Dec 6 07

December 6, 2007

ANOTHER POPULAR MYTH DEBUNKED! We have often heard that cats have 9 lives. We now have solid scientific evidence that this is not true. We know that Cue has used up at least 14 lives since we arrived. Yes, Blog fans, Cue has returned. We have no idea what violence occurred on our porch, but we now consider Cue not the victim, but most likely the perpetrator. Robert is a little bitter about the hour he spent sweeping up fur and scrubbing blood stains off the porch and has spoken to Cue about possibly choosing a new crime scene in the future. We are not submitting the evidence to CSI as it’s not likely the Apache police would investigate. They’re about tired of us and our domestic violence, drunken Elders and now murder.

Yesterday I was talking on the phone to Sharon and looking out the front door,, when I heard a rustling in the field and Cue came shooting across the field, into the tree, onto the fence and the porch railing. He hadn’t even touched ground when he started meowing for food. I’m almost ashamed to report how happy I was to see him and immediately rewarded his criminal behavior with a bag of chicken.

We had our Christmas Homemaking meeting tonight. This hopefully ends our November-December marathon, in which, counting two Homemaking Meetings, we had 6 dinners in two months. It started with the big Conference feed-in, then November Homemaking, Thanksgiving Dinner, Christmas Dinner and December Homemaking.

We had 26 ladies come and it was fun. We bought Christmas Bingo, Christmas Dominoes and a dice game, which they played for quarters. I reminded them several times how much I would appreciate it if they did not tell the community that they gambled at the Mormon Church. Most of the ladies had never played a game. I also demonstrated how to make fudge, and Thelma showed them her yummy yam recipe, which I will make forever. We served Veda’s Chicken Pillows and salad and had fudge for dessert. I made 48 chicken pillows today. In addition we had a turkey we needed to cook that the Bishop’s Storehouse gave us last week. So I cooked the turkey for Robert and the Elders and made stuffing and gravy. Robert finished the dinner by cooking instant potatoes, corn and garlic bread.

Robert and I also put together 30 gifts bags with a Christmas dish towel, shampoo, bag of razors, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush and deodorant, all of which (except the towel) we got at the Bishop’s Storehouse. Again we had mostly non-members, but that’s OK. I’m convinced that if we can just get them to “stand in holy places” the spirit will be able to touch them.

Robert helped me all day. I couldn’t have done all these Homemaking Meetings without him. He also went with the Elders for about 2 hours this afternoon. They visited 6 families, gave one lady a blessing, and got three appointments for the Elders for tomorrow.

In the church kitchen, while I was cooking the fudge, Juliet came in to talk to me. She wanted to tell me about a dream she had. She was really excited because Byron has had such amazing dreams and this was the first time she had that experience. She said she had this “weird” dream then got up in the morning and couldn’t remember it to tell to Byron. She went to work and there was a funny smell. The Social Worker she works for (Juliet is the receptionist in the office) told her she was burning sage because she is worried about Juliet. She thinks there are people in the community who are jealous of Juliet because she got this job and the sage will drive away any evil thoughts/spirits directed at her. Juliet went back to her office and immediately remembered her dream.

In the dream she was standing up by the Assembly of God Church. There were some men who had made a circle of big stakes and inside the circle they were dancing. Byron told her not to go inside the circle, then he just disappeared from her dream. She thought, “I don’t have to do what he tells me. I want to go inside.” (Robert calls this Womanly Opposition to Priesthood Authority. I call it the reason I like Juliet so much.) Anyway, she did go inside the circle and one man had a long spear. He kept jabbing the spear at her but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t hurt her with it. She was frightened but knew that something was protecting her. The man got angrier and angrier as he kept trying to hurt her but couldn’t.

Juliet said when she told this dream to Byron she cried. She said, “Now I know the church is true, because I know what was protecting me. It was my garments.” She also said she had been struggling a little with getting used to the garments, but now she understands that if she wears them they will protect her. I asked her who she thought the man with the spear might have been. She said, “Satan, of course.” We talked about how his getting angry when he couldn’t hurt her is similar to what is depicted in the Temple movie when Satan is sent away.

When I’m at Homemaking Meeting now there is always someone who wants to talk to me. If I go into the kitchen to do something the kids will follow me in there, or ladies who want to tell me something. But when Juliet came in to tell me about this dream, no one came for about 10 minutes while she was talking to me. I know that time was protected because she had something important she needed to say. These are the things we love about the mission. You see God’s hand constantly in even the very tiniest moments.