Oct 27

October 27, 2006

We started this day with breakfast with the Elders who stayed here last night. Then we went for a nice walk. It was quite warm, but windy. The really good news is that my knee is feeling great. I can actually sleep at night. I think Robert’s knee massages must have done the trick.

This felt like a real missionary day. We did a lot of work with the Elders. We spent some time this morning correlating our efforts, then this afternoon we went with them to meet a young man scheduled for baptism in November. We are planning to pick him up for church on Sunday.

We also visited several inactive members and nonmembers on our own, too. Sometimes this is discouraging work for me. It’s hard to find the people’s homes, sometimes they don’t invite us in and we just stand on the doorstep trying to talk to them. But always, always before we’re finished we meet one person we really like or who needs someone to talk to, or something. Seems like the Lord always leaves us feeling like the work is worthwhile.

The Elders helped us finally unload the old mattress we didn’t want. We delivered it to Ricky and Cheryl Enriquez. They have a 9-year-old daughter who just sleeps on the floor on a blanket. They don’t have a bed frame or anything but they’re thrilled Naysha will have somewhere to sleep. This is the woman I took to the conference last week and while we were there they asked if we could drive them to Tucson when her stepfather has an operation next week. My first thought was sure, Sharon and Ray will be in Tucson and I can get to see them. But we just said we’d have to think about it. When we got out in the truck the Elders said don’t do it. This will never stop if you do this. We finally decided we’re really not supposed to leave the mission without notifying the mission president, so we can just say we can’t take them because it’s outside the mission. I feel bad because they don’t own a car and really won’t have any way to get there. But we were warned in the MTC that if we do special favors for one member inevitably someone else gets their feelings hurt if we don’t do just as much for them. We think it’s best not to get started running around with everyone who can’t afford a car, which is about 90% of the population.

We also met a girl who is a junior in high school and has a 4-month-old baby and of course the father is nowhere to be found. What a difficult life these little girls create for themselves. She’s a member but the only one in her family. When we met her she was just coming home from school. At least we admire her for staying in school.

After all our visiting we spent a long time making business cards to leave with the families we visit. We had no way of telling them how to contact us so decided a little card to leave with them would be best. And we spent a lot of time trying to get a record of where we visit, accurate addresses and who lives in each home, including last names. Some people might think this is simple but it is not. Every person in the home sometimes has a different last name. And as soon as we write an address, the family might move, or the houses might be renumbered or even the street names changed. Seriously, the houses have 3 or 4 different house numbers painted on them. And the branch list is useless. The street named Red Dust is now Desert Storm. Red Dust must have been too boring. Other examples of street names here are Hollywood Hills, Lagoon Drive (there isn’t a lagoon within 300 miles of Cibecue), and, I’m not making this up, North Another World Drive. This is possibly the most accurately named of all the streets.