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.