ODIN

September 8, 2010 Wednesday

We are in love. We taught Katrina again today. She has the cutest little boy who is just one month older than Melinda’s baby; so when we see him, he brings out all kinds of grandparent-type feelings. He has big brown eyes and smiles every time you make eye contact with him. He reminds me of Andrew, Paul’s boy, when he was little. Odin raises his eyebrows a little when he looks at you. Andrew did the same thing, so we did it back at him and pretty soon he was flirting with anyone who would look at him.
We were concerned because Katrina said she hadn’t had time to do any reading, so we went back today determined to read some summaries of part of the first lesson and get her into the Book of Mormon. During the opening prayer I was prompted to pray for peace and protection for Katrina while her husband is away in some kind of training for the military. He will be home in a month or 2 and then they will move to the east coast for his next assignment. That made us feel bad, but then she interrupted us shortly after we began reading with her about Heavenly Father. She said she wanted to tell us something. She said she’d been talking to a friend a little while back and told her how she was not feeling good about things and not excited about the pastor of the church she was attending. Her friend counseled her to invite the pastor over and have him pray for her and her home, etc. Katrina said she just couldn’t do it. It didn’t seem right. Then we showed up on her doorstep, and we come and teach her and pray for her. She’s beginning to wonder if God isn’t telling her something. We assured her that He is and that she is beginning to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost in her life. We continued on. The next part we read was about how the Gospel blesses families. She stopped again to tell us how a little over a year ago she suddenly felt she wanted to get married. She had been living with this fellow for 4 or 5 years. He was willing so she began planning the wedding. They had been trying to have a baby and she couldn’t get pregnant. It was a cause of a lot of concern for them. It took her three months to get the wedding planned and then they were married. Shortly thereafter she discovered she was 10 weeks pregnant. She’d gotten pregnant just after they had decided to get married. She feels it was a blessing from God as a result of her making that decision. She mentioned that she had given up her “running amuck—drinking, going to bars, etc. That was a natural lead-in to the Word of Wisdom. She agreed to live it without any hesitation. She also mentioned that her husband doesn’t have problems with alcohol or smoking.
We had told her that we would like to visit her a little more often so we could read with her and still not overload her with too much info. After a half an hour, we asked if she was ready to quit or continue. She wanted to continue. So we started reading 3 Nephi Chapter 11 with her. She apologized that she wasn’t a good reader (the only words she tripped over were ones that most people aren’t familiar with). She told us that she didn’t learn to read in school but taught herself to read when she was 14. In the chapter we were reading, Christ commands people to be baptized 3 times within 6 or 7 verses near the end. That was a natural lead-in to the baptismal commitment. She agreed to be baptized when she gains a certainty of the truthfulness of the things we are teaching her. She’s really a neat lady. She’s probably 30 or so and has some aboriginal blood in her. She agreed to let us come on Friday to teach her the plan of salvation.
I opened the cover to my Triple Combination today and discovered the same thing I found in my scriptures in Brazil: mold. For some reason, it grows there in humid climates. I looked for some Clorox wipes at the store this afternoon but couldn’t find any. I figure I will make my own with a couple of paper towels and some Clorox and water.
We had the Wyldes over for dinner tonight. They’d had a leak under the kitchen sink for a couple of years. The whole back of the cupboard was moldy so the landlord agreed to replace and update the kitchen. It was supposed to only take a couple of days. When the workmen pulled the cupboard out, the wall came with it. So they’ve been out of kitchen for a few days. They were happy to have some homemade food tonight and we enjoyed visiting with them.