Nov 15 07

November 15, 2007

What an insane week! This is the first day we’ve missed exercising for a long time and we were just too exhausted to get up at 6:00.

We did get up at 7:00 and fix German pancakes and ham for the Elders. Then Robert asked the Elders to help him return the tables and chairs to the wake. They were very nice about helping. He also had them load up the 2 big bags of garbage from the dinner last night and they took those over to the dumpsters behind President Bonito’s work.

At 10:00 we picked up Cheryl, her mother Angeline, and Tiffini and took them shopping at Wal-Mart. We dropped them off there and told them we’d pick them up at 2:00. We have a baptism scheduled at 6:00 tonight, so we told them very emphatically that they had to be ready to go and we couldn’t get back late. Is everyone laughing hysterically yet?

While they were shopping we got the oil changed in the truck, got it washed and vacuumed, went to Kmart and Safeway. Then clear back across town to pick up our shoppers. Angeline was all finished and Cheryl and Tiffini were checking out. Their shopping cart was clear full so I called Robert to pull up front thinking they were all done. Once again hysterical laughter would be appropriate. Fifteen minutes later when they were actually checked out they had two completely full shopping carts. We loaded them and all their stuff into the truck and as we’re pulling out of the parking lot Cheryl said they were hungry and could we drive through McDonald’s. We just love Cheryl. What boring mission stories we would have had without her.

We said OK, even though now it’s after 3:00, then they started talking to each other in Apache and finally Cheryl informs us that they’d really rather go to Taco Bell. That was it. Our patience was exhausted. We told her we don’t know where Taco Bell is, but if they did we’d go there. However, we didn’t have time to look for it, so if we missed it they were out of luck and would either have to eat at whatever was close or go home hungry. They settled for McDonald’s drive through.

Now remember there was 1 teenage girl, one woman our age and Cheryl, who is probably in her forties. They ordered 2 cheeseburgers, 3 large orders of fries, 1 order of chicken nuggets, and 2 chicken wraps. Robert ordered a $1.00 yogurt and when he offered them his dollar they took it! They were on that dollar like vultures. Never mind we had just spent $30 in gas to take them up there. They also had 2 dozen doughnuts they had to hold on their laps because the truck was full. Jeopardy question! Number of doughnuts they offered us on the way home!!!! Answer….zero. If you missed the question you haven’t been reading the Blog. Compare their McDonald’s order to the lunch Robert and I had…we shared a 6-inch sandwich at Quizno’s. There really is no justice in this world. Cheryl said she spent over $300 at Wal-Mart. $25 of it was mine because I paid her for another necklace on the way down.

By the time we got back and got them unloaded we barely had time to run in the house, change our clothes and pick up the people for the baptism. We took the Beast because President Bonito, Faith and their two new little girls, Brianna and LaShonda, went with us along with Rocky and Raymon and their father, whose name is Filander. Currently my favorite Apache name.

The baptism went well. President Bonito baptized Rocky and Raymon and Robert confirmed them both. We went to Dairy Queen afterward and bought the boys and their dad dinner. Wilcocks met us there and the 4 of us just had ice cream.

We finally got home around 9:30. President dropped us off and kept the van because he has to pick up people for the temple on Saturday, since we have to go early with Byron and Juliet. On the way home I sat between LaShonda and Brianna because President drove and Faith sat in the front by her dad. As we pulled up in the driveway LaShonda put her arms around me and said, “You’re nice. I like to be with you.” What a nice way to end a very long day. This little girl has had so much grief in her little 7 years of life. I am humbled to think perhaps I was blessed to help her feel a little joy.