May 27 07

May 27, 2007

We were once again the Sacrament meeting speakers, although we sort of volunteered for this one. We’ve been wanting to speak about the addiction program, so last week told President that next time he needed a speaker we would be glad to do it. Next time turned out to be today. Of course he didn’t bother to tell us that until Friday night. But it’s an important topic and we felt good about addressing it.

In Primary Ariel asks me every week if she can have a missionary badge like mine. So I decided to do a lesson on missionary work. I had Elder Rogers and the member who drove him down, Brother Pierce, come upstairs and talk about why they went on missions, and what they had to do to prepare, and how they got their call. I had papers with different places on them and we had the kids all draw out a “mission call.” Then I made them a construction paper badge, sort of like a real one, and put Elder or Sister ________ on it and pinned it on them. I also wrote the name of their “mission.” Yesterday in Show Low we bought little pins that said “Future Missionary” and I gave everyone one of those, too. Then I had a book about missionaries that I read. In the front it had a world map, so I wrote their names in the front and each of their places they were going. I told them that when they get their real mission calls I want them to call me and tell me how close we were. We ended by playing Pin the Tie on the Missionary. We all had so much fun. Elder Rogers taught Sunday School and he told all the parents what we were doing so to be sure and ask their kids where they’re going on their missions.

And this was truly a banner day in church for another reason. Today the Sacrament was administered entirely by Apaches for the first time since we got here. We had set this as a major goal we wanted to accomplish before we left, and today it happened. We were just delighted. Alfred and Murphy blessed and Jared and Casper passed it. We mentioned that on Tuesday we visited with Deoma and asked her about getting Cory sustained and ordained as a Deacon. This morning Robert went by their house and got him to come to church. He wasn’t ready, but Robert waited. So he got the priesthood today (even though it was the first time he’s been in church since we came…we have to get past those little details out here) and is very excited about passing the Sacrament with Casper. He asked Robert if he was going to come and get him next Sunday again, and Robert assured him that he will.

Earlier in the week I had asked Thelma if she’d pass around the sign-up sheet for next week’s dinner. She said yes, so Robert took it to her when he picked up Jared. The whole family came to church, even their rebellious little Rochelle, and after church Thelma as so proud when she handed me the sign-up sheet all filled out. President Bonito is hesitant to give her this calling because he’s afraid she won’t do it. I feel the people need callings (and I’m in pretty good company, since Pres. Hinckley seems to think so also) but they need support. It always feels so much better to me to help one of them get something done than to just do it myself.

After church Maxine wanted to come over about 5 and cook steaks together, but she called later and said President had Bishop’s Interviews so they couldn’t come. We were sort of OK with that, and immediately took our Sunday naps. We couldn’t figure out why we were so exhausted until just now when we wrote about the day.

We keep forgetting something we wanted to put in here. Thursday night we heard a knock on the door and Robert went out. It was Harrilyn and she asked, “Is She here?” Robert took that to mean me. She asked if I could give her $10 to buy Pampers for the baby, to which I replied, “What baby?” I had no idea she had a baby, but she said the baby is a year old, which means she was born before we came. Harrilyn is 15. Do the math. At least she wasn’t bleeding or bruised, although she had been drinking. Had she shown up sober I might have had more sympathy. But I figure if they have money to buy booze and drugs they sure as heck ought to be able to buy their own dang Pampers. I gave her my standard so sorry, mission rules, and all that. Then I suggested that perhaps she could go to Josephine’s house and borrow some diapers as they have a baby there about the same size. When I first told her no, she said how about $5? And I said, sorry, can’t even give $1.

I should have been more willing to give money as Robert had just stopped by to repay the $20 he assured my Robert was merely a temporary loan. Ooops! He forgot to bring the money, I guess, because he never mentioned it. The Elders said he did repay Brother Crockett in Clay Springs, who also loaned him money recently. So at least now we know Robert’s employment. He just goes around looking for someone to manipulate into giving him money.

I don’t believe for a minute that Harrilyn needed diapers. She has WIC and food stamps and every other government program to help get things like that. Robert isn’t even convinced there’s a baby, since we’ve never seen her or Isaac with one, and Isaac’s little sister never mentioned one when she used to come visit before she stole my PDA. I think they needed money for beer and Isaac told Harrilyn to go get it from her missionary friends. The Elders were here and Elder Rogers was again quite amused by all our adventures.

On Friday we were talking about our missions and Elder Rogers said the first part of his mission went by really fast. We said the first few months of ours went really slow and that there were times we felt like we weren’t going to be able to stay here for the whole time. He said, “Well, that’s because you live in hell.”

Not really. Church today was so wonderful. While we are continually amused by all that happens here, we do love days like today and are glad we get to be a part of those days.