Now I really know why they call it Preparation Day! I spent the whole day in the kitchen doing “preparation” for James’ birthday party tonight. Sweet Connie Jones wanted to have a dinner for him for his 70th birthday and asked if I would help her. She said that James wanted Steak for his dinner and so I told her that we would bring the Steak to BBQ and an English Pea Salad. She would do mashed potatoes and make a carrot cake for him. So how hard can that be? Well, for 6 or 7 people, not hard at all. But the list of guests kept growing. Connie could not bear to leave anyone out and word of the party went through her apartment complex. James lives there too so lots of people know them. Well, the party grew to about 25 people! Okay… another trip to the grocery store for more ingredients cause this dinner now called for a lot of cooking and a change of menu! Just could not do 25 steaks, but we could do BBQ country style spare ribs. And guess we had better make the pea salad a bit bigger and add the family jello salad to the menu. Who knew all that could take the better part of the day!
The party was quite a success! James just beamed the whole evening. We got to use the rec-room of the apartment complex so we had plenty of room for our guests. And we had plenty of good food. Connie was pleased to be able to do this for her friend James. And, we were so happy to help such a sweet lady. Pictured here are James and Connie and her beloved Penny with Elder Wels.
This morning it was really cold outside with temperatures hovering around the freezing zone.
Our neighbors to the west, Nancy and Loretta left this morning. I will miss them, they were fun. I got a big hug from both of them and they told me that they really liked us and were in awe of the service we were giving to the community of Bandon. How sweet! That made my day!
We spent most of our Wednesday traveling around and over the hill and through the woods, across the creek to Grandmother’s house… oh….. sorry… got a bit carried away there. But we did put a few miles on the car checking out addresses on the Branch list only to find there were so many “who came up with these addresses” addresses! Where does Salt Lake get these people and the addresses they send us? Well, guess we can eliminate another 7 families from the Branch list. We did find a couple inactive branch members and had some good visits but, by in large, people move to the outskirts of Bandon to get lost. And, they want to stay lost. How true is that?! We finally found Julia Johns and found her to be such a sweet young mother of 3 rambunctious boys! She doesn’t come to church because her non-member “significant other” doesn’t like the church. I could write a book on that one! It would be called Unrighteous Dominion! Don’t get me started! She says she is teaching her boys the Primary songs and teaching them when HE is not around. Our hearts go out to her and we will stop by again soon now that we know where she lives, her work schedule and his work schedule. We will stop by when he is not at home. On our way home we stopped by the Vorwaller’s to meet Zada’s sister who is here visiting from Wyoming. Wow! Now there are 6 people, 3 dogs and 2 cats living in their 20 foot (no slideouts) motorhome for this week! With Elder Wels and I there too…. I think it was a bit overcrowded! That sure makes our trailer feel like a palace. They are definitely a “close-knit” family!
Thursday’s District Meeting was run by the Zone Leaders this week. That meant Elder Wels and I did not have to give any “Senior Thoughts”! Thank you! The theme of the meeting was something along the lines of getting along with and helping your companion become the best missionary he can be. Guess boys will be boys until they become men….(Oh dear, I just heard half the wives in America say; are you crazy?! Husbands never grow up!) With that said… they would laugh at senior missionary couple relationships. The young Elders at least have brains that think in the same direction. Whereas….. Elder Wels’ brain takes off and moves in a very straight line while his companion’s female brain will take off in a straight line also….. but then just out of the gate it veers to the right and then to the left and continues in this zig zag pattern for most of the day. Yea, it can get ugly! Good thing this senior missionary couple love each other. And, what Elder Wels doesn’t think of, you can be sure his companion will!
