Today was special for one of my students. He has been a
Priest for several months, but he has a speech problem so he has never blessed
the Sacrament. He speaks so fast that it is sometimes difficult to understand
him. When he gets nervous he speaks even faster. He planned to do it a few weeks
ago, but when he got to the chapel he found others were already there. Today he
decided he really needed to do it. He practiced in a room before the meeting.
Ted was blessing with him so he could give help and reassurance if needed. When
it was time to bless the Sacrament, I was praying hard that he wouldn’t get
nervous and not be able to do it. He did a beautiful job, very first time. It
was clear and understandable. He was concerned because he mispronounces words.
We assured him that it isn’t pronunciation that is as important as getting the
right words. I was so proud of him.
I believe the new elders will be good for the branch. They
are starting a Book of Mormon study class on Tuesday and an activity night on
Thursday. They challenged the men and women’s groups to each come up with 5
names of people they can teach, either non-members or less active members. I
feel the blessing of having them already.
Pres. Batt is coming Wednesday to talk to the leaders of the
branch about a new program. I’m concerned because we have a branch activity that
night and all the leaders will be in the meeting. I’m not sure what will happen
with the rest of the people. Someone will need to lead the craft and games. I’m
pretty sure who will get to do it.
Monday it snowed off and on all day. Ted took the car to get
an estimate on the damage caused by the tumbleweed. It was worse than we
thought, but we need to get it fixed. He was gone a long time. I began to be
very worried when he wasn’t home by early afternoon and the snow was fairly
heavy at times. I knew the freeway was not the best place to be in the best of
weather and the snow could make it a little dangerous.
I was at home all day. I wanted to make bread to give to a
young man Ted was going to see with the missionaries in the evening. I had
asked them to take Ted to the home to share the youth conference DVD with the
boy and his mom because he lived at the very end of the wickedest road we ever
went down. When they went visiting the young man was not home. (Ted forgot to
take the bread anyway.) Instead they went to the home of a lady we had been
looking for a while. The elders had found an address in their area book. Ted
was amazed to finally be able to visit her. She was very kind and invited them
in. She has several young daughters and they live in an unusually nice home
that is on a really ugly dirt road. They invited her to the party Wednesday and
she indicated they would try to come.
Tuesday was cold—about 8 degrees. We sat in the car a while
before driving to the church so the car could begin to warm up. In the evening
we went to the church for a study class with the elders. It went well. I
learned some things I hadn’t thought of before. There was only one family, the
elders, and us, but it is a start.
Wednesday was still cold, but not as bad as Tuesday. I
studied most of the day, preparing for Friday and Saturday and also our lesson
for a child in the branch. The elders came for a “coordination” meeting. I went
through the branch list and gave them the addresses and information on everyone
we knew on the branch list. I served them lunch when we finished. We basically
pulled out all the leftovers and they were very grateful. They had interviews
with Pres. Batt in the afternoon so they were off right after eating. I made soup
for the party in the evening. I also took the bread I’d made on Monday.
When we went to teach we were met outside and visited a bit
with the child we’re teaching. Her grandmas were home. We talked about her
homework until her mom arrived. The lesson went well. We talked about the first
principles and ordinances of the gospel so it was pretty deep for a seven year
old. Her grandma asked a couple of questions and her uncle and aunt listened to
the entire lesson. When we were done Ted asked the grandpa if he would like to
have the missionaries teach him and he agreed. Elders had been teaching him but
he never finished the discussions and was never baptized. We invited everyone
to the party then left.
We picked up the soup and bread and headed to the church.
The party was a big success. We had two families that haven’t been to church in
a while and the family of the young girl we’d taught. We also had another lady
bring a friend. We all enjoyed the soup then the leaders left for the meeting.
I was disappointed that I couldn’t go in, and it would have been good if one of
us had been in there, but no one was left to run the show. The lady in charge
of the craft wanted to help people one at a time. Someone needed to make sure
everyone got up and got involved and stayed on track. Everyone liked making the
boxes and I had a chance to visit with one of the ladies for a bit. One family
left, but everyone else was involved. The teenage boys were all sitting around
staring at the tables, so Ted got them up playing PIG. Two of the boys really
enjoyed getting to know each other. That was good.
