After our meeting with President Cutler , who encouraged us to study
more scriptures on the Atonement, we have been working on that each morning,
then we have our own personal scripture reading, and whatever else we decide to
read – like the Ensign, Conference talks, Mormon videos, etc. That takes an
hour or so each day, and for the most part, we can do it in the morning. Some
mornings, we don’t have time for it all, so it gets spread out through the day.
Our time just keeps getting busier.
Wednesday, the 18th, was mom’s birthday and Elder Lenhard’s
Uncle Joe’s birthday (85).
Mom would have been 86. When I counted it up (hey, I was a math teacher – I can count), I was astounded to realize how old she would have been and that she has been gone six years. I think of her often and miss her.
Mom would have been 86. When I counted it up (hey, I was a math teacher – I can count), I was astounded to realize how old she would have been and that she has been gone six years. I think of her often and miss her.
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| 1946 UNCLE JOE AT 17 AND MY DAD KEN LENHARD 14750 10 MILE RD., EAST DETROIT MI |
We got to sit in on a lesson with the Elders to a man who is interested in genealogy work. He has four chickens out back in a cute little pen, and he was very proud of his pets. One kept walking around the pen, and I don’t remember its name, but she was the town crier. It was raining and cold, but she paced for quite a while before going into the nesting area. Soon, we heard all the chickens clucking loudly, and the man announced that one of them had laid an egg. It was obvious that he enjoyed having them to care for and an added bonus was the eggs they received.
I lost the train of thought I was heading for when I got on the
chickens, but Elder Lenhard and I learned a valuable lesson that day. It took
us longer than we thought it would to find the address we were looking for, and
when we arrived, the man said, as he opened the door, something to the effect
that it required a lot of us today. It came to me that maybe he wasn’t
expecting us. Anyway, he was very gracious, and very nice. When we came in (we
had been specifically asked to come talk about genealogy), he first told us
about his chickens. Then when we were directed to the table where the Elders
were sitting, I just launched in with
asking about his genealogy and Elder Lenhard and I took off with the lesson. At
some point, I came to myself and while the man was distracted by something he
was looking for, I whispered to one of the Elders, “What had you planned to
talk about today?” He said the Book of Mormon. I then felt obligated to get the
talk to the Book of Mormon, which we did a little, but by then we had spent a
lot of time on his family. My point is that when we left, both Elder Lenhard
and myself realized that while we had been invited there to talk with this man about
genealogy, we just took over when we came in and we weren’t too concerned with
how the Elders wanted to use us as they taught the lesson. Note to us, find out
more before we enter a teaching situation. Get more information about what the
Elders want to cover in the lesson, and how they want us to proceed. Quite
frankly, I don’t think they had a clue on how they wanted us to contribute to
the lesson, but we will get more information on the ground rules before we go
into a lesson again on genealogy. We are getting more requests all the time to
talk to people about how to get started.
We have a request for next week, but as I questioned the missionaries,
the person they want us to visit (with them) has no computer. I can see a
problem here. We have to work out the process. We so want to help them, but I
don’t particularly want to lug my computer everywhere (especially in some areas
of town). It’s such a wonderful problem to have to worry about how to
accommodate people in our teaching process.
That night, we went to the North Stake Genealogy Library and worked
because they only had one worker available, and she needed someone with her. We
were there by 6:30, and no one came, so Elder Lenhard and I got to know the
sweet Sister working and we worked on our own genealogies. Elder Lenhard is
getting better all the time, and he is beginning to find some links that are
exciting.
On Thursday, we had some errands to run, and later that afternoon, our
apartment complex had a picnic. We went as did the Sisters in our complex so we
could meet our neighbors. The people there were so nice. The Sisters knew so
many of them, and it was obvious that they were known and respected by their
neighbors. We were able to meet many people that lived in other buildings.
There were many there who are older like we are, and they couldn’t have been
nicer. Elder Lenhard talked to several about genealogy and had some good
responses. On an up note, both sets of missionaries won door prizes. We got a
25 dollar gift card to Target, and the Sisters got a certificate for rent. I
don’t know how they get to use it, but it was exciting for us all.
We have officially begun our training for the Pathway program. We have 10 lessons we have to take, including a quiz after each one. Unfortunately, we had to get thru the introduction first. It had 21 pages of meat and that didn’t include the first 3-7 pages of introducing the introduction with a quiz at the end of that one. The purpose of the quizzes is to prove that we actually read the material. Can you imagine that? I have to admit that I thought there was a quiz at the end of the 21 page section. So I took great notes. No quiz. I thought that meant that maybe we only had the one quiz.
Friday morning, we missed gym to get to a genealogy library in the
South Stake. I am so totally messed up as to where I am. We live in the South
Stake, but our unit assignment is the North Stake, and we can work everywhere.
I’m so grateful for Elder Lenhard who is geographically literate. He can get us
anywhere (though, admittedly sometimes I get a little car sick with the twists
and turns to get us there – hahaha). I can finally tell when we are on certain
roads that if we go one direction or the other, I know we will hit a road we
need – but that is about it. Anyway, we
had to be at the library by 9:00 to learn all about it because on Sat. the 28,
we will be in charge there by ourselves. By 11:30, I was ready to run out of
there screaming that I’d had library overload. I’m sure we won’t remember half
of what we learned. When we said we had to go (Elder Lenhard needed to eat
because of his diabetes), the Sister who was teaching us, looked at us and
said, “Well we haven’t learned anything about the computers!” I just knew I was
walking no matter what, so it was decided that on Saturday when we came to
work, she would come and teach us then.
