Beginning of Second Week 10/10/10

What a fantastic Sabbath day it has been; two ward sacraments, two relief societies and a sacrament meeting at Camp Geiger with the largest attendance they've ever had. We had seven Marines and four missionaries in the meeting. I was so humbled by the simplicity of the meeting and met some fine young men and women. Two of the young women are non-members who listened to an overview of the church and one of them wants to be baptised (she has been learning about the church for awhile) and the other wants to know more. One of the young men was a member from Mongolia who is here to learn about the U.S. military and how to better train their soldiers. His conversion story is amazing. Another member of the group is a Marine combat trainer. He's been deployed six times! I grateful for those who serve faithfully both in church and for country.

The highlight of my day was having a young man approach me after Sunday school and ask me if I knew an Alicia Zollinger who has a daughter named Charley. "I sure do!" I replied. "They are my daughter and granddaughter!" Well he was so excited to hear that because it seems that he used to work with Alicia at Smith's and even attended Charley's first birthday party with his parents. He's a great kid and so I took a picture of him with Elder Zollinger and me as a surprise for Alicia. I knew it would make her day; indeed it did! BTW, his name is Andrew Horrocks. Alicia likes him a lot and told me to be extra nice to him!

I'm so grateful to be here in Jacksonville, NC. I know that how ever hard it will become and how ever much my family will endure in our absence, we are meant to be here doing the Lord's work and we will all be blessed. I wasn't sure we'd make it here; with my bad hip and Elder Zollinger's bad knee it would have been so easy to just throw our hands in the air and call it quits. The pain isn't gone but everyday I'm blessed to be able to do what I need to do and put thoughts about my discomfort to the back burner. I remind myself that the Savior endured so much more; if He could endure His pain, could I do less?

Much love,

Elder and Sister Zollinger

North Carolina Raleigh Mission- Military Relations