters decided to have some fun this week, On Tuesday they dressed as a favorite character.

Front: Sister Holdeman and Sister Villegas.
Back: Sister Herrin, Sister Smith, Sister Lynsky, Sister Moritz, Sister Hales, Sister Nabhan, and Sister Mickelson.

Wednesday was Wednesday Addams day. They all dressed in black. They all had scowls instead of beautiful smiles.

Pictured: Sister Smith, Sister  Hales, Sister Nabhan, Sister Holdeman, Sister Moritz, Sister Spencer, Sister Flindt, and Sister Lynsky.

The week ended with "Fro Friday." They all went to bed with their hair braided so that it would be curly. However Sister Lynsky and Sister Hales didn't have to braid their hair as they have naturally curly hair.

Pictured: Sister Lynsky, Sister Holdeman, Sister Spencer, Sister Hales, Sister Moritz, Sister Price, Sister Flindt, Sister Mickelson, and Sister Barajas.

We had the opportunity to attend a baptism on Tuesday for a  Spanish-speaking young man by the name of Jose de Jesus Gomez Cerda. He came into the Visitor's Center with his girl friend, who is a member. Sister Barajas gave the history tour in Spanish as he speaks limited English. After the tour he asked to be taught the Gospel. He was living in Iowa, about 3 hours away, and due to complications couldn't be taught and attend the Spanish Ward where he lived. Sister Barajas received permission from President Love to teach him through Facebook. One of the lessons was taught in our apartment and Tom had the opportunity to share his testimony during the lesson. The missionaries sang "A Child's Prayer" at the baptism. Pictured: Sister Durfee, Elder Coe, Elder Galindo-Duron, Elder Loredo, Elder Rich, Sister Villengas, and Sister Barajas.

Following the new guidelines on women being able to be witnesses at baptisms, Sister Barajas was able to be one of the witnesses for Jose's baptism.

Sister Barajas, Sister Harrington, Jose de Jesus Gomez Cerda, Elder Harrington, Sister Durfee.

Sister Barajas, Jose de Jesus Gomez Cerda, and Sister Durfee.

Sister DeLeon is always all smiles. She had stuck eye stickers to her gloves to make it a missionary puppet.

A small miracle happened this week. We have searched off and on since 2011 when we served our Family History Service Mission for Tom's biological father. Garnalee was doing some research on the Harrington line on Ancestry. A page came up with Tom's grandfather Clarence R Harrington with several children, but did not list his father. However, it did give the name of a person connected to the Harrington line with an opportunity to contact the person. Garnalee sent an email to the individual explaining our desire to locate Clarence James Harrington. The individual responded with information for a James Clarence Harrington  who had passed in 2013 indicating that this might be person we were looking for. When Garnalee checked on Ancestry there was an obituary given that listed the names of three children. One of the children was Margrette Spiropoulos. Tom didn't think that this was his father, but we decided to do a Facebook search for Margrette Spiropoulos which would be easier to find. Her name came up, and Garnalee sent her a Friend Request. She responded through Messenger asking how Garnalee found her name as she didn't recognize Garnalee's. Garnalee explained what we were looking for and that we took a stab in the dark that the information for James Clarence was in fact Clarence James. She responded that they were the same person, and that she was Tom's half sister. We sent her Tom's phone number, and she called him. We learned that after Tom's parents had separated that Clarence remained in the Army and served 21 years. He continued to work for the Army as a contractor. He served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Pictured: Margrette Harrington Spiropoulos and Clarence James Harrington.

Sister Moritz asked us to take her to the baptism of a  man she had taught when she was assigned to serve at Liberty Jail on Saturday. We gladly agreed. It was a great opportunity to attend the baptism. Sister Pomeroy and Sister Smith were the witnesses for the baptism.

Pictured: Sister Holdeman, Sister Moritz, John Clayton, Sister Pomeroy, and Sister Smith.

The Kansas City Temple is beautiful at night.