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| Sunset at Ft. Wingate |
Ted said he’d had a dream during the night. We’d been
talking about buying a truck the maintenance group is selling and pretty much
decided we would be OK without it. We just need to be very careful driving on
some roads. In his dream he said we decided not to buy the truck. Instead we got
an RV that you could put a car into and we came down here for six-month
missions every summer. Wow! That’s some dream. I think it would be more prudent
to buy the truck.
Monday I spent most of the day studying and trying to get
ahead for my lessons for the week. We received word that a lady in the branch had
passed away. She was a good friend of our Relief Society president, her
“sister”. She had been ill for some time, but she fell a few days ago and that
apparently was the final trigger.
Tuesday in the late morning we drove to Sundance to visit
with a lady. We talked to her about a month ago when we first met her then took
her a box of food. She was glad to see us. I’m not sure she was as interested
in us as in the possibility of having more food. We did not give any indication
that we were bringing more. She invited us in and we had a good visit. Her
water meter is leaking, but the company hasn’t come to fix it yet. Her truck is
not working and the mechanics are not sure how to fix it. She thinks she’ll
have to quit her job as soon as the car she borrowed is returned since she
won’t have any transportation to work. Ted gave her a blessing and we told her
we would keep her in our prayers.
From there we went to visit our grandma. She is working on a
beaded hatband to sell. Her husband has been asked to come back to work, but he
is having a problem with his shoulder and needs to find out what is wrong
before he does any more driving. Ted gave both of them blessings. They gave us
a copy of a school newspaper article about their granddaughter, our seminary
student. We didn’t know she is student council president and a member of the
tennis team. She is quite the girl.
After that visit we went to see another lady. Her sister is in
the hospital in Albuquerque. She was so glad to see us and really just needed
someone to listen to her. She is going back and forth to Albuquerque on
weekends and the doctors don’t seem to be communicating as much as they would
like. She was just relieved to be able to share the situation with us so I’m
glad we went by.
Early evening as we were studying a fire engine went by with
sirens blaring. That has not happened the entire time we’ve been here. It was
going up toward the church, not into the Ft. Wingate housing. I went outside to
see if they were headed to the church, but couldn’t see anything. I saw some
lights flickering in the trees above the church, but they soon went out. Soon a
paramedics truck went by with sirens on so I watched it go up the hill past the
church and followed the lights where I’d seen the first ones over along the
mountain. I couldn’t see anything more so I went inside. After a few minutes
another fire truck went roaring past in the same direction then a second
paramedic truck. We walked outside but still couldn’t see anything. There were
a lot more people outside now than before. We never did hear what had happened,
but it was some excitement for a few minutes. The winds are really strong so
maybe they stirred up something in the dry mountains.
Wednesday started out with a call asking me to schedule the
stake center for the funeral Saturday. That required several calls to find the
right person. The agent bishop gave me a lecture on caring for the building and
the requirements for using the building. I called the family to determine if
they could live within the criteria for using the building. I then had to
schedule the building. About an hour later we confirmed that we had the
building. Whew!
When that was taken care of we drove to the family’s home
and took a loaf of bread and a card. The family was going through their mom’s
papers and trying to figure things out. The one in charge is super stressed by
all this, but she is being brave for others.
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| El Rancho Lobby |
We then headed to Gallup to go to lunch for our 38th wedding anniversary. We ate lunch at the El Rancho Hotel, an old hotel with tons of memorabilia from early days. There is a huge map on the wall with all the sacred mountains and quite a bit of history written on it. There were dozens of pictures of old movie stars all around the second floor. It seems this must have been “the” place to be in former years. I saw several rooms with movie stars’ names on the doors. It was really interesting.
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| Display at El Rancho |
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| El Rancho Hotel Lobby |
Lunch was really good. Afterward we stopped in the gift store for a bit. They had some beautiful pots that I would love to have bought, but I really didn’t think I should justify the cost. The saleslady, who works on commission, was very helpful and very friendly. Fortunately, my willpower was greater than her salesmanship.
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| Partial map of Four Corners |
We arrived home and Ted had just started a nap when the
missionaries arrived to talk to us. They want us to help plan another activity.
