Nov 28

November 28, 2006

We have a lot of catching up to do today.

Monday, November 20:
We cleaned a little then took flyers to the health center and the commercial center for the ARP groups we plan to start Nov 28. At 7:00 we went to Myrna Colletata’s house and had a Family Home Evening with them. The general consensus in the family was that we would have to really study up to teach a family how to do FHE since we never actually had one in our family. Myrna had her two sons there and their wives and children plus the sister of one of the wives, Stevie. We had met Stevie before. She is in high school and has a little baby. We just talked about what to do at FHE and had some cookies we brought and some soda they had. It was really fun. This is the family of the young man who committed suicide and they’re trying to strengthen their family and recover from this event.

Tuesday, November 21:
Yea! Time for our Thanksgiving break. We were so excited because we got to the junction and turned right for a change. Everywhere we go we turn left at that junction, so it was a real diversion to go the other way. We did some shopping on our way to Phoenix, had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant across the street from Hampton Inn (a wonderful hotel…thanks, Randy) and picked up Beckie at 11:00 PM.

Wednesday, November 22:
Shopped with Beckie at a nearby mall much like Ontario Mills where Beckie used to live. Then we met Beckie’s friend, Sarah, for lunch, shopped a little more and came home. Got back in time for Dad to have 7 scouts for their weekly meeting.

THANKSGIVING:
Spent a lovely Thanksgiving with Beckie and talked to all the fam on the phone. We are certainly thankful for our wonderful family. Joseph Tessay, the young man Robert has been visiting in jail, got 10 hours away from jail for Thanksgiving. He stopped by and had dinner with us. Later in the evening we went to Bonitos for a while.

Friday, November 24:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY VEDA!
Beckie did a quick consult for us before we left town. Janet Lupe is obsessed with dieting so I promised I’d bring Beckie by to talk to her. As always Beckie knew just what to say. Then we took a lovely drive to Greer for lunch. It’s a beautiful place and we loved just being with Beckie all day.

Saturday, November 25:
Back in the car. Beckie now understands why we say everything in our world is 45 minutes away. This time we went to Snowflake to see the temple, back to Show Low for a movie (Déjà vu with Denzel Washington…good show) and to the Branding Iron for dinner. Came home to some very sad news. A little 1-year-old girl was run over and killed today. It was up at the apartment complex. Her grandpa was leaving and she ran after him and he ran over her. Her other grandpa is Murphy DeHose who is taking the Temple Class with us.

Sunday, November 26:
Beckie says Sunday in the mission field is the same everywhere. You spend hours going by people’s homes to pick them up only to discover they don’t want to go to church today. Janet says her children have picked Assembly of God over us…they have better candy (she didn’t say that part). She said her husband wants them to go to Assembly of God. Call me crazy but if I was planning to divorce a person the person I planned to divorce would have little, if any, say over my current decisions. Oh, well. Betty Lee didn’t come because she’s related to the little girl who was killed. Gilbert’s mother was supposed to bring him but he never showed. Byron came but not Juliet, their baby had a cold. Not a stellar Sunday, but Byron was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. At the FHE we talked to him about that and also his brother, but his brother says he’s not interested in the priesthood right now. We told Murphy we’d come by Wed and talk about the Temple. He was just too sad to stay and try to do a class. Poor man! We stayed for a quick meeting after church to plan the branch Christmas dinner which will be December 13 at 6:00. They voted to have Mexican/Italian food (President Bonito was determined to have lasagna as he had eaten lasagna at our house one night and felt quite sure I should be making lasagna for the dinner). I love this place. When else in our lives would we have Mexican/Italian food on an Indian Reservation for Christmas dinner?
After church we drove to Phoenix for another night at Hampton Inn. We ordered pizza delivered and played Scrabble. It was fun, but we’re sad that Beckie had to leave the next day.

Monday, November 27:
Beckie got on the shuttle at 5:30 AM. She was sick at the airport. Poor baby! But still went to work when she got home. We went to Deseret Industries in Mesa and got a refrigerator for Myrna and some Sunday clothes for Byron so he can bless the Sacrament. Then we met Sister Clouse and picked up another small chair for the trailer. It’s pink, so it blends perfectly with the brown, gray, orange, and green décor. I was not having a good day…bad headache…sad because Beckie left…anxious…verge of nervous breakdown…so Robert indulged me and avoided Salt River Pass. There’s just something about horseshoe turns, huge dropoffs and a pickup full of furniture that challenges my nerves. So we took a longer way around but enjoyed seeing some new places. Came through a town called Payson and there was a Chili’s. We weren’t hungry but stopped and ate anyway. It’s so rare we see a restaurant we recognize we just couldn’t pass it up.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006:
Started back to our missionary work early this morning. Monday night we tried to find Dion and Verbena Aday to do a food order for them, but were unable to find them because they were at the hospital. She was having labor pains, but they sent her home that evening and we made an appointment to come at 8:00 AM today and do the food order. When we arrived there at 8:00 Verbena’s mother was there and said they were back at the hospital. Baby Boy, Junior, was born around 3:00 this afternoon. So Mom did the food order with us and we headed to Snowflake to pick it up. We also went to Wal-Mart and picked up some material to make a Snowflake table runner for a Young Women’s activity this Thursday. Myrna asked me Sunday if I’ll help get these activities going, so I guess now I’m in the Young Women’s presidency, too. Anyway, we’re making table runners like the one Heather made me and sent with Beckie.
Got back to town and delivered the food order. Got home planning to do the Blog but the Elders needed us to go over to the apartment complex and pick up a 9-year-old girl named Ona for a baptismal interview. They can’t transport anyone in their car, so we went and got her and brought her to the church. She’s a very cute girl who comes to Primary. She told us in the car she likes to sing the song about the wise men (it’s about Joseph, but who’s to say he wasn’t a very wise man), the popcorn song (around here we don’t wait until it’s seasonally appropriate to sing their favorites) and Do As I’m Doing. She thinks that’s the best part of church. I’m not sure when the baptism is scheduled. It was supposed to be this coming Saturday but that’s the day of the little girls’ funeral.