Thursday Ted surprised me with a cute card and a nice
necklace. Apparently, he spent time shopping Monday while he was in Gallup. We visited
with our grandma. We had her make a list of the things she thinks she needs to
do to be ready to attend the temple. We discussed several of them and expanded
the list a bit. We explained the connection between the Sacrament and
repentance and baptism. She also realizes she needs to be much more diligent in
attending and participating in meetings. She really is growing and stretching a
lot. I feel like we covered a lot of ground in our visit.
After we left there we tried to find a lady who lives in the
area. Her husband had been a member but he died about 5 years ago. I felt
strongly that we needed to visit her. She answered the door and let us in. We
visited very briefly and I told her Heavenly Father loved her. I also told her
she could be with her husband forever. She was feeling very lonely. She is
retired, but she didn’t have enough to pay for her home and food, so she has a
part-time job cleaning. She cried when she told us her husband had passed away
almost exactly five years ago and she really misses him. She also said she
didn’t have any food. She said she was going to the senior center to get some
lunch then she would work later in the day. I told her we would come back and
would like to share our message with her.
At home I felt we needed to put a box of food together for this
lady. We put a few basics into the box. I felt impressed to make bread and give
her a loaf. The bread came out of the oven just a few minutes before we had to
leave. I put the loaf in a separate box so dogs wouldn’t get it. We put the box
with the bread underneath the other box. There was a dog sniffing it, so I hope
she actually was able to get it. We went to dinner for Valentine’s Day. The restaurant
gave me a long-stemmed rose.
At institute we had only one student when we started. About
15 minutes later another arrived. I’m not sure if he came for the lesson or to
play Settlers afterward. Another student arrived about 2/3 of the way through.
We had some good discussions on the last days and the signs of the Second
Coming. Afterward we played Settlers. We set a time limit this week. I won just
three minutes before we called the game. It was fun but we were exhausted on
the way home.
Friday we made a list of all the people we know in the
branch and have been in contact with. We grouped them by location and what
their status is and what their needs are. We had a list of about 60 families that
we feel need some attention for starters. We thought this would be a good place
to start reaching out. I called a lady and told her we had missed her at church
and wanted to make sure everything was OK. We told her about stake conference
this weekend. I think it helped, but it was difficult to tell. I have been very
concerned about her and really felt I needed to call.
After some additional study and preparation we drove to
Toh-la-kai for seminary. When 5:30 arrived and no one was there we really
wondered if it had been cancelled for some reason. About 5 minutes later a lady
and her granddaughter arrived. Her son had hurt his foot and couldn’t make it. She
sort of rolled her eyes when she told me that. No one else ever came. The girl
and I had a good discussion. We talked about the signs of the Second Coming
using Matthew 24. She is really a bright girl. We then talked about the
parables in Matt 25: 10 Virgins, the King traveling in a far country, and the
sheep and the goats. Since they are all about the Second Coming it fit together
well. I was really grateful she had come, but I really wonder why the others
didn’t come.
We were about ready to go to bed when the elders knocked on
the door. They have a habit of stopping by on their way home. They wanted to
borrow our key for the church so they could play basketball at 5:30. They also
wanted to ask if it was OK to attend seminary tomorrow. Of course, I agreed. We
talked about some of the people in the branch and what we thing needs to be
done. It was a good visit.
Saturday morning everyone came to seminary except one. My
lesson went well. We talked about Thomas and being faithless. It was sort of a
repeat of last week’s lesson, but only two had been there and I reworked it so
it wasn’t too obvious. We then talked about Peter and ways we can “feed the
sheep”. I think that went well, but there are a couple of things I wish I’d
said. I then shared the video “Finding Faith in Christ” which is an overview of
Christ’s life. I find it very touching. I asked them to think about what they
had learned from studying the life of Christ.
In the evening I took a couple of ladies with me to the stake
conference adult meeting. It was outstanding. I really enjoyed it and was
uplifted by the speakers. I gave one lady a loaf of bread and a cube of butter.
She had liked the bread so much at the party on Wednesday that I wanted to do
that for her. She called when she got home and told me they were all enjoying
it so much. Wonderful!
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