Friday, April 28th.

Boy, I haven't kept up with posting this month.  I don't know where time goes.  Seems like the month started and is almost over already.  I'm just going to try to do a summary of the month.
   We are still meeting with Jim & Juanita Patrick.  We have met with them several times this month. Just this last Tuesday night (the 25th) we had dinner with them and finally had a really good gospel centered discussion with them.  At one point I asked Jim what he thought of what we had been talking about and he said he believed it was all true.  Most of the discussion centered around the Plan of Salvation and how it gives our lives meaning and direction.  Maybe someday we will find out what the core problem is with him that keeps him from joining The Church.
   Last month I mentioned meeting Jan & Jim Maupin.  We haven't been able to get together again with them.  She's busy preparing for the wedding coming up next month and now that sports are starting up they are also busy going to games of their grandchildren.  We'll not give up on meeting with them again though.
   On the 30th of March we met Mary Jane Fulp.  She and her husband joined the church when their children were small and they are all now grown and off with families of their own.  She said about 12 years ago her husband, Jack, was hurt very deeply at church and quit going.  A couple of years later he joined the Jehovah's Witnesses!!  Wow.  I said that it must be hard to have any religious conversations.  She said they do not talk about religion.  I can't imagine what that would be like.
   She lost her job the first of Feb. and has been struggling with health issues that she can't afford to get her prescriptions for.  I let the Bishop and RS Pres. know about this.
   Just before the Easter breakfast this month, on the 15th, we took her an invitation to come.  She and her foster son came and they have been coming to church ever since.  Jack actually brings them to church and then a neighbor of her's brings them home.  
   We met with her again last night, the 27th, and had a good visit.  I had been impressed to share with her that I felt if she keeps coming to church and gets back to the temple, Jack will come back.   She said I'm not the only one who has told her that.  He actually came and joined us for about the last 10 min. of our visit.  I talked to her about my search for someone who can help me with my business and she would like to have the chance to see if she could do it.  Next week she is going to go with me to see what she thinks.
   She told us that Relief Society has been really good visiting her but she wished her home teacher would be more regular.  Sounds like she gets home teachers off and on so I passed that information on to the Bishop.
   I don't remember when we met Felicia Barkell and I can't find that I've written about them so will update now.  She and her husband, Michael, moved into the ward last September and they've been at church maybe a couple of times since.  He works nights for Fred Meyer and she is a special ed teacher, although she's planning on making a change in what she does this summer.  She is actually from Battle Ground, WA and her family knows my cousins, the Hokansons.  Small world!
   We got to meet Michael on the 11th of this month.  They are a nice couple and just need to make the effort to get to church.  They both know they need to come and he is hoping that he will have a change in his shift before long that will be helpful.
   This last week I've had text three messages from Felicia asking for help with a couple of things.  It's nice to know she feels comfortable in contacting me.  We'd sure like to see them coming to church.
   On the 18th we met Nena Cummings and Sharon May.  The Bishop had ask us to visit Nena and we just dropped by with a loaf of banana bread.  She was friendly and seemed happy to meet us but we haven't been able to meet with her again, although I've talked to her.  She gave us her correct cell number so that's encouraging.   She's just busy when we've tried to meet with her.  Since our visit was relatively short we looked on our list to see who else might live in the same neighborhood and found the May family.
   Sharon was the only one home.   Her husband, Andrew, is a truck driver and is gone a lot.  They were going on a cruise this week and after they get home he is planning on changing jobs so that he will be home nearly every night.  We asked if we could come back and visit when he was home and she said sure.  She was very friendly, likes to talk and was happy to share with us their story.  
   Andrew's family owns the May Family Ranch in northern Idaho where they host family reunions and any other kind of gathering.  They have a large family and all are very active in church except Andrew and one other sibling.  She said when they moving into the ward he told the Bishop they were bringing their family to church to set a good example.  Two days later someone showed up asking if he would accept a calling and he hasn't been back to church since.  I hope that we will get to meet him and find out why he had so little desire to be a part of the church.

