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.