Nov 12

November 12, 2006

I always love Sundays, but they are particularly sweet in the mission field. The spirit is so strong. After church I came back to the trailer while Robert took people home and the spirit in the trailer was as powerful as I’ve ever felt. Nothing dramatic or different had happened, so I’m not sure why I felt so strongly. If I hadn’t known so well what I was feeling I think I would have been afraid. As it was, I was just overwhelmed. All I could do was bow my head and thank God for the opportunity of serving Him.

A few minutes later Robert came back and said we have one man who wants our Temple class. We keep postponing it because P. Benito hasn’t contacted the people he wants to be in it, but Murphy DeHose is ready and doesn’t want to keep waiting. He’s a man who’s had a severe stroke and is quite handicapped. He’s a simple man, but told us he loves church and knows it’s true. I couldn’t help but think of all the truly brilliant, intellectual people we’ve met in our lives who don’t know what this simple, humble man knows. As we were teaching him, he said how much he loves the song “We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet.” He said the missionary couple from Show Low said they’d get him a copy of the song on CD so he can play it. As we finished he asked in his broken speech if I could play that song for him on the piano. So we went in the chapel and I played for my audience of 4—Robert, Murphy DeHose, myself and the Savior. Who would ever have imagined such a moment in the middle of Cibecue, Arizona?

Robert was sustained in his new calling as Gospel Doctrine teacher. As I said before this calling rotates between the branch presidency and Robert. NOT! After his lesson he handed the book to the first counselor who promptly gave it back. After church he gave it to Benito who also said no thanks, you can just keep it. So he’s on the schedule again next week. At least church goes fast for us. We had what seems to be our typical day…play the piano, teach Primary (14 this week in a tiny, tiny room, ages ranging from 2 – 11), teach gospel doctrine, play the piano, talk, play the piano, temple class. Our friends from last week didn’t come to church today but the lady we took to Whiteriver came with her husband and 3 children. That pretty much doubled the attendance! We don’t know what to think of her yet, but at least she was there. It’s hard to know how our talks and lessons are received here, because no one ever gives any feedback, even the white people. They never even mention it, good or bad, so we take turns profusely complimenting each other on the fantastic, inspiring talks we gave. We’re not necessarily honest, just terrified that if we don’t constantly encourage one another one of us will pack our bags and leave and the other one will be stranded on the rez all alone.

So many issues for the church here, and we don’t even begin to know how to solve them. The building, while cute, is totally inadequate. There is only one small classroom, upstairs, and that’s where we have Primary. Relief Society and Sunday School meet in the chapel, Priesthood in the cultural hall, and Young Women, if there ever are any, in the kitchen. There are not enough active members to justify remodeling the building, but it’s difficult to get active members when there’s no place for the ativities outlined by the church. What a catch-22.

We ended the day with a real treat. There was a program the missionaries told us about called “A Nashville Tribute to Joseph.” With such an intriguing title how could we miss it? It was at Show Low High School Auditorium and we almost decided not to go because we just hated the thought of driving to Show Low again this week. But Robert was the one who got motivated, later saying he knew I wanted to see it and didn’t want me to miss it. We dropped off a baptism/confirmation/wedding gift to Byron and Juliet so we were out anyway. I’m so glad we went. It was a group of LDS musicians from Nashville who got together and wrote a tribute to Joseph Smith and other leading characters of the restoration: Joseph, of course, Emma, Porter Rockwell, Hyrum as well as some of the events of that time. The keyboard player is the lead keyboard man for Diamond Rio. He was very talented. Some of the other band members have formed a group called “Due West” and will have a new CD out shortly. They said that when they got this program recorded and on a CD, they sent it to Deseret Book to see if they would sell it. The guy telling the story said everything sold at Deseret Book has to be approved by a group of men in Salt Lake, a committee. One of the band members spoke up and said, “I think they call those guys Apostles.” It was very funny. Anyway, they said they got a copy of the CD to Shari Dew and she called them and said it’s not what we usually market but I like it. The song about Porter Rockwell was the one they weren’t sure the Brethren would like, so that’s the one Shari Dew played for the committee. She said she figured if they approved that everything else was a piece of cake. They’re also making a DVD of their program. This came to Show Low as a fireside and the place was packed. It was a good end to a long day.