WEEKLY EPISTLE

FOR WEEK ENDING 7/31/2016

FOR ELDER AND SISTER ELKINGTON

We started the week as we do each week  - preparing food for the Heritage Park Branch Family Home Evening at Anasazi Valley.  The day was culminated by the FHE.  Four of the children from the Shivwits Reservation attended with us.  They get very excited each time the see the garden which they helped plant.  They enjoyed walking through the corn.  Katelyn said she had always wanted to walk through a corn patch – she had seen it only in movies.

Tuesday we watered the Branch Garden at President Salings request – he was out of town.  We also harvested produce – melons, tomatoes and squash- and delivered it to members and investigators. A lion’s share of the produce is being eaten by the squirrels.  We tell others we are raising a great crop of corn and melon fed squirrels! The produce does soften hearts as well as provide nutrition.  The one les active family we visited came to Church for the first time in several months.

Wednesday we attended a LAH (Live at Home) Missionary Conference in Cedar City.  We always enjoy these conferences for the knowledge we gain, the Spirit we feel and getting to visit with other LAH missionaries.  We visited with Elder and Sister Jolley at lunch and told them of our work with the Native Americans and the Heritage Park Branch.  They requested information about the branch meeting times.  Then Sunday a Native American they have been teaching came to the Heritage Park Branch with her two children.  She said she was there to expose her children to the other Native Americans, but after Sacrament Meeting, she told the Branch President that she felt the Spirit more than she had in any other meeting.

We delivered garden produce and visited with less active families the rest of the week.  We also delivered letters from the Branch Presidency to less active families.  The letters state the members records will be sent to their neighborhood wards if they do not notify the Branch Presidency they want to remain members of the branch.  Records get sent to the branch and never are moved out because the branch is defined by culture – not by geographical boundaries.  Because of this it can become a repository for records of members who never attend and they can get lost to the Church.  There is not a functioning home teaching program  so people who do not attend can easily be lost to the Church.  It is hoped that they will be better fellowshipped by getting their records in their local ward.

We had two visits this week with Bro and Sis “T” on the Reservation.  They both say they were baptized as children, but the Church has no record of Brother “T” being baptized.  We explained he can obtain letters from 2 people who were witness to his baptism or he can be baptized again.  He is checking with his family about getting letters attesting to his baptism.  They are a great couple and they have a great spirit in their home.

We capped Sunday by visiting with the Heritage Park Branch President and his wife (Salings) about the members of the branch and where he would like us to focus our efforts.   Pr Saling asked us to assist one family in obtained needed commodities from Deseret Industries and the Bishops Storehouse. 'They, like we,  love the members of the branch. .  We didn,t get home from our meeting with the Salings until after 10:00 PM and we have two birthday cakes to bake for Monday.

On top of this, we are try to sort through a huge assortment of clothing received from a family member.  We want to get them to Native Americans who need clothing for school, which is about ready to start for the Fall.

We feel we have had a very productive week and  we have several appointments scheduled for the next week.