Oct 15

October 15, 2006

So Friday the 13th was real for me. After I finished posting I was feeling so confident with all the new things I’ve done on the computer I decided to figure out how to set up some groups in my address books. I was doing great, and so proud of myself, until the computer froze. I was sure I knew how to cope with that, so did a “force quit”, which I had never heard of 2 months ago, and successfully got the computer going again. Unfortunately, I also managed to completely erase my entire address book. So can’t e-mail anyone until I go to Utah this next week and Cade downloads my addresses off the PC, AGAIN!!!

In case you couldn’t tell I let Robert write all of the last Blog, meaning he dictated and I typed. Now I’m tired of sharing and doing it all myself again.

How do you like the new furniture? Pretty fancy for a little trailer, isn’t it? We put the old sofa and chair out on our porch and then proceeded to have a bit of a debate about them. The couples in Whiteriver were having a free clothes giveaway yesterday and Robert said let’s take our furniture over there and help them out. I said no. For several reasons. A. I had no desire to help out. B. I didn’t want to haul any more furniture anywhere ever. C. Whiteriver is a nasty stinky place I wish I never had to go to again. D. I thought we should give it to our own friends. So we got home today and some kids came over. We mentioned that if they knew anyone who would like a sofa and chair that one was free to take. It took about half an hour for the furniture to be gone! See? No furniture loading, no trip to Whiteriver, no unselfish helping out the other missionaries. Perfect!

The not-so-newlyweds want to know the outcome of the “interview” with President Buttars. Did we ask if we could go to California for Christmas? Not in a million. Sometimes we’re a bit dense but rarely downright stupid. Took about 10 seconds to recognize a fanatic, but loveable, control freak. In the course of our conversation (ha, ha) he sort of complained about the situation of Family Service missionaries. The church says that the mission pres is our “ecclesiastical advisor” while the local Family Service person is our direct supervisor. Obviously P. Buttars isn’t fond of giving up any control, but that’s how the church says it is. So that’s how it is. Since it is what it is, he said all we need to do is let him know if we leave the mission, just so he knows where we are. Now that left us with a choice. Mention visiting our kids at Christmas to mega control guy and get a lecture on not being dedicated to the cause, or just tell super nice laid back Family Services guy that we’ll be gone for a week at Christmas and get a cheery Merry Christmas in return. We’re opting for the latter…so plan on us!

Now about the weekend since we didn’t write anything yesterday. We went to a baptism in a town called Clay Springs. This would be a “town” like “Thornton” is a town, except Thornton has a store and a gas station and the only store in Clay Springs was a feed store. However, what they lack in town they make up for in church. The stake center was a beautiful building and the baptism absolutely wonderful. The bishop made a very astute statement. He said, “If you come to church to serve you’ll stay active. If you come to be served you’ll fall away.” Pres Buttars and his wife were there and they were delightful and friendly. Robert is annoyed because I make fun of him, and we really do like him.

Last night and again this morning we went to stake conference. This morning was good. Last night was outstanding. One of last night’s speakers said he was going to teach us by parables. The first was the parable of the refrigerator. A couple bought a new refrigerator and decided to give away the old one. So they put it out in front of their house with a sign on it that read, “Free. Please help yourself.” It sat there for several days and no one took it. Finally they put up a new sign. This one said that the frig was available for $50.00. The next night they came home and sure enough the frig was gone. Someone had stolen it. Moral: everything in our lives is whatever value we place on it.

Another one was the parable of the taxicab driver. If you’ve ever taken a taxi you know that most cab drivers love to talk. But one day a woman got in a taxi and the driver never said a word. She was quite surprised but enjoyed the quiet ride. However, when they reached her destination the driver went by it without stopping. She reached up and tapped him on the shoulder to tell him to stop. The driver screamed, slammed on the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road. He was shaking and gasping for air, so frightened he couldn’t even breathe. The woman said, “I’m so sorry. I only meant to tell you this is the place I wanted to go.” “No, no,” said the driver. “It’s not your fault. I used to drive a hearse before I got this job and I haven’t quite adjusted yet.” Moral: sometimes change is hard.

Change is hard and comes slowly. Before we left Lynda Reiley said, “Just promise you’ll tell us the truth. Don’t just give us the typical Molly Mormon everything is wonderful out here, OK?” So yesterday I called Lynda and I had something I was going to tell her that I don’t like here in Cibicue, but when we started talking I couldn’t remember what it was. Yes, change is hard, but it’s also been challenging and exhilarating. Sometimes we long for the things that are familiar to us, but I think we grow through new challenges. I’ve stopped looking at every car that drives by to see if perchance there’s a white face in there. Robert says he’s stopped seeing the third worldish environment and is seeing the people instead. We visited 2 families today and had bunches of kids come. And enjoyed them. We’re still looking forward to coming back to all that we left that we love, but we want to do the very best we can here in Cibicue for now.