We came up with some ideas they could present at Branch Council in the evening.
They also told us one of them was going to be the Branch Mission Leader,
something I thought was proposed by the branch president but was evidently an
idea they were going to propose at the meeting.
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| Happy Anniversary! |
When they left we went to read scriptures with a family. We decided to start at the beginning of the Book of Mormon and give them all the introductory material now that we’ve been reading in 3 Nephi for a few weeks. We had a good discussion and gave them a reading assignment for next week. After we finished we talked with the mom for a minute. She wants her daughter to be baptized, but they haven’t attended church for a few weeks. We told her it was important for her daughter to have her support in attending church if she is going to be baptized.
We stopped by home for a bit then headed up to seminary and
Branch Council. Seminary went well. Two kids came. The lesson went well. I was
especially impressed when I talked about reading the scriptures and asked them
to listen to what the Holy Ghost is telling them when they think of the answers
to the questions I would ask. I asked if they were reading every day. If not,
what excuse do they have? Will that excuse be acceptable to the Lord? I watched
one student close her eyes as I asked the questions. Her eyes were somewhat
moist when we finished. I watched the other look at the floor so he could
think. I saw his head shake when I asked if the excuse would be acceptable. I
encouraged them to read even just a couple of verses each day and promised the
Lord would bless them as they did.
There was a terrific dust storm outside. We couldn’t see
even further than just across the street. It made it really cold outside though
and we thought maybe winter was here again. We had heard on the news that we
are expecting cold weather to come again this week. It felt like it had come.
Afterward I waited for Ted who was in Branch Council. It
seems the meeting was very successful. We are having an activity Memorial Day
at McGaffey. I was also volunteered to type announcements so we can let people
know what is going on. I believe the missionary was assigned to be Branch
Mission Leader. And they talked about having a branch fast and discussed
members that are in need of help.
Thursday we woke up early to a knock at the door. The
Primary president was delivering the materials for Sunday. It was not really a
good way to start the day. In the evening we attended a band concert for one of
my students. The band was pretty good. The choir and drama departments gave
disappointing performances. A young woman who just moved into our branch gave a
dramatic reading, using a book, but at least she spoke up so we could hear her
and put a bit of expression into it. The jazz band was the best part of the
evening. The played really well.
Friday I reviewed my lesson for seminary in the evening. In
the afternoon I helped dress the body of the lady who died earlier this week. One
of the ladies who helped was the daughter of the lady who passed away just a
couple of weeks earlier. It was very difficult for her because it brought back
all the memories. She did a great job and was a big help. This lady was fairly
large so it was a challenge. One of the men from the mortuary came to help us
or we never would have been able to do it.
Ted picked me up and we drove to Toh-la-kai to meet with the
new branch president. We talked about seminary enrollment for next year. He
didn’t know most of the kids on the list I had, but he is going to visit them
during the next few months and invite them to seminary. We also talked about
the possibility of calling a teacher from his branch. I enjoy teaching them,
but it limits what we can do at Ft. Wingate some of the time and we are not
familiar with the area or the people.
Saturday we started with seminary. From seminary we drove
quickly to the stake center for the funeral. We got there in time to attend the
viewing. I agreed to lead the music. As it turned out, we really didn’t need to
hurry—they didn’t start the funeral until almost 10:40, about 40 minutes after
it was scheduled. I was surprised at the number of people that kept arriving
right up until it started. The funeral went well and was well-attended. We then
ran to the store to buy tablecloths for the luncheon while the funeral party
went to the cemetery. We had everything set up and looking much nicer by the
time everyone returned. After the luncheon the family did most of the clean-up.
We helped a bit with the chairs then we told them to go home and we hauled out
the garbage and vacuumed.
It was about 3 PM when we got home. I spent time on the
Primary lesson for Sunday. I also typed the announcements. Too late I started
making the dessert for Sunday. I didn’t have time to do things the right way,
so I had to ad lib. It took longer than I planned to spend and didn’t look the
way I wanted it to, but I knew it would taste fine. That was some consolation.
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