Week Ending November 30, 2013

It snowed through the night. The car had heavy ice on it in the morning and it had to warm up for a long time. I had a text from a parent asking if we were having seminary. When it was time to start no one had come. My regular students all came, but it took a while. After seminary we drove to Tohlakai for their seminary reorganization meeting. It was snowing and most of the roads were not plowed yet so it was a little hairy. We took it fairly slowly to be careful. The meeting lasted about 5 minutes and nothing changed except the couple in Tohlakai will be teaching the seminary class. We’ll go next time to make sure things transition. I feel a little sad to let go, but I know it’ll be good for the kids and the branch.

We drove back to Ft Wingate, arriving in time for the last hour. The roads were almost totally melted so it was much better coming home. I talked with Pres. Joe and told him we were more available now because we no longer had the Tohlakai seminary, so we would be happy to do whatever he needed us to. He asked us about teaching Temple Prep. There are a couple of ladies getting ready to go to the temple, so he wants us to help them prepare. In Relief Society the teacher had been unable to come due to road conditions, so we had a couple of short stories then the president asked us to share what we were thankful for. It was a very touching experience and I feel so grateful for so many things.

Monday we worked on things at home. In the evening we went to family home evening with the young adults. We had a good visit and played games. They are getting later and later starting. I’m sure the dark doesn’t help.

Tuesday we had CES inservice in the morning. Some of the people had gone to Thoreau last week, so it was just the Tohlakai couple and us with a lady from Ramah joining us part way through. The Tohlakai sister is concerned that she won’t be able to help teach because she is blind and there is no material available in audio. I told her the scriptures are the main source for teaching and she has that on audio. She also has a sweet spirit that will reach out to the students. We went to the senior center for lunch, hoping to catch the manager to find out when the Christmas program is scheduled. She was off this week, so that was a futile attempt.

We went to the Wingate High School basketball game in the evening. Just after we got there, one of my students came up to tell me her brother was not playing—his teacher wouldn’t change his grade—so he had gone home to do make up work. The JV game was close and the other team almost beat them. The varsity game was a nail biter.

Wednesday Ted’s foot was hurting him so we didn’t walk. I made the jello and Pumpkin Pudding for Thanksgiving. I also made bread since we were almost out. For some reason it has not turned out as it should the last few batches. I don’t know if it is the different flour I’m using or the cold or the fact that I’m trying to stretch the dough father than I should.

Breanna Salt and Sister Roeth

Thursday was Thanksgiving.  We were having dinner with the senior couples in our district in Zuni. I wanted to meet one of my online students who lives there before we met with the seniors. She had given me directions, but we missed her road because there was no road sign. We finally connected and had a good but short visit. They were in the middle of fixing dinner for a crowd. She is just as I see her on Webex—a cute girl with a great family. Her family actually moved here from Las Vegas. We had a brief visit, took a few pictures, and left.

Elder and Sister Roeth, Thanksgiving 2013, Zuni, NM

At the Zuni chapel we met with the other missionaries and played games and visited. We had a great meal and we enjoyed all of it. (We actually were given the turkey bones for soup when we left so we came away winners.) After we ate, we visited some more and played more games. I showed one sister how to knit the frilly scarves and looked at another’s quilt to try to figure out what was going wrong. After a couple more games we drove home.

When we opened the trunk at home we discovered the leftover Pumpkin Pudding had tipped over and spilled in the corner of the trunk. It looked like a mess, but not too bad. I got some paper towels and a picture of hot water and began mopping up pudding. As I got into it, I realized the damage was more extensive than it looked. The pudding had run under the carpet, under the edge of the tool container, and behind the plastic liner. I cleaned what I could see then lifted the cover for the spare tire—it had run down into the tire well. Ted lifted out the tire—there was even more underneath and on the tire. That was fairly east to clean.

When I had cleaned up all I could see, we decided to undo the bolt that was holding the tool container in place because the pudding had run under the edge. The bolt came out easily when we finally found the right tool, but the tool container was wedged under a bump in the frame of the car so we just propped it up about an inch, just enough to clean under the edge. We decided that was all we could do so I took most of the equipment back into the house.

Before we quit we decided to try again to lift out the tool container. There was another cup or so in the well underneath. At that point I needed to get the equipment back that I thought I had finished with. I was able to mop it up and we figured we had done all that we could do—in the dark with only the trunk light and a flashlight. I have come to really appreciate street lights since we’ve been without.

It was quite cold during all this, but I didn’t want to wear my coat because I was afraid it would catch on something and tear and also might get covered with pudding. The water was hot and I was putting forth quite a bit of effort lifting and scrubbing and stretching, so it wasn’t too bad. At one point I put on my coat while I waited for something, then took it off again to work. Apparently, that few minutes was enough to get pudding on my sleeve, so my efforts to keep it clean had been wasted. When we finally finished, I went in to get warm and go to bed. As I ran my fingers through my hair, I discovered my hair had clumps of dried pudding in it. What a disastrous ending to a fun day.

Friday Ted finished cleaning the car. Apparently, the carpet was not as clean as it looked in the dark, but he was able to do a bit better. In the evening we visited a young man who just returned from his mission to invite him to the Break the Fast on Sunday. We called a few more kids and made sure everyone we could think of knew about it.

In the evening we watched Ephraim’s Rescue, a movie we had borrowed from one of the couples. It’s the story of Ephraim Hanks, one of the rescuers of the Martin Handcart Company. He was an amazing man. His philosophy was that if you are prepared, the opportunities to serve will come.

Saturday I spent most of the day working on a couple of cell phone holders for Sister England that will go on her belt. We made several batches of popcorn for Ted’s home teaching families and our seminary and institute students. We need to buy more supplies—the project always escalates once we get started. Somehow I managed to review my lesson for tomorrow as well.