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.