Sep 25 07

September 25, 2007

Another welfare day on the rez. We left at 9:00 to get a food order. Robert dropped me off at Wal-Mart as I had lots of groceries to buy. The Elders will be here Friday for lunch and dinner, this coming Sunday is Fast Sunday lunch and I’m making 2 pots of stew and a batch of cinnamon rolls, next Friday and Saturday Larry and Janelle will be here, and on Sunday, Oct 7, I’m cooking breakfast and lunch for the branch, hoping to encourage people to come over and watch conference. So I decided today was the only day I’d have a chance to get all those groceries.

When we got back there were two trucks and a trailer parked in the driveway. Shawn Davis from the FM group was here with a friend who is a welder. They were making bars to put on our windows. We were surprised because yesterday Bill, the other FM guy, said they couldn’t do the bars because there was no money in the FM budget for it. So we asked Shawn how he got permission to do it. He said he didn’t. He just made up his mind he wasn’t going to leave us out here without that protection, called a welder friend and the friend dropped everything and came out here with him. They were here all day and still didn’t finish. He said when they had lunch they talked about how scary it would be to have to sleep out here and that they were determined to do whatever they could to help us feel safer. The FM guys have been great. They’re making a hinge on the bars on the back bedroom so we could get out the window if there was an emergency.

More surprises yet from the FM group. We had a message on our answering machine from their secretary that we need to call her and tell her how much money was stolen so they can reimburse us. Crazy! We figured it was just our loss.

In the midst of all this the Elders showed up unannounced. They just came for an afternoon visit (aka they had nothing else to do) with the Zone Leader, whose companion is going home tomorrow. Since the Zone Leader was here Robert mentioned that there’s an empty trailer in Whiteriver and it would be nice to have Elders there to help out the couple, Bro and Sis Lamm. He said President Craig had talked to him about having Elders assigned to the rez (they would cover Whiteriver, Cibecue and Carrizzo). Elder Beus, the Zone Leader, liked the idea of using the trailer there and said he’d talk to president about it on Friday.

Finally we started to deliver invitations to the Stake Activity in Show Low on Saturday which we’re doing in place of Thursday homemaking. We put flyers up at the commercial center, health center and tribal offices, then started on the women we always take flyers. This turned out not to be a speedy process. First we went to Irene and spent half an hour talking to her. Then Henrietta wanted to visit. Tamara wasn’t home and Michelle’s kids just took hers in. But Rhonda came running out to the truck and talked for almost an hour. She said some of her relatives were giving her a hard time about being baptized and even a pastor at one of the churches was a little critical. She said she told the pastor that we got her food, and we check on her, and that we listen to her and are interested in her and that the Mormons have never been judgmental or critical of her in any way. She said that’s more than the pastor’s church ever did for her and she’s glad she got baptized.

Meanwhile we were trying to find Paula to deliver her food order. We never did catch up with her, so we took the stuff that needed refrigerating to her dad’s house and the rest is still in the back of the truck.

Now Robert is on the phone with Bishop Powell from St. Anthony discussing the trials and tribulations of 2nd ward. He calls every once in a while.