Playing Catch Up

Many weeks have gone by without any entries being made.  Our schedule has been very irregular and we arrive home late often because we are traveling farther away from home to make visits.  Here are some of the highlights of the last couple of months.

September 15, 2014

Kristin's Story

Sunday evening ended on a real down note for me and for our recent convert, Kristin.  Kristin was able to get her membership number so that she could add it to her FamilySearch account and be able to see the ordinance work.  She stated previously that out of respect for her parents and extended family, she does not feel that she should do the temple ordinances for all of her relatives until her family can come to terms with her membership in the church.  She has a grandfather who was a minister of another faith and the family was very involved with that church.  After church I received a phone call from Kristin, and she seemed quite upset.  Low and behold, when she added her membership number to her FamilySearch account, she discovered that her grandfather's temple work had been done about three years ago.  His birth was recent enough that his ordinances should not have been done without obtaining permission from the closest living relative.  None of them would have allowed that!  She went so far as to call her mother and talk to her about it so she could find out if one of the children had given their permission to someone for this work to be performed.  That was a mistake.  Now her mother was really upset with this religion that had split her family apart!  As we talked, she expressed her doubts about this supposed true church for allowing such a disrespectful thing to take place.   She really wanted the work to be "undone".  Additionally, she had decided against doing the work for two of the women on her line who she had previously felt were prompting her to get on it.  I tried to assure her that everything would work out, but I wasn't sure how.  In spite of her strong emotions, she was still willing to meet with us on Monday for another new member lesson.  I asked if she had a particular topic or question for the lesson, and she said she just wanted her family history questions answered.  I called the Family History Director in WP 1st Ward to see if she had any advice for me.  She gave me all of the answers that I already knew about personal agency and the importance of this work in Heavenly Father's plan.  She said she would join her prayer with ours in Kristin's behalf.  I went to bed with a heavy heart about Kristin's negative experience, which I am sure is just one more way that wily devil is trying to get in the way of Kristin's spiritual journey.

Monday morning I arose with a somewhat positive attitude that everything was going to work out for Kristin.  We are on the Lord's errand.  Sister Moraga and I planned what scriptures and discussion material we would use to reinforce Kristin's testimony and help her move beyond this additional family blockade.  We included Bible scriptures that declare that temples and baptisms for the dead are a part of God's church throughout all ages of the world.  We left at the planned time to arrive at the church about 15 minutes early, because Kristin is always early.  The time passed and she did not arrive.  Just as I was thinking that she was too upset and had changed her mind about coming, we saw her car approaching.  Her eyes were red as though she had been crying, but there was a sense of relief in her attitude as she got out of the car and approached us.  She said, "I just had a wrestle with the Holy Spirit on my way here.  He told me this temple work is no different than inviting my brother to attend church with me."  WOW!  She was okay with it.  She was still a bit offended that someone had been unthinking and disrespectful to have ordinances performed without gaining permission, but she could look past it as she realized the eternal invitation that it provided for her grandfather.  It was no more than an invitation that he could accept or reject just as her brother had a choice to respond with a yes or no answer to her invitation to go to church with her--which he did say yes to last week (just hasn't come yet).  By the time we finished the lesson and did some work in FamilySearch, she had resolved to finish preparing some names to take to the temple.  How grateful I am for this powerful demonstration of our Heavenly Father's love for all of us.  What a wonderful gift the Gift of the Holy Ghost is in our lives!

September 20, 2014

More Service

Today we drove down to a farm near Hughesville, Serenity Farm in Benedict, Maryland.  This farm was in financial distress and was headed for bankruptcy.  The owners made a deal to get some government aid to keep the farm operating and they would donate 100% of the harvest to the needy.  So that is what they have done for the last several years.  In three years they have donated over 2 million pounds of food for the needy in Maryland.  Each fall the wards in the area, I know for sure that Suitland Stake where we live gets involved, and they all come together one Saturday in October to help harvest the crops.  Last year it was potatoes.  

This year we picked green beans and others sorted and prepared corn and other vegetables for distribution.  The Boy Scouts provided a lunch (hot dog, chips, and a cookie) for the volunteers.  There were over 750 LDS members involved this year.  Sister Moraga and I spent several hours picking green beans.

It was so good to get out in the country with wide open spaces and be reminded of familiar sights and smells from my childhood on our Montana farm.

September 21, 2014

Change of Assignment

We have adjusted what we are doing slightly at the insistence of President Cooke.  We met with President Cooke, President Sakai and Sister Ramon along with the other missionaries who usually attend the Stake Mission Correlation meetings.  President Cooke asked for the Stake to give us more work to do.  I think Sister Ramon has been a bit discouraged that Sister Moraga keeps asking for more to do, and Sister Ramon doesn't know how to fix it because she isn't sure exactly what President Cooke is asking for.  Sister Ramon asked if we would begin working with Capitol Ward during the week along with some of the sisters that we will continue to visit in White Plains 1st and 2nd Wards.  This is in addition to meeting with Anacostia and Capitol Hill Wards on Sundays and the limited amount of work that we can do there (right now only Aminata and Evelyne in the company of the Biolos).  We were given a short list to begin with and then Capitol Ward RS President, Sister Goode, gave us an additional list of sisters that the Bishop would like us to visit.  We were cautioned that there are also a couple of areas in Capitol Ward that are not very safe for us to go by ourselves.  If we drive around a neighborhood and find that all or most of the doors and windows of the houses are barred, that is a pretty good sign that we probably should not be going there and especially not at night.  This ward has about 400 sisters but only about 100 are actively attending church.  So it looks like we will be doing much the same thing that we did in the other wards, which is not exactly what President had in mind, but for now that is what we will do.  Hopefully, as we meet with some of these lost sisters we will find more teaching opportunities, which will make President happy.