   

March 25th, 2017
   We've been visiting Jim & Juanita Patrick - on the 7th and again today.  Jim is doing much better but hasn't given any indication he has any interest in learning more about the gospel.  I've been wondering if anyone has ever talked to Juanita about preparing to go to the temple.  I've had the thought of mentioning it to her a couple of times.  It didn't feel right today but I think I'll ask the Bishop tomorrow about it.
   Last Sunday (the 19th) during Ward Council the Bishop asked us to start going to the Temple Prep class and see if maybe there is something we can do to help encourage the two couples who are supposed to be attending.  The concern was that they aren't very motivated about getting to the temple.  I hope we can be of help.
   We only went out once last week.  Heather and the kids were here for their spring break and it was a busy week.  We went out Thursday night (the 16th) and finally met a couple that we have tried a couple of times before to catch but they were never home.  Guess 3rd time's a charm!  Jim & Jan Maupin - what a story they have.  He is a member, she is not.  I guess she has been to several different churches and sounds like she is somewhat with the Catholic church right now.  10 months ago (May 2016) they lost a daughter and another girl they considered like a daughter in a tragic accident.  The girls were going back up to Moscow to school and somehow lost control of the car just the other side of Riggins.  It went off the road and hit a big bolder and then into the river.  It took 11 days for their daughters body to be found and the other girls still has not been found.  It has been really hard for them - I can't even imagine going through all that without the support of the gospel, although Jan said that they got to know Bishop Kent very well and he knows them well too.
   Jan has another daughter getting married in May and she said that she is doing all the invitations and as much of everything else that she can to cut costs.  I volunteered to help her and will be calling to see what I can do.
   They were very easy to visit with and I hope we can continue seeing them and help him have a desire to come back to church.  The Bishop said if she would come, he would also come so I guess getting her to be interested enough to come is the key.
   This last week was another busy week.  We planned on going out for visits Thursday night but I got stuck in traffic coming home from Boise and didn't even get home till 6:30 and then had to do something about dinner.  That's why we went out today.
   We met Ryan Campbell today.   His wife wasn't home but we got to visit with him for a little bit.  It sounded like to me that they put their family recreation before church.  They have two children, a son 11 and a daughter 7.  The son should be preparing for the priesthood and I'm not even sure he's been baptized. And the daughter should be preparing for baptism.  I know the missionaries have visited them but we haven't been able to visit with them about what the situation is.  It's been a little bit discouraging because we've tried to talk to them about some of the people they are visiting that are also on our list from the Bishop and they just don't seem to be very cooperative.
  I feel like we should be doing a lot more than we are and we talked about it last night.  Serving and still being home and continuing to have home responsibilities makes it a little more difficult.  I've been trying to find someone to help with the Treasure Towers to free up some time but not sure that will happen very soon.  We'll keep working at it though.

Guess it's about time to do an update for the last month.  I think I better get better at this!  

The last week of January I battled a cold so we didn’t try to go out and meet anyone.  Was still fighting it when we talked in Sacrament Meeting on the 29^th.  Guess it went okay.  Had several good comments.  Now people know who we are but we still feel like we don’t know hardly anyone.  I can’t say that this is a very friendly ward, except for those who know each other.  We don’t feel very welcome yet.  Hope that changes.

We did go out and meet some people on Thursday, Feb. 2nd. We visited a retired couple, Jim & Juanita Patrick.  She’s a retired deputy from the Canyon County Sherriff Dept.  He retired from driving milk truck.  His health is really bad.  Has diabetes, congestive heart failure and was on the blood thinner Warfarin to long and recently was in the hospital with internal bleeding.  She is a talker and he doesn’t say much.  Granted, he is recovering from a very serious illness and he doesn’t look very good yet.  Very interesting couple.  She invited me to go see her “sanctuary” which is her sewing room.  Wow!  It is very organized and she had multiple sewing machines.  AT one time she worked for Robinson’s Sewing Shop so she probably knows more than I ever hope to know!!  She said that she will be coming back to church when the weather is better but he isn’t interested in doing much with church.  Doesn’t want any lessons and he doesn’t want the sacrament brought to him either.

