Good morning from Latta, South Carolina

Slowly we are finding our way around our Branch boundaries.  The distance between members is awesome.  We are grateful for a GPS system on our iphone.  This allows us to find these remote addresses of "unknown" members on our list of visits.  So far we have not had a positive response from  any of our visits.  We have invited a lot of people to come to Church, however.

Yesterday we spoke in Sacrament meeting.  We are grateful that our "turn" is over for now.  Actually, it was a good way for us to be introduced formally to the Branch members.  We are feeling more at home each week.

Elder and Sister Lovell and Linda and Derrick Weatherford came here for dinner yesterday.  It was fun for us to have guests for Sunday dinner.  We served Swiss steak, potato casserole, broccoli, tossed salad, home-made rolls with fresh strawberry freezer jam, and banana cream pie for dessert.  The rolls and jam were a big hit, and Sister Weaherford really liked the potato casserole.  

Elder and Sister Lovell will leave a week from today.  They have been so helpful in showing us around the area and introducing us to members.  The Branch members will truly miss Elder and Sister Lovell.  Their service in this Branch has been a real labor of love to everyone with whom they came in contact.  We will never be able to replace them, but hopefully we will eventually make friends.

Elder Keller and Elder Wilkinson (our newest Elder) asked if we would drive them around on Sunday for some "media" lookups.  These are basically names from referral cards that come to the mission.  The Elders have limited mileage, so we were happy to provide transportation to these out-of-the-way places.  From the several places they made contact, one resulted in a teaching appointment this week.  For this one find, they are grateful.

We had a serious rain storm, so while waiting for the rain to subside, the Elders, the Weatherfords, Lovells, and the Bowmans all read the scriptures in the Easter eggs that I had prepared.  Marcie sent us a copy of the scriptures, and I filled some plastic eggs with the various symbols represented by the scripture references.  Fortunately, I did not have to have the scriptures translated into Dutch or Vietnamese as was done on previous Easter holidays.

Saturday seven sisters from the Marion Branch attended a Stake Relief Society birthday celebration in Florence, S.C.  The meeting was especially good--Sister Holm (our mission president's wife) and our Stake president both spoke.  A video presentation introduced the fifteen General Relief Society presidents.  It was really well done.  We all participated in a service project in which 200 personal hygiene kits were filled to be distributed to each ward or branch.  The story of "The 100 Dresses" was the theme for the luncheon event.  Dresses were donated, and were to be sent to shelters with women in need.  Lunch was delicious.

All is well in the Bowman household.  Love to all.