September 22, 2014

Family History Family Home Evenings

We have had a few opportunities to go into members' homes and present ideas or lessons on how they can have fun with family history and help their ancestors at the same time by getting to know them and looking for temple opportunities.  We have gone to the Ucles family a couple of times now.  Brother Ucles has been deployed and his wife and children love to have us come over.  We play family history games like "Not at All Trivial", Family History Bingo, and Don't Eat Pete.  Brother and Sister Ucles are from I want to say Honduras but that might be wrong.  She always prepares some of their favorite native foods when we go over.  One was a very tasty seafood soup.  When we have had family history home evenings with them, we have provided the refreshments and take treats that may be new to them.  The first time we took ginger ale and sherbet floats.  This time we baked a cookie pizza and let them make a fruit pizza.  I think they had fun and enjoyed the treat.

September 27, 2014

Seniors' Sailing Extravaganza

Brother and Sister Tate are church members who own a house on the shore of the Patuxent River down in St. Leonard.  He used to be in the Washington D.C. Mission Presidency and he and his wife have also served as Mission President in a different mission.  They know how much the missionaries just need leisure activities from time to time, so they have offered for many years to host a sailing and crab dinner event.  

The weather was perfect and we enjoyed a couple of hours on the water followed by a potluck dinner and grilled chicken and delicious, famous, fresh blue crab that was steamed and ready to eat within hours of being caught.  It was delicious.  

The only thing that would have made it better was if Verlin had been there on the boat with us.  As I sat there, I thought about how very much he enjoyed being on the water.  We would have had to ride a different boat though.  We used three boats but two of them were larger and went very slowly.  The third one was smaller and they let us know that it was for those who wanted to go fast.  It still was not nearly as fast as Verlin would like to move a boat when skiing, but after all it was only a sailboat.

October 2-3, and 27th 2014

Family Time

I had the cherished blessing of spending Friday, October 3rd with Alex and Heidi and her boys.  I missed out on Zone Conference, but I told my companion that being able to spend a day with family was as revitalizing as the zone conference would have been for lifting my spirit.  

Alex with the White House in the background

Alex came to Maryland to interview at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda.  When he was through, he drove to Heidi's to spend a couple of days.  I went to Heidi's at the end of our Thursday visits.  On Friday morning we drove to Washington, D.C. and toured part of the National Mall, focusing on some of the memorials, i.e. Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the war memorials.  It was a good day for touring with pleasant, sunny weather.

Lunch at the Lincoln Memorial

Looking from the Lincoln Memorial towards the Washington Monument

  

Isaiah at the National World War II Memorial

Taking a break while Alex went to feed the parking meter

The pillars that represent the three states where I have lived just happen to be right next to each other

Ohio State Buckeyes!!

Heidi and Alex holding up the Washington Monument.

October 4-5 2014

General Conference 2014

We have continued to go to Evelyne's each week to teach her the lessons.  The Biolos have been so good to go with us each time even though they don't understand French either.  We sing the songs in French and have actually been able to pick out a few words that we recognize as Sister Moraga teaches her.  We took her to the Visitor's Center with us to listen to the first session of General Conference.  Sister Moraga and a couple of French-speaking elders from the French branch interpreted for her.  On Sunday she went to both sessions with us at the Anacostia building where Sister Moraga interpreted all of the talks for her.  It is very tiring for both of them to have to concentrate so hard in the process of translating, but Evelyne said she enjoyed the meeting.

October 25, 2014 Evelyne's baptism

On Sunday, October 19, we thought that we would have to postpone Evelyne's baptism which was scheduled for October 25th.  Evelyne was sick when we went to pick her up for church.  She had a breakout of hives and took some medication for it, and it made her so groggy that she couldn't wake up the next morning.  We told the ward leaders that we would probably not be able to follow through with the preparations for Saturday since she had missed two Sundays in a row.  She did, however, attend often enough that attendance was not an issue for her baptism.  When we met with her on Tuesday to have our next lesson, we told her that we would probably have to postpone the baptism.  She was insistent that she was ready and wanted to be baptized this Saturday.  So Elder Biolo got on the phone and made arrangements for the French-speaking Elders to come and conduct her baptism interview on Thursday.   The elders that were going to do the interview had never been to her house before and they got lost and could not make it to the appointment.  The Biolos picked them up the next day and took them directly to her house so that she could have her interview.  At the same time, they talked with her husband, Valere, to be sure that he was comfortable with performing the baptism and showed them how it was to be done.  We worked together with the Elders and the Biolos to put together a program for Saturday and made arrangements for refreshments.  The Biolos took care of filling the font.  I typed the baptism program in French and English.  The French elders were late getting there Saturday because of bad traffic in D.C., but the meeting went forward as planned.  All of the talks and the ordinances were in French with the exception of the prayers, which were by the Biolos.  Those of us who do not speak French had a very good idea of how Evelyne feels every week as she attends church and listens to all of the meetings being spoken in English, of which she only understands a small portion.  Evelyne and Valere are very happy that she was baptized.  We continue to meet with her to give her the new member lessons and try to help her grow in her understanding of the gospel.  Sister Moraga is not translating for her as much now.  We hope that the more she hears, the more English she will understand.

