Oct 14 07

October 14, 2007

Wow! Two great Sundays in a row. This morning the phone rang at 6:30. It was Rocky and Raymon’s father saying they stayed in Canyon Day with their mother so we wouldn’t be able to have the baptism today. We were shocked…not that the baptism was cancelled again, but that he called. So instead of taking them to Show Low we were able to take Camela and Kent, Michelle Zospah’s kids.

Byron called at 7:30 and said he was starting to pick up the people who were going in the van. Shortly after that President called and said he was in Show Low and had reserved seats for all of us. Byron ended up taking his wife, Juliet, and their little girl, Brionna, Myrna and Rico, Abbitt and Tamara, Megan and Holyon. Fernando brought Wes Machuse and Cecil came by himself. President was there and Keegan came in after the meeting started. So with us, Bro and Sis Wilcock, and Bro and Sis McNeil and their son, John, we had 23 people at conference from the Cibecue Branch. Wes and Cecil were ordained High Priests and Abbitt and Byron were ordained Elders. That meant Myrna had her father, brother and son all ordained to Priesthood offices today. The High Council member conducting the ordinations after the session asked each person to choose who he would like to set him apart. Of course Abbitt wanted his father, Cecil, to do his. We asked Bro Wilcock. Byron and Cecil both asked Robert, who did a great job, of course.

One man in conference gave a talk about his old 1974 Chevy truck. He had an old, battered manual he got from the manufacturer of the truck and said he could fix anything on that truck with that manual. Whatever went wrong he could just look it up in the book and find out how to fix it. Then he held up the scriptures and said that was his manual for his life. When anything went wrong in his life he could just look up a scripture and find out how to fix it because the scriptures are the manual from our manufacturer, so they tell us everything we need to know.

After the session and the ordinations we went to the park with President and Keegan and Kent and Camela. We bought some sandwiches last night when we stopped at Safeway so we ate those and some raisins and carrots. It wasn’t fancy but it kept us alive. Then we went to the 2:00 fireside.

The topic for the fireside was pretty much morals and chastity but presented in a very interesting way. Elder Hafen started by talking about breaking a horse, and getting it to wear the bridle. Then he read Alma’s statement about “bridling our passions” and showed 2 scenes from Man from Snowy River. He said the Lord has never told us we shouldn’t have passions, only that we should “bridle” them. And that His commandments are there to help us learn to trust Him just as the cowboy must teach the horse to trust him before the horse will wear the bridle. He also pointed out that in one of the scenes in the movie there was a fire in a fireplace. He compared passion to that fire. When it’s contained in the fireplace, it keeps the house warm and is pleasant and lifesaving. But if it gets out of the fireplace, it’s dangerous and destructive.

We broke down afterwards and bought Blizzards at Dairy Queen, leaving just as President Bonito and Keegan arrived. Got home about 7:00 and were exhausted. This has been a whirlwind week.