Week Ending June 22, 2013

Sunday we were up by 5 am to be at the Gallup 2^nd Ward Council at 7 am. We presented our needs for institute and young adults. We got a list of young adults and a commitment from the bishop to help with visits. After we finished we sat next to the other bishopric’s offices and were able to visit a few minutes with the bishop when he arrived.

We attended the farewell of one of our institute students Bryson Bracken who was leaving on a mission. He is very ready to go and will be a wonderful missionary. He leaves for Chile on Tuesday and is a bit nervous. He gave an excellent talk. Before he spoke the Young Men in the ward sang “Called to Serve” and recited a scripture about missionary work. It was impressive. 

Elder Bracken--ready to go!

After the meeting we shook hands then left for home. We stopped to drop youth conference stuff including some new scriptures at a young man’s home. He was very happy to get them. After the meeting we talked with more of the youth about the conference and got commitments from all but one that they were attending. They are quite excited, as they should be.

In Relief Society the president announced we were moving our monthly dinner to Saturday instead of Sunday. She explained that it was causing us to break the commandments and we needed the blessings. There was some resistance to the change, but the president assured the members we needed the blessings. One young woman said her family was totally in support of the change and would be attending. Bless her heart. There was a good spirit.

Ted wanted hot dogs for lunch so that was all right with me. He then actually got to rest a short while before the missionaries arrived to see if he could go with them. I told them he was napping and they’d have to wait half an hour. After a bit I woke Ted up and they went out.

Monday I was trying to get things done around the house when we had a knock at the door. We assumed it was the missionaries. It was Elder and Sister Hall, our former district leaders who are going home in two days. They were showing Steeles (our new district leaders) where we live. They invited us to join them for lunch in Gallup. I was hesitant since I had so much to do, but we decided to go along. We ended up at Earl’s Restaurant and had a good visit. (Earl’s Restaurant is a landmark here with local artisans coming to the tables to display their products.)

After we returned home I studied for a couple of hours before we had to leave for home evening. We had a good time. The kids brought some fun games. Two of our branch president’s kids came. The son, who has always been a bit reluctant, had a good time and was actually assigned to give the lesson next week. He’s heading to North Dakota in a couple of weeks, but he really needs the association of these good kids. He is planning to go into the Marines. I’m not sure that will happen. Baby steps.

Tuesday I studied most of the day. The elders wanted Ted to go with them in the evening and I wanted him to go visiting with me so we had to schedule him. In the afternoon we visited some families to invite them to the Relief Society meetings and to let them know what was going on in the branch. We visited the home of the lady who passed away a month or so ago. Her daughter is struggling. The mom was the translator and immediate caretaker for her grandma who speaks Navajo. When she passed away, the daughter had to sharpen her Navajo language skills and also learn what her grandma needed in the way of caretaking. She is also missing her mom so she has a full plate. Ted gave her a blessing, telling her that Heavenly Father loves her and wants to help her and be with her. It was a sweet blessing and I believe she felt the Spirit. 

We tried to find the home of a family whose foster parents visited for graduation. We talked to a couple of people and they directed us down the road. Apparently, “the third house past the construction company” meant “the third house before the construction company”. By the time we got the directions straight, it was time for Ted to meet the elders so we had to hurry home.

Wednesday morning we set things up for the night meeting. At home I did some preparation for the meals: grating cheese, chopping onions and celery. Ted went to Gallup to get water and get some celery for me that I had realized at the last minute I didn’t have.

I studied and put together some thoughts for my lesson Saturday. There is really so much that I would like to discuss with the kids that it is difficult to whittle it down to just a few nuggets. This lesson will conclude our New Testament lessons. I have learned so much and I really have appreciated the opportunity to read the New Testament again and the teacher’s manual with the supplemental material it contains. It has been a great experience and I really look forward to the Book of Mormon this fall. I am not sure how much the students have learned since most of them have not taken the opportunity to read the scriptures and have just expected to be spoon fed in class. I hope next year they can have a more involved learning experience.

In the afternoon I put the first meal for the night meeting in the crock pot. Since my part of the presentation is on “Delicious, nutritious, inexpensive, and easy” meals, I timed myself. It took about 10 minutes to put things together. When I put the other two meals together I realized the soups would be difficult to transport, so I measured the water into containers and put everything else in the pans. I should have left everything out of the pans until I got to church, but I had already opened the cans by the time I thought of that solution. I am obviously not a seasoned chef.

