August 14

MISSIONARY EPISTLE

Elder and Sister Elkington

We continue with physical therapy for balance.  It takes one hour a day for two days.  But by the time we add in travel time, it really costs us over four hours a week.  Elder Elkington completed his therapy this week – but it will continue to take the same time until Sister Elkington has completed her needed therapy.

We spent much of Monday preparing food for the Heritage Park Branch family home evening.  We had 7 members of Sis “M’s” family to Family Home Evening.  But we also had a new family come.  Jennifer brought her four children and they really enjoyed the evening. We met with her twice this week and she has committed to baptism.  I believe the Family home evening has removed anxiety she may have felt – her children really enjoyed playing with the other children and several members visited with her.

Tuesday we brought 10 year old  Katelynn, ,Devon (16) and Krystin (8) from the Shivwits Reservation  to our home for cooking lessons – they learned to make chicken soup (Elder Elkington’s recipe) served with toasted rolls topped with garlic and parmesan cheese. (The girls specified what they wanted to cook – we had served it to them before). These lessons are helping in preparing for the future and helping their family now. Katelynn’s grandmother says she is cooking some at home and doing a great job. Besides teaching them how to cook, we have time to talk about gospel principles.  We want them prepared to be mothers in Zion when they mature.

Wednesday we finished distributing donated clothing to Native Americans. The clothes were gratefully received and we have seen some of them being worn to Church in the past few weeks. We were grateful to get the last of the clothes placed – they have been spread over much of our house while we organized them for distribution. We know it has been a meaningful project, but we are glad to have our house back!

The garden is winding down – it has provided a lot of food to Native Americans and has given us a lot of valuable interaction with these people.  But we are ready to be free of the watering,, weeding, harvesting and produce distribution. However, the garden has provided a means to teach many valuable lessons.

The grandfather and major caretaker of the children we teach on the reservation was taken to the hospital last night, so we went to the hospital today to give him a blessing.  We talked with him about how important he is to his family and how important his example is to his grandchildren – he and their grandmother  can send them to Church while they are young, but if they want them to continue to attend as they get older, they need to attend with them now. He and the children’s grandmother agreed. We love this family and know we will not be here to take them to Church for much longer.

This weekend has been Santa Clara Stake Conference. We have been spiritually fed by those who spoke.  This afternoon we had a teaching lesson with Jennifer.  We challenged her to commit to a baptism date within the next month and to talk to her supervisor about changing her schedule so she can attend church meetings.  She agreed to both of these challenges.