Feb 18 07

February 18, 2007

Church was its usual adventure. Bonito was late so we didn’t have a correlation meeting, but both Cecil and Fernando came. So instead of just having the branch president and no counselors we had both counselors and no branch president. Always a different twist on the rez. There were no speakers lined up for Sacrament meeting. Fortunately, Brother and Sister Wilcock were thoughtful enough to bring their son and his wife to church with them today. They ended up being our main speakers and the musical number. This should be a warning to any children planning to visit their parents in the mission field. Come prepared! Not only did these two do an excellent job, they were able to let Wilcocks show off their one and only grandchild, a beautiful, 4 ½ month old girl. We also had another innocent bystander there. The high councilman who monitors finances came out to audit the Branch’s records and found himself on the program as the concluding speaker. He also did great, and much to our joy, spoke on temples. It was very amusing to watch, and gratifying that we didn’t have to speak for once.

Having the entire Stake Presidency show up, including the executive secretary, made it an extra special Sunday. They arrived just after the Sacrament was passed. Something about Cibecue even makes the Stake Presidency’s behavior a bit bizarre. They came to do interviews for temple recommends. When we left for our trip to Arkansas at 1:00 they were still interviewing. There were 8 of the 9 people who are getting ready for the temple there today. The only one missing was Verbena because she couldn’t get off work. She just started a new job at a different motel. She had been working in housekeeping at Sleep Inn but got laid off, then worked one day at Super 8 and refused to go back. This is a warning! She said their rooms were so dirty she refused to clean there again. When the Apache cleaning crew says never stay in a motel, it must be pretty bad. So now she has another job at a motel in Pinetop and just started this weekend so couldn’t ask to leave early. She’ll have to go to Show Low to get her interview with President Seaman (yes, that’s his real name and please remember your covenant not to ridicule the Lord’s annointed). He’s a very nice man despite his unfortunate surname.

President Seaman told Robert that he’s noticed that the members are a little uncertain about the temple clothing they need and he thinks perhaps Robert and I will need to help them a little with it. Wow! Duh! Thanks for the tip! I love people who show up in Cibecue for 1 day and have these awesome insights to share with those of us who work here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 5 months.

We hated to leave while everyone was getting interviews, as there are some things we wanted Bonito to discuss with President Seaman and we’re afraid he wont’. However, it was necessary for us to get on the road so we just left it in the Lord’s hands and decided not to worry about it. Faith and Naysha came over to the trailers while they were waiting for their mothers, but we booted them out and actually got on the road 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Wonder what we forgot. Anyway, it’s 8:00 and we’re about 30 miles from Tucumcari, New Mexico, where we plan to spend the night. It hasn’t been a bad drive so far.