Mission Updates

We are pleased with our mission work so far. We contacted our orthopedist (who did Dad's knee last year) and he was very agreeable to see our branch friend whose knee is "killing" him. The orthopod had previously seen this man for an industrial injury to his wrist or hand, and so was very pleased to see him again. Just talked to the wife. X-rays Friday confirmed arthritis as they expected. Dr. D injected his knee with the 1st of 3 inj and already Hector is feeling relief. Hurray! Hopefully the relief will be long lasting as they have no ins. since Gracie lost her job in Nov. when the company she worked for closed down.

We are working closely also with the family of the RS President. Her 2 boys want to serve missions, but are not documented. They can still serve but since they have no papers, they cannot fly and so will be assigned close by and will go to the mission by bus. Their immigration status will not be resolved as easily.

The lady who went to the shelter was "passed off" to Salt Lake missionaries since she is planning to stay in SLC.

The next family we need to track down, may be dealing with an ex-husband who is threatening to sue for custody (prob. to avoid paying child support). We are still trying to reach them to set up an appt.

Last Thursday night was the Spring concert for the TSP group. This is the Tooele Sign Pride club for the high school sign language students. This was Breanna's last sign concert and Emily's 2nd. Not being proficient in sign language, it is hard for us to judge their skill's, but they both did very well. Never seemed to hesitate or scramble for the next sign. Breanna and her friend Brianna do "Who's on First?" This is very fast paced as well as very hilarious. They keep up and do well. I keep suggesting to Bre that if she ends up having to go to SLCC next year, that she take all of the sign language classes there that she can so that she can certify as a SL interpreter. She could then, very likely, get a job at a 4 year college and work her way thru school.

Last Fri. night we went to Mapleton. Lindsey was playing in the orchestra for the school's production of Midsummer's Night Dream. The orchestra was quite good and we enjoyed the play. This was the first time we had been able to see/hear Lindsey perform in a smaller group--I think we may have been to one of her orchestra concerts, but I'm not sure. When you have so many g'kids performing, sometimes it's hard to keep track.

This past weekend was stake conference for our branch. So, Sunday, we went to conference. I am quite impressed with our Stake President there. He is a convert of about 30 years and now works for the Church architectural department--apparently working on temples.

After conference we went to our home ward block. We miss seeing our friends. Cynthia and Max left after the sacrament (he had to drive her home) as she felt pretty punk--sore throat. But I stayed for the whole meeting. The speakers were Br. and Sis Ursenbach who are long time temple workers and who have just been home for a year from serving as the Hawaii Temple President and Matron. Sis. Ursenbach knew my high school friend Yvonne Curnow. Maureen Ursenbach Beecher is part of their extended family and they know her well. My cousin, Dale Beecher, is in their stake and they see him periodically.

Today we plan to go to the local LDS Employment Office for a tour and orientation. Then we will arrange to take Gracie in tmo. or Wed. This mission for us feels like when Max was Bishop and I was RS President--except that we have a lot more to do than I did as RS President.

Overall, we have to say that we are enjoying our mission. It makes us feel good to be able to be a positive force in the lives of the people we work with.

The Ladle's are coming! Hurrah, Hurrah!

How could I forget the thing that has our whole family buzzing? This summer (August) is the 50th Wedding anniversary of Devin's parents, so they are coming to Utah! We are so excited. Devin will only be here for a short time, and his focus will be with his family, but we are hoping to be able to "steal" him for at least one evening so we can have a Newell family something or other also.

Kathy and the girls are planning to come in late July and spend 3 weeks here with us. The girl cousins especially are all excited to see Lauren, Lisee and Aunt Kathy again. We have moved our family camp out 1 week later in July so Kath and the girls can go with us. The timing was just right--it was about the only week in July that every family had open and McKenna and Peyton start school the following Monday since they attend a year-round school.

I looked and looked and finally found a group camp site still available. It is labeled as a Tent camping area. Since it is fairly close to Steve's, he tried to drive up earlier this week to see if the parking area will accomodate Mel and Curt's RV, Doug and Brynn's tent trailer, and Josh and Jamie's trailer/RV. However, when he went up, he could only go part way up the road and then got stopped by 12 inches of snow on the road. So, he'll try again in a few weeks and see if the road is open. We are so excited that they are coming. (We'll be more excited when they have their plane reservations!)

When we applied for a Mission Call, we felt like we wouldn't be able to go to Florida this year. (I wanted to go in August when Lauren turns 12.) After we got our call, we found that, as we hoped, rules are looser for our type of mission. So we won't have any problems with baptisms, missions "farewells"; baby blessings; birthdays, etc. So we could have gone in Florida, but the economy is dissolving my IRA and making us nervous. So we were ELATED with the Florida Ladle's plan to come for the Sr. Ladle's festivities. We are hoping, hoping, hoping that we get to see Mike and Annette also, as they are as dear to us as the rest of our kids.

