Teaching Moments

Tuesday, May 22, 2014

Just a quick note about Mother's Day before I report on the last ten days.  Heidi invited Sister Moraga and I to have dinner with their family for Mother's Day, which we did.  I was saddened that Bryce did not feel well and so was not able to join us, but it was fun to see Heidi and the boys.  Heidi gave us a gift basket full of snacks to use when we are out and about and also a beautiful orchid plant.  I hope I can keep it alive.  It is lovely but Sister Moraga said they are kind of temperamental.  We shall see if I have somehow developed a green thumb while I have been here.  

I also received a bunch of flowers from Aaron and Sherri, after two attempts by the flower service to deliver them.  No one knows where the first order ended up, but Sherri had to call and have them try again.  My apartment has been very fragrant this past week.

When I received a notice on my door that UPS tried to deliver a package from Orem the day after the flowers arrived, I wondered if it was flowers that had been sent all the way from Utah.  It didn't seem very likely, and it wasn't.  When I went to the UPS store to pick up the package, I was pleasantly surprised to find a lovely gift from Abby, a box full of sunshine that I can share with some of the sisters that we visit.  I have already given away a couple of them.  They are so fun.

Speaking of sunshine, here is a picture taken towards evening on one of Waldorf's roads with the sunlight reflecting off of the telephone lines.  As usual, it was more beautiful in person, but you get the idea.

Last week started out with our doing splits two days in a row, but this time it was Sister Moraga and I who took turns going out with White Plains 1st Ward RS President to introduce her to a couple of the less active sisters in the ward who had actually been on a "do not contact" list in the past.  For one reason or another, when someone makes a visit to the less active members, they may get rejected or told not to come back or often hear the words "we are not interested".  So a note is made and no one goes back.  After a period of time, no one really remembers the reason why they are on that list.  We sat down with the ward leaders last week and went through the list and took assignments to check up on these members again, realizing that we may face rejection again, but that is part of the work.  The two sisters that we took Sister Leftwich to see were actually single sisters that we have visited in the past who have been reluctant to have men visit but have not been opposed to our visits.  They both accepted Sister Leftwich's visit and said it is okay if she assigns visiting teachers for them, so that was great.  Now after eight months of going back on a monthly basis, we have been able to meet a couple more sisters that we have never found at home before and they are willing to see us again, so that is also a step in the right direction.

On Friday, the 16th, we drove up to the Stake Center and met Brother and Sister Biolo so that they could take us to a couple of sisters in Anacostia Ward that we may be able to help.  After our visit with Sister Creel and her children, we were out of time, so we are hoping that we can do more with them next time.  We are going to go back and help Sister Creel in a couple of weeks.

Next, we went over to Capitol Hill and picked up Sister Craner and went on splits with her while her husband went with the young Elders.  Sister Craner introduced us five of the sisters in Capitol Hill Ward.  One of those is Annette Lantos.  The name and face of her late husband, Tom Lantos, was somewhat familiar to me.  He was a Senator from California.  What I did not know is that he was born in Hungary as was his wife whom we met this week.  Their families escaped from Hungary in 1948 (from behind the iron curtain) and then they met in California and were married.  Sister Lantos is Jewish.  She recognized the truth when she was introduced to the church, and was baptized, but her husband never was.  She is a beautiful sister (widowed now) in her 80s who is having a harder time getting around.  She is a first cousin to two actress sisters from Hungary who came to America and made it big in Hollywood—Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor.  I think she strongly misses the time of her life when she was in the limelight with her husband's political career.  There are pictures on all of her walls and albums full of pictures with various dignitaries.  Her family is still actively involved in the Lantos Foundation For Human Rights and Justice.  She gave us a copy of her testimony which she wrote in 1978 and shared in the Church Ensign.

I don't know how much we will be allowed to do in these wards without the Biolos and Craners, but we will report and see what Pres. Sakai thinks we should do.

We continue to see Leslie, another investigator of the Elders who has been slow to respond to the discussions, but we are not ready to give up on her yet.  This Sunday, the Elders gave us the name of another sister, Barb Pastos, and asked if we could visit her.  She is also an investigator.  She is a widow who lost both her husband and daughter in the past year, so she is going through a hard time.  She enjoys the service that the Elders have offered her but learning the gospel is not high on her list of priorities.  They would like us to see how we can help her.

The 2nd Ward Elders' investigator, Phillip, is still making good progress.  They have talked to him about the Word of Wisdom and took away his coffee.  He said that would be a pretty hard thing for him to give up but he is trying.  This Sunday Mary Ann was ill and unable to attend church, but Phillip came on his own so that he could show his obedience to keeping the Sabbath Day holy to qualify for baptism.  His baptism date is only a few weeks away and he is trying hard to do what is necessary so he will be ready by then.

Sunday evening we went to dinner at Brother and Sister Michela's.  They have been assigned to be our home teacher and visiting teacher, and in addition Sister Michela is the RS President in 2nd Ward.  After dinner we went to see the Bonilla family to teach a missionary lesson to their 9-year-old daughter to prepare her for baptism.  When we arrived at the appointed time no one was home.

The Elders have asked us to teach Belinda because her mother doesn't speak much English, and they thought she would be more involved in the discussions if they were in Spanish.  Sister Moraga wanted to just sit and wait about ten minutes more to see if they would get home.  While we were waiting, a neighbor came out and stared at us.  Sister Moraga got out of the car and asked if she spoke English.  She just stood there, seeming to think that would be the end of the encounter.  So Sister Moraga began to speak to her in Spanish.  She asked about the Bonillas, and the woman said I don't know where they are.  He usually goes out "preaching".  Ten minutes later, they pulled up in their pickup towing a fishing boat.  They didn't seem very happy to see us, but invited us in.  We waited while the mother cleaned up her kitchen and the father put away all of the fishing gear.  We started the lesson about 30 minutes late, without the father, but he came in later.  Belinda is very quiet and was hesitant to speak, but the mother started to encourage her to participate more after we got into the lesson for a while.  I should say Sister Moraga, not we, because my limited knowledge of Spanish has to do with a few words related to cherry picking and construction work.  I said the opening prayer and bore my testimony in English at one point, which Sister Moraga said she would encourage me to do more next time.  We made an appointment to come back and plan to use more visual aids and perhaps sing some children's songs in Spanish for her.  The primary songs are such a wonderful way to teach gospel principles.

Monday and Tuesday we had the opportunity to give service to two sisters who have some health issues and needed help with housework and packing in one instance.  The rest of our days were filled with finding without finding, meaning that we went back to homes where we go month after month and see no one—just leave a note to let them know we stopped by and give them our phone number if they should choose to call us.

Today, Tuesday the 20th, we did splits again with the Lexington Park and Patuxent Sisters.  I went with Sister Lau and Sister Johnson to visit the family that Sister Sottili and I first met two weeks ago.  Since Sister Sottili has been transferred to Patuxent Ward, Sister Lau and Sister Johnson are now teaching them.  Lornette and David were not home but Ebony, Jalonte, and Shannon were home.  In the midst of many interruptions from their phones and Shannon's baby, the lesson did not have quite the same spirit as last time, but Jalonte committed to baptism this time.  It is just going to take some coordination to get them all caught up so that they are on the same lesson as Lornette and David and that they all keep their commitment to read the Book of Mormon and attend their meetings.  The Word of Wisdom will have to be taught soon also.  It has been good to spend a little time working with the young sisters.  I was more energized after I spent time with them.  On the way home, I noticed an annoying pimple on my chin.  Sister Moraga told me that it is just the young sisters' youthfulness rubbing off on me.  (Now we just have to work on the facial wrinkles.:) )