Elder and Sister Biolo, Valere and Evelyne, and Sister Moraga and Sister Hatch

October 26-27, 2014

At The Smithsonian

I found out that Alex and Laura and the kids were planning a trip to visit Heidi again the end of October.  I was uncertain about asking Sister Moraga if I could take a day off again to hang out with them, but she was very supportive.  I drove over Sunday, the 26th after church and spent the night.  Monday we went to Washington D.C. again, this time to the Smithsonian museums.  We spent most of the time in the Air and Space Museum and then went for a short time to the Natural History Museum to show the kids some dinosaurs.  Unfortunately, they are remodeling the exhibits there and most of the dinosaur exhibit has been moved to another location while they do the remodel.  I think everyone had a good time.  FYI:  This time we found out how to pay for the parking meter using the phone and renew the time via phone, which was so much easier than going back to the car, although we found perfect parking spots right next to the Air and Space Museum.

Getting the kids to hold hands with each other was a chore at times, but when it was finally time to go back to the car, they were perfect!

Evelyne's Harrowing Experience

November 2, 2014

This Sunday Valere and Evelyne came to Sacrament meeting together.  Valere had to leave for work after Sacrament meeting so we agreed to take Evelyne home after Relief Society.  We drove her home and went back to the church.  When we got back to the chapel I heard my mission phone beep.  When I looked at it, I saw that I had 5 calls from the same number within six minutes.  I didn't recognize the number, but I decided that someone really wanted to talk to me, so I returned the call.  It was Evelyne.  I had saved her husband's phone number in my phone instead of hers, so when she called from her phone I didn't recognize the number.  She was very anxious to have me get Sister Moraga for her.  We learned that when we dropped her off at her house, she went in to find that someone had broken in to their apartment and stolen some things.  We weren't sure but it sounded like she was afraid someone might still be in the house.  Sister Moraga told her to wait outside until we got there.  It was a cold, windy morning, but when we got there 15 minutes later, she was still standing out on the sidewalk outside her apartment.  There was a young man standing on the deck by her apartment, just staring at us.  He was dressed kind of like a Ninja, all in black with a black cap and face mask.  He looked so suspicious to me.  He just stood there watching us while we talked to Evelyne.  When we started up the steps to her apartment he turned away and walked into the apartment next door but didn't close the door all of the way, as though he wanted to observe us.  We went into Evelyne's apartment and she showed us where her laptop and television used to be.  She walked through the other rooms checking for more evidence of theft, but it seems that that is all they took. (We later found out that some of her jewelry and African artifacts were also missing.)  She was so upset.  She had called to report the theft, and Sister Moraga was in the process of calling 911 again when Evelyne got a call on her phone.  The police were trying to find where she had called from, but had not understood the name of the street.  Some minutes later the first officer arrived and began the investigation.  He called a second officer who would document the scene with photos and fingerprint search.  They concluded that it did not look like it was a forced entry even though there were multiple gouges in the paint and wood of the doorway.  Maybe Evelyne had not closed the door tightly when they left this morning.  The officer lifted two fingerprint samples from the glass shelf of the entertainment center and said if they can identify the owner of the prints and they are not Evelyne's or Valere's then they would start an investigation.  That is all they could do for us except to advise her that she should have renters insurance and she should use the deadbolt.  Because they have only one key that fits the deadbolt, they do not lock it because Valere would not be able to get in if he gets home when she is gone.  Evelyne was so upset and afraid to stay in the apartment alone, so we took her with us back to the church.  When the Capitol Hill ward meetings ended (about 20 minutes after we got back) we asked if someone in their ward spoke French that could give her a blessing.  No one spoke French, but the Elder's quorum president and another fairly new member of the Elder's quorum give her a blessing and Sister Moraga translated for her.  I don't know how much she comprehended, but it was a very tender blessing that expressed just how much Heavenly Father loves her and is aware of her needs.  Then we brought Evelyne home with us and fed her dinner.  We went back to Evelyne's apartment around 9:00 p.m. because if Valere got off work early he would not have a way to get back into their apartment.  Evelyne was sure to lock the deadbolt this time.  We waited with her at her place until Valere arrived home, about 11:45.  We finally got back to our apartment at 12:30. What a long day!!