I asked the High Priest Group leader if Jim is a member and he is not.  That would have been nice to know before we went to visit. 

The other sister we visited was Laura Abbott.  She lost her husband before Christmas to suicide, has 3 boys that are in college (one in New York and 2 at BYU) and a daughter at home.  She is a really sweet sister and I’m amazed how well she is doing.  During our conversation she told us she lost her mother the same way four years ago.  I can’t imagine having to deal with that once, but twice.  She’s strong and we were strengthened by her.  Hope we did some good for her too.

We met with the Patricks again on Tuesday, Feb. 21st.  It was a good visit this time.  Jim is looking a lot better, says he feels better and he participated in the conversation more.  I told him I wanted to ask him a question and if he didn’t want to answer that was fine. He could tell me it was none of my business if he wanted.  So Juanita joined the church 4 – 5 years ago and I asked if he sat in on any of the discussions with the missionaries.  He said he did some.  I then asked why he didn’t join the church and we got quite a story. 

He was a milk truck driver and had 3 dairys in Kuna he picked up from that were members of The Church.  He said they were the most unkind and nasty people he had to deal with.  One was downright mean to him and he shared some of his treatment.  I don’t understand because if he’s doing them a service of picking up their milk don’t ya think they would want to help?  Guess not.  Anyway, he said after one of the problems he had and the way he was treated he decided that if that’s the way Mormons are he didn’t want any part of it. 

Jim talked to him about the church being made up of imperfect people and some are Sunday members and then during the week don't much live their religion.  The church is often judged by the actions of those members and not so much the ones that live as true disciples of Christ.

Some members just don’t understand the impact the kind of example they are has on other people.  I don’t know if we can help him get past how he feels after being treated the way he was or not.  We will continue to meet with them and hopefully find a way to soften his heart.

We were invited to attend the missionaries District Meeting on Feb. 22nd.  It was interesting and fun to be with the missionaries.  I hope that this association with the missionaries will help Jim in this calling we have.

Sunday, March 5^th, 2017

There are a few active members that the Bishop asked us to visit just to cheer them up or give them a lift.  We visited two of those families this week.  Jason & Rebekka Shannon recently lost a baby in miscarriage.  They have 4 boys and there is a lot of energy in their home.  The dad was so excited we stopped by and they were all really happy that we brought cookies. The oldest son is 16 and the youngest is 5.  All involved in sports.  It was a fun visit.

The second couple we met was Brother & Sister Varner.  She recently had neck surgery and has an 8 week recovery.  His health isn’t very good either and he has back problems.  He doesn’t come to church because he said the benches kill his back.  If he comes for Sacrament meeting he suffers all the rest of the day.  He said he watches church on BYUTV all Sunday but doesn’t know what to do about the Sacrament.  I mentioned that the Priests can bring the Sacrament and asked if that was something they’d like us to find out about and they were interested.  So I called the YM Pres. and he talked to the Bishop today and they were going to make some arrangements for someone to go this afternoon.

We have several people on our list that don’t have phone numbers so when we go out we just drive by to see if we can catch anyone at home.  Last night we finally found someone home; Michael & Felicia Barkell.  Well he was sleeping but she invited us in.  He works for Fred Meyer and works the graveyard shift.  He’s been on that shift for a long time and are hoping that he’ll be able to have a day shift soon.  She is a school teacher and says that by the end of the week she’s so tired she just wants to rest.  She has been a member all her life but probably would be easier if they could come together.   We have her number now so we'll keep in touch.  

We were invited to go to the missionaries zone training meeting on Friday, the 3rd.  Good meeting and they help to motivate us.  Brings back memories for me.  It's been 45 years ago I was on my mission.  In part of the meeting they were talking about what they need to do when things are slow and they don't feel they are having much success.  I shared with them my experience in Nova Scotia.  I was there 6 months.  Taught two 1st discussions and one 2nd and spent a lot of time tracting; placed a lot of pamphlets and some copies of the Book of Mormon.  Years later, in 1999 a temple in Halifax was dedicated.  I don't know that any of the work I did there contributed to some joining The Church but I hope so.  I probably won't know till I go to the other side and maybe have the opportunity to meet some of them.

