Nov 8

November 8, 2006

About 9:00 our plans to take an early walk were interrupted by a phone call from a man who asked if we knew Wallace and Mary Thompson. We do…they live on the hill just above us. Wallace had a niece who died last night, but they have no phone and needed us to go and tell them to call one of their relatives. We drove up there and found Mary washing her car. We delivered our message and offered to let her use our cell, but it was a long distance number and the cell can only make local calls. So we brought her down to the house but she couldn’t reach the person whose number she had. She mentioned that the woman she was trying to reach was a member of the branch in Ft Apache so we called the Remingtons and wouldn’t you know the original call to us came from their place. They were able to give us another number and Mary then was able to talk to someone at that number. We took her back home and when she got out of the truck she said, “Thanks so much for helping me. I love you guys.” It was very sweet.

Then we went to visit Gilbert and Alma. We talked to them about getting married and gave them a copy of the Proclamation on the Family. We didn’t feel so good about this visit. Seemed like we overwhelmed them. Alma seemed like she was agreeable to getting married but Gilbert didn’t have much to say. We interrupted Harry Potter on DVD so maybe the spirit just wasn’t right. We’ll have to try again.

The rest of the day was spent in heavy spiritual potato peeling and cooking, turkey cooking and macaroni making. Robert peeled over 100 potatoes, I’m not kidding, and Linda cooked and mashed them. Maxine Benito calls them smashed potatoes. Robert heard several of the people at the dinner call them that also. The Branch dinner was scheduled for 6:00. At 5:50 there was not one single person here, including the white men from Show Low. We thought at least they would show up on time. There was not a table set up, a chair out or a single bit of food in the building except for the turkey, potatoes and macaroni and cheese we had taken over. Some of the tables we expected to set up had not even been returned from the wedding last Saturday. Robert discovered this at 5:30 and called Benito, whose response was, “Oh, yeah. They called me and said the tables were still at the gym.”

We just kept taking deep breaths and reminding ourselves not to get frustrated. Sure enough people arrived, tables got set up, and the dinner was a great success. The turkey we cooked was blessed, I guess, because it was the best turkey we’ve ever cooked.

As previously indicated we had invited several people personally. We even told 3 families we’d pick them up. One family left in the Assembly of God van just as we drove up. Another family got their own ride. And Gilbert and Alma were a no-show. The Assembly of God family realized they were in the wrong vehicle and asked to be dropped off at the Mormon Church. Score one for the Assembly of God driver for being nice enough to bring them here. And the post office lady came. We were overjoyed when we saw her. She thanked Linda 3 different times for inviting her. Robert Ivins came and that’s the first time in years he’s been in the church. Josephine and Elvita came. Elvita is the mother of the boy in jail. Josephine hasn’t been to church for some time but before she left she promised she’ll be there this Sunday. We’ll see.

The girl who said we had s… for candy at the clothing giveaway came. As she came through the serving line Linda said, “Hey, I have better candy now. You’ll have to come and visit me.” She blushed bright red but laughed.

After the dinner we were so impressed at how everyone helped clean up. There was a ton of food left and we had to smile as they loaded plates to take home. By the time we finished there wasn’t a morsel of food left. Good for them. Why not? We were worried about Gilbert and Alma so we took them a plate of turkey and potatoes and gravy. That’s all that we could rescue from the hoarders so we were grateful for it. Robert took several people home then we took the food to them. We’re still not sure about them, but have invited them to go to a baptism with us on Saturday so we’ll see if they do that. Hope we haven’t scared them away because we really like this little couple. One of the people Robert took home was an older woman who has a son who apparently is drinking heavily. She asked Robert if we would come and visit with him. When we finally got to bed we were exhausted, but happy.