News from CAM                                                                                             April 11, 2017

Dear Loved Ones All,

Conference made a great start to the week since all the words of wisdom were still swimming in my head.  P-Day was awesome since in addition to laundry and cleaning we got to visit with my sister Jodi, her daughter Natalie and her 2 children.  Little kids are so entertaining and her cuties were no exception.  It was rather cold so it didn’t matter that we have no playground here at out apartment complex, but we did take them out to see the coy in the pond just outside out patio door.  When they left we did the Costco run for gas and groceries, visited a member who recently got out of the hospital.  The Samoan Sisters came by to get the cookies I always save for them from District Meeting.  One of them recently arrived from the MTC, and the new missionaries have Samsung Notebooks instead of Apple I-pads.  She showed Elder Macbeth which app that allows sharing from the Apple to the Samsung, so after they left he set mine up too.  Yay, now I can get everything downloaded too.  J  Of course Elder Macbeth always writes his reports on Monday so they are on time.

However my last week’s email didn’t get written until Tuesday, same as my today.  I noticed that it didn’t make it to Karen (her computer has decided it is spam mail) so hopefully you will get both today.  Elder Macbeth gets to do a lot of scheduling and phoning as Executive Secretary so while he was doing that I read my R.S. lesson and worked on our area book.  He finally finished the 50^th compilation so we went to the Mission Office to print it since it is about 100 or so pages.  That took a while.  In our mail tub was another pair of problem pants and the Elder had written a note that it was for his only suit and he needed to wear it the next day, so was there any way I could fix them by then?   Of course we came back and I repaired them and called him to see how he wanted to retrieve them.  He said if we took them into the office he would pick them up before it closed.  So back to the office we went.  Elder Macbeth was looking through the 50^th printout and found a mistake, so he had to fix it on the computer, copy it correctly on a flash drive so that President Taggart and the Jamesons could have ones that were right.  After Supper we went to the church so Elder Macbeth could be there for Bishop’s interviews, and Bishopric meeting has been switched to Tuesday night after the interviews.  That meant that I could work more on my R.S. lesson before going down to the Family History Center. 

Sister Carlsberg keeps finding things that doesn’t add up on my genealogy, but this week I was trying to organize all the papers that we have printed off.  I need the alphabet dividers. 

On Wednesday I made cookies in the morning while Elder Macbeth worked on our taxes.  Hooray he got those done.  Mary’s kitchen was busy, and there were a lot of donations that came in after we served lunch that had to be put into crates or something that would fit into the refrigerators.  Then we had to squeeze all the stuff in.  It is a good thing I have had practice putting a lot of stuff into limited spaces because it came in handy.  Elder Macbeth is getting very good at that also.  We had a long list of in-actives to visit that were evenings only, and not one of them were home, but we did catch up to one of the new families whose baby was not on their records so we got that information.  Sister Westergard stopped by after we got home with another pair of problem pants.  The whole back seam clear down and around to the zipper was ripped open.  At least the fabric wasn’t shredded so it was a matter of restitching the seam.  The only problem is that the part by the zipper has to be done by hand unless I want to unpick the bottom of the zipper.  No Way!  So that just adds about 15 to 20 minutes to the job because the hand stitches have to be so tiny. 

District Meeting on Thursday was wonderful since we got to tell our favorite Conference talk and why.  Of course the young missionaries loved the cookies, surprise J, and there were only a few left to take into the Office to share with the Senior Missionaries who are there.  Maria our Hungarian lady had lots of yard work to do, but the dishes were already done.  Elder Macbeth helped her figure out her dishwasher, and we got her some different dishwasher soap that works better than what she had.  Elder Macbeth also picked up a new garden hose so that the young Elders could water the plants on the perimeter of her yard. That evening we were pleased that there was a large group at Book of Mormon reading class with at least 2 non-members. 

