News from CAM   9/19/2016

Dear Loved Ones All,

Well, it has been an interesting week.  I’ve repaired 3 pair of pants, and have 2 yet to alter.  We’ve taken dinner to our pregnant lady and a baby towel.  Her doctor is hoping she can last another week or two because the baby is only 33 weeks, but the mom is not doing well.  We have visited with at least some of the people on our list and of course there were many more who were not home.  We get to come up with questions for the current reading assignment of the Book of Mormon which our bishop asked the members of our ward to finish in 36 weeks.  Usually Elder Macbeth does this since it needs to go into the bulletin for Sunday in a timely manner.  We got to serve at Mary’s Kitchen twice this week because one of the zones was unable to do it for some reason.  Elder Macbeth has given several blessing to various individuals.  Keith was moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center just outside our mission, which means the young missionaries can’t visit him but we do.  It is further away so it takes much longer.  That means that he won’t get drop-ins from people like he sometimes used to.

  I usually go to the Family History Center while Elder Macbeth is fulfilling his Executive Secretary calling on Tuesday evening since they are in the same building.  Nancy Carlsburg (the genealogist who helped with the “Roots” movie is there on that night) and she is trying to help me unravel our Parson line.  A will that Kathy Parson discovered has helped, but it gave information so that something else doesn’t add up, or at least verified to her satisfaction.  I might have to call Kathy so that Sister Carlsburg can talk with her because I haven’t got a clue.  Wednesday evening was R.S. Enrichment and our cute lady in charge of it decided we would do Christmas in September.  I won’t say at this time what we did because I might share some for Christmas, I’ll just say that it was a very fun evening.  Elder Macbeth spent his time in the clerk’s office working on I’m not sure what, but when we got home I made a big batch of snickerdoodles for our zones districts meeting that meets every Thursday.  I am always impressed with the spiritual giants the young missionaries are and how much insight they exhibit.  After district meeting we have been going to a nonmember’s home with the young elders while they and Elder Macbeth do yard work.  She is 80 and has lost most of her sight as well as having other health issues.  Her 40ish son comes home for a little while and then he runs off with some woman or other for extended periods neglecting to let her know where he is or if he is alright.  She is Hungarian and is really fun to visit with.  Since her son has disappeared again I do the dishes while the men do the yardwork outside.  She asked us if we would take her shopping on Friday and of course we said we would.  She wanted to take her housekeeper with us.  They both have the same first name, Maria from Hungry and Maria from Brazil.  At any rate, when we got there she asked me if I could read the instructions for the prescription the doctor gave her for her feet.  It seems that when her family were fleeing Hungry when she was younger that her feet got frozen as they were trying to escape across the border and it so she didn’t know how much she was to use and her housekeeper can’t read English.  I had a blast taking them shopping.  They were hilarious as they talked back and forth about some of the things they were buying.  I had to keep dissuading her from getting a whole bunch of baked goods to feed her missionaries the next week. I told her they would dry out since she didn’t have space in her fridge’s freezer.  She finally settled on hot dogs and buns and some powdered doughnuts.   

We continue leading the Book of Mormon reading class on Thursday evening. Sister Pullium rides the bus from her care center to the Walmart bus stop and then rides her electric wheel chair to the church the rest of the way.  It is not a short distance and she has to cross several streets.  In daylight it is not bad, but after dark it is a little worrisome especially since she is not equipped with lights.  Anyway, on Thursday something happened to her wheel chair as she was getting off so she had the bus driver just push her off.  Then she called the young elders to push her to the church and they called Elder Macbeth to come help.  If you have ever tried to push a nonfunctioning electric wheel chair you know it is almost like trying to push a small car, especially if there is a large person sitting in it.  They finally made it so we started class. After class Elder Macbeth and Brother Strong took it apart as much as they could to try to figure out why it just quit.  Another couple volunteered to go to the care center to get a regular wheel chair but by the time they got back the wheel chair was functioning again but it was too late to catch the bus so we got to take her home. We picked her up in the morning to go retrieve the wheel chair and then she rode the bus home.

On Saturday morning we attended the baptism of another sister attending our Book of Mormon class.  Sister Pullium came also and her wheel chair malfunctioned again.  Even with Elder Macbeth and another person who is a car mechanic trying to fix it, they couldn’t get it to work.  So we went back to the care center to get her other wheel chair since she wanted to just stay at the church until the Women’s Broadcast at 5:00 pm.  She said she brought a sack lunch and that she would be fine.  The sister missionaries said they would check on her periodically also, so we left to attend an Oktoberfest which Sister Guzman invited us to.  She and her husband are delightful people.  They both ride motorcycles and both are converts.  She was a former member of Becky’s parents’ ward. (For those who don’t know, Becky is our son Brad’s wife.)  Anyway Kandy and Terry came up from Laguna Niguel as did some of their other friends.  One was also of German decent and was wearing a traditional German dress and who taught us German games after we had feasted on the real German food that Nikole had prepared for us. We had to leave in time to get me back for the Women’s Conference but what fun we had!

When we got back to the church Sister Pullium was still parked where we left her, and someone had turned the air conditioning on full blast so she was freezing.  We moved her into the chapel and I sent Elder Macbeth out to the car for a blanket.  That helped and she said that was much better so I went out and got the down comforter to tuck around her.  She gave a sigh and fell asleep and slept through the whole meeting.  She has issues with blood sugar so even though she had eaten her sack lunch and some of the almond butter that Nikole sent for her I think she was not back up to par.  Long story short we left the broken electric chair to be dealt with the next week sometime at church, and took her home.

By now you should be maxed out with reading, so I will close and report other news next time. Have a great week. 

Love, Sister and Elder Macbeth   Go!  Fight!!  WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!