Ted gave a good lesson on nutrition. I talked about not buying convenience food so much and using quick meals instead. I just wanted to say a few words and close. (It’s ironic since the whole idea started with trying to help the sisters realize there were meals they could fix that would be better than fast food.) We had Meatball Soup, Taco Soup, and a chicken dish that was served with rice. Most of the people combined the meals differently than I had anticipated. Some just strained the soup off the meatballs and ate them and some ate them with the tortilla strips that were for the other soup and some put them on the rice. The chicken dish was eaten with chips or just plain—I don’t think anyone put it on the rice. Everyone loved the taco soup, but I’m not sure how many put the chips in the bowl before the soup. It was kind of funny to me. Good lesson in visual demonstrations.

Thursday I went early to the church to get the yarn and needles out of the cupboard and copy my knitting/crochet instructions. Only two sisters came. I tried to teach one to crochet. She felt very frustrated but did not want to give up on it. I did a piece for her to work on that was about an inch long so she could see what it should look like. I also showed her how to make a hat with my loom. She got really excited about that and took it home to work on. She said when she got home she couldn’t remember a thing about the crocheting and her daughter wanted to finish the loom project for her.

The Relief Society president made pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries. She couldn’t get the pancakes to work and finally the other sister took over. They weren’t the thin ones that were planned, but they were very good. We plan to continue, but I am hoping the turnout will improve. The president got really excited about the hat loom and planned to get herself one. That might be a better thing to teach because it is easy to grasp and gets people having a successful experience. Live and learn.

I studied in the afternoon. The missionaries came over while I was reading so Elder Busdicker could have a blessing. He had sprained his ankle the night before and was in a lot of pain. They had just returned from their district meeting, with three additional desks, at about 2 PM. I was amazed that they had still picked up three desks with him having a hurt ankle. Ted assisted in giving him a blessing.

After a bit more studying we left to visit some people on the way to our appointment in Gallup. At one stop the wife was away at a niece’s “coming of age” celebration for the week, but the husband invited us in. He usually talks about how he still follows the old ways. Today he was upset about the mining abuses and how they are hurting the Native people. He seemed stressed about things so I asked if he would like a blessing. He said he would and was grateful for it. Ted counseled him to come to church and partake of the sacrament. He also told him Heavenly Father loves him and is concerned about him. We talked to him a bit and told him he just needs to pray and ask Heavenly Father what he should be doing. At the end he had tears in his eyes and was grateful we had come by.

We were going with a man in Gallup to visit potential institute students. The first stop was a young man who wasn’t home. We then went across town to visit two young men who had just returned from missions on Tuesday. We invited them and their sister to attend and they seemed enthusiastic. We went back to the first home and the young man was at home. We visited with him and he seemed grateful for the opportunity. About 8:30 we took our companion home. We felt good about the efforts. We plan to go on these visits about once a week with a ward representative. I hope we can build this to be a strong program.

Friday we wiped off the desks the elders had brought. We put away the chairs and table from the other meetings. Just before we left the church I had a call from Justin Miller our CES Coordinator asking if he could visit us this morning and talk about how our visits had gone. We had a good visit with him. He will help with the visits when he can so that should make it so we can double our efforts.

We also discussed how our classes have been going with the kids doing the teaching. He got really excited because this is the way the new program is intended to progress. Our next move is to help the kids ask a few questions that will encourage the other students get into the scriptures as well. I really like what he’s doing and all the help he is giving us. He really helps us feel like we are actually doing what we should be doing.

Seminary went well. I started the lesson talking about John’s message of hope in the Book of Revelation. We talked about why hope is so central to the gospel and how it is important to have hope in order to have faith. I’m not sure just how much the kids grasped, but we talked about it for a while before going back to Chapter 17. After the discussion on hope, we talked about the kingdom of the devil and how it is compared to a harlot. There was an interesting quote saying that Satan prostitutes everything good. That is so true—everything around us that is good gets a component of wickedness thrown onto it or created parallel to it. It is almost unbelievable. When we were finished I shared my testimony of the New Testament and the gospel. I really wish they could catch the vision of studying and learning and growing their testimonies. Hopefully this summer we can do some things that will help them become more enthusiastic and more ready to open their mouths and participate.

We dropped our stuff at home then picked up a couple to go to the temple. We had a good visit on the way and arrived in good time. The session was really full which was nice. I was really sleepy so it was difficult to stay awake. Afterward we stopped to eat at IHOP. Our friends had never been there and really enjoyed it. We then headed to Costco, arriving about 5:45. The parking lot was not full and that was curious. We got in and did our shopping. At the back of the freezer section a man told us the section was closed but got us the things we were looking for. He told us the store closes at 6 PM and they just gradually clear the store one section at a time. We were really lucky we got there when we did. We finished our shopping and checked out. After loading the car we headed for home. We got home about 9 PM, about 2 hours later than usual. It was fun having the chance to visit with our friends.