Nov 19

November 19, 2006

Janet and family did not come to church today. We went by to pick them up but the kids were staying somewhere else and Janet, who is dieting and very concerned about her weight, said it was more important to stay home and exercise than come to church. Always nice to meet someone who has their priorities in order. Another family didn’t come because they needed to stay home and get ready for a birthday party later today. Another testimony builder.

Alma and Gilbert however did come. We really like this couple and were delighted they came to church, even though they weren’t ready at first and Robert had to go back and pick them up later. That was fine, at least they came. They told the Elders they are interested in getting married maybe in a couple of years. So much for a quick baptism, but at least we hope they keep coming.

Betty Lee, who used to be active but hasn’t come for some time, wasn’t ready the first time we stopped either but she came when Robert went back. She’s an older lady and just as sweet as they come.

We also picked up Murphy and he stayed again for the Temple Class. He wasn’t ready to leave until I played the piano for him again.

We did our usual Primary/Gospel Doctrine jobs today. I had 11 children and got sort of cross with 2 who are getting ready to be baptized. If they don’t come back to church I’m sure I’ll experience eternal damnation for scaring them away. When we first got there Pres Benito said to me that the Stake Missionary Couple wouldn’t be there so I could just play the tapes of the songs and lead the music today instead of playing the piano. He doesn’t even ask if I know how to lead. We feel like he just figures we can do whatever he tells us to do. But I was rescued by the Stake Young Women’s presidency who showed up to visit our Young Women program, which is pretty much nonexistent as far as we can tell. They asked me how many young women usually come and I honestly said I’ve never seen any yet. But one of them led the music so I could still play. And we talked about needing help with activities from the stake. They were very nice and seemed receptive. We’ll see what happens. Robert’s lesson went well, we think…no one ever gives any kind of feedback so we really never know. Robert says he just pats himself on the back every week and says “Great job.” That way he feels like coming back again the next week.

At 5:00 we went to the birthday party. It was for Naysha, who is 10, and lives with Cheryl and Ricky. They had at least used the time they didn’t go to church productively because there was a ton of food. They made Indian Tacos and it was really good. Then for dessert they had birthday cake, a lovely Tinker Bell cake purchased from Basha’s in Whiteriver. With the cake they served vanilla ice cream. All very traditional…except…along with the cake and ice cream was a lovely serving of red jello on the same plate. Hadn’t had that particular combination before. We had a good visit with Fernando Thompson and his wife, Roma. Roma is the other Primary teacher and she said sometimes she’s had 28 children all by herself in that little Primary room. No wonder she stopped coming. We decided that we’ll share the time and each take the kids for part of the time unless there are too many and then we’ll divide the group. Again I’ll say our Primary is unorthodox but we do what works. We gave Naysha a CTR necklace and she seemed delighted with it. There were a lot of people there. He asked us earlier if we were going to the party and we said yes and he said could we come get him. But we aren’t sure he was invited. Oh, well. He enjoyed being there and certainly knew everyone. We also took a bag of flour for Cheryl because people told us that’s what to do. When we walked in Cheryl looked at it and said, “Is that what you brought for Naysha?” We wanted to say, “Hey, we may be dumb white trailer trash but we do have a little common sense.”