Nov 14 07

November 14, 2007

Elder Rogers’ hypothetical octopus came out of the river today. It actually started last night when Thelma called and said she loaned her ride to her brother and didn’t think he’d get it back in time for her doctor appointment today. Sure enough, about 9:00 she called and said it wasn’t back and could Robert take her to Show Low. She has so much pain in her back we just couldn’t refuse, but it’s the day of the Thanksgiving dinner and I wasn’t sure how I would manage without him here to help me. Nevertheless, we didn’t panic. We said if the Lord wanted the dinner to happen He would provide a way.

At 10:00 Robert dutifully reported for action and found the car there parked in the carport. He knocked on the door and said, “Oh, you got your ride back.” Thelma replied, “You’re not doing anything today. You can still take us up.” At this point in our story you’ll all see how much the mission has changed Robert. He actually said, “No.” No long explanations. No big words. Just “No.” Of course that was after his jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He did say he needed to help with the dinner. He told me when he got home that Thelma actually acted disappointed and a little hurt that he wouldn’t take them. She was over it by the time she came to the dinner.

When I got out of the shower I was more than pleasantly surprised to hear the truck drive up the driveway. Robert came in with the mail and my filled mug in his hand. Can getting your Diet Coke the day of a big dinner be a faith-promoting story?

Then the next phone call came. That was Maxine informing us that her grandma was sick and she had to go to the hospital. We knew Maxine couldn’t come to the dinner so we weren’t expecting her to help. But she had said she could cook 10 pounds of potatoes, stuffing and rolls and now she of course couldn’t do all that.

Guess that was why the Lord got Thelma’s ride home on time, because now instead of having our 10 pounds of potatoes to peel, cook and mash we had 20 pounds to do. I have a picture of Robert at the sink peeling his potatoes. We also cooked a turkey, made 6 pouches of stuffing, made gravy and rolls. We didn’t need the gravy or rolls so I actually made more work for myself than I needed to, but I wanted to be sure we had enough food.

Now it was our turn to make a phone call. On Sunday Irene borrowed 2 tables and 50 chairs for a wake. This is pretty common here and usually happens about 3-4 minutes before they actually need them. So when she got the chairs on Sunday we assumed the wake was that day or the next. Octopusland! The wake isn’t until Friday so we had to call Irene and tell her we needed the chairs and tables back for the dinner tonight. In their usual helpful way she said fine, we could come and get them. About 5:00 Casper showed up early for the dinner so Robert took him over and they brought all the chairs and tables back to the church. Casper informed us that his dad was going to Whiteriver with his mom. Later, during the dinner, Byron said his grandpa and grandma weren’t coming. And we forgot to say that last night President Bonito said he wasn’t coming because he had school board meeting. That meant, you guessed it, NOT ONE MEMBER OF THE BRANCH PRESIDENCY CAME TO THE BIGGEST DINNER THEY DO ALL YEAR AT THE CHURCH!

More about that later. Amidst all our cooking, school ended and our little group of boys who always come looking for food showed up. We gave them an orange then told them no more food today we were really busy but they could sure come back and eat dinner with us at 6:30. They never left after that. They stayed all day until the dinner was served. I got so tired of walking around them every time I went between the church and the trailer that after Robert brought all those chairs back I said if they wanted to help they could take those chairs inside. And they did it! Two of the boys couldn’t be more than 8 and they worked so hard taking all those chairs into the church. We were thrilled when they finally came through the line and got the food they had waited for all day long. Not only did they wait, but they knocked on the door about every half hour and said, “Is it time yet?” We baked our rolls in the church then took 4 hot rolls back to the trailer and ate them. We had told those little boys they couldn’t have a roll, so we are quite sure we’ll go to hell for eating them and not sharing. However, the boys got dinner eventually and it turned out that those rolls were the only thing we ate until 10:00 that night when the dinner was all over. We never did eat even a bite at the dinner. We were just too busy. When we came back Robert had a little turkey but I was too tired and just went to bed.

While we were cooking the wife and son of the deceased man whom the wake is for on Friday stopped by. They needed President Bonito’s phone number because the phone he gave them a number for is out of minutes. We gave them his work number and invited them to dinner. We were very pleased when they came.

About 4:00 people started calling for rides. By 5:30 Robert was picking up people. Before then Casper had helped him set up 8 tables. Wilcocks arrived and helped with the rest. I guess they put the tablecloths on because somehow it was done. LaFawn and I got all the food ready and asked one of the young women, Camela, to help us serve. Also, a lady who is a member of the church and works as a nurse at the clinic (we wrote about her earlier), Pat Madsen, helped serve. Again, not a single adult member of the branch helped out.

We had a better turnout this year than we did last year. We served at least 160 people, but none of us actually counted. While we were shoveling out food as fast as we could, Robert’s job was to take away empty pans and bring back full ones. We were just working so hard, all of us, when President Bonito called on the cell. He asked Robert to go and pick up his kids so they could come to the dinner. Robert would have been glad to but there was no way right then. President was a little unhappy that he wouldn’t go. Later, after the dinner, President came over and wanted to know if there was any food left. He was quite unhappy. It was apparent he thought we should have saved him a plate, which we didn’t even think about or we probably would have. Ariel came with him and he told us how disappointed she was that she missed the dinner. We are quite sure she was disappointed, we’re just having a hard time understanding why it’s our fault they didn’t get to come. We gave him some potatoes and gravy to take home and a pie and a whole bag of my rolls that we didn’t use, but it wasn’t what he wanted. So he left. While he was there we were vacuuming and doing dishes and putting away tables. He never lifted a finger to help. Just groused a bit, got his food and left. The unpredictability of these people still presents a problem to us. If we lived here another 100 years I doubt that we would ever truly understand them.

The Elders came tonight. Both of them were a little bit sick. There’s a lot of flu going around. So they didn’t help much either.

Towards the end of the dinner Bro Wilcock presented Scout awards. LaFawn made merit badge sashes for each scout and put on the awards the boys have earned so far. Bro Wilcock presented each one and the people clapped for the boys as they got their sash. It was really neat. What ever would we do out here without the Wilcocks?

As always the people were really good to clean up after the dinner. We don’t understand why they will help clean up but not serve the meal. Also everyone was really good to bring the food they had signed up to bring. One lady from my homemaking group brought fry bread and she hadn’t even signed up to bring anything. The food and the people who came were wonderful. We were just disappointed in the support from the branch leadership.

During the dinner I was talking to Thelma and some other ladies. Someone asked me about the rumor that they’re thinking of putting a new church building out here. I told her they are actually thinking about that and Thelma asked if they got a new building if we’d come back to see it. I assured her we would. Then she said they’re all trying to save money to come and visit us in Logan. Fernando and Roma said last Sunday they want to come for a visit too. This could be a whole new experience for Cache County.

We felt really good about the success of the dinner. We know we were blessed to have everything come off as well as it did. And after two arthritis strength Tylenol I was actually able to fall asleep.