Week 5

February 12, 2017

Dear Family,

I managed to get my newspaper out Monday - only 5 minutes late.  Monday was a busy day.  President Hancock and his wife came in for a meeting of office staff to talk about the upcoming new arrivals and transfers.

Tuesday, was busy I was short one baptism form for January, so I called the Elders and asked them to read their copy over the phone, so I could send it in.  About the time the Elder had finished reading it all to me while I made a copy, the original arrived in the mail.  The elders hadn’t mailed it until last Thursday. Grrrrrr

I have a lost package that was forwarded to a Sister with a camera in it. I went to the Post Office and got some clarification on which things can be forwarded and which cannot. Which was helpful to me, but I will have to have her parents to supply the tracking number on their receipt.  I am sick about this package which I logged into our office and that I marked as being forwarded, but she still has not received it.

The Bailey family in my ward invited me to come dinner. Brother Bailey is a Radiologist and they have five children ages from 12 to 2. They had Brother Bailey’s father staying with them, also.  He is a Neurosurgeon based in St. Louis who comes on a regular basis to do surgeries in the Pocatello Area. Father and son told amazing stories of their trip up the Amazon.

I feel like this has been a productive week for me. Each missionary apartment has a book containing mission staff phone numbers, a bit about the President and the mission area.  Information about vehicles, emergency evacuation plans, health tips, urgent care sites, etc. These books had not been updated since the mission was divided last July.  Sister DeWitt had begun making copies of some pages and they were all in a box under my desk in somewhat of a disarray.  So this week I filed the extra copies and got rid of the box.  I put together 4 new books for new apartments, and made 60 copies of the pages that needed updating. I have put them in envelopes for the housing couple to distribute to the various couples over housing in their areas. It was good to have a job that had a beginning and an end leaving a sense of accomplishment.

Thursday evening, David Linford’s niece, invited me to dinner. They have a family of four girls – brought back lots of memories.  They were just darling.  After dinner, they sang and played the piano for me.  A fun night to feel a part of a family.

Last week a member of the bishopric asked me if I would teach Primary.  He told me I would teach with another woman who he assured me would get in touch with me during the week. When the weekend was fast approaching, I tried to get in touch with the member of the Bishopric.  Without a ward list I was helpless.  I asked David’s niece Rebekah who is in my Stake but not my Ward for the phone number for brother Stoddard.  When I called, I got the father of the member of my bishopric, who is serving a mission in Georgia.  We had a good chat and he told me his son was in Mexico, but should be home by Sunday.  I tried to call the Bishop, who didn’t answer, so I left a message.  Well morning came and I headed to church not knowing what would be expected of me.  The Bishop apologized for not getting back with me.  He didn’t see his message until too late at night to call.  He pointed out the Primary president to me.  I was able to visit her for a minute before Sacrament Meeting started.  She told me just to come to the Primary room after Sacrament and sit with my class.  When I got there, she handed me a manual and told me what lesson we are on and assured me the other teacher would be here shortly.  I saw on the roll that I have 3 little boys in my CTR 4 class.  They were so cute and sat so quietly through opening exercises. I thought why do we need 2 teachers for 3 little boys.  Well class-time came and no teacher, so I followed the boys to our class room.  It was soon obvious that these busy little boys had enough of sitting on chairs.  I tried my best to teach “The Restoration”, the President slipped me some pictures for them to color and some treats to bribe them with.  I survived but came away thinking I need a whole new set of skills.  I haven’t been in Primary for over 25 years. WOW!! Send ideas for teaching moving objects, which best describes my little boys. After Primary, the president told me she had a text from the other teacher that she had been in the hospital with kidney stones.  That’s a good excuse for not showing up.

After church, I was invited to dinner by a senior couple in the Ward.  They were formerly service missionaries in the IPM mission office. It was good to have a crockpot pot roast with potatoes and gravy.  Seemed like a real Sunday dinner plus I enjoyed visiting with them. They invited me to an empty-nesters fireside tomorrow night where someone from the local Greek Orthodox will tell us about Greek history and their religion.  Sounds intriguing, I will probably go.

Congratulations! To Michael for getting his eagle award!!!!

I love you all and take joy in the fact that we are all striving to follow the Lord’s plan of happiness. The gospel is true and will bring us the greatest amount of joy in this life as well as eternal happiness in the life to come.

Love and hugs,

Grammie