Another quilt and mission updates

We hadn't gotten any assignments during February from our mission branch, so we put on another quilt. This one is for us. Max pieced it a year or so ago. We ordered extra wide backing fabric from one of my catalogs and didn't like it when we got it. But we finally decided that it would do--don't expect it to ever be put on the bed with that side up. We are about 3/4 done. It is looking great and we can't wait to get it off.

I meant to keep the posting more current. So here is a sort of update of our mission activity which I wrote on Feb 25th in an email to my sibs.

We have been to 2 sunday's of block meetings. 1st sunday, "sender" part of the translation machinery wasn't connected right, so no translation in Sac. Mtg. Last Sunday, everything was set up right and we enjoyed Sac. Mtg. 3 youth speakers all spoke about prayer--excellent talks. Actually I thought they were some better than the high counselor who followed them.

Sunday School and RS/Priesthood are hard for us because we don't know what they are saying. We can catch occasional words, but not really enough to know where they are in the lesson and exactly what they are saying. I told Max on the way home, that the hardest part for me, was not being able to make comments in class. Maybe eventually, I'll feel comfortable about just raising my hand and saying what I'm thinking. We try to be sure that we read the lessons ahead of time and have our scriptures/lesson guide/lesson manuals open with us, but it is still hard to know where they are.

Tonight we had a formal meeting with Pres. Gonzalez and our lead couple (kind of like district leaders, I think, for you former missionaries), Good meeting, but still no specific assignments other than a strong interest expressed by Pres. Gonzalez in the music program developed to teach hispanic members to play well enough to play simplified arrangments of hymns. Currently our branch sac mtg organist is a sister from somewhere in the stake who was called to be the branch organist. In Priesthood, they sing acappella; RS uses a CD; and the Primary President plays the piano for Primary.

We went to Branch council the 1st week after our training and almost the first thing that was mentioned was a need for us--a 13 yr old girl had had foot surgery the previous week and needed a wheelchair. That was easy--we had one in our garage and her dad came and got it after the block. I saw her tonight at the church (Mutual) and she said she uses it all the time at home. We were pleased that we could help right off the bat.

After our meeting, we were standing in one of the foyers talking with the new Elder's Quorum President. He is Puerto Rican, born in NYC (and that accent comes thru quite often in his English). When he first came to Utah in 1997, he attended Granger 10th Ward. So I asked him if he knew Christine and Mario Gonzalez (my sister). He said he did, but that he hadn't seen them for a long time. Hno. Santiago says that when he came to SLC in 97, there were 15 hispanic units. Now in the Salt Lake Innercity Project, there are 64 units--2 are Portuguese and the rest are Spanish. (And did I ever mention the newly formed Swahili Branch?)

We have high hopes for our mission. Pres. Gonzalez is a great man and a good branch president. He expresses his appreciation to have us in the branch, but as I said, no assignments yet. If they are not forthcoming, then our supervisor-people may pull us out of this branch and assign us somewhere in the SLC Valley. So, we are hoping that this official meeting with him tonight will start something.

We are working some on our Spanish, but haven't yet gotten to a set study schedule, so I know that we won't make much progress unless we do. Tonight, Pres. Gonzales gave us an MTC style book. We have Jamie's but this one looks a little different. The first pronunciation lessons went fairly well, but I'm stuck on the rolling r's--can't quite get it. Max has no trouble with that sound, but struggles to remember the vowels. I think I can remember the vowels easily because they pretty much sound like the Hawaiian vowels. Anyway, we're moving slowly, but with optimism. Nearly every week we go into SLC for some kind of training meeting--all aimed at hispanic needs and all very helpful.

Now, as of tda, March 6th--we have 3 pages of assignments/notes! I missed last Sunday (sick) but Max went to Branch Sac Mtg. The Branch Clerk gave him a 2nd hand assignment, so Max scheduled an appt with Pres. G for Wed. Night. He clarified that assignment and then went thru the branch list, giving us assignments for about 6 or 7 families. One is a sister who has left her husband and gone to a women's shelter in SLC. She doesn't speak much English and the Pres. is not sure exactly why she left--only guesses because of past history. We are meeting with one family tda at 5pm. So, it looks like we are finally "starting" our mission.

Max only went to Branch Sac Mtg. last Sunday so he could go to Priesthood Mtg in our home ward. He was being released Sunday as an asst. to the HP Group Leader and wanted to be there again. The Stake President was there and thanked him for our willingness to serve. Pres. Rockwell asked how the language was going and Max told him about some of our struggles, but then said that Pres. G had told us that apx 85% of the branch spoke English, so hope that overall we will be able to work well in the Branch. Pres. R was surprised that there were that many English speaking members of the Branch.