"P" Day Ramblings

Monday is "P" day, a day to do laundry, shop, rest up from Sunday, which is not a day of rest!  We had a 7am meeting, which means we got up at 5:30 (which is way early for us!) and were in meetings until 5pm.  We came home, thinking we wouldn't be able to stay, as the pool had been an absolute zoo Saturday night, and is usually the same on Sunday, but we got home and were pleasantly surprised to find it quiet, with only one family there.  So we enjoyed a nice, quiet evening at home, reading and studying and relaxing.

This last week was good; lots of activities, visits, etc.  We were invited to a member's mother's home for FHE on Monday.  Her brother and daughter and a friend were also there, none of them members.  We had a nice visit.  The brother is an airline pilot, and had lots of harrowing stories to share with your fly-phobic father about close calls and the trouble pilots have with air traffic controllers!  Great!  I'll never get him to Europe now!  The mother has Alzheimer's, but was very sweet.  She and her friend both married pilots during WWII, and had lots of interesting stories to tell about that time.  It was a great evening.

We are working on finding single adults in a new area.  During the last two weeks, we have visited 12 homes and have only been able to talk to one person we were looking for.  We have talked to their mothers, dads. sisters, friends, but these people are never home!  But the one we were able to see is a great guy.  His name is Chris, and he is an ex-con, ex-addict, tattooed to the hilt, quite rough around the edges, but amazingly, we were able to establish a rapport with him.  We told him we had been 12 step missionaries in the prison in SLC, and that put him at ease.  We all shared prison experiences (hehe) and we actually got an appointment to return this week to begin teaching his children the Gospel!  We are very excited.  We have been teaching singles and working the 12 steps with one sister, but this is our first chance to teach the missionary lessons.  I told Dad I wouldn't feel like a "real" missionary until I could teach those lessons, so here's my chance!

One home we were looking for on Saturday was on top of a mountain, along a narrow winding road.  We traveled that road for about 10 miles, finally found the home only to be stymied by a locked gate!  So frustrating!  We call people sometimes to get an appointment, but they don't return our calls, so dropping in is our only option.  Dad says, "That's missionary work!"  Who knew?!  But we aren't giving up!

We went to the bishop's storehouse to serve on Wednesday, and it was a great experience.  There is only one in the valley, so it is very busy.  We met a lot of nice people, who we helped with their food orders.  One was a sweet blind lady, who had the prettiest smile.
We took 2 people to the family history center, and helped them find their elusive grandparents and great grandparents,

We have a MSA Family Home Evening tonight.  We are supposed to bring our favorite book and tell why we like it.  I started to list some of my favorites, and got to about 12.  I decided I can't pick just one!  I'm actually reading one (listening to it on my I-pod) that might get on the list.  It's called "The Invention of Wings", by Sue Monk Kidd, the gal who wrote "The Secret Life of Bees", which is already on the list.  I highly recommend it.

One of the sisters who comes to all the MSA activities is a new convert of about 8 months.  She actually joined AA a year ago and quit drinking, so this week marks her one year sobriety anniversary.  She told us about that last week, saying that she quit going to AA when she joined the church, because she dropped all her drinking buddies, and wasn't living that life style anymore.  So she called the gal who is her sponsor in AA and told her she wanted to come to a meeting on her one year date to receive the cake they give to everyone who makes it that long.  She was told that since she no longer attends, she didn't qualify for a cake.  She was upset!  So I thought I'd make her a cake tonight and put a candle on it in the shape of a one!  Dad said she might not want everyone in the FHE group to know about it, but she announced it to the whole ward in fast meeting yesterday, so I think she'll be okay with it!

No pictures to share today.  We're hoping the family will post pictures of the camping trip.  We want to hear all about it, and see all your smiling faces!  Please give us all the details.  We thought about you the whole time, but were too busy to get too down about not being there! 

Enough for now!  We love and miss you all.  Tracy, Happy Birthday Wednesday.  We are sending a small package, but it might be late.  We're a little slow lately!  We hope you all have a great week!