Indiana

 I was able to FINALLY return to my mission in June. Sister Dwigans has been asking me to come ever since I left 16 years ago. She was a member we lived with in Kokomo. I grew to love her so much. She is such a great example of faith and hope and has a strong testimony of the gospel. Her and her husband are converts of the church from 35 years ago. I was so happy to return and stay in the same house I lived in back on my mission. I was in Kokomo for 6 months so I still knew a lot of people. I wish I had taken more pictures. I slept in every day and relaxed....visiting with Sister Dwigans. We went on walks every night and saw the Indiana fire flies. We went visiting teaching, visited people from the ward, and got a food order for her neighbor. We had a lot of Indiana cooking.....Chile with macaroni in it, mashed potatoes with noodles and gravy over it, and fried tenderloin. The highlight of the trip was finding someone I had been thinking about and worried about for many years. I couldn't get her out of my mind from about February on and so I knew if I didn't find her I would be super disappointed. I prayed and looked and called people with her last name in the phone book. I sent messages to several of her family members on Facebook. I found the obituary of her Father on the internet and used that has a reference for looking for her. I called the names of some of her siblings to NO AVAIL! I finally got a hold of her step-mom who said she hadn't seen her in 3 years. She said she thought she might be living out on the old air force base in a neighboring town. UGG! It was the day before I was headed home and I was desperate so I went to peoplefinder.com and paid the money to find her. Immediately it pulled up an address out on the air force base. I thought this might be the right place. I woke up with a terrible stomach ache and Sister Dwigans said, "It's the enemy! Get yourself a sprite and let's go!" We drove the 20 or so miles out to find her. We did get lost for a bit but we were able to find the house. What a joyous reunion when she opened the door! What a surprise for her!!! She has had years of struggles and I wished I had 2 days just to talk to her but we've kept in touch. It was a trip I will never forget!

Sister Healton, Me and Sister Dwigans. Sister Healton was the ward mission leader when I got to Kokomo and they hadn't had Sister Missionaries for a long time so they treated us very well!

Fried Tenderloin.....it's really big and thin. Personally I think they need to find bigger buns.

Brother Dwigans

I think I knew why I had a stomach ache the next morning. The sides were fried mushrooms, fried corn and fried mac and cheese.

This was the old-fashioned drive-in where we got the fried tenderloin. This is Lynn and Frank and their son Andrew. I taught them 4 of the discussions and they were baptized after I left the area.

Love these guys.....salt of the earth!