30 November 2015

Hi All,

We had two lovely Thanksgiving dinners—one at 4 pm with the young Sisters and another at 7 pm with Evariste and his two children as well as Elders King and Lawrence.  The Turkey was soaked in brine the night before and when we ate it, it was very succulent; even the white meat was very tender.  We enjoyed chatting with the young Sisters.  We also enjoyed playing games with Evariste and his two children as well as the Elders.  Evariste’s wife is in hiding somewhere in Uganda (?); Evariste has the two children Kenzo and Emma.  These children were delightful to be with. 

We also had a delicious Anniversary dinner at a Thai restaurant in South Portland.  It was to die for.

 

We took Jan to Higgins Beach last Monday and, can you believe it, there were surfers.  It was fun to watch them and good that Jan could get out of Portland and see some of the beautiful sites in this state.  This Monday, Sandy and I went to a beautiful beach called Kettle Beach. 

Sunday we taught Gospel Principles and had a good discussion.  One of the Sisters, Lillian, laughed so hard at something I said I thought she was going to explode.  See, I have a purpose—I provide comic relief….

We are assisting the Elders teach a man from Birundi, Janvier.  He has a baptism date and is making good progress.  We are also assisting the Elders in teaching a young from Tanzania—Felista.  She became a Christian and because her parents were Muslim, she said they wanted to kill her so she fled.  She is almost child-like in her faith.  Both came to Church and enjoyed it.  

By the way, here is a picture of the pond by our apartment without the beautiful fall leaves:

23 November 2015

Hi All,

We had a wonderful visit to the Temple.  We took two missionaries, Elders Harper and Johnson, and three African members, Anaclet, Beatrice, and Jane, to the Boston Temple for Baptisms for the dead.  The three of them brought names of their relatives.  This was particularly meaningful to Anaclet because he had the names of his parents and his brother who had all been killed.  While waiting for our turn to do the baptisms, I went out and got some scriptures.  Anaclet told me when he opened his scriptures they opened to D&C 138 verse 30 which talks about the Savior sending missionaries to spirits in the spirit world.  This was very meaningful to him.

We had several good meetings this week.  On Tuesday we had an appointment to visit Joseph Bisimano—we wanted to read from the Gospel Principles manual since he has to work on Sundays.  When we got to his home, two of his friends were there and wanted to learn about the Church.  Sandy did a wonderful job explaining the First Vision and I piped in occasionally.  Joseph’s two friends, Janvier and Olivier, have been taking the discussions from the Elders and Janvier has been coming to church.

Later in the week, Joseph came over for dinner.  He told us his sad history in Burundi.  He was a deputy mayor in his village and disagreed with the ruling party.  He had to flee for his life and his wife and children are in Uganda in a refugee camp.  He hopes to bring them over sometime in the future (how you can do this making $9 an hour at Walmart, is difficult to imagine).  Later, we helped him move to a different  apartment which is actually quite a bit better than the one he was living in.

We’ve been reading about Burundi and the wars between Hutu and Tutsi (Joseph is a Tutsi) which have caused the deaths of over 300,000 people so far.  President Obama also made an impassioned plea to the Burundi government which is on YouTube.  

We also had dinner with Susan Chinchette and the Relief Society President at our house.  Susan has been an active member in times past but is somewhat afraid of commitment.  We ate a lovely dinner.  She said she wants to learn French so we invited her to our Gospel Principles class.   Also, we are going to invite her to listen to the discussions in French.

We also had a good evening with another inactive, Bonnie Kline.  She was active at one time but with the death of her husband and caring for her mother she feels overwhelmed and just doesn’t feel she can do anymore.  She is interested in painting so Sandy might be able to encourage this and she would still enjoy visits.

We had another entertaining discussion with a less active, Eileen Ladeau.  Her family is active out west but she just doesn’t feel it.  She is very interested in ghosts and spirits.  She says there is a ghost in her house and she has used a pet clairvoyant.  Next time we visit we’ll have some scriptures and teachings of the Presidents on this subject.  By the way, we are dying to see her “ghost meter” that she tells us indicates when there is a ghost. 

