Jan 26 07

January 26, 2007

Cooked bacon, scrambled eggs for the Elders this morning. They don’t always get such treatment. If they get up and see the cereal boxes on the table they know they’re on their own. Then I made lemon bars, cheese sandwiches for lunch, and stew and cornbread for dinner. Guess it’s because Elder Day is a greenie that they got special treatment today.

While I was cooking Robert went to see Ricky and Cheryl. Yesterday Ricky wanted him to come back and take him to find some wood. Robert wanted to see if Robert Ivins could bring some but didn’t talk to Robert until almost 10:00. So he went over this morning to take Ricky to find wood. But by the time he got there Ricky had walked to someone’s house and bought $30 worth of wood, which he says will last a month. They were a little unhappy that Robert hadn’t been by last night, but we thought it was good for Ricky to take a little walk and get his own dang wood. We went over again later in the day to take Cheryl some empty water bottles for another project she’s doing and they were distant at first but OK by the time we left.

Irene Murphy came by again this morning. She wants us to take her to Mesa to get some furniture from D.I. She has an order from Bonito but no way to get the furniture he’s signed for. We said we’d go on Tuesday. We may not be able to get everything she wants but we’ll get what we can. We also set up a day to go to the temple with her…next Thursday. Not sure if all this will happen, as her sister, Maxine Bonito’s grandmother, is still in the hospital and very ill.

After lunch we went visiting. We talked to Alfred, Thelma and Eric Ivins about the temple. Eric has a recommend signed last June and said he was already to go but no one ever took him. He even has his temple clothes. Thelma and Alfred took the classes but never went, so we told them we’d review the classes with all of them. We’ve set March 8 as our goal. We’d like to take all 3 of them plus Dion and Verbena, Cheryl and Murphy to the temple that day. Wouldn’t that be exciting? One never knows out here but it’s a goal to aim for. Alfred, Thelma and Eric haven’t been too good at attending church so we told them that’s kind of a necessary step. We’ll see if the come on Sunday.

Next to Cecil Ivins, but he wasn’t home. Neither was Manuelita. Simpson was there but his brother said he was “sleeping.” Right! We’ve seen Simpson “sleeping” before. Also not home…President Bonito’s twin brother. We’ve met his children, but never him or his wife.

After dinner we had an appointment to teach the first Temple class to Dion and Verbena. When we first got there they weren’t home, but their very helpful neighbor across the street called their cell phone and they said they were on their way. We waited in the truck for about 10 minutes. When they came Dion was very upset. He’d had a phone call from his family in East Fork and they’re having a bad time. His brother, Jimmy, was arrested a couple of months ago because a girl identified him as the man who posed as a police officer then raped her. This man had done the same to several other girls. The problem is the girl also identified 2 other men. So the family is convinced Jimmy is innocent. A lot of people in Cibecue agree. They thought he might get out on bail but that was denied today.

Once Dion calmed down we were introduced to a new spirit. Verbena says there’s a little boy in their house. She sees him at night when Dion is at work. Dion works 2:00 AM to 10:00 AM at the Casino in Hon Dah as a cashier. Verbena talks nonstop so she went on and on about this spirit, saying that other people besides her have seen him in the house. She said that tomorrow a medicine man is coming to drive away this evil spirit. She also said that she’s supposed to pay him $150 for his services. About then Robert had heard enough. He told Verbena he understands that these are her traditions, but that the priesthood has far more power than the medicine man. Robert then asked if he could bless the house and proceeded to give the most powerful blessing I’ve ever heard. He commanded the spirit to go away in no uncertain terms. It was amazing. Finally about 10:00 we got around to breezing through the first lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We left there exhausted and thinking we had dirty dishes waiting at home for us, but the nice Elders had done them and cleaned up the kitchen for us. Quite a change from when they used to leave dirty dishes in the sink for months at a time.