Good Folks

April 7, 2011 Thursday

There are some very strong women in the church down here. We visited with a couple of them today. Sister Holcz is married to an avowed “heathen” as she calls him. She joined the church many years ago and has served as RS president in a small branch. Only one of her 3 children joined the church, but she’s strong in the faith. She and her husband, Nick, seem to have agreed to disagree about religion. However, he doesn’t hinder her in any way her activity in the church.
Tonight we visited Sister Greenwell. She’s 78 and amazing. She’s been an accountant with her own office for 30 years and still works daily. Right now, times are tough and people aren’t paying their bills, but she’s determined to work through it. Her mother and grandmother both lived to 100 and she’s determined she’s going to outlive them. She had an abusive husband and managed to pull out of that and support herself and her children on her own. She has a beautiful bishon-frieze (spelling?) named Inda. She also owns a home in Maylaysia (Borneo) and goes there often. She loves the people and the culture there.
This afternoon we visited an inactive sister who fell away years ago because of something someone said. She was very willing to talk to us; although she doesn’t have home or visiting teachers, she said we could come back monthly and see her. At one point her husband was a high priest, so the family was very active. She didn’t share what happened, but seems content with her life now. It would be great if we could pull her back in. We left the February Ensign, which coincidentally was all about reactivation.
Monday was Orson’s birthday day and P-day. We just kind of took it easy. I did make him a chocolate-chip date cake and butterscotch sauce that turned out pretty good.
Wednesday we went to Specialized Training for the zone. President Cahoon has had the missionaries preparing 3-minute talks on a variety of subjects. At meetings, he has three missionaries present their talks. (They get a toothbrush for doing so. (One of the elders commented he was going to sell his collection of “President Cahoon toothbrushes” on E-Bay. The president told him to use them and change them each month.) This month the theme was “Jesus, the very thought of thee.” As we were listening to the elders’ talks, a 3x5 card was passed to us from the president asking us to each do a 3-minute talk about the same subject. It turned out to be a spiritual experience for both of us. We had been asked to bring the 72 hour kits that are in each missionary flat. After our meeting we took out the old stuff and put in new food. The expiration dates on a lot of the old stuff was in 2009, so it was a good idea to change it all out. There are 3 cans of chili or something like it, 6 granola bars, 6 bottles of water, a big bag of nuts, a package of crackers, peanut butter and jam, and maybe something else, but I can’t think of what it is.
Last night we dropped by on a former investigator. Talk about having a rough time. Jennifer was pregnant with a member kids’ baby when she took the lessons. She was living with the guy at the time. Everything written in the teaching history says she was very positive about joining the church, but the guy wouldn’t marry her. She’s now back living with her mom (an alcoholic). Jennifer is 20 and has a little girl, Piper, who is 2. When Piper was about 6 months old, Jennifer was diagnosed with mouth and throat cancer. Part of her tongue was cut out and replaced with a muscle from near her wrist. She was told she might not be able to talk, but she talks perfectly. You’d never know she’d had a problem if she hadn’t told you. Then she did chemo and radiation therapy. When Piper was 18 months old, she was diagnosed with Kruzon’s (spelling?) syndrome which runs in her dad’s family. The syndrome causes the bones in the child’s head to grow together too soon and can cause severe brain problems. She and Jennifer flew to Adelaide for a month for a surgery in which plates were inserted into Piper’s head to provide room for growth. She’s a very bright, friendly little girl who obviously has no problems. And Jennifer talked about all this with no sense of “poor me” at all. But she didn’t want to learn any more about the church. She says she just “didn’t connect” with it. We aren’t sure that’s the reason, but we certainly admire how she’s handled all that she has over the past couple of years.