Memorial Day weekend

Sunday, we again went to Mt. Pleasant to attend church.  This time, both Becky and I went with talks prepared, knowing that we were providing the sacrament meeting program.  Our topic was how attending the temple would help them increase their faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ.  After the meeting block was over, the branch president pointed out a sister that lives nearby that he would like us to work with, teaching here how to better live within her budget.  We are going to get used in that branch.  And I suppose the others assigned to be there will also get used – each in a different way.  One temple missionary couple attending there with us will be helping others with their family history.  Another was called on to teach the Mel. PH lesson.  It is a branch and there are not a lot of members to draw on.  So I suppose the branch president is happy to have six pairs of missionaries assigned to his branch.

Memorial Day was basically another day at the office, in that we went to the temple and put in our shift as normal.  The attendance that day was good, especially for a Monday.  It gave us visions of what the summer could bring.  But since then we are back in to our normal low attendance.  We are hoping that things will get busier as we step into the warmer weather.

That night we were invited (along with several other couples) to have dinner with our neighbors across the street.  We enjoyed a barbeque and good company.  Later, we were invited to go over to the Durrant’s home for a reading.  Currently George and his wife (Susan Easton Black) are busy writing a novel.  Every once in a while they invite several of us over to hear a few recently penned chapters for our critique.  Of course, they leave us hanging at the end of each evening and we are always anxious to return to hear the next few chapters as their book continues toward its conclusion.  I just hope they finish before they get released in August.

It’s also enjoyable to hear the Nauvoo brass band each time they go down the street (in a wagon that is horse drawn).  These are some of the Young Performing Missionaries that are here for three months each summer.  They pulled in a few weeks ago, but are just now hitting the streets.  The others of the group are also venturing out starting to perform their vignettes and plays – singing and dancing, much to the delight of all that gather to listen and watch.

Catering to the local membership

Well, we stay busy in the temple – but often only serving ourselves.  For some reason the local members, site missionaries and visitors are coming but only in small numbers.  Perhaps after Memorial Day things will pick up.  For a lot of the year, the temple primarily serves us missionaries.  We are grateful to be here and are glad to serve and to be served as we attend the temple often – both as ordinance workers and as patrons.  I only hope that we will still be able to handle the crowds that continue to be predicted to start arriving at a future time.

Last Thursday we went to Iowa City – it being our P-Day.  Becky had need to see an eye doctor and was hoping to go to a Lens-Crafters store.  The closest ones were all about one and a half to two hours away – so we chose to go to Iowa City to see the one there.   Her prescription hasn’t changed much, but she did need to get her frames adjusted.  On the way out, we had hoped to see the place there that has been raised as a memorial to those who started their hand-cart journey to Zion from there.  But luck would have it that the weather was not obliging so we have left that visit for another day.

Sunday again found us in Mt. Pleasant to attend church.  Again I translated for the Hispanics in the branch.  Becky and I were also asked to speak in their Sacrament meeting this coming Sunday.  At least we do not have too long to think about it.  After the block of meetings, we went to the home of the first councilor in the branch presidency where we had been invited to come for dinner.  Being from Guatemala, we enjoyed the dinner that he prepared which was after the fashion of that part of the world.  They invite the senior couples over on one Sunday each month, the younger missionaries on a different Sunday, family on another Sunday and in-actives or non-members on the other Sunday each month.  Need I say, he likes to cook!

The cold of winter is gone, and in its stead we have gotten a sporadic glimpse of what summer could threaten to become.  The heat is on and yesterday, we also “enjoyed” a very humid day.  With the humidity, it doesn’t have to be real hot to get sticky and uncomfortable.  It’s a good thing that we spend most of our time in the temple.

Busy again

Somehow we missed last week … I am not really surprised.  While the temple has not been super busy, we have.  Our Sundays are gone.  Attending church in Mt. Pleasant requires a lot more travel time and we are becoming more involved in the branch when we go.  I have been asked to translate for the Hispanic members in sacrament meeting.  That is indeed a challenge since my vocabulary is still pretty much a missionary vocabulary and does not branch heavily into other topics.  Becky has been asked to teach an upcoming YW lesson, and we have been asked to think about helping the members better understand how to live within their means.

Last night we went to a group FHE at the arrival center.  There are several missionary couples that we never get to see since the five shifts we work and the five they work have nothing in common.  We don’t even get to go to church together anymore so these monthly FHEs that we go to are essential to our getting to know them.  Last night was a Barbeque dinner.  But about the same time that we arrived, so did the storm.  It started all of a sudden and amid bright streaks of lightning, the thunder roared and cracked in our ears.  It sent us all scurrying into the building to keep from getting drenched.  We were crowded inside and several of us were soaked.  Other activities were forgotten and we tried to use lulls in the storm to scurry home.  The “lull” we chose was not much of a lull as we arrived home quite drenched and with a great memory of our “rainy days in May” that we still talk about from last year.

Tomorrow, we are shift coordinators again.  This time we were asked to substitute for the couple that currently have that position.  When substituting, we actually have more to do, since we have to start from scratch to prepare the line assignment sheets that are to be used.  I think this is the only assignment in the temple that requires “homework”.  Therefore, all of this last week we have been busy preparing for tomorrow: figuring out which ordinance workers are going to be there, and the history of where they have been so that we don’t ask the same ones to officiate that did last week, etc.  Lots of fun.

Another “extra” chore that was given to me was to provide the Nauvoo Pageant president with photos of every temple missionary couple along with their names so he could provide us with a personalized invitation in the form of a webpage to which we could direct our friends, relatives and other contacts to inform all of the upcoming pageant.  When his executive secretary completes the personalized webpages, he sends the link for each couple back to me and I then send an email to each missionary couple informing them of their link and instructions on how to use it.  This requires a lot of individualized computer work.  So far I have completed the work for 47 of the 60 couples and hope to finish the rest tonight, assuming the webpages for them will be completed by then.

On our last p-day, we went with others sharing the same p-day to Pella, Iowa, a Dutch town that puts on a tulip festival every year.  We missed the festival held the previous weekend, but the tulips were still there.  We also got to tour a Dutch windmill that is used to grind wheat into flour.  We used an elevator to get up to the fourth floor which was where the platform was located above which the windmills blades hung down to.  In essence, this windmill is huge, made with woods from dozens of different type trees found all over the world, each with its specific characteristics.  Obviously I was impressed.  We also toured several museums and reconstructed homes all depicting Holland and Dutch life.  We even saw a miniature model town showing how the Dutch had reclaimed their land from the sea and where canals were used to get from place to place.  Our day in Pella was enjoyable and the travel time to and from was fun as well as we were with friends we don’t otherwise get to see very often anymore.