Another of our African members, Evariste, is looking for a part-time job.  I called Walmart again and they would love to interview him so we hope this will be another happy Walmart employee.

We’ve also started another English class with Jane, Beatrice and Aziza to help them learn religious terms.

We had a lovely Ward dinner this week.  Someone sent some clothes for the African members and so we set them out for people to take.  It was a successful day.

As part of our work with Catholic charities we are helping a lady, Pierette, study for the TOEFL.  This tests your ability to understand and converse in English at a College level.  Sandy primarily works with her.  She is a lovely person and I wouldn’t be surprised if she eventually wants to learn more about the Church.

Our English class at the Community Center is going well.  We are getting a system down that seems to work well.  Doing this also helps me with my French.

Sandy and I also went to Higgins Beach this past week looking at the Ocean and the beach.  It was very relaxing.  We bumped into a young mother from the Ward with three children.  I actually think she enjoyed talking with adults for a few minutes rather than just with the little ones.

We taught the Gospel Principles class this week.  It went well.  Sandy does great job.  

9 November 2015

Good things have been happening. 

Joren got baptized on Friday and immediately left for Utah.  She asked me to confirm her and it was a very spiritual experience for me.  Joren gave a lovely testimony based on Matthew where Jesus says “if you’ve done it unto the least, you’ve done it unto me”.  Joren expressed appreciation for everything people have done for her and afterwards sent us a text with kind words.

John M. also got a job this week.  He is working at Ruby Tuesdays!  This is a big step—as we mentioned he’s had an addiction problem.  He’s been working hard and actually got another job also.  He’s really trying to straighten his life out and get back with his wife and daughter.  It is very difficult because he’s dug quite a hole for himself.  For instance, he applied for an apartment and the background check came back and he was denied.  He’s living at a motel where they don’t do background checks. 

Joseph Bizimano got the job at Walmart! He texted us about how happy he was to get the job.  He needs money to support him and send back to his family in a refugee camp in Uganda.  I can’t imagine anyone in the family rejoicing because they got a job at WalMart.

 

I went to a Zone Conference this week held at the Joseph Smith birthplace (Sandy went to Brandon’s baptism).  A General Authority, Brent Nielsen—Karla’s brother-in-law—and his wife made an excellent presentation.  His wife compared kids going out of the home and marrying with getting new companions.  She made the point that the in-laws don’t have to follow the culture that was in the Nielsen home to be loved and accepted obviously comparing this to mission companions.  Brent talked about working with members and his experiences.  He also pointed out that Joseph Smith learned as he translated the Book of Mormon.  For instance, after translating the comments in the Book of Mormon about infant baptism, he went to Emma and comforted her with this news as they’d recently lost a child.  That evening the Senior couples got together and had a dinner.  Brent and his wife talked to me about how grateful they are to have Karla as a Sister-in-law.

Bruce and Connie Latham came down for a short visit and we had them eat dinner with one of our African members, Anaclet, at our apartment.  We enjoyed the evening a lot and hope things will go well for Bruce and Connie.

We also did apartment inspections.  We enjoy the visiting with the Missionaries and seeing this beautiful countryside.  We’ve set up an incentive program which we’re hoping will improve the cleanliness of a few of the apartments. 

I had a spiritual experience last night.  I went to pick up a young man to assist in giving a blessing requested by a member.  As I was driving past a street I felt I needed to stop by an inactive we’ve been trying to visit for a while.  We’d been by several times and called.  We knew someone was there but wasn’t answering so we’d written them off.  I dropped by the house (I was alone since Sandy was still in Utah).  The woman answered the door and was very kind.  We set up a time to come back the following week. 

Also, when I got back from the blessing, I felt I should text one of our African members, Norbert, who had gone to Texas.  He texted back that he couldn’t find the church.  I contacted the Bishop who will set up someone to pick him up.  Norbert genuinely wants to do good—he is endowed and wants to be faithful and active.

Also, while trying to contact a less active, we talked to the handyman working on her house.  He was very interested in Genealogy and had also just been talking with his son about life after death.  We talked a lot and gave him a Book of Mormon and other contact information.  Hopefully, he’ll be interested. 

Hope everyone is doing well....