Dear Family and Friends, November
30, 2013
Sometimes
things happen in our lives that are unplanned and we are really unprepared for.
Yesterday was such a day. Yesterday we had the birthday of a forty six year old
inactive male on our list that lives in Piggott, Arkansas. Problem #1 Piggott
is 34 miles to the north. The Elders live in Piggott, that’s their
jurisdiction. Problem #2 the Sister Missionaries are without a car this week
and we have to take them with us where ever we go. Problem #3 this guy might
not even live there and there will be a slim chance of catching him home,
during the day. Never the less we piled into the car and headed for the Elders
in Piggott. We had called them earlier to see if it was okay to take this
birthday guy some cookies. They had never met him and said that it would be
fine, in fact they had met an older gentleman up there that had joined the
church years ago, that they wanted us to meet. We arrived at the Elders
apartment, they had an appointment they needed to go to. We plugged in the
address of the birthday guy into the GPS. No results. Oh. Boy. The Elders
plugged it into their GPS and got a hit. They lent us their GPS and we took the
Sisters and headed up the highway. We drove over 5 miles to the north and came
to a small town called St Francis, didn’t even know it existed. The man
actually lives in St Francis and not Piggott, that’s why our GPS couldn’t find
him. He was at home, but very busy and couldn’t take time to talk, so we gave
him the card and cookies and wished him Happy Birthday. We headed back to
Piggott, just as we were leaving St Francis we saw a Marker Sign that read
“Chalk Bluff Battle Park.” We asked the sisters if they wanted to go, they said
yes so I turned off the road, we read another sign that read 5 miles. We turn
back onto the highway, not wanting to drive that far. Then something seemed to
say: “you really need to go”. So we turned back around and followed small
country roads until we got to the park. The State has built a nice park with
picnic tables, cook sites and a small covered area and restrooms. There is a
trail that leads out through this wooded area. Along the trail were markers
that tell the story of what happened there during the Civil War. As we walked
and read we became aware that this really was a special place. Many men both on
the South and the North had fought and died in this area, many more were
severely wounded. We walked until we got to the St Francis River. Across the
River was Missouri. Before the Civil War this was the place where most people
going from Missouri to Arkansas crossed the River. A ferry boat had been built
to take the people across. The major road from the north came here and the road
going south into Arkansas started here. The town of Chalk Bluff was built on
this spot, with stores, supplies buildings, and homes. It was here that the
Confederate Army crossed and fought the Union Army in Missouri, beating them.
It was here that later the Union Army crossed and fought the Confederate Army
beating them and burning the ferry and Chalk Bluff to the ground. Nothing remains, except this park to tell the
story. And an old yellow dog that must live in the area, he comes down to the
park each day and escorts people through the park. He didn’t take us because
there was another couple that got there before us and he showed them all
around. When they left, he talked to us for a while, as we left he went over
and sat on the grass waiting for the next people to come so he could show them
around.
We then
drove to Greenway , a town about 4 miles south of Piggott and met the Elders at
the Lemmond home. Brother Lemmond joined the church years ago along with his
children. He is now 82 and he and his wife live alone, but he still has a
testimony and remembers the Elders that brought him into the church. They fed
us all an after Thanksgiving Dinner, and we had an enjoyable visit.
Today was a
typical missionary day. Drove lots of miles finding people either not home, or
not interested, or not living at that address anymore. I find days like today a
lot more tiring than days like yesterday, where we were busy all day long,
going and doing and seeing wonderful places and people. Tonight we taught Judy
Chesterfield a 2nd discussion with the sister missionaries. Seemed
to go well. Went to visit the Layton Family. They are less active but invited
Sister Hansen and the Sisters back on Dec. 14th to make Christmas
cookies.
Today is
Fast Sunday. Good meetings. Love the branch here and the way they take care of
us. We ate at the Edler’s today since
Bro. Edler will be out of town this week and Sister Edler doesn’t want to feed
us on Tues., which is the day we usually eat there. My Sunday School class went pretty well
considering that I usually have only about three, today was different we had a
young man who really didn’t want to be there and although he somewhat
participated , he is a very poor reader so I won’t ask him to read again. We had a birthday for someone again that I
have never seen or knew and the Sisters didn’t know who she was either. I called the visiting teacher and had her
introduce us all. Of course we don’t
usually know who we are going to see when we take the birthday cookies. Dec. is a full month of birthdays.
The back end of
the car is making a terrible noise, bad enough that even Dad is bothered. There is man in the Branch that has a car
lift and he has agreed to look and try to figure out what the terrible noise
is. We also have a slow leak in one of
the tires and that will have to be fixed.
It is the bad news gravel roads that we sometimes have to travel on that
probably caused the problem with the tire.
The Sisters are afraid that the whole back end is going to fall off so
they are uncomfortable going any place with us . Their problem is that they don’t have a
choice since this week is their week without a car. They only have three cars that has to be
shared with other missionaries in the District so that usually means three
weeks with a car and one week without a car.
Since there are no shoulders along the roads and no bike paths, it is
dangerous to have the Sisters on bikes going to appointments all over this
spread out city.
As you may
have noticed, sometimes dad is writing sometimes mom is writing, I guess it is
up to you to figure out who, and if you can’t figure out I guess it really
doesn’t matter. After all just like Jesus said: “and they twain shall be one
flesh, wherefore they are no more twain, but one.”
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