Good Productive Week

Taught Andrew Reyna a lesson at the church.

We taught family history classes on Thursday and Sunday (small groups so we could give individual attention, as needed).

Helped Michael start his family tree.

Helped Millie and Kevin start their family trees.

Took some CIS applications over to Mirta.  Mirta is trying to help her 80 year old mother with her U.S. Citizenship requirements.  Joe is progressing very well after his surgery.

We met with Candida (our sweet neighbor from El Salvador) with the elders.  Later, we took her to the church and the elders helped her and Pedro with some on-line job applications.  Afterwards, the elders gave her a tour of the church building, and we watched a short video (in Spanish) of the celebration and dedication of the temple in El Salvador.  The spirit was really strong.  Candida and Pedro are moving from their apartment to a house tomorrow.  Elder Alvarenga is going to get their new address and pass it to the Spanish-speaking missionaries.

Mary is finally out of the hospital. 

We drove Gloria to her post-op appointment this morning.  The doctor said she is doing really well.  We hope she will be able to come back to church when she's healed up sufficiently.  She is very happy that the healing process is progressing so well.  Gloria said we need to get some boots and become Texans.

We had district meeting on Friday.

We had Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday.  After the Saturday evening session we were able to talk to our former bishop (Orem 60th Ward, Utah, 1977-1979) Albert Haines and his wife Norma.  That was fun.

Tonight Lei Lani brought some chili and cornbread for us and the elders.  She has also been helping in the family history class, as needed. 

We are going to miss our new friends when we go home.  December is our last month.

Hospitals

I'm glad to be feeling better this week.

This week we've spent a fair amount of time in hospitals.  Gloria had her reconstruction surgery on Tuesday (about 4 hours). 

Joe had surgery on his carotid artery (about 6 hours) at LBJ Hospital.  Mirta was glad we sat with her in the waiting room.

Mary has been admitted to LBJ Hospital for acute pancreatitis.

Saturday we were part of a clean-up crew at Charles & Carolyn's.  Vicki hosted a baby shower for Carolyn in the afternoon.  That was very nice.

We taught family history classes again this week.  We've been helping individual's on a one-to-one basis also.

Bro. Ding took us to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes on Thursday.  I really like their large variety.

We had one teaching appointment that fell through on Saturday.

We had movie night again on Sunday (2nd viewing of Ephraim's Rescue).

Slow Week

This week has been a slow week.  I became ill on Tuesday and have mostly been unable to leave the apartment for several days.  We taught our family history classes on Thursday and Sunday.

Thursday we had a Zone Conference again - special training on conversion.

Thursday evening, Elder Halterman dislocated his shoulder so we spent from 9 pm to midnight at the Emergency Room at Methodist Hospital.  He will probably need to have some physical therapy.

We were planning on going to the Indian PowWow on Saturday at Traders Village, but I wasn't well enough to go.  That was disappointing.

A home in the southern part of the ward

 

A nice garden in Gloria's neighborhood

We visit the man working there, when we see him

 

About eight horses are kept here by black cowboys

Home near the Houston Texas Temple

 

Home near the Houston Texas Temple

 



The Houston Texas Temple in in our Stake.  It's located in a ward north of us.

 

Elder Jenkins discovered that our former bishop, Albert Haines lives in the Champion Ward of our stake.  He was our bishop when we lived in the Orem 60th Ward when Elder Jenkins was attending BYU.  At that time he was the City Manager for Orem.  He has since been the City Manager for Houston; as well as a mission president.  He currently is a ward mission leader and temple sealer.  He responded to Elder Jenkins' email and said he looks forward to seeing and visiting us.  

 

Nancy Glazier also lived in the Orem 60th Ward - she is an artist and is known for painting the "Lamb and Lion" that we see in many church buildings.  [She allowed me to watch her work on a painting once. She also gave me one of her small paintings that she painted when she was learning.]

Driving Miss Gloria

Last week we went to Zone Conference.  We learned about finding people to teach. 

Recently our zone and district have been divided.

 

This last week we did yard work for a part-member family, and made visits.

 

We started teaching family history classes last Sunday.  There is a new booklet from the church that we are using for beginners.  Last week we helped one member start to work on his family history.  His non-member companion asked us to help her with her family history too.  Her attitude towards the church has become more positive.  We will do what we can to help her.

 

Elder Jenkins has sent a proposal to the stake to see if we can get a couple of computers for family history into our building (satellite from the stake family history center).  It would make it easier for those who don't have cars or internet service to be able to work on their family history.

 

Today we drove Gloria to her pre-op appointment at the hospital.  Her surgery has been rescheduled for November 12th.  Once she gets healed up from the surgery she should be able to attend church again.  She claims to be the only person who has survived an intestinal aneurism.  She is so funny and keeps us laughing.  She told the nurse that if she needs a transfusion, she only wants blood from rich people.  She wants the nurse to get Donald Trump down here to give blood.  And if they needed a list of rich people they could call to donate blood, she could provide such a list.  She also told the nurse that when people call the hospital to ask about her condition after the surgery that she wants the nurses to tell them that she has been transferred to Spain.   

 

Saturday, C.J. was baptized and Sunday was confirmed.

 



Sister Jenkins, Elder Jenkins Elder Halterman, Elder Alvarenga

C.J.

It has been great having Elder Alvarenga here (waiting for his visa to Sao Paulo, Brazil).  He has really been a big help to those who speak Spanish or Portuguese.

We have a fresh "move in" list with 21 names on it - for us to check out and see if they actually live here.  If they live here, we welcome them into the ward and invite them to church.