   Boy it sure seems like we've got a slow start at this.  First two weeks of January we were gone then the Jim came home with a cold and the following week I got it.  He was coughing all the time and mine was in my head.  Didn't feel like we should be doing much visiting.  We attended Ward Council on the 15th and the Bishop gave us 3 families to visit but we didn't feel like we should take our germs to them.
   We got to speak in Sacrament meeting last Sunday.  Our subject was "Gifts of the Spirit".  I guess we did okay.  Had several compliments.  I was glad I could get through it without coughing or having my nose start dripping.
   So this week we actually went out to do some visits.  Brother & Sister Patrick are a retired couple and he has pretty bad health.  She retired from the Canyon County Sheriff where she was a deputy.  She is really a talker and he doesn't say much at all.  He recently was in the hospital.  He has diabetes, congestive heart failure, and was having internal bleeding which was the reason for the hospital visit.  He's been on Warfarin (blood thinning medicine) for longer than is recommended and it caused the internal bleeding.  I guess he is still having some bleeding but is more stable.
   They have 3 chiwawa dogs.  Holy cow, you don't need a door bell with them in the house.  After they settled down and decided we were no threat they were okay.
   We talked about her conversion, which included all of her religious experiences, which included her marriage to a Jehovah's Witness and her being baptized with them.  She said she always had questions no one could answer.  Ultimately it was the Relief Society program that cinched it for her.
  Before we left she had to take me to her "sanctuary" sewing room.  She is an experienced sewer but is just beginning to quilt.
   I had explained that we were stake missionaries when I called to make the appointment.  Before we left I was asking if they can't get to church, would they like the sacrament brought to them.  She said that she will be coming to church but he didn't want any kind of lessons or the sacrament.  He was friendly enough but I got the feeling he isn't to interested in increasing his knowledge.  After we left Jim asked me if he is a member for sure.  That was the impression I got but we kind of wonder.
   We also visited a sister (Laura Abbott) that lost her husband in December to suicide.  She has 3 boys that are off to college (2 at BYU and one in New York), and a 16 year old daughter that is at home.  In the course of our conversation she said that she also lost her mother to suicide a few years ago.  I can't even imagine what that must be like.  She said her husbands family all have mental health issues and most of his siblings are on medication but he wouldn't have anything to do with it because in his mind he was just fine.  He'd been out of work for a couple of years and couldn't pay any bills or contribute and she is sure that is what caused him to do that.  I think she's an amazing sister because she is handling it pretty well.  She said that in a way it is a relief because living with mental illness is very stressful.  But now she has to deal with all the legal stuff and probate and all the red tape.  My heart goes out to her.
   We got a ward list from the ward clerk a couple of weeks ago and the Bishop had said that we need to sit down and go over it and he could tell us about everyone that we might possibly meet and work with.  Jim sent the executive secretary a text today to get a meeting set up so we can do that.  I feel like we really aren't doing enough.  We need to be busier missionaries!
 

January 15, 2017

Today we attended the 13th Ward for the first time.  Wow, they have A LOT of young families and little kids.  Primary has something like 125 and we were talking to the Young Men's Pres. and they have 55 young men and about 35 of them are active!!

We had Ward Council at 8:30 and have an assignment to visit three families.
  1.  The Hernandez family, who keep saying they need to come back to church.  They have a son that is deacon age that comes most of the time and he has a desire to make changes and be active.  They have other children that want to come and the parents probably bring them because they are bugged by the kids. They also have a great member neighbor, Brother Nichols, who helps them a lot and knows the family very well.  We will visit with him before we go see them.
  2.  Laura Abbott.  Her husband passed away in December, the 22nd I think.  She has 3 sons who are in college and the last just left this week to go back to school in New York.  She has a daughter at home.  Her sons were able to help with all the snow but now that they are gone the ward needs to be on top of the needs she might have.  We will go to be friends and assess how we can help her.
  3.  Juanita Patrick.  She is a retired police officer for Canyon County Sheriff's office.  Her husband has very poor health - has some kind of cancer I gathered and he isn't going to take any treatments because he wants to enjoy what time he has left.  One of the brethren said that they thought they were going to have to plan a funeral a couple of weeks ago but he pulled out of it and it's kind of a cycle he goes through.  One of these days he won't pull out of it though.  We're told that Juanita is quite the sister and we should plan on being there for a couple of hours when we go visit!

