Week Ending July 20, 2013

Sunday at church the family that was baptized Friday was confirmed into the church. There was a great spirit there during the blessings. Our branch presidency was reorganized. We had comments from the old and new branch presidents and their wives. This will be a huge blessing in our branch.

I have been organizing a temple trip for the youth so I lined up a couple of cars for transportation. We could have 9 or 10 youth go, most of which have never been. That would be wonderful.

Ted home taught two ladies after church. I came with him since his companion is in the new branch presidency and they were being set apart and given instructions. Ted counseled one lady to examine her Sunday commitments with the Chapter and see if there wasn’t some way she could attend church more. She was obviously offended. She said she was doing a good work. Ted indicated he loved her and that’s why he expressed his concerns. She really got upset and said the only people that can love are God and Jesus and no one else knows what love really is. Interesting.

We had a picture of Sitting Bull we wanted to give the former branch president since his wife is one of his descendants. When we went over later and gave them the picture he told us, “This is one of Mary’s ancestors, you know.” We told him that was why we were giving it to him. It was a bit interesting.

Monday we went to home evening early to talk to another couple about their weaving and ask how to do things. Sister Haney has nearly completed her first rug and it looks good. She loaned me her book on weaving for a week so I could figure out some stuff. They told us the leaders were not coming to home evening—that we were on our own. We had four kids show up. We had a good time visiting and playing a game. It started to rain as we left for home. By the time we were leaving Gallup it was coming down full force. It was really a heavy rain and the thunder and lightning were right on top of us. We could hardly see the road in front of us at times.

In the afternoon we went to read scriptures with a family. The mom really has a desire to understand and learn more. I wish she could finish school and get a better job. I’m sure she’d do much better with her life and life style. At the end we asked what she reads during the week when we aren’t there. She said she reads the things over that we have talked about so she can better understand them. I suggested that she also read ahead so she could figure out what questions she has and we could discuss them with her. I was actually pleasantly surprised that she was reading.

In the evening the sisters met at Sizzler for dinner before heading over to the family history center for our monthly meeting. When we got to the family history center at 6:30, the staff asked what we hoped to accomplish there. I said I wasn’t really in charge, but the sisters needed to know what the center could do to help them with family history. As it turned out, they had forgotten we were coming and there was a meeting scheduled for all the consultants at 7 PM. The lady in charge spent most of the time telling us about all the fabulous websites they could access and having us sign their patron log. I finally asked her to tell the ladies how they could get started doing family history since most of what she said didn’t mean anything to them. At that point she asked another lady to come talk to us. She gave us some really good information. When it was time for their meeting she decided to stay and help us rather than attend the meeting. It was really good. I asked her to show the sisters what the online system looked like so she put one of the sisters on the computer. She has done a small amount so there was some information there. She made some new entries, changed some stuff that was already there, and printed a sheet. She was really happy.

When I got home I had to mark a sheet for a quilt top for Thursday. I had never done that before, but I figured it couldn’t be too bad—it’s all measurements and math. I cut the sheet to the size of the batting then marked the sides with 4 inch increments. When I finished, I planned to put a tape measure between marks on opposite sides and put marks at 4 inch points. I’m not sure what happened in the cutting or the marking, but the opposite sides didn’t match. The more I tried to adjust it, the worse it got. I finally decided to fold the quilt in quarters so I had a center point and mark from that point. I made sure the marks on the side and the marks on the fold both were measured from the center fold and started marking. Ted helped at first, but it was late and he kept falling asleep while he was holding the tape for me. Once I had the system in place, it went quickly. I was able to get to bed a little after 11:30.

Thursday I put my food together for our RS workshop at the church. I had forgotten to thaw the ingredients, but they seemed OK by the time I put them together. We picked out a quilt backing—we had two choices—then we began setting things up. We had a light blue sheet with a beige patterned sheet and light blue yarn. We should have realized there was a problem with the yarn when there were several short pieces of yarn wrapped around the skein before we started. I showed the ladies how to put the frames together, how to put the backing on, then the batting and top and pin it all together. The president showed them how to tie knots which was any-old-way Granny knots. We worked for a while and made some good progress. I was surprised at how little talking there was. It was really quiet most of the time.

If you've got a long arm, use it.

As we neared the center of the quilt and had rolled both sides a couple of times, we were running low on yarn. Then the yarn started breaking when it was being threaded or in the middle of stitches. Part of it was getting one of the yarn plys outside the needle so it bunched, so I started threading the needles for the ladies. But the yarn was brittle and fragile. I know we were all praying for it to make it to the end. We started going through all the scraps of yarn to find pieces big enough for even one knot. We should have rolled the sides again, but one of the daughters had a long reach. When we ran out of the scraps in our piles of cut yarn, someone got the pieces out of the trash and we found a few more that would work. At one point we had a piece long enough for a couple of stitches, but it was half-broken in the middle. The girl nursed it through the holes.

Finished tying quilt!

We got the center done, but we still had 2 ½ rows on one end that was too long for the quilt frames. (The frames were some pieces of wood we found in the back rooms of the church building. They are 1 X 8 pieces of wood so they are a bit awkward, but we plan to cut them in half.) We finished the ½ row and there was enough yarn left for about 6 more stitches. We decided to cut the two rows off and just have a bit shorter quilt than we had planned. I volunteered to bind the quilt on my machine. I’m not sure why I committed to do that except that it is our first quilt and I really want to get it done so we can show it off. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do it—yikes!

Finished binding quilt

I spent some time working on my lesson for seminary Saturday and had a lesson all ready before I realized that two of the kids wouldn’t be there and I really would like them to participate in this lesson. I had been thinking I needed to show at least part of the video “Special Witnesses” with testimonies about Christ from the First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. I watched that and decided which ones to omit to fit the time I had. I was again touched by the power of the testimonies and the strong spirit I feel when I hear them bear testimony of Christ. It was a good experience.

Friday I was at home all day studying and getting stuff done. I went to the church for a meeting with Pres. Joe about seminary in the evening. It was raining so I got a little wet.

Saturday I shared the segments from the Special Witnesses video with my seminary class and asked them to listen to the Holy Ghost for impressions. I again was very impressed with the testimonies shared and the feelings I had during the video.

We dropped off our stuff and picked up a couple to go to the temple. The husband hasn’t been for a few months so we were excited that he was going. We had some light conversation on the way, but it was fairly subdued. I worked on my weaving project and got about an inch done.

At the temple a lady from our branch who has just become a temple worker helped me out. After she was finished we hugged each other. I had tears in my eyes because I was so happy for her. She had a real glow about her. We had a total of 9 members of our branch in our session. I believe that is a record. I was amazed.

After the session a lady from Gallup asked if we could help her do some more work for a few minutes. It turned out to be more than a few minutes, but it was a good spiritual experience. Our friends had a good experience and I know it helped them. It was a great day. On the way home Ted fell asleep at the wheel and swerved sharply, but we were OK. I am grateful to Heavenly Father for His blessings today and for the protection on our trip.

At home I stayed up to do a handout for the kids going to the temple and to set up part of my weaving. I had tried to do it on the trip to Albuquerque but couldn’t remember how so I needed to refer to the book. It’s kind of cool, but I’m not sure if it will work out for my weaving.