In the late afternoon we had an appointment to teach a lesson to Isabel Hayden. She is a young mother of two adorable children. She was referred to us by the Coos Bay member Dentist for whom she works. When we made the appointment with her she said she really wanted to know why “Mormon’s” don’t believe in the Bible. Oh my stars…. I cannot believe how the word “Mormon” can completely over shadow the fact that we are truly and totally CHRISTIAN! We not only believe in the Bible…. We revere it…. We honor it…. It is SCRIPTURE! Okay… step off the box! We found a most fabulous talk given by Elder M. Russell Ballard (one of the 12 apostles of the Church) entitled; “The Miracle of the Holy Bible”. This talk was given during General Conference in April of 2007. It answered every one of her questions on that topic. Plus I took along my scriptures and showed her how underlined, colored, noted in the margins, and well loved my Kings James version of the Bible was. My Bible has loved written all over it. That question answered, we went on to answer a few more questions until the 2 year old had had enough of us. We made plans to come back next Thursday.
We also made “reservations” to visit with Claudia Briggs. She is totally deaf and so when you want to visit with her you have to email her and literally make a reservation with her so she knows when you are coming. We did…. But we had some reservation problems. When you ring her doorbell, a string of Christmas lights in her house begin to blink. It is quite noticeable….. if you are looking in the right direction. If not…. You are not going to see the lights. So we stood on her porch for a few minutes with no answer. Then Elder Wels pulled out his phone and called her. Her phone is connected to a computer and it flashes when a call comes in. Then what the caller (Elder Wels) says is typed onto a screen for her to read. She then answers with her voice…. She is quite good at talking! So after Elder Wels’ had said “hello” about three times, she finally asks when he is coming to visit. He told her that he could be there as soon as she came to open the door! You should have heard her laugh! We had a delightful visit. She is fantastic at reading lips. And, if she can’t catch a word, you just spell it to her. She sure can tell some wild stories! We love her! On the way home from her house we stopped to visit with James and do a little damage control. Connie Jones had called to say he was upset with the Family History Center. But we found him to be fine, except for the start of a cold. It’s been a long day and it is time to go home!
Elder Wels was not feeling so great so we decided to stay in for this Friday morning. I had much work to do to put our income tax records together as we have an appointment to have our taxes done on Monday. We got that project finished just in time for President Stockford to meet us here at the trailer so we could take him out to meet and visit with Don Durkee. He is the gentleman we met a couple of weeks ago with the 260 different conifer trees and the sweetest OLD German Shorthair dog who is completely blind. I love that dog! We had a delightful visit and got him interested in coming to the Family History Center. Cool! We dropped President Stockford back at his car and headed back to town to take Kim Powell a Happy Birthday treat. Next stop was to go tell Cyndi Trapani to “break a leg” as her assistant directorial debut of “Barefoot in the Park” opens tonight at the Sprague Theater. She confided to us last night’s dress rehearsal was a disaster! We assured her they would get their act together and all would be wonderful tonight. Next on the list was Susie Elliott and grandson, Nick. We had a little damage control to do there too. Susie is such a sweetheart and thankfully we were able to put her heart at rest and left her house with our hands full. She gave me the cutest apron she had made which I will happily wear when I work at the E.A.T. program next Tuesday. She sells them and I will be her walking advertisement! She also gave us 2 jars of her home canned fresh tuna. Yum! I sense some great tuna sandwiches in our future! Thanks Susie! Last stop was to take Connie Jones her now empty brownie dish. My Momma said you should never return a dish empty so Connie will find some gluten-free pretzels inside her dish. Oh yea, I forgot. We actually went to visit with Penny, the dog and Connie just happens to live there too. That cutie-pie dog just cries to make you pay attention to her because she knows SHE is the real reason you are there. It works! She gets our attention!
Saturday somehow became a lost day. We spent the morning putting together plans for our Sunday visit to the Port Orford Branch. We decided on those families we wanted to visit after Church. And we gathered data for our report at the Branch Council Meeting before Church. We also brought our notes on the Bandon Branch up to date and made lists of those members we had not yet had a visit with. We just about have them all now. Somehow all this took the better part of the day. Tom and Liz Olive called this afternoon and invited us to go with them to the Bandon Playhouse to see the new production of Barefoot in the Park.
