Mar 20 07

March 20, 2007

We finally got back to walking this morning, then worked on records and studied for a while. We were just getting ready to go out to visit when we saw this white lady walking up the sidewalk towards the church. The white lady is the unusual part of that sentence. She and her husband served a mission in Arizona in 1985 and were instrumental in delivering the trailer we’re living in right now. They visited for over an hour, but it was interesting. They lived in Holbrook and were assigned to the Arizona Phoenix mission. Their assignment was to look after 34 trailers spread throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and part of Utah. When another trailer was needed they had to find the trailer, purchase it and get it delivered. They were called as proselyting missionaries but said they only taught two lessons their entire mission. They delivered this trailer on New Year’s Eve and said back then it was still a dirt road. Getting the trailer here was a mess. The road was muddy and they had to get a D8 tractor to get it set in place. They had a little travel trailer they stayed in and parked it in front of the trailer and slept there on New Year’s Eve. They said they heard the guns firing around them and someone banged on their door and scared them during the night. They worked on several reservations and had been told the Apaches were the most frightening. So they were pretty nervous staying here.

When they left we went out visiting. We started a temple class with Betty Lee. She’s very quiet but seemed interested and wants to go to the temple on our next Temple Day, which is April 21. Then we saw several other members/nonmembers, and saved one member’s life. You think we’re kidding? When we went to visit Henrietta Tessay, she came out of her house to talk to us and was coughing and we could smell gas inside the house. She said that someone had turned on the gas burner on the stove but the flame wasn’t lit, or blew out, or something. Anyway it wasn’t on, just the gas was on. So when she heard us knock and came to the door she saw it and turned it off. She said we saved her life.

Her son came home while we were visiting and had some quail he’d shot and some fish he’d caught in the creek. The quail were all skinned and her daughter, Amber, wanted to show them to us. I didn’t throw up. I was really proud of myself. The son and daughter both said their mom should cook the birds for dinner, but she wasn’t any more excited about them than I was.

Our last visit was to Myrna, the pregnant lady with the 18 chromosome baby. She’s just waiting to deliver, hopefully soon. She’s just 6 months along but the doctors say there’s no hope the baby could survive. They said they could do some surgeries if she wanted to go to Phoenix to deliver the baby, but she chose not to have anything done to save the baby. The baby is severely deformed, only has partial kidneys, the brain is not developed, and many other issues, so Myrna felt it would only cause the baby to suffer more to try and prolong his life. She thought it was a girl, but they’ve discovered it’s a boy. It was so sad talking to her. She has had a heavy load to carry for a long time. It’s been almost a year since her son died, and now this. Her boyfriend is the father, but he’s now moved out. Says he can’t handle all of this. Right!