Jan 11 07

January 11, 2007

Started the day with our stretching exercises with our stretching bands. We do this before the Elders arrive because Robert says he doesn’t want them to see his muscles and feel inferior. They usually arrive around noon, which they did today, and we eat lunch together and discuss the needs of the area.

We had scheduled the exorcism for today but when Robert, Itri and Meeks went over there they had forgotten (right!) and wanted to reschedule for next week. I guess the evil spirits get to live there for a while longer. Robert and the Elders then went to find Lyviah. They found her and her mother and visited with them. As usual in the perception of a marital conflict the story they heard was quite different from what we heard from Davis. Lyviah says Davis has been on meth and has been very abusive to her and that’s why she left. Now we understand the wild stories we heard yesterday.

Robert had some papers to give Bonito so they went over there next. Bonito has a fake rattlesnake that looks very real. He keeps it under a bench in his office, so it’s out of sight. Robert asked Bonito if he’d seen the snake that had been in his office. He said he thought it was under the bench, so Robert looked under there, picked up the snake, and tossed it to Itri. He jumped about 3 feet in the air and knocked the snake on the ground. Everyone had a good laugh. In fact Robert still chuckles just telling the story. Itri probably didn’t think it was all that funny.

Then Robert and I went to visit Serafina Lee, the mother of the boy who was stabbed before Christmas. That was very sad. She’s having a hard time.

We took Murphy DeHose to Show Low to be interviewed by the Stake President to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. He’s very excited about being ordained on Sunday.

While we were having a hamburger with Murphy Alma called. She’d had another fight with her mother. When we dropped Murphy off Alma came out to the truck while Robert went inside and talked to Gilbert. Alma’s mother is just mean. She calls her own daughter very bad names and has told the whole family not to talk to her. Alma wants me to call and talk to her mom. I can do that, but don’t think it will make a mean woman nice just because she talks to a missionary. Alma and Gilbert have been putting off getting married because the mom didn’t want them to, but now I think they’ll go ahead with it. Unless she can stop them, since Alma is only 17. They said they want to get married February 14. We’ll see.