9th & 10th WEEK-NOVEMBER 7-20, 2011

Four o'clock?

Autumn Berries

Bird of Paradise on Temple Grounds

Bird of Paradise--if you look closely, it does look like a bird

Bonsai Plant--Dale bought me this from a man selling them out of his car near the temple.

Bougainvillea are blooming all over.   This one went up almost 2 stories on a house.

Cyclamens growing in flower beds

Can't remember the name of this plant

Geraniums

Iris blooming on Halloween

Snapdragons, Pansies, Allysum

How many of you tree climbing grandkids would be brave enough to climb this tree?

Look at the THORNS on the trunk of the tree--very treacherous!

All of these pictures were taken between Halloween and 2 days before Thanksgiving!  We have enjoyed all the many plants.  Indoor plants in Idaho and Utah grow outside year round here and they are huge.

OUR FIRST ZONE CONFERENCE

          We attended our first Zone Conference this week.  It was absolutely awesome.  We were a little discouraged and this gave us the hope and momentum we needed. 

          Elder Olsen our mission car czar presented a DVD about defensive driving and quoted D&C 62:7 about driving with a thankful heart.

          President Baker discussed the terms of the covenant of the Doctrine of Christ.  Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and the Holy Ghost are our down payments to everything the Lord will give us.  The rest is how we endure to the end.  Our works do not show how much we deserve but how much we desire.  In Moroni 7:48 says we shall see him as he is because we will have become like him.  He challenged us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.  Dale is reading it in Spanish and I will read it in English by the end of the year.  My goal is to also read it aloud in Spanish but not by the end of the year. 

          Sister Baker talked about the doctrine of repentance.  The escape route for sin is moral responsibility.  Godly sorrow is a gift of the spirit—the mighty change of heart comes from the Savior. 

          President Baker ended the conference speaking about enduring to the end.  He showed a clip from You Tube about the marathon held in Mexico City (if I remember correctly) in 1984 where one runner ended the race 1 hour behind everyone else because of an injury.  He was asked why he didn’t stop and not finish.  His answer was, “My country didn’t  send me here to start the race, they sent me here to finish the race.”  We were sent here to finish our “race” by enduring to the end.  Some evidences we are enduring well are:

          *We are happy.

          *We are meeting goals we have set and are moving forward.  We are in the race against only ourselves.

          *We are living more like Jesus Christ.

          He ended with a quote from Neal A. Maxwell:  “The submission of God’s will is really the only possession we can really give to our Heavenly Father.”

VISITORS CENTER

          We worked shifts at the Visitors Center this week.  It was interesting and enjoyable.  We met some interesting people. Some people are just plain lonely and come in just to talk.  We feel so sorry for them. It seems everyone should have a support system.  The new center opened just a year ago and it is very beautiful.  They have a Christus there also.  It is not in the same setting as the one in Salt Lake but it is the same size as that one.  They are putting up the Christmas lights  around the temple.  They will be turned on while we are working there.  We are excited to see them.

MISSIONARY WORK

          We met with the Ramirez cousins again.  The elders brought some of them to the visitors center while we were working there.  The young sisters did a terrific job of showing them the around the temple and the center.  Their baptism is still set for December. 

        We also went with another set of elders to visit an inactive couple.  They are from Peru and they fed us the best Latino dinner we have had here.  It was chicken stewed in vegetables with rice.  It smelled so good when we arrived and it was very tasty. 

          Barrio  Tres had a Thanksgiving Dinner this last Friday.  It wasn’t the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner but it was very good also.  They had stewed chicken, rice with vegetables, roll, and for dessert a very tiny piece of pumkin pie with candied yams on the side.  (I ate the yams and Dale ate the pie.)  We had taught Victoria Olasaba and her husband this week.  He is a non member.  We invited them to come to the dinner and they brought their kids and came.  We also invited the Ordonez and they brought their family.  They came to church today for all three hours.  We are hoping things are looking up for them.

                We had met with the Castros this week again.  They are getting their  eight year old son ready for baptism and they are still hoping to go to the temple.  She is having some health problems which I hope will be resolved. 

          We finally met Beatriz de la Pena and her children.  We have been trying since we arrived to meet with her.  We felt so sorry for her and we felt so much despair to know how to help her.  She has  pre cancer on her cervix.  She had laser surgery once and she needs it again.  They won’t give her the surgery unless she comes up with $5000.00.  Her family helped her pay for the first surgery and they don’t have the resources to help her with the second surgery.  She is here from Mexico without papers so if she goes there she will never be able to return.  All of her family is here.  She has no one left there.  Her children (11 yrs, 7 yrs, and 4 yrs) cannot be educated in Mexico because they were born here.  She figures it will take at least a year for her to save up enough money and by that time, she might be facing cancer instead of a pre cancer problem.  We will talk to the bishop about her.  She can’t get Medicaid or any help because she has no papers.  This whole immigration thing is so sad and I don’t know the answer. 

Week 10

We spent 24 hrs. at the Visitors Center this week.  Because we drove during peak hours, it took us 45-60 minutes to get there.  Driving took another 6 hrs. for the week.  We finished checking 3 more elders apartments.  We also had 10 of our own appointments.  Needless to say, we are very tired. 

We did take the young men’s president to meet Matthew Perez.  When we saw Matthew we knew from his countenance something was wrong.  Poor Matthew, the minute we arrived at the door, Grandma started attacking him about his D in English.  He had B’s in all the other subjects.  Sergio, the Young Men’s President, handled everything so well.  He soon had them talking about sports and scouting.  Matthew said he would come to Young Men’s Tuesday.  We will keep our fingers crossed.

Sunday when we arrived at church the counselor in 3^rd Ward bishopric asked me to give the closing prayer in Sacrament Meeting.  When I hesitated he told me I could do it in English so I said yes.  During Sacrament meeting I thought about what Craig Manning had told me before we left.  He told me not to be shy about trying to speak Spanish because they would love it if I tried.  I finally started to write down a short, simple prayer, then I had Dale edit my mistakes.  I was so nervous when I went to give it but I did my best.  I know I made some mistakes.  Craig was right, they were surprised and thrilled that I had tried—even the young elders were also.