Sunday I still was not feeling well. However, I was glad I
made it to church. We had over 60 people there. It was truly amazing. We had a
testimony meeting after the lesson in Relief Society. I told them I had been
blessed to be in their homes to teach and had felt the spirit there stronger
than I had felt it before. I told them how grateful I was for the opportunity
to teach seminary because I was learning so much. I am really grateful for
these good people. Our Break the Fast meal went well. We had Navajo Tacos and
they were good. I prefer the taste of salsa or some kind of seasoning on mine,
but they are good.
Late afternoon we taught a family a lesson on the Plan of
Happiness, talking about the pre-earth life, the purpose for life here, and the
hope for the future. I suggested to them that, if what I was saying was true,
it would be important for them to know it and put their lives in line with it.
They all agreed and said they would read and pray about it. We then invited
them to attend the CES fireside with Elder David Bednar. The two young girls
wanted to go but the boys wanted to stay home.
The fireside was excellent. Elder and Sister Bednar both
spoke. Elder Bednar spoke of the need to “not shrink” quoting Elder Neal
Maxwell. He told of a couple that was married three weeks when the husband was
diagnosed with bone cancer. After operations and chemo and much fasting and
prayer they were visiting with Elder Bednar prior to him giving the husband a
blessing. He was prompted to ask them if they had the faith “to not be healed”.
He told of the struggle to answer, but the couple actually found the decision
brought peace and freedom. When we can totally submit our will to the Father’s
we can receive the blessings He has for us and can follow the path He desires
for us. It is a soul-searching question to be asked, but it is the basis of
totally turning our lives over to the Lord.
I had an interesting insight today. After Sacrament Meeting
I was visiting with a lady. I asked if Bessie Martinez was her mom’s sister or
her grandma’s sister. She said she was neither—she didn’t know her. I said that
when we had visited her mom a few weeks ago she had commented that Bessie was
ill and not doing well. The Relief Society president and I had made the
deduction that it was Bessie Martinez since she was the only Bessie I
could find on the branch membership list. The lady said that it was Bessie Gilmore
that was sick. So when we went to give Bessie Martinez a blessing, it was not
because I had heard she was sick. It was a case of our going to give
someone a blessing when only the Lord knew she needed it.
Monday I was still sick so I didn’t do much during the day.
Ted had to take the car in to get the damage fixed that had been caused by the
tumbleweed when we went to Albuquerque last month. When he returned in the
rental car we drove to the senior center. I had made white chocolate popcorn
for their bake sale and I’d made another scarf for them to sell. There was no
bake sale set up and no one but the two cooks there. They were still getting
ready for it. We gave them the stuff and left.
We went by the home of one of our youth to see if we could
catch his folks at home. His mom does taxes and is a missing person during tax
season. They were home and we had a good visit. The husband is related to all
the people our sweet grandma is related to—they are in the same clan, I think.
They were just heading out to feed their sheep. We talked to them about the
youth conference. From there we went to a former branch president’s home. He was
sitting on the porch. They had run out of gas by the post office and he had
walked all the way home. They were waiting for someone to bring them some gas
to get the truck back home. A couple of kids were home at the grandkids’ home
so we said hi. They had pushed their porch stairs over when they saw us come.
The steps were really dangerous—one was about half there and breaking up. They
need some new boards to fix them. We stopped at another home to trade a magazine.
I’d loaned the son my conference issue a couple of months ago. I wanted my copy
back since it had some markups and things in it. Typically, a loan is a
permanent gift here so we have to be on top of who has what.
Tuesday I felt better but still not very good. The elders
came and gave Ted a blessing then he went with them to a teaching appointment.
I printed up the stuff we need for the youth conference presentation. The kids
are required to have dress shoes and I’m sure most of the boys do not. I can
understand the white shirt and ties and I’m sure we can find enough of those to
help out, but I’m a little concerned about the dress pants and shoes.
Ted went to pick up the car and get a couple of things at
Walmart. When he came home he was about dead. We ate dinner then he went to
bed. I read the scripture block for my seminary class. It was quite
interesting. Some of my students now have track meets every Saturday so I
offered to teach them on Wednesday night, so now I’ll have three classes for
the rest of the year till school is out.
Wednesday was a beautiful day. We have had such beautiful
mild weather the last few days. We taught three kids in a family. I made
cookies so we could give some to the oldest boy because he is leaving for
Denver to work with his uncle. After we left there we went to the church to
teach my track students the seminary lesson they missed. It went well. The
branch presidency was meeting there to discuss home teaching assignments. I
think it may actually happen.
A sister called to tell me her mom had passed away early in
the morning. They will wait four days for the funeral—a purification period.
During that time they will go through her things then they will burn
everything.
Thursday we didn’t have any appointments so we were able to
stay home. I studied most of the day and worked on my lesson. In the afternoon
we went to visit a sister about youth conference. From there we went to a young
girl’s home to give her a card and a bracelet I’d made for her birthday. She
was thrilled that we came. It did not appear that there was much celebrating
going on. There was pizza on the table and a cake, but there did not appear to
be anything else. I felt so bad for her. She was so excited for her birthday
and we have watched her gradually let the air out of her balloon.
Friday we woke to a really gray sky. As the day progressed
it began to snow quite a bit. It melted quickly, but it was coming down fairly
hard for a while. Elder Chavez came over to get a blessing because he is sick.
The elders came again later and had lunch and we discussed our program at the
senior center. I showed them the flyer I had put together for the chili cooking
contest (a derivative of the chili cook off that now includes anything with
chili).
We left early to do some shopping at Walmart on the way to
Toh-la-kai. The sky was still fairly gray with just a few flakes falling off
and on. The wind blew quite a bit and it was very cold. We got to seminary and
met the man who had been high councilor for the branch. He told us he had been
put in as branch president the Sunday before. He gave us a key to the library
so that resolves that issue. One family had called earlier in the day to say
they would not be at seminary. When the second family had not shown up by 5:45
we tried calling but got voice mail. I had packed up my room and was ready to
put my coat on when they arrived. Only one of my students came, but, we had a
good discussion. I pretty much gave the same lesson I’d given the week before
when they hadn’t come so they’d been in sync next week. It went well and I kept
her until about 6:50.
When we got packed up and went outside it was a full-blown
blizzard. Since Ted had forgotten his wallet I had to drive home. There are no
street lights and the snow was in full swing. It was really scary. It was
difficult to see the edge of the road so we stayed close to the center divider
when we could see it. With the roads being full of pot holes and the snow
covering them, it was a bit of a risky ride. We only hit one set of bad holes
so we did well. When we got on the freeway toward Ft. Wingate I stayed in the
center lane. At one point a car was riding my tail. I thought it was stupid
since there was no one in the lane next to me, but I decided to pull over and a
police car passed me. The weather was still fairly stormy, but it had let up a
great deal. We thought the worst part of the trip would be on the hill into Ft.
Wingate because it is always icy and slick. It turned out to be about the least
worrisome stretch in the trip. The ground outside our yard where we park was
very wet and very slushy, but Ted gathered the groceries and we left our books
in the car for the morning.
Saturday it was still a bit snowy, but the ground had firmed
up considerably. I had four students at seminary plus the elders. I thought the
lesson went OK, but I was really not up to par yet so it was difficult to be
very enthusiastic. I had not allocated my time well enough so I was rushed at
the end when there were some important things I needed to cover. After seminary
we stayed and helped clean the church. At home I worked on taxes most of the
rest of the day. I got them far enough along to finish quickly.
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