AUGUST 28, 2016

WEEKLY MISSIONARY EPISTLE

ELDER AND SISTER ELKINGTON

Another week has sped by – oh, how time flies when you are busily engaged in the Lord’s work!  Monday started with an 8:00 AM physical therapy appointment for Sister Elkington. She was told it would not be necessary to come for more therapy if she would continue the exercises at home.  Hurray! The rest of Monday was spent preparing food for the Heritage Park Branch Family Home Evening at Anasazi Valley.  We baked a shepherd’s pie to serve 20 -  which was very well received by those at the FHE.  We had four children from the Shivwits Reservation to FHE.  They seemed to really enjoy the evening.

Tuesday we went to the Bishop’s Storehouse to fill an order for one of the families.  This member requests a bare minimum of supplies. The person assisting at the storehouse and Sister Elkington added some items to the order based on the number in the family.  (Sister Elkington could modify the quantities because she was the one who completed the order at President Saling’s request -she was told by him to be sure to get what the family needs). Some families request far more than is needed, while some who really need assistance request less than is needed.  (We determined this family needed 2 gallons of chocolate milk - which the children greatly appreciated).  We are getting a fuller understanding of what our mission call means – we were called as member and leader support missionaries.  There are many members in the Heritage Park Branch who need support and the Branch President certainly can use some support!

Wednesday we had a district meeting in the morning.  Then we baked a loaf of banana bread and delivered it to a family on the Shivwits Reservation who had a death in the family.  In the evening we took 2 of the boys from the reservation to scouting.  While they were in scouting meeting we spent some time with the branch presidency and clerk correcting and updating membership records.

We talked with “J” on the phone about her commitment to be baptized.  She has not yet been able to change her Sunday work schedule so she can attend church, but she is stilled committed to making it happen.  We also tried to visit – but members were not home even though we called in advance.  Maybe we need to return to just stopping by, without calling in advance.

Saturday we took two boys to the Church meetinghouse for a scout activity.  Then we attended a stake high priest party.

Sunday (today) we attended Church with 2 of the children from the reservation and taught the Gospel Principles Sunday School class.  We also met with the stake presidency in the monthly stake missionary coordination meeting.  Then we attended the Heritage Park Branch Council Meeting.  After Church, we split up – Sister Elkington took the children from church back to their home and Elder Elkington attended the coordination meeting with the ward mission leaders.  It reminds us of the book written over sixty years ago about how to conduct meetings in the church.  It was entitled “Millions of Meetings’.  We know meetings are necessary, but we prefer to be visiting and teaching.