Wednesday, February 23, 2011

February 23, 2011

If you didn’t read the last entry, you should do so now or this next follow-up comment won’t mean as much to you. A couple days after our return to Dutch Harbor we visited the DMV and had a laugh with the manager, Vicki, about the weight depicted on my driver’s license, causing our luggage to be left on the dock. She reissued my license and was still chuckling as we departed. Two days later we received a call from Andrew in Texas. He had called the DMV to get the name of clergy who could help him with a family emergency and Vicki thought of us and gave him our number. Andrew’s daughter was a merchant marine aboard a huge ship unloading in Dutch Harbor and he had to give her a message about her dying grandmother and he wanted clergy to be on hand. He gave us her name and we said we’d find her, not really knowing how to do that. We called the Branch Primary President who has connections at the dock and within 30 minutes we were climbing the steep steps to the deck of the Comet. The kind captain let Karen and us use his quarters and satellite phone to call Karen’s father and we had sweet experiences of sharing prayer and solace. The ship departed early the next morning.


Last Friday (February 18) the Dutch Harbor Branch President called to see if we could pick up someone at the airport because our car could hold more (we have a Chevy S-10 pickup with a back seat). The flight was cancelled and the Anchorage Stake couple (the Lambertsons) flew in the next morning. Saturday was a packed day as opportunities to serve had continued to come our way, and we hadn’t known we would have help. We were scheduled to do reading/craft time at the Unalaska Library. Twenty-four children came – a record. They usually have between 3 and 7 and we had prepared for 12, so we had to scramble to increase the craft items. Brother Lambertson taught the children to make footprints with ink-stamped hands and Sister Lambertson helped measure, trace and cut out little feet. We read Dr. Seuss’s “The Foot Book,” and I had a book for twelve children to make of their feet. Richard and Cora magically generated the extra books while a few of the mothers played the hop-scotch-type game we had made. We tied red bows around each child’s big toe and the hop-scotch-type game, which were a series of footprints, had the left big toe colored red. After the story we helped the children walk across rolled out freezer paper with painted feet. It was a mess, but fun. We couldn’t have done it without the Lambertsons. Cora asked me who they were and I told her they flew in to help. They are an impressive, hard-working couple and we enjoyed their company.

The pot luck Saturday night was well-attended and on Sunday morning we had a record number at Sacrament meeting: 37, thanks to the Lambertsons for adding two.

We’re working with 19 households. Here are our current investigators (please pray for them and put their names in the temple): Patti Ellis (has a baptismal date), Ken Reeves, The Faailoga family of 5, Novalee (who cannot progress until her father gives his permission for her to be baptized), and Jan Newkirk. We have hopes that eight other families that we casually teach will reach the level of investigators. There are other families in the Branch with whom we meet. We love them with our whole hearts and each of their footsteps, however small, brings us elation.  We feel we're fans in the bleachers hoping, praying and cheering.   

Our down time is spent studying and discussing how we can be better teachers and servants to those we cherish.

We love you dearly.  Mom and Dad/Pop and Nan/Richard and Linda


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