Week of 6/19/16

Epistle from

Elder and Sister Elkington

It seems like we move from on crises to another.  Just when we help a member struggling with seemingly insurmountable problems get to where they can deal with their life, another member encounters a challenge that needs our support.  We have been supporting a mother who has  four children and is dealing with what appears to be a serious  (possibly life threatening) health problem. Sister Elkington made her some apricot jam – which she greatly appreciated. Elder Elkington also gave her  a blessing, - she has faith and confidence it will resolve the problem.

We took five of the children from the Shivwits Reservation to FHE (including a new girl who is a friend of one of the others). Between preparing food for FHE and taking the children in the evening to FHE, it takes several hours of each Monday.  But the children certainly look forward to it each week!

Sister Elkington spent four hours Tuesday morning making orange rolls for President and Sister Center.  She had promised him last fall that she would bake him some rolls.  Since He is getting released within two weeks, she decided she was running out of time.  We appreciate the mission presidency so much and wanted to show our appreciation.

Wednesday at we took three of the Reservation children to pick apricots at the Santa Clara Church orchard.,  They took about forty pounds of apricots home to their family.  We also baked a birthday cake for Sister “M’s” family in honor of her deceased daughter who died in January.  The children of the deceased woman had said they wanted a strawberry flavored cake.  So, Sister Elkington baked the requested cake and put sliced strawberries on top.  The family was thrilled that we cared enough to do this.  Then Wednesday evening we took two of the boys to cub scouting.

We worked in the Branch garden and watered it twice this week at the request of the Branch President, since he had to be out of town.  We also delivered garden produce and apricots to several less active members and told them we missed them at Church and invited them to come and join with us.
On Friday when we met with Sister "M's" family, the young missionaries did not show up, so we gave a lesson about Jesus Christ from the New Testament.  These children are not familiar with the bible stories we heard and learned as children.  We wanted them to gain a love of the scriptures and to read the New Testament as well as the Book of Mormon.

We are coming to appreciate what our mission call meant when it said we were called to provide “Member and leader support”.   We love our labors and love the leaders and the members.