Happy Birthday this week to Tyler J. We love and appreciate you and hope it was a good day. Congratulations to all the grandkids who completed another year of school. We hope you have a safe and happy summer! Remember to read your scriptures every day even though you aren't in school! We hope you are also saying your prayers!
We had a really busy week. We actually had a P-Day on Monday but because we hadn't had a full P-day for a few weeks we had to spend most of the day catching up on our cleaning. Since our condo owner has put our condo up for sale we began to look for a new place. We have only looked at one and it was a cockroach hotel. NO way could I live there even if it were clean. For now we are staying put. There have been no real estate agents bringing any one to look at it yet. It will probably will be a long time before it sells.
Besides our usual lessons we had a lot of other things going on this week. Most people from the states home school their children as the schools are so bad here and the private ones are very expensive. Mallory belongs to a "Christian" home school group where they meet once or twice a week to let their kids play in the park or do craft projects. We asked her if we could come teach a craft project. She was so excited about it and organized it. Kaitlin and Tyler brought us the canvas boards and paints when they came and at the craft day we painted canvas art boards like we did at Bryce Canyon. They had a fun time doing it. We were able to meet some great non member moms. They have asked Mallory some questions about the church. We hope it to be a good missionary tool and that those moms will feel more inclined to come visit our church some day.
The area authority for the Caribbean has asked this area to index a large number of names this week, so our branch met Wednesday night to teach people how to do it. Dad and I took our computers. Some of the students from the PA school came with their laptops. We were able to teach a few how to index. They loved it. Hardly any of the members have a computer or internet which makes it impossible to index much. But it is a way that they can share in temple blessings. I hope the ones who came will keep going with it.
After the indexing, dad and I stayed until 10:30 and had a steaming hot sauna. Nice and relaxing you say?....NOT.. Actually, we cleaned the church. It was our turn and it hadn't been cleaned for three weeks so you can imagine how dirty it was. We came home dripping wet and hit the shower and went straight to bed.
We visited with Marcel and Kimmer this week and they were really discouraged because of bad news on Kimmer's immigration. They were so sad that we ended up spending most of the afternoon with them and taking them to lunch to cheer them up.
We met with the Edwards family about their mother's funeral and made final plans. We cleaned up the church for them, took them on a tour of it so they would be familiar with it for the funeral, met them the next night so they could set up a table of pictures, cooked food and set up a light luncheon for after the funeral, had the funeral, fed them, then cleaned the church again. And I am not saying we had help. It was all just dad and me. But it felt good to serve where it was so needed.
The funeral was a good missionary tool also. They were all nonmembers and appreciated our efforts and were interested by the concluding remarks of the branch president which taught them some of the plan of salvation. Maybe for now it didn't give us an investigator, but it gave the church high marks with a lot of people. Funny thing, one of the grandson's of the deceased has the name of Mosiah. Since they are all nonmembers I asked him where he got his name. He didn't know but said he had googled it and everything on google was connected with the Book of Mormon. I gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to read his book (Mosiah) in it. I hope he does someday. He is from North Carolina so I may never hear the end of his story.
Today at church I was overcome during the sacrament with how much Heavenly Father blesses us through the atonement. I looked at people who I know of their hurts and disappointments (and sins) but were there seeking to be cleansed and loved by God. One is struggling with a drug addiction. One has recently been reinstated after being disfellowshipped. Others are single mothers left to raise large families. Another is a single mother trying to make ends meet with no cash and only government housing and food stamps to keep them afloat. Another came in with an inactive son and granddaughter. He is trying hard to bring his family to church to enjoy the blessings there. In one of those moments where the spirit is strong and teaches us, I came to really appreciate the sacrament today.
Of course, you have to enjoy that spirit when it comes, because shortly afterwards, we had to hastily leave church for a while and go referee a married couple who were having such a bad fight that they were never going to come back to church ever! We left their home with feelings calmed down and a prayer. Hopefully, the fight didn't last too much longer after we left and we will see them again at church. One thing that upset the husband was that he was in the hallway and no one brought the sacrament to him. He was so offended that he said he wasn't going back. What a day!
Dad is getting quite proficient at his jewelry making in the evenings at home. Sister Hosier gave us a few pieces of sea glass at the indexing night. Dad wrapped them with wire and made pendants out of them. He gave them to her at church today and a few members thought he was quite amazing. Which he is!
Tomorrow begins another week. We start all over. The branch is hosting a surprise shower for our past branch president's wife who is expecting their first boy after three girls. That will be Wednesday night. On Sunday, the sisters are hosting a father's day pot luck dinner for the men and all the branch. So more trips to the grocery store and more cooking in my little hot kitchen.
The heat here has done wonders with my hair. Even dad wonders about it. As I am typing this letter, he is standing behind me playing beauty parlor with my hair. I appreciate that he thinks he can make it look better but it is beyond ugly. There were lots of visitors today from the states. I felt like a wild child straight off the beach in comparison. It is so hot my hair doesn't curl anymore, only frizzes. Humbling. Very humbling. Thought I would never say it but I miss the curls.
Chelsey sent us a video clip of Elle when they were at Chris and MiKell's house. She was carrying our picture around and stopped and kissed it. That made me teary. I watched it five times. I miss all our sweet grandkids. I hope you remember us and don't forget us. We remember and love you with all our hearts. We love our children and all our in law children. What an amazing blessing to love family.
Emma, we hope you had a great time at EFY. We hope your testimony increased. You will have to tell us about it. Langston boys, have a great time at your youth conference. Be careful driving in all that traffic. Next time we go to the mall together, I am going to get in the massage chair too, that sounds so nice right about now. Kellyn and Avery, make sure you give Cora lots of kisses and tell her they are from Grandma. Jaxon, thanks for your text this week. It was so fun to hear from you.
Hope you all have such a great week. We keep you all in our prayers.
Love, love from Dad and mom
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