31 January 2016 Report

Elder and Sister Elkington

What a week!  On Monday Sister M asked Elder Elkington to conduct the funeral services for her deceased daughter.  The funeral was already planned without Elder Elkington’s input.  We got a copy of the program about 15 minutes before the service. The program was primarily music and poetry by Native Americans.  Most of those who were on the program did more than they had been requested to do.  In one case that was good.  A man was listed on the program as reading his poem, but he talked for 10-15 minutes before the poetry.  He talked about LDS doctrine about the Plan of Salvation.  I was glad for his remarks.  I then gave some closing remarks (not listed on the program) about the fact the services had been a mix of native tradition and Christian beliefs.  I told them their native traditions were not that different from the Plan of Salvation as taught in the Book of Mormon.

After the funeral, the adults in the family and friends went to an all-night sing.  They had the body in the casket in the Shivwits Community Center where the sing was held.  We took the children – 5 boys and 4 girls ranging in age from 4 to 11- and fed them and bedded them.  We had them from 5:00 PM Tuesday until 7:30 AM Wednesday.  We had to get them up for a breakfast of home-made waffles at 6:30 AM so we could take them home by 7:30AM so they could be ready for the burial at sunrise Wednesday morning.  That wouldn’t have been too bad if they had slept peacefully through the night.  But Sister Elkington was up fixing a midnight snack and trying to settle them down until about 1:00 AM.

Wednesday morning we left for a doctor’s appointment in SLC.  We then went on to Idaho for the funeral of Edwin Elkington and returned to our home in the Santa Clara Stake on Friday.  Friday evening Elder Elkington experienced “the fall” for himself:

            Adam fell that man might be,

Elder Elkington fell from stupidity!

Friday night I stepped on some plastic steps and fell against a wall, spraining my neck.  It hurt so bad I could not get up for several minutes.  Sister Elkington insisted we go to the emergency room to check if any bones were broken.  It was diagnosed as a bad sprain and I was told to stay down for 3 days. It would now be truthful to say, “He is a stiff-necked man.”

We are still cleaning up after the Native American children.  We love them – they are like family.  And we are looking forward to being actively engaged in the Lord’s work this week.