June 14-21

June 14-21, 2007

We stayed in Phoenix Thursday, June 14, with Shawn and Veda and the kids. Friday morning we left for California. We stayed at Heather’s Friday night, then drove to San Diego on Saturday and stayed at the downtown Embassy Suites hotel. Randy got two rooms for $40 each and it was a beautiful hotel. Sunday was Shawn’s graduation and it was wonderful. We were so happy to be there and see him receive his Doctorate. Sunday night we went back to Heather’s and stayed there until we returned to Cibecue on Wednesday.

We drove in our driveway about 9:00 Wednesday night. Brother Wilcock was still at the church after having scouts. President Bonito was there also and they were at the truck waiting to talk to us before we even got the engine turned off. They were in a panic about Dion and Verbena’s Temple trip tomorrow. Brother Wilcock said, “Did you know they’re supposed to have a Family Group Sheet filled out? We’ve been on the phone for an hour trying to get a copy faxed to us but our fax machine isn’t working.”

We said, “Yes, we took a family group sheet to them about 2 weeks ago. We’ve talked to them tonight and they said they have it filled out.”

“Well, they need a living ordnance recommend.”

“Right. We called Maxine Monday because President’s phone is out of minutes. We asked her to remind him about the recommend. Did she say anything?”

“No.”

Apparently Dion and Verbena went to church Sunday and asked President Bonito for the recommend. He said that when he and Maxine were sealed they didn’t have anything like that so he guessed they didn’t need it. Never mind Robert had told him several times they would need it. When Bro. Wilcock arrived Wednesday night they looked it up in the handbook and realized not only did they need the recommend but they need the Stake President’s signature on the recommend and the Stake President is on vacation at Lake Powell.

On the way home I told Robert that I was very worried about our Temple day, since we’ve been gone and there were about a million things that could go wrong with the plan. Robert said stop worrying. The Lord always makes it happen. That turned out to be a truly prophetic statement. President Perkins, the counselor in the Stake Presidency who just happened to be in the Temple the day we needed Betty’s recommend signed, just happened to be working in Phoenix this week. They called him and he said he would come to the Temple at 12:30 and sign the recommend.

So at 7:00 AM Thursday morning, the 21st, we picked up Dion and Verbena. They had their family group sheet filled out, and we had their recommends. They also had the letter from the Stake President giving permission for the baby to be sealed to them, since the baby hasn’t been dead for a year. I’m not sure this was necessary, but the Stake President had given them one, and when I called the Temple on Tuesday to confirm our appointment for the sealing, they said we needed a letter. It was “lucky” we already had one, because no one had mentioned a letter before that phone call. Dion and Verbena were ready on time except for one little detail. Verbena was wearing pants. I told her she needed to change to a dress and she said, “I knew that. I was just hoping I could get away with it.” The night before when Robert talked to them he reminded them to wear their garments to the temple. I know in the real world you wouldn’t need to have that conversation, but these are the things we’ve learned in the mission field. At least when Verbena put on a skirt and blouse we were reassured about the garments, because you could see them very clearly at the neckline, at the little opening in the shirt, and between the shirt and the skirt.

Verbena wanted to wear her wedding dress to the sealing but it doesn’t fit her any more. She tried to have it altered, but couldn’t find anyone with enough sewing expertise to do it. So her cousin made her a special dress for today. It was beautiful. The top of the dress was sleeveless, but she had a little jacket that went over it.

We got to the Temple on time. Good thing because it took a while to explain why the recommend didn’t have a Stake President’s signature and how we were dealing with that. We do have to say everyone at the Temple was very cool about it. They even said the Temple President could have signed it and it would have been fine. We went through the 11:00 session and it was wonderful. The Spirit was strong and it was a beautiful session. The Mesa Temple is beautiful. Very different than any other Temple we’ve seen. When we came out of the session we ran into President Perkins. The plan was that he would just come to the recommend desk and sign Dion and Verbena’s recommend because he would be in work clothes and wouldn’t want to come inside the Temple. But there he was in a shirt and tie waiting for us. We were very surprised. He said that when he got there he decided he wanted to come in for the sealing, so he went to a nearby Mervyn’s and bought a shirt and tie so he could come in. We love this man! He had signed the recommends and we were ready to roll.

I made the appointment for this sealing about a month ago. Nothing in Apache Land is planned a month ahead of time, so I had no idea what would actually happen when I made the appointment. But as Robert said, the Lord just makes things happen. When I called the Temple they asked how many people would be at the sealing. I had no idea. I said 8. No reason, that’s just the number that popped into my mind. Last week Verbena had Veda help her make some invitations for the sealing. Veda made 15, then Verbena bought 15 more. So she gave out 30 invitations. When we sat down in the sealing room there were 7 people in attendance. The Lord knew all along how many would come. This is the amazing part of a mission…when something happens and you know without a doubt that the Lord planned it, because with our limited knowledge we couldn’t have done it. The testimony we have gained here of the Lord’s presence in our lives is invaluable. It’s something we always believed but had not seen it demonstrated so clearly and so often as it is in the mission field.

The sealing was absolutely marvelous. Besides us and President Perkins, Dion’s mother was there, and the missionary who taught Verbena was there with his wife, and the wife of the man who was with Dion and Verbena in the hospital when the baby died. Robert was the proxy for the baby and it was just a beautiful experience. Don’t know the words to even describe it.

After the temple we took them to a steak house they told us about for lunch. It was good…Bill Russell’s The Big Apple Steak House. Apparently it’s an old Phoenix tradition. On the way home poor Robert had to drive and everyone else fell asleep.

The poor Robert stuff continues. When we got home I was exhausted. I’m having a problem with my foot and it was so swollen I couldn’t get shoes on. As soon as I could I lay down, elevated my foot and went to sleep. Robert was not so fortunate. President Bonito called and wanted to come over. He and Maxine and Keegan spent about an hour and a half talking and I didn’t even know Maxine and Keegan had come with him. The problem is that President Bonito has been all over recruiting 10 people to go and be interpreters at General Conference. Yesterday the man from Salt Lake called and cancelled the whole summer training and said now they only want 2 people instead of the 10 they originally asked for. Makes one wonder if Salt Lake is intentionally trying to drive this poor man away from the church. The problem is that now the people who are interested in going will be mad if he says they can’t. Also, President Bonito is the most qualified of anyone we know. But if he cancels some people and goes himself that looks like he’s putting himself above the others and that behavior is severely punished on the rez. He’s worried that people will stop coming to church if they get mad at him. Obviously the people in Salt Lake making this decision are totally unfamiliar with Apache culture. Because President Bonito is right to be concerned. These are all genuine issues out here. As President was leaving he told Robert that he feels he’s had a confirmation that he’s supposed to go to Salt Lake and be an interpreter, but it’s just hard to be in the position he’s been put in. Our gut level feel is this is a lot of work for the 3 Apaches who ever listen to Conference.

One last thing. We were supposed to have a scrapbooking homemaking night while I was gone. It didn’t happen. It’s so discouraging because when we’re not here everything just stops. So what’s going to happen when we leave? We feel that anything we start now will just die as soon as we’re gone.