News From CAM                                                                                                                     June 12, 2017

Dear Loved Ones All,

P-Day was normal and unusual at the same time.  We did laundry and cleaning.  I repaired a couple of sliced shirts and a pair of problem pants.  We dropped by the Mission Office to get one of the patriotic ties that Elder Macbeth ordered from Amazon since last year we couldn’t find any in the stores.  We went to Marias because she had asked us to take her to the bank, but she had fallen and hurt her back so wasn’t able to go.  I made some green pea soup  that I thought was delicious, but Elder Macbeth couldn’t convince himself that that color of soup looked edible since he doesn’t care for regular split pea soup, so I made him a BLT.  Sister Pulliam has decided to move to Texas to be near her daughter.  Her electric wheel chair has not been working so it has been sitting at one of the ward member’s house to see if he could fix it.  Unfortunately he didn’t have the battery charger for it, nor the proper tools so it was not repaired.  Of course she wanted to take it with her and she told us that her son was renting a truck so he could take her and all her stuff to Texas.  We had to arrange meeting to meet with the member since he is very busy, coordinate the young missionaries to be there at the same time to lift it into his truck, and follow us over to drop it off at the care center so she will have it on Wednesday when she’ll be leaving.  Fast forward to Wednesday, we went over for a final goodbye.  She had boxes of books, CDs, and videos, suitcases for her clothes and personal stuff, as well as her wheel chair.  Her son and his wife were there to pick her up.  Someone had told him that a truck was not necessary so they had come in his car.  Needless to say, there wasn’t room for everything let alone the wheel chair.  We were sad to see her go because she is such an awesome lady, but I was very glad that it was not my problem.  We got to Skype with our daughter Michelle and her toddler which is always a delight.  Then we talked with a close friend back home who let me know one of our neighbors had just passed away.  Sometimes change is so hard.  You get the happy and the sad.

On Wednesday we got to serve at Mary’s Kitchen.  That is always a bright spot in our week.  The people there are always so happy to see us and it makes us feel good to be of service.  We also tried to visit multiple people on our list without much success.  Some days it is like that.  Maria thought she would feel well enough to go to the bank, but when we got there she was still not able to go.  When we got back to our apartment that evening I made Devil’s Food cake mix cookies.  I added some chocolate chips and mint chips and dusted powdered sugar on them after they were baked.

Thursdays is District Meeting which is always awesome.  I am totally amazed that the young Elders have such great lessons planned and always so upbeat and encouraging.  Of course the missionaries are also always delighted to get cookies at the end.  We met the Elders at Maria’s and they worked in her yard while I did some dishes, and swept the floor and Elder Macbeth helped her sort through her mail since she can’t see well enough to be able to read it.  She seems to be hoping that we can help her more and more.  The young Elders asked us to pick up one of their investigators and bring him to Book of Mormon class that evening.  It seemed like it was mostly missionaries there so I think we are going to have to get more members and investigators to attend.

Sunday was my turn to give the lesson in Relief Society, so on Friday, in addition to reading scriptures and studying Preach My Gospel, I took some time to prepare it.  We had some errands to run and we stopped to get a frame for the print for President and Sister Taggart.  It looks very impressive.  We visited our Relief Society president, Sister Kidwell in the hospital.  She is slowly improving which we are very happy about. 

On Saturday we helped clean the Church building with our Ward, then went down to visit Keith and Elder Macbeth trimmed his nails.  I wonder how many of us think about when we get old or physically impaired we might not be able to do that for ourselves.  We stopped to see how Maria was doing and she had fallen again.  So after attending a baptism we went to the store to pick up some things for her.  We are going to have to tell her that we do not have time available to give her all the help that she needs.  I don’t know what she is going to do since she doesn’t seem to trust some of her kids and the others don’t live here and/or do not seem to be inclined to take care of her.  Such a dilemma.  We love her, but we can’t take that responsibility.  By then, we were hungry so Elder Macbeth took us to the California Smoqued BBQ place and we had baby backed ribs.  Loved not having to cook but I think that everything down here is a little spicy for my taste. Before I went to bed I made a handout for my lesson.  I thought I made enough so the priesthood would have some too. 

Woke up extra early Sunday morning so I could shower and get ready in time for us to leave for Elder Macbeth’s 6:00 am Bishopric meeting followed by his 6:30 am PEC meeting.  I usually go run off the bulletin and get it ready for sacrament meeting while he is in there.  It also gave me extra minutes to fine tune my lesson. Last Sunday it seemed like we had a lot of visitors, but this week we had at least 3 times the number of visitors as members there.  There were 30 kids there from Idaho who were participating in a dance competition at Disneyland.  Some of them know Leon and some of his family.  My lesson went well in Relief Society.  Because of the visitors nearly every seat was occupied and when I passed out my handout I only had one left over. 

After Elder Macbeth returned from a stake priesthood meeting that somehow got cancelled without letting our brethren know, we went out and tried to do more visits.  Only was able to contact a new move in who is not wanting to be involved at all with the church.  Some weeks are definitely like that. 

To finish off the evening, I rinsed off our leftover ribs and slathered them with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and reheated them.  Perfect. 

Hope you all have a fantastic week, all the fathers out there a fabulous father’s day, and may you receive all the blessing that Heavenly Father has for you.

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