On Friday we went to visit Keith at the Care Center.  He still is not himself, very tired so our visit lasted only about 5 minutes.  As we were leaving there was a man in a wheelchair and his wife just inside the gate.  She saw our name tags and said, “Mormons?”  As it turned out she didn’t speak English, and the man in the wheel chair couldn’t speak or move, but she indicated he could understand English.  So by gestures we asked if he would like a blessing, and he cried.  She had us follow her back to his room where Elder Macbeth gave him a priesthood blessing.  He cried all the way through.  He has been there 5 months, and she indicated he has a brain tumor.  We have since given his name and where he is to the Spanish missionaries in that area.  Later that afternoon we had WMCM and the ward mission leader can finally speak above a whisper.  Since he loves to talk not being able to talk for a couple of weeks was a real trial for him.  We got a call from President Douglas (a member of our stake presidency) asking us to pick up a couple who are investigating the gospel, and take them to the stake musical practice since they are participating.  She is 8 months pregnant and they are not married.  Hmmm. That will have to be taken care of before they can be baptized.  Both have had a difficult family life to say the least.  When we got back to our place Elder Macbeth sent out reminders about the Temple Preparation Class Sunday evening while I fixed dinner.  Then I made the crust for a chocolate torte for dinner on Saturday when my sister Raine, her husband Nils, my brother Del, and his wife Lynnette.  Of course we always do scriptures and prayers before bed. 

Saturday after a quick trip to the store to get a couple of things to finish the torte.  I am glad that it is so easy to fix.  We had a baptism of the only 8 year old in our ward.  The missionaries thought it would be good to bring the young couple to it, but young missionaries are not supposed to transport other people so they again asked us.  She however was at her baby shower, so we only brought him.  It was well attended and went smoothly, and the spirit was strongly felt.  The eight year old boy’s family had refreshments afterwards, but since we had family coming to dinner I merely tasted the tres leche.  I think it might be an acquired taste for me because I am not much for sweets, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying it.   

We ordered Outback take out for supper and Nils and Raine picked up Del and Lynette and the food on their way to our place.  Nils and Raine made a fabulous salad using greens from their garden. Yum!  It was a most pleasant evening with good food, great conversation, and especially awesome company.  What surprised me was that when I got out the torte I asked what size pieces and they all said “big” so I cut generous 4 inch servings.  They all ate their piece declaring that it was delicious.  I didn’t get the hint so I cleared up the plates, and wondered out loud what I was going to do with all that torte leftover.  The next thing I knew Nils was up taking one more bite of torte.  I told him he could have more.  Del jumped up and he and Nils washed and dried the plates and so everybody got more.  Dilemma solved.  They were satisfied and I was happy that I didn’t have a huge dessert sitting in my fridge.  We were sad when it was time to call it to an end.  We took Del and Lynnette back to their motel and Raine and Nils headed back to Glendora.  It seems that there were early morning meetings to attend.  I rounded up as many different prints of Christ that Del had so generously brought, (a great big thank you, Del) so that I could use them in my R.S. lesson on Sunday.

And it did seem EARLY when we had to get up to get to Elder Macbeth’s 6:30 am PEC.  Then we had ward council and choir practice.  It was fast and testimony meeting and there were a lot of visitors there.  With the members and a few visitors there was not lag time in the baring of the testimonies.  Brother Pruitt was able to give the Gospel Essentials Class lesson.  I went to the Library and found a few more of Del’s prints of Christ and some others that depicted events in the life of the Savior.  I started my lesson with the Easter Initiative video, “The Prince of Peace,” which the church put out.  It is a wonderful video that lasts about 2 ½ minutes.  If you haven’t seen it go to Mormon.org and watch it.  It is beautifully done.  Then I spread out the prints of Christ and had different members of the class come pick one and put it on the board.  Then we discussed what it showed and how it related to us.  By the time I was done the whole big chalkboard was totally covered in pictures of Christ and it was an awesome meeting that the Sister taught.  J  The temple prep class was wonderful, and I was happy to see that all who were supposed to be there were in attendance.

So there you have it, a wonderful week to be sure.  Hope your upcoming week is also wonderful.

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

PS. If you wonder why Elder Macbeth doesn’t write this email it is because he writes the reports for the Mission President and the Bishop so you are stuck with me because I would rather not write those, although you would not have such a lengthy letter if he wrote it.  ;)