21st, 22nd, & 23rd Week—January30-February 19, 2011

Connie in front of the Page Museum at the Tar Pits

Anciently animals (20,000 to 60,000 years old) were caught in the tar pits and eventually died.

The pits are full of bones from the animals that have been and are

currently being excavated from the pits.  This happened millions of years after

the dinosaurs were here.

 

 Dale in the gardens at the Tar Pits by the this flower.

Notice the huge blossom arching over his head.

Victoria & Jaime Olazava Family and Dale

Carlos & Laura Escalante

Jorge & Roxana Arzu

Happy Birthday Dear Cliff P.—February 19—40+ yrs.

Happy Birthday Dear Rachel—February 21—4 yrs. old

Happy Birthday Dear Ruth—February 23—40+ yrs.

(We haven’t included our siblings’ birthdays but we are for this one:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR PHYLLIS—FEBRUARY 25--80 YEARS YOUNG!!!

Missionary Work

          I have been slothful in writing.  No excuses.  We are still working with Jaime Olazava.  We are still reading about Christ in the Book of Mormon with him.  He says he will be baptized but won’t commit to when.  Things seem to be slowing up with him.  We are fasting today for him.  He still comes to church on Sundays with his wife and family. He and his wife are still separated.  Their divorce has been put on hold.  She says it is up to him.  She is willing to get back together.  She is doing well in the church.   She was just released as Relief Society Secretary and has been called as a ward missionary. 

          We have also been working with Carlos and Laura Escalante.  She is a longtime member from Guatemala.  She has a son who is a bishop in Portland.  Carlos, who is not a member, is a really nice guy.  We had a meeting with them on Tuesday, Feb 14. She fed us chicken and rice with a few potatoes and carrots and really good fresh fruit. For dessert she had fixed us homemade fresh blueberry muffins. The dinner was delicious. We were going to start teaching him the Book of Mormon lessons, but had to leave early to start shopping for a replacement for the GPS Dale broke the day before. The weekly reading from the Book of Mormon with them will start this week.  He is responding really well and they seem to be progressing.  She doesn’t come to church because she works.  It would help if they could come together.  They do come to the meetings occasionally on Wednesdays.

The 6^th ward young women had their New Beginnings a few weeks ago.  They invited us to it.  It was done very well and I took pictures of all the girls which they loved.  The Latinos love to have pictures of themselves.  I think it is because most of them take pictures with their cell phones and they don’t have many printed pictures of themselves. 

Since the 14^th was Valentine’s Day both ward Relief Societies had Special Valentine’s Day parties. We decided to miss the 3^rd Ward party on Tuesday in order to get a new GPS. The 6^th Ward party was a program for husbands and wives with several talks and discussion on how to make your marriage a celestial one. Once again it was supposed to start at 7:00 and did not start until 8:00. Then a little after 9:00 a cold dinner (that should have been served hot) was served.

          Christian (16) and Jasmine (14) Garcia are now coming to church regularly.  They are the brother and sister that joined the church and they do all this on their own.  Their mom works 6 nights a week and they are home all evening alone.  They are honor students and stay home, do their homework, and etc. all on their own.  They are just outstanding teenagers.  Jasmine took the opportunity to go with the young women to do baptisms for the dead and was very impressed. 

           

          We have a list from both wards of members who have been baptized in the last two years.  Many are inactive.  We have spent most of our time the last few weeks trying to find them and inviting them to come back.  They change their phone numbers quite often and there are locked gates (the missionaries call them ghetto gates or doors) to their houses and apartments so we have a hard time making contact.  The young elders have taught us a few ways to get in and sometimes we are successful.  We have found a few and we are either working with them or they are starting to come back to church.

          In October of 2011 Roxana Arzú was baptized.  She is a sweet sister.  She is always smiling and so happy to be a member of the church.  She had noticed the elders in El Salvador and wondered who they were and what they were doing.  She noticed the elders here and approached them and asked who they were and what they were doing.  Her two children Jorge 15, and Leslie 17, joined the church last month.  Her husband, Jorge, said he wasn’t ready and didn’t want the elders to teach him.  We fasted for him today also and when visited with him, he was very receptive.  He is a very nice man.  He was a professional soccer player in Honduras.  He showed us all his pictures and agreed to meet with us to read about Christ’s teachings from the Book of Mormon.  We are going back there this Wednesday.

          In our searching we also found Martha Dias.  We are reading out of the Book of Mormon with her also.  She hasn’t come out to church yet but she is happy that we found her and is enjoying our visits. Of course we are very happy that she is letting us meet with her. 

          Last week Jose Campos was baptized.  You can tell already he is going to be a great church leader.  He stood up at his baptism and bore a powerful testimony.  His wife was baptized a few months earlier.  We had a nice chat with them at the 6^th Ward Valentines party. They both speak English very well, which makes it nice for Connie. They will be of great service to the 6^th ward. 

          We had a zone conference last week.  I see now why missionaries love zone conferences.  They are so uplifting and it is a time to renew previous friendships.  President Baker spoke on recognizing and listening to the spirit.  He discussed 3Nephi 19:9 when Christ’s 12 disciples prayed for what they desired most and what they desired most was that the Holy Ghost should be given them.  He said the Holy Ghost is our down payment on eternal life.  He also discussed that obedience is good but done with a willing heart is better.  It is hard to be unwillingly obedient.  When you are willingly obedient, you qualify for the Holy Ghost. It reminded us of one of our favorite quotes from Ezra Taft Benson:  “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes a quest, at that moment God gives us power.”