Wow! We actually had a crowd at Church in Port Orford today. Okay…. It was just because it was their yearly Branch Conference and most of the Stake leaders were there. It doubled our attendance! We love it when the Stake comes because they bring much wisdom. Once again the Branch Council Meeting was one of so much love and concern for the members of the Branch. The love in that meeting is so incredible! We shared with them our visit plans and they gave us a couple of ideas for additional visits.
What I took home in my heart from today came from a talk which concerned the coming of General Conference at the end of this month. Twice a year our Prophet and apostles gather at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City to speak to words of the Lord. No speaker is assigned a topic. Speakers obtain inspiration through fasting, praying, studying, seeking for the message the Lord would have them deliver. According to apostle Jeffery R. Holland; “everyone has something to gain from general conference. With the companionship of the Holy Ghost, each individual participating in the conference is entitled to personal revelation. If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” Elder Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidencey said; “If you trust God enough to listen for His message in every sermon, song, and prayer in this conference, you will find it.”
Listen to the synopsis of this wonderful story as told by Wendy Watson….. She was 24 years old, doing graduate work at BYU and wildly in love and engaged to the man of her dreams. He was a returned missionary, well educated, employed, musical, handsome, had great social skills, was very romantic, loved her family, and best of all, was committed to keeping the Lord’s commandments. She was teaching family history in her BYU ward which gave her a special love for the Temple. She attended the Temple often seeking an answer to the question that had started to haunt her; “should I marry this man?” The answer just did not come.
Just before April conference her Bishop taught her a truth she had not known before. From the pulpit, speaking to his entire ward, her Bishop said; “If you have a question that you need answered, if you will prayerfully and humbly listen to general conference, you will get it answered every time! Perhaps at the time, perhaps over time, but you WILL get your question answered every time!” Wendy felt he was talking JUST to her. That Conference she listened eagerly to every talk and she taped each and every one of them. She listened with her ears, mind and heart poised and ready to hear the answer to her question; “should I marry this man?” She was amazed that every single talk from every single speaker focused on marriage! At the conclusion of conference she calmly went to the telephone, called her fiancé and cancelled the engagement.
Fast forward several years. Her ex-fiancé seems happily married. Wendy had completed her Masters degree, dated some great men, and continued to be directed by the Lord to pursue further education. Fast forward a few more years. Wendy received a handwritten letter in a Christmas card from her now no longer young ex-fiancé. He was declaring that he was choosing a life-style inconsistent with Gospel teachings and Church standards, telling her of the sorrow that had come to his wife and family since their recent divorce and his declaration.
Fast forward just 6 months from the receipt of that letter. Wendy was asked to prepare a Relief Society lesson on marriage. She decided to listen again to the tapes she made of that life changing conference on marriage. She pushed the play button on the tape player and listened for hours as the talks played on and on. But something was different about the talks this time. Something was missing. To her dismay, there was nothing… absolutely nothing about marriage. Not one talk was on marriage! She then realized it had been the Spirit of the Lord that had taught her and helped her to hear exactly what she needed to hear. General conference had been the vehicle. The Spirit had been the messenger. “Don’t marry this man” had been the message from the Lord. And for that she was very grateful.
One last fast forward….. to April 6, 2006 when Wendy Watson marries Apostle Russell M. Nelson in the Salt Lake Temple for a happily ever after and forever!
General Conference is coming on Saturday, March 31st and Sunday, April 1st. Do you have a question or concern you could use help with? You can watch conference on BYU TV, on cable, Dish, or on your computer or at the Church. If you will prayerfully prepare yourself, then listen with an open heart and an open mind you will be prepared to hear the answer. I find myself excited for the possibility of being taught that which my heart yearns to know! How about you?
No comments:
Post a Comment