D Day

Well, the time has come for me to head to PNG. We will be leaving Los Fresnos in about an hour. We will drive an hour or so to McAllen. We fly out of McAllen, and go to Houston,, and then on to LA. We have a 5 or so hour layover and the we move on to Fiji. We have a short layover in Fiji, and then we finally get in to PNG. Once we make it into PNG, we have one more domestic fligt to get to our first destination. So basically we will leave the apartments at 10 this morning, and arrive in PNG on 5:20 monday night local PNG time. Kinda crazy huh? I thought so to. We will be back in Texas on Monday March 17th around midnight. I doubt I will be able to add anything during this time, but maybe we will get lucky and find an internet cafe somewhere.

3 days until Papua New Guinea (PNG)

I have added a couple of things to the blog. On the right hand side you will see a list of books I have read in the last couple of months, maybe you will find that worth looking at. I will also be keeping you guys up to date with what we will be studying in class on a weekly basis.

While this week may seem a little think, I assure you it isn't. This week we have been honored to have Dr. David J. Hesselgrave with us. He was a missionary in Japan in the 50's and from there he went on to be a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from 1965 until he retired in the 1991. From there he has probably done more than most people do in a regular career. He is now 84, and this is the last time he plans on teaching. I wish I was as sharp now as he is at 84.

Well PNG is only three days away! I have been very busy this week between class, and preparing to leave. Kelley and the kids will be flying home for a couple of weeks on Friday, and I will head out on Saturday and will return a month later on March 17th. More to come on PNG in the next day or so.

great weekend!

We had an awesome weekend!

On Friday all the moms went to the zoo. We had so much fun. Here are a few pictures of the kids and their friends...




Erin, Hannah, Isa, Luke, Lydia, Natalie
Haley, Bradley & Elaina


The girls.
We bought all the girls matching pants!




Now here is the ENITRE group. the babies are
Alaina, Lola & Graham. Elijah is also in this one, he did not want to get
in the other one.




These are my wonderful children... they could only hold still for so long.
If you can just imagine Haley’s face when she told Alex why she could only sit for
a little while, "well you see there are these pointy things on the alligators back and they kinda bump on me..." that’s her reason for crying here.



THE RODEO

Then on Saturday or neighbors the DiIulios took us to the local Rodeo. It was awesome! We went in the morning to scope everything out. We had a chance to watch the hog judging... interesting, and we also saw all the other animals that were being judged. Haley was excited to get to see a pig like "charlottes web" but when we went to the pigs she started to gag b/c of the smell, she is so like me. Afterwards we stayed for the parade. It was mostly horses, local school bands and beauty queens (or to Haley, princesses) but there was this funny group of older people all dressed in kitchen attire. It was too cute.





After going home for naps we returned and started with the fair. They had some great rides. The Faulkner's met us there and we all rode rides together. Haley and Graham even rode a few. Graham loved all the rides and Haley was kinda a weenie and only wanted ones that didn't leave the ground. Anyway.




Then it was time for the rodeo. If you have never been to one-GO! It was great. We saw all kinds of things. The kids loved it too! We saw bucking horses and bulls, cowboys jumping off their horses onto baby bulls, roping, barrel racing, the whole nine yards. It was so dark that most of the pics did not turn out but watch the video. This is just one of a billion we saw!

and last but not least, the stars of the show!

The Conclusion to conversations with confused people

My books arrived a couple of days after my 3rd conversation with my Mormon friends. I went through the books, and studied as much as time allowed. I took many notes and made a couple of charts that showed contradictions between the bible and their beliefs. My charts included specific references to where their views were stated, as some were in the Book of Mormon, some in their Doctrine and Covenants, and some that were various sayings of Joseph Smith. I also printed up all of the changes that have taken place in the Book of Mormon, that they claim haven’t taken place. I was as ready as I was gonna be, now it was just a matter of getting some time to meet with them. They came by a few times when I was out running errands so I missed them. We finally hooked up and made some time to chat. They day we were supposed to meet they called and said they would be late. They never showed up. We then scheduled another meeting; to which they stood me up a second time, only no phone call this time. Another couple of weeks went by, and they came by my house when I was sitting down to eat dinner. We scheduled another time to meet, and they actually kept their end of the agreement. So they came over, only it wasn’t the same 2 guys I had met with before. Elder Hunt was there, but they had moved Elder Fellows to another city. I can’t remember the last name of the other Elder that replaced Elder Fellows. So we have some small talk, and eventually began to talk about things. Elder Hunt start out by wondering what he is doing here, because he thinks that I don’t really care what he has to say. I kinda of found this funny, since he came anyway. I told him I was interested in discussing our differences, and reasoning out why we believe what we believe, and what is the grounding for these beliefs. So after going back and forth on some differences I think he finally had enough. And one point in time while he was laughing he said “Did Joseph Smith really say that”? At another point in the conversation, he said “I have never heard that, where did you find all this stuff”? I told him I did my research. :) So by the end of our meeting I made zero headway, other than perhaps to let him know that there are people out there who believe differently from them, and have good reasons for it, outside of a subjective feeling. He basically told me he didn’t see the benefit at all for people to sit down like he and I were doing, because it was unfruitful and pointless. I respectfully disagreed with him, and we agreed to disagree. I did 2 more things before they left. I got them to tell me their first names, Adam Hunt, and Chad ?. The other thing I did was pray for them that the truth would be revealed to them. I haven’t seen them since, but I continue to pray that they will find the truth, and flee from the lies they believe.

2008!

First of all, we are sooo sorry for not updating this! I had every intention of doing so each week, but with the holidays and now with school, i just got behind. Every time I sat down to do so, something came up. I promise I will try my hardest to keep it updated this time! If I fail to, please email me for a reminder!

Here is a recap of the past few months. October went by fast and fun. As we finished unpacking and settling in we also became very close to our neighbors the DiIullios. Alex and I took the kids along with Hannah, Ester and Elijah to the zoo the night before Halloween. Fun, but kinda scary. The Zoo here is great! We joined and have been several times since then. November went by just as fast. Alex spent a good amount of time at the CPCP school helping them set up their surround sound, TV, projector and all that kind of stuff. Abbie came to visit for an entire week at Thanksgiving and that was a blast. We stayed busy the whole time with the zoo, beach, mall, Mexico etc. It was sad to see her go but before we knew it we were back home for the holidays. Speaking of holidays, that went great as well but we were ready to come back to Texas. This has been the longest year of our life and we are so happy to be starting school!

Graham learning to walk!

He's loving it!!

Haley and her new friends Natalie and Elaina.

There are 4 families and 2 single students this year at the CPCP. We have had so much fun with all the kids. Haley is in heaven with all the girls. There are 4 girls all within 6 months, And 3 babies all within 6 months! How awesome it is to be living with other believers and fellowshipping everyday! There are days that we wish you all could be here with us (other days, things are kinda crazy)!!

We love you all and thanks again for your support!