Jan 5-7 2008

January 5-7, 2008

Saturday, January 5, we visited some members and prepared for tomorrow (Primary, calendars, Homemaking flyers). Robert gave a blessing to one member, Judy Charles, who was very sick. We encouraged her to go to the clinic on Monday, as we both think she has pneumonia.

Sunday, January 6, church as usual. It was stormy and cold so not many attended. During church President Bonito brought me an invitation to Ariel’s birthday party…at 2:00 that afternoon. No present from us, I guess. So when Robert got back from taking people home after church, he went over and helped set up tables for the party. It was nice, although they’re all pretty much the same. Lots of food, the everyone leaves. Ariel was excited. She walked into church this morning and announced, “I’m a teenager.” How fun to be all grown up at four years old. After church Robert went with President to make a couple of visits. We’ve been concerned about Byron because he hasn’t been to church since he was called as Elders’ Quorum President. So often they get callings and we never see them again. So they went to visit him. He’s been depressed about his brother. The holidays are always hard after you lose someone. They also gave a blessing to Paula who has been very ill for quite a while.

Today we got lots done. We had some personal things to take care of…not so personal we won’t print them, just tedious. Then we visited members for most of the afternoon. Judy went to the clinic and does in fact have pneumonia. Verbena and Dion finally got their car back, for a mere $400, most of which was for leaving it in the impound lot for so long. Everyone at Alfred and Thelma’s is sick and they still haven’t got their septic tank cleaned out. They’re using a port-a-potty behind the house. We chose not to go in. Betty didn’t come to church but she says she’s OK. Rhonda said Adriano cries when he talks to her about our leaving in March.

Last night we had an interesting experience. We both had almost the same exact dream. Robert dreamed that we were both riding snow machines and the trail got narrower and narrower. We got thrown off and were climbing over rocks trying to get down to where the trail was, but it was so narrow he could hardly see it.

I dreamed that I was in St George and the car battery died, so I was riding a bike along this narrow trail. One side of the trail was a really sharp drop-off. There were several people with us and we were all scared. The trail kept getting narrower and narrower. One person fell off into the water below, so we all stopped. Up on the mountainside we saw a building, so we climbed up to it. When we got there it was an LDS church. We went inside and discovered that we could go through the church to the door on the other side and we were back in town, safe and sound.

When we woke up and Robert told me his dream I got chills. We’ve had a hard time getting back into the work since Christmas. We were both extremely discouraged yesterday, especially with Byron not attending church. We both expressed feelings of not really knowing what to do, and feeling like our work was kind of finished and we didn’t know what to direction to go at this point in the mission.

Then we had the dreams. The message in the dreams seems pretty clear. I’ve always said that God can’t speak to me in the abstract, and apparently He knows that. So we were much happier and more motivated this morning.

Then Irene Murphy came over. Robert had gone to the post office so I visited with her. We talked about her sister, Rose, who is Maxine’s grandmother who has been put in a nursing home in Globe. Then we talked about some difficult things that are going on in Irene’s life. She talked about how she doesn’t come to church and how she feels that Maxine and David don’t speak to her any more because of the grandmother and other family issues that are much too lengthy to write here. Finally she got to the real reason for her visit. She said she wants to go to the Temple again. Funny how that same theme just keeps recurring in our mission. She doesn’t have one of the new recommends so we talked about that for a while. Then she said she wants to get the Temple work done for her grandson, the young man who was murdered last December. He’s been gone for a year now. I got her a family group sheet and told her that we’re taking some people to Show Low to the Family History Center tomorrow and she could go with us and get his name ready for the temple. She wants to do his work on the 19th because she saw on the “schedule”, aka the calendar, that we’re having Branch Temple Day then. When I gave her the family group sheet she just beamed. She said, “Yes, that’s what I wanted. That’s why I came here. I knew I should come over here and see you.” She said she feels uncomfortable in church because she thinks David and Maxine won’t talk to her (David and Maxine tell us that she won’t talk to them), but she knows she doesn’t go to church for them. She says she always prays and that she knows she’s getting to the end of her life and doesn’t want to give up and fall away now. She has a lot of family pressures that interfere with church attendance. I told her the Lord knows her heart and that she’s a good woman. As she left she whispered, “So are you.” Wow! That’s high praise indeed from an old Apache woman.

When she left I felt completely overwhelmed. I felt that sending her here was God’s way of saying it’s OK to be discouraged sometimes, but once again, we need to remember that He’s in charge and even though we don’t know what we’re doing He knows exactly what’s going on and what needs to be done. One of the most amazing things about this mission is how the work just comes to us. No matter where we are something happens that opens the door to the next step we should take. And it happens over and over and over again.

I always get frustrated trying to write about spiritual experiences. We’ve had so many that just about knock us over, yet when we write about them they sound ordinary. They’re not. God is powerful and He knows each and every one of us. If any of us feel like He’s forgotten us, we will testify with all our might that He has not. Stay faithful and the path will be shown you.

We had quite a storm today. We mostly got rain, but Rosie Lefkowitz called tonight to say that Highway 60 from Show Low to Globe is closed. She said she hopes we weren’t planning to go anywhere tonight. We’re not.