January 24, 2008 We are a little late in writing this week – Elder Patten has been busy with one of the Branch Pres. trying to help him figure out how to do the tithing settlement. Last night I worked with the Young Womens Presidency to help them with their New Beginnings evening. One of the members does speak English and so I think we just about got it planned. They told me that they want to have mutual but not with the young men. I told them that it probably wouldn’t be mutual then but just a young womens meeting. So they said they would think about letting the young men come once or twice a month. You know, they are just doing their best and that is good enough” for a town this size” as John says.
We did have quite an experience last Sunday. You have probably heard us talk about Dale and Annie. We love those two – the problem is that Dale has been trying to stop his alcohol addiction and was doing really well. He had not had a drink for about two months. Annie has cancer and went to the Phillipines to have a growth removed. I guess Dale decided he could drink and once he started he couldn’t stop – we tried to find him several times but were not able to catch up with him. Last Sunday we were told by one of the sisters in our branch, who is very credible, that Annie’s sister got a call from the hospital saying that Annie had died. We were all devastated – the R.S. president, ( from Calif, working here), was very upset , so we all sat in the chapel and tried to plan how we could find Dale and what we could do to help with the children. The missionaries tried to find Dale and we finally found him passed out in the porch of a friends house, we couldn’t wake him up so we decided to try later. Elder Patten and I went to another home so he could bless a sick child and on the way back we ran into the R.S. president and she said she was trying to find us and that Dale was home. So we went there and he was sobbing and it was so sad. He obviously had not thought the situation through yet . I asked him not to drink anymore, that he needed to have a clear head but he just said he had to go to a friends home so we left feeling very sad. The next day we tried to find him again and was told he went to the hospital. Later that evening we got a telephone call from the R.S. pres. saying “I have good news, Annie is not dead.” Evidently the sister has a mental handicap and none of us knew that except Dale, who was out drinking. Her sister, we found out later, thought in her mind that Annie had died and told everyone that the Doctor called her and said Annie was dead. The good sister (Mary) who came to church and told us that Annie had died meant well and believed the sister not knowing that she had a problem. Dale probably knew about the sister but because he was drunk and couldn’t handle the situation and straighten it out, we all thought it was true.
Well, we are very happy that Annie is alive but Dale and I will have a little meeting about how his decision to drink again, which kept him from handling the situation, caused so much heartache for him and us. He was so hung over when we finally reached him Sunday that he still wasn’t able to think it through in his mind so we left him that evening still believing that Annie was deadl
We went with the missionaries last week to study with a young girl who was living with the branch pres. son – she was not about to end that relationship and said she wanted to get married. She is 16 and that was against my better judgment but it was clear that it was either marriage or continue with what they were doing. So the missionaries decided to have them get married the next day. She wants to get baptized but needs a little more teaching. She told us that the rumor is “the missionaries just tell you that they worship Jesus, but when they go home they worship Joseph Smith.” We set that straight rather quickly. She also wanted to know why we didn’t speak in tongues – the missionaries handled that question very well. They explained the difference between the gift of tongues and speaking in tongues. We gave her a copy of the articles of faith and told her to read and think about number 7. The protestant ministers just have too much time on their hands here. Actually I guess if that’s all they’ve got to say about us that’s not so bad. I’m sure they are a little concerned about the 769 convert baptisms that happened in 2007.
We love the work, we love the teaching, we love the people, and we are glad Annie is not dead. We have been out nearly three months now. If we are moved, we probably won’t have the opportunity to teach as much as we have had here so we are taking advantage of it and working with the missionaries as much as we can. The primaries are much better and the YW are coming along – the RS. Needs help but I don’t know if we will be around long enough to work on that. We love you all and the calls and emails are wonderful. Keep them coming. Kiss all the kids for us and don’t let them forget us. Love Mom and John P.S. to all the little boys in the family – the gecko followed us to this apartment and hangs around outside our window – we will send a picture.
PSS. Taiwan just made a gift of $2,000,000 to get Air Marshall Islands up and running again. The first payment of $1,000,000 was made this Wednesday. Now they have to go to all of the outer islands and check the runways to make sure someone didn't build a house on them or something else crazy like that.
This is our friend "croakie" who chirps and sings to us. Our power has been out all day. Sister Patten had put an apple crispy deep dish thing in the oven for district meeting this morning when everything stopped. We just noticed that the power was back on so she hurried and made an apple pie and baked it before we go back out this evening. The weekly newspaper said yesterday that we only have enough diesel to run the electrical generators for power until the 29th of January. They were expecting the fuel ship on the 24th of January but it will not arrive until the 2nd of February. Not to worry though the government has assurred us that we will not be without power. I guess they had second thoughts as the power on half of the atol was off all day today. My one branch president finished his tithing settlement paperwork and has turned it in. He thought he was through until we challenged him to visit all of his members in his branch in the next three weeks. "How could he possibly do this you ask?" He recently lost his job and so he has to much time on his hands so this will turn out to be a great blessing for him. I promised him if he would do this that the Lord would provide a job for him. My other branch president and I finished his tithing settlement last nite. Now the challenge for both branches is to go send out records if the members no longer live in their branch. I ask about one family and the president said they live in Hawaii. I asked if they were coming back and he said no. " The father can't get the medical treatment that he needs in Majuro." "Let's send his records to his new address in Hawaii." "We can't do that says the branch president because he's from Uliga branch." If someone is baptised in Uliga branch and moves to the other end of the atol then they can't go to church anymore because they were baptised in Uliga branch and it's to far to come every sunday even though they may live close to Laura branch chapel. Sometimes I get a little frustrated and then I think of my own ancestors in Nauvoo and the early days of the church. They didn't get it right all of the time either. We love the youth and know that they are the future here. We were with the sister missionaries the other day. We had visited one of our alcoholics. Sister Patten was talking to the wife and telling her that she needed to be more firm with her husband. She told her that if he comes home drunk again to take the children and go to her brother's house for a little while. She also said that the children needed to be in school so they wouldn't run around like little "wild indians" One of the sister missionaries is from Fiji and is of Indian descent. I got the giggles and put my arm around the missionary and said "Are you our little wild indian?" Now I tease her every time we are together about being our "little wild indian." I know, I know I can't help myself sometimes. We love these missionaries so darned much that we think all of them are our grandkids. Last transfer one of the sister missionaries from Papau NG was transferred from our district. We saw her the other day and she ran to us and hugged us and said " I'm missing you twos ." We're loving this mission. We have to be really careful when we are out and about because we know a lot of people now and we don't want to miss saying hello to anyone. If we are transferred one of these days we don't know how we will be able to leave the people and the things that we are involved in. Then we come back to reality and know that every missionary feels that way about the area that they are serving. We love you all and want you to know that we are doing well and are happy. Love, Grampie/John/dad/Grandma/Lois/mom
