Feb 3 08

February 3, 2008

Whenever we write our Blog early and say it’s been a peaceful day we’re just inviting trouble. Sure enough as soon as we finished writing last night Bonitos came over. We spent over two hours with them talking about the incident at the basketball game on Friday night. Maxine was really upset. She’s having a hard time right now. Her grandma, the woman who raised her, is dying of cancer. Besides that Maxine has a lot of unresolved issues in her life, including being rejected by her mother and having two cousins murdered. We talked about all of that and a lot of other stuff. Finally Robert gave her some Tylenol PM and she went home to try and get some sleep. Guess it worked, because this morning President didn’t get to church until 9:40. He said they all slept in, then Maxine took Keegan and went to Globe to visit her grandma.

This was not a good day in the mission field. Robert says we should write it just like it happened, and then put a note in the front of this journal that says, “If you ever feel like putting papers in for another mission, read February 3, 2008 first.”

To begin with as we’ve already said President didn’t show up until after we started church. That means we went over at 8:15, as usual, and sat around waiting for an hour thinking he was going to come and have our meeting. He didn’t, so Robert left to pick up people and Fernando finally started the meetings. For Priesthood, Relief Society and Sunday School they watched President Hinckley’s funeral. When I finished Primary I ran over to the trailer and turned on the lasagna and bread at a low temperature thinking it would cook for about an hour. Then I put two pans of lasagna on in the church, too. Looking around I noticed that our lunch was looking pretty meager. Sisters Wilcock and McNeil brought what they said they would, of course, but only one or two other people even brought anything. The people who signed up last week either didn’t come or didn’t bring any food. So we had 4 salads and one small pan of lasagna besides the food I made yesterday.

My cooking plan seemed foolproof, except that Fast Meeting lasted until 12:30. I couldn’t get out to turn off the ovens because I had to be there for the closing song. Robert finally left and turned everything off, but it was already burned.

One reason the meeting went over was that Thelma bore her testimony, and it was very long, but very nice. She told about going to the hospital in Phoenix last week. They took her there because she had kidney failure. When she got to Phoenix she was alone in the room until a nurse came in. This nurse gave her a pill and a drink of water. Thelma asked her name and said she was surprised because the lady’s name was the same name she did the endowment for the last time she went to the Temple. The nurse said she worked on the fourth floor and that was where they would be taking Thelma. She told her she would meet her up there in a few minutes and left. When Thelma got to the fourth floor a male nurse was taking care of her. She asked for the woman who had talked to her earlier and he said there was no one by that name working in the hospital. Thelma left the hospital the next day with no sign of kidney failure. They told her it was a reaction to some medication she had taken. She also mentioned that she had been given a blessing by Robert and Alfred, where she was told that if she had faith she would get better.

Her testimony was lovely, but when she quit it was 12:15. Then President got up and took another 20 minutes. So it was after 12:30 when the meeting finally ended.

As soon as the meeting was over all the young men jumped right up and set up all the tables and chairs. We had another Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes…plenty of food for everyone. The lasagna was burned on the bottom, but it tasted OK I guess.

After the lunch the McNeils and Wilcocks helped us clean up, but pretty much everyone else just left. Even Wilcocks and McNeils were in a hurry. There is a storm predicted for today and they were literally frantic to get out of here before it started snowing. Turned out it just rained all day and night, but we were amazed to see the actual panic they felt over a storm that hadn’t even materialized yet.

I was getting way overtired at this point, after having cooked all day yesterday and then talking with Bonitos until late and then Primary and now cleaning up. Robert left with the van full of people and we both forgot I had dropped my keys in his pocket. I asked President for his keys so I could vacuum but he didn’t have them with him. So all I could do was stand around and wait for Robert to come back, which took nearly an hour. There were still 3 people waiting for rides when President Bonito came out of his office. He looked around, waved goodbye and walked out the door. I seriously wanted to run after him and strangle him. He couldn’t drive 3 people home? Guess not, because he left them all standing there. Finally Robert came back and took the people home while I vacuumed and turned off all the lights, checked the rest rooms and turned down the heat. Isn’t that stuff a Branch President might be expected to do?

At long last we got back to the trailer. We simultaneously had major meltdowns and of course took out all our frustrations on each other, which resulted in a huge fight. We’ll spare our readers the details, but it was ugly. We are both worn out and frustrated with the complete lack of participation by the branch members. We know it means that once we leave everything will come to a complete stop. How can there be a branch Temple Day when no one will give the members rides or even invite them to come? How can there be Scouts, or Relief Society? We know we shouldn’t dwell on it but it feels like all our time here has been for nothing. We know that the right answer to this is that we just need to do our best and the Lord will make of it what He will. Easier to say that than to actually do it.

Anyway, we managed not to kill each other and finally made up a little bit, just in time for Bonitos to show up again. This time she wanted to use the computer to register to take her test again, which means she needs to put her fee on our credit card and I’ll spend another $100 plus another day taking her to Phoenix to take the test. They stayed for about an hour during the Super Bowl and left around half time.

After they left we had a phone call from the lady Maxine had the fight with. She said Maxine called her an f……. b…….. plus numerous other niceties. She said over and over how she didn’t think David or Maxine should be leaders in any church. Anywhere else I’d be surprised to learn that the Branch President’s wife used that kind of language, but out here it didn’t even phase us. Robert again assured her that Maxine may have been angry but she won’t hurt anyone.

Aaaaaaargh! ENOUGH ALREADY! We are tired, tired, tired.