Dec 3

December 3, 2006

The mission is such a strange experience. There are some days when you get so frustrated you’re ready to pack up and come home. Then the Lord always sends just one experience that makes you say, “OK, I’m game for one more day here.” Today was a classic example.

I came home from church in tears. The kids in Primary were awful, even the ones who are usually good. I like to think I can control most any group of kids but I absolutely could not get in control today. Then I got mad at pretty much every priesthood holder who crossed my path. My next Sacrament meeting talk will be on the difference between “unrighteous dominion” and “exercising proper priesthood authority.” I can hardly wait. By the time we got finished at church and had dinner it was almost 4:00 and at 5:00 we had to pick up a family to go to a baptism in Show Low. We were both exhausted and had slightly less than zero enthusiasm for the baptism.

So here’s where the Lord steps in. We went over early to check with the family to make sure they’d be ready for the baptism. No one was home. We thought we were going to be ditched, but when we went back they were excited and ready. The family consists of a single mom and 4 children. The 2 oldest girls, Ona, 9, and Portia, 8, were getting baptized. Then she has 2 sons, Ivan, 3, who was one of the children I wanted to kill earlier in the day, and Ian, 1. All of them actually came to church this morning. Ona, Portia, and Ivan usually come with the Elders, but this is only the 2nd time Neva, the mom, has come. On the way to Show Low Ona and Portia asked if we could sing some of the songs we’ve been singing in Primary. We sang for at least 30 minutes. They’re very smart girls and totally surprised me by knowing just about every song. They asked to sing, “I Love to See the Temple” and said, “We just love this one.” We sang Christmas songs, and Primary songs and whatever else we could think of. Even Robert sang along. The baptism was wonderful. One the way home Ona and Portia were quiet, which is of itself a modern day miracle, and the mom opened up and talked all the way home. We’ve learned that it takes a long time for the Apache people to talk to you, but once you make friends they are very genuine and open. The whole baptism was such a wonderful experience. The spirit was strong and we knew the Lord was pleased that these 2 little girls had been baptized. We knew the church was true when Elder Meeks gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. He had prepared a little demonstration where he had a bottle of water and put red food coloring in it. Then he talked about repentance and added some bleach to represent the atonement and how our sins can be washed away. Only they weren’t. The water stayed red, so he just blushed a little and went on with his talk. After he sat down someone said, “Look, the water’s clear now.” Elder Meeks was so pleased. It was fun to witness a modern day miracle designed just to make Elder Meeks feel better. Maybe the lesson is that we need to remember that sometimes repentance takes time and will happen but perhaps not at the exact moment we expect.

When we finally got home Robert’s penance for his “unrighteous dominion” (and for bringing me here in the first place) was that I collapsed on the couch and refused to move again and he had to fix me dinner and take care of me for the rest of the night. He watched the Denver game and at 9:30 I told him to turn it to BYU so we could see the last of the Christmas Devotional. He dutifully changed channels, then had to wake me up to ask if I wanted to hear President Hinckley. All I remember is seeing the Prophet stand up and I was gone again. Sorry! Robert finally had to drag me off to bed as I was too sleepy to even get up and move off the couch.