Feb 23-24 08

February 23-24, 2008

Crazy morning. The Elders were here, Robert had to take the van to Thelma and Alfred, lots of people stopped by…but we finally made it to the temple. We had 8 members in the temple (Alfred, Thelma, Cheryl, Murphy, Cecil, Myrtle, David, and Maxine) plus Bro and Sis Wilcock, Sis Wilcock’s father and sister, Ellen, and the two of us. That made a total of 16 people representing Cibecue Branch. We were very surprised when Cecil came by and said they were going to the temple. He is scheduled for open heart surgery on this coming Wednesday and we didn’t think he’d want to go to the temple. We were so pleased that they could come. I love his wife and was able to sit by her. She tries so hard, but is limited by her stroke. You just know that God loves her and knows what a great woman she is.

We went early, as we had two family names to do. Murphy did the Initiatory and Endowment for his brother, Jonathan DeHose, and Robert did the same for Irene’s grandson, Byron Elvis Lee. David and Maxine were chosen to be the witness couple. That was the first time they had done that and they were very excited. In the Celestial Room there were lots of hugs and tears as we were all aware this would be our last Branch Temple Day. Afterwards we finished with the traditional dinner at McDonald’s. It was a very special day…a sweet memory to treasure always.

We forgot something on Friday. Robert stopped at Cheryl’s and they said they were going to a wake in Whiteriver because, as Ricky put it, “Cheryl thinks she might be related to the guy who died.” When there’s a free meal involved, it’s enough that you just might be related. Interesting how blood ties suddenly spring to mind when there’s a meal to be eaten.

Also, we didn’t quite dodge the bullet on the tables like we thought we had. At 7:30 this morning Josephine came over and said the wedding was in fact today and they would need the tables. However, the times worked out so both groups could use them and when we came home tonight all the chairs and tables had been returned.

Church today was nice. Clarissa Gooday spoke, and Elder Lindsey, and then Cecil wanted to say a few words because he won’t be here next week. He said goodbye to us and talked about his upcoming surgery. He bore his testimony. He’s a very strong man and we know his family is very worried about him.