Dear Family and Friends
We just got
back to our apartment after having Sun dinner with one of the families in the
Branch. Actually they probably have us
for dinner more then anyone else. We had
make your own pizza. I think that we go
there so often is that we have a lot in common with them and they seem to enjoy
having us come for dinner.
We have
three more chapters to read to Judy and we will complete 2nd
Nephi. I really wish that we could find
a large print Book Of Mormon for her but since the church is not printing any
more for a while I guess we will continue to read until we have to leave to go
home. She and Lloyd will be getting
married next Sat. afternoon. Bro. Dunn
wanted her in a wedding dress, but Judy was resisting and wanted to wear a
pants suit so I’m hoping that her sisters found either a dress or a skirt and
blouse for her to wear and everyone is happy.
They were starting to depend on us to take care of things so we went to
the family and asked for help. We are
trying to take a step back and be supportive but not the ones in charge. We still need to give her the rest of the
lessons and then she can be baptized.
We have had
really warm days that always takes me by surprise that it can be almost 70 and
it is Dec. and then dip down to 38 for a daytime high. But since the last rainfall it has been clear
most of the time and no rain even in the forecast. I noticed that there is rain off the coast of
Florida so I’m sure that it will eventually make it’s way up here.
We are
still helping at the Senior center most days excepting for holidays. That get us up and moving relatively early in
the morning. We can then start going to
visit our less actives that are now active.
We also visit people who are not members but we are giving our
friendship. We have visited almost all
of the less actives on our list. We have
only a few that we need to visit then we will have everyone at least visited
once. We continue to invite, invite and
invite to come to back to church. Each
month we have an activity to reactivate people.
So for January we will have a manly man banquet of exotic meat like
Alligator, Rattlesnake Crawdad’s and venison and etc. The ladies are not invited and that is
alright with me. Elder Hansen would
probably like to bow out but can not because we are here to be supportive.
I reminded
Pres LaVetter that he really needed to find some one else to teach the youth
class. Especially since I will have
about six twelve year olds in the class and that is on top of six that I
already have. The classroom is not big
enough and that is way more then I feel that I can teach at one time. That means that I would be teaching twelve
young adults from the ages of twelve through seventeen. I am having a hard enough time as it is
trying to teach 13 through 17 and make it interesting and a learning experience
for all. He promised to find another
teacher to relieve the load but since he doesn’t have a huge pool of people to
choose from and he just plains forgets or thinks that all is well I’m not sure
which but it never gets done. I’m not
sure what his older daughter tells him and since she texts on her cell phone
during class time I wonder if she is ever actually
listening to anything that I do say. So I have been doing lessons that requires
looking up scriptures and writing answers down on paper then telling why that
scripture is either important or why they liked that particular scripture.
It is hard
to believe that we have been here for three months and only have three months
more. Already we have people telling us
that we can’t go home we have to stay longer.
They already know that Elders and Sisters come and go but we are always
here. The Elders are not nearly as fun
as the Sisters have been. Now there
seems to be a bug around that is making the Elders and Sisters very sick. It is almost like food poisoning except there
are a lot others that have it also.
Sister Cooke spoke today in Sacrament meeting, she has been so sick and
so weak that she was holding on to the pulpit for dear life. We do not want to get sick, we have been
enjoying good health.
We had a
good Christmas and thanks to Sara with her box full of a bunch of wrapped
presents it felt like Christmas at home.
We were invited to a members home for Christmas Eve and then Christmas
night to another members home. We got to
talk to everyone or Skype it was great to see familiar faces. It was great to talk with our loved
ones. I took all the Christmas
decorations down and packed them away and
gave back the tree today. I have two
boxes that are full of letters, cards and clippings from the news paper that I
will be sending home soon. Just put
them in our bedroom.
Dad here, Last
week when we went to Blytheville the other senior missionary couple took us out
to eat at a nice steakhouse. On that days special they had listed alligator
(something they fix when it is in season.) Anyway, I thought: “It’s now or
never” and I ordered the alligator. Mom ordered chicken, Elder Locket ordered
steak, and Sister Locket ordered Alfredo. Everyone enjoyed their meals, even
me. However about 3:00 in the morning my stomach was really churning. I guess
the alligator “was not loving me back”.
A few weeks
ago in our gospel principles class one of the full time elders started out the
class by saying “Hello my name is Elder Duron, I am from Tucson, Arizona, and
my favorite color is red”. It then went to his companion and all around the
room, each on stating their name where they are from and what their favorite color
is. Last week it was “Hello my name is Elder Duron, I am from Tucson Arizona
and my favorite thing about Christmas is ……” This week it was “Hello my name is
Elder Duron I am from Tucson Arizona and my new years resolutions is ……” It is
so amazing how this activity sets such a good tone for the class. Our gospel
principles class has a lot of new and different people each week and this
activity just brings us together and makes everyone feel a part of what’s going
on.
It was wonderful to hear from all of you last
week. Christmas is such a great time to have family around.
Love Mom and Dad, Grammy and Papa, Elder and Sister Hansen
No comments:
Post a Comment