   It was Ward Conference so Pres. Medel from the Stake Presidency was there.  Bishop Kent talked in Sacrament Meeting and said that in the last year the ward had revelation given them early in the year to repent and prepare to build Zion.  Then they received the call to rescue, which sometimes is hard but if we dig in and be consistent the Lord will bless our efforts.  He also talked about enduring to the end.  Endure means to continue and do it positively.
   He read 1 Nephi 13:37  And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, (speaking of our day) for they shall have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.  
   How do we engage in the task?  The Lord has prepared the way.  Boy, does this apply to us and our calling here in this ward.

   The 3rd hour was a combined meeting and an Area Plan for the United States and Canada was introduced.  This comes from the leaders of The Church and there was much discussion about it and what we as families and individuals can do to implement it.
   The Vision:  Become, and help others to become, true followers of Jesus Christ and enjoy the blessings of the holy temple.
   Area Priorities:  1.  Live the gospel of Jesus Christ
      2.  Gather Israel through missionary work.
      3.  Care for the poor and needy.
      4.  Enable the salvation of the dead by identifying ancestors and performing vicarious temple ordinances for them.
    Then there are area goals, indicators of progress, and implementation.
President Medel considers this as important as other declarations we have received and it needs to be studied, pondered and applied.  Wow.  There is plenty of work for us to do!! 😊
  

Quote from President Thomas S Monson that I think we should adopt as our mission quote, although it applies to all of us any where at any time.

"As we follow the example of the Savior, ours will be the opportunity to be a light, as it were, in the lives of those around us."

Introduction

   On November 20th, 2016, we had an appointment with our Stake President, Reid Stephan.  We were issued a mission call to serve in the 13th Ward of the Nampa Idaho North Stake.  We were told we would be released from all of our callings in the 16th Ward and our records would be sent to the 13th Ward for the duration of our mission.
   Our mission begins on January 1st, 2017, but we are in Cookeville, Tennessee helping Amy in her recovery from recent surgery.  Our first day in the 13th Ward will be Jan. 15th.
   I am creating this blog to record our experiences and be able to share them with family and friends who might be interested.
   We are excited about this calling.  We will still serve at the temple on Wednesdays and Jim will still work at the Family History Center on Friday afternoon.  We have been given permission to keep three of my visiting teaching sisters.  One of them Jim & I visit together as home and visiting teachers. This may change if we feel promptings from the spirit that a change would be good.  We have visited Sister Janet Lee for so long we can't remember.  There was a change once and she didn't like it.  Her husband was a non member but he would let us come as a couple.  I always took treats and that might be the reason he liked us and they accepted us.  I may be making a lot of treats as we go to visit less active, inactive and part member families.
   When we were set apart for this mission Pres. Stephan counseled me to keep in touch with our friends and associates of the 16th Ward so that when we return after our year of service it will be a smooth transaction,  I have been surprised at the reaction some of our friends have had.  They are happy for our call but sad that we will not be in the ward for the coming year.  We plan on still having good times with them and keeping in touch.
   We met with the Bishop, Boyd Kent, on Sunday, Dec. 18th.  I didn't write down the numbers but they had a lot of youth and a large Primary.  He gave us the number of endowed members who do not have current recommends and that will be one of the lists we will work with.  We will work with members who are struggling, who need caring and support.  We realize that we will have to do the things that will invite the spirit to be our companion so that we know how to work with those we will be assigned to work with. There may be times we will ask for the faith and prayers of others to help us in accomplishing our goals.