There are a lot of programs on the Church computers that I didn’t know
we could access, so I know we need to be taught about them. One is Fold3, which
is a site that provides military records for anyone who has served. I have a
free basic membership, but if I want to see any document, I have to subscribe.
I hope the one at the Church allows us to access those documents.
In the afternoon, we worked on more of the lessons for Pathway. I was
wrong, there is a quiz after each lesson. All the notes I take won’t help on
the quiz because the questions are so general. After the first 100, I’ve made
85s on the next three. It takes a while to do these. I tend to lose my mind
after a little and have to remember I’ve only got a hundred of them to go (just
exaggerating).
Saturday, we spent working on Pathway, taking care of some bills, and
preparing talks for Sunday. I worked on a talk that I felt relatively good
about and let Elder Lenhard read it while I fixed dinner. I could see on his
face (he looked so much like his dad) that he didn’t like it, but he was
looking for something good to say. Ugh!
Just give it to me straight. This was about 4 in the afternoon. When we got ready to go to bed late that
night, he says to me that he didn’t really like the talk. I was ready to pound
him in the bed. WHAT, you wait until
11:00 to tell me you didn’t like it? Really!!!
I wasn’t really mad, I just wish he had said it earlier so I could have
taken care of it then. Anyway, off to sleepy land I went and knew I’d get up
the next morning and rewrite it.
At 4:30-5, I woke up and realized it was light as day outside. I didn’t
know what time it was, but it was time to get up if I wanted to rewrite the
talk. At first, I was just going to rework the first one, but I realized that I
didn’t feel prompted to redo it. It did not seem appropriate that morning.
When I got to the living room, Elder Lenhard was there, and I noted the
time. I was wide awake, so he went back to bed, and I began a new talk. I now
have two new talks in my repertoire. I
really am going to re-give talks in the future. Elder Lenhard liked this one on
President Uchtdorf’s talk about gratitude. I love that talk. I have been so
guilty of being grateful in proportion to the number of blessings I could take
an inventory of, meaning things. I was reminded again (I was struck by it when
I first heard it in Conference) that gratitude is an attitude. We can be happy
if we adopt an attitude of gratefulness for our very lives and the wonder of
what Christ did for us when He paid the price for our sins. It is not about
things. We can be poor as field mice and be grateful. I was glad Elder Lenhard
encouraged me to change my talk.
On Sunday, we headed to Church. We thought we were having a Branch
Council, but it turned out we weren’t. We knew the Stake President was coming,
so maybe that’s why we didn’t have the meeting. We gave our talks, they were
well received. Have any of you ever given a talk and afterwards couldn’t
remember a word you said? If the paper
wasn’t in your hands, you would never know you had talked. Well that’s me! Afterwards, we had a pretty good Gospel
Principles class. One of the investigators who came left before the class. She
is planning on being baptized at the end of July. There is to be a baptism next
Sunday. Good things are happening here.
We left the church building before the last meeting and headed to
another building to attend a Pathway recruitment, meeting. Somehow we missed a
road and were a little late. The meeting was short, but those who attended
appeared to be interested in the program. We are supposed to give a
presentation in our building soon.
On Monday, we spent the morning studying and heading to the gym. We
spent the day getting lots of loose ends tied up. I found a doctor. Do you know
how long it takes to find a doctor that takes new patients and your insurance,
is close by, has an affiliation to one of the best hospitals in the area and
the state, and who has been highly recommended by other patients. I can tell you about 3 hours. On top of that, I got an appointment to have
our car inspected. Elder Lenhard worked to get some information about some
money matters taken care of by calling our accountant and getting advice. He is
also working with a Brother we know who has some immigration issues. Elder
Lenhard would like to help him, but he isn’t sure of how to do it. So he made some calls on it.
It was a long day, and later that afternoon, we went to pick up the
Sisters at Wal-Mart. They are so fun, and we enjoy living in the same complex
as we do. It seems the ride they would usually get to bring home their
groceries has fallen through. Thank goodness we are here to help. We came home
and ate and the Sisters came by later that evening.
We had our regular District meeting schedule for Tuesday. Before the
meeting, we were planning on meeting with the man with immigration issues.
However, we got a text from the missionaries that he was on the hospital. Our
meeting was on finding investigators. What a great meeting! We don’t do what
the younger missionaries do which is to actively seek out those who would be
interested. However, we get to help them with those they meet. This next week
we have one meeting scheduled most days. That is getting big.
We are loving the work here in Milwaukee. The Lord will either bring
people to us to teach, or He will take us to them. We are finding that to be so
true. We meet so many people who ask us about who we are (they see our name
tags) or they are interested in genealogy work. We love to help them. It should
be busy. I think the lesson I’m learning more is to listen to the Spirit. I
believe Elder Holland said that we should quit worrying if a prompting is from
the Spirit and just do it. If it is from the Lord, then He will bless us to do
whatever we are supposed to do. If it isn’t, then we have done a good thing and
shouldn’t feel bad about it. So, I am listening more to the Spirit when I need
an answer. It is interesting how he answers. I am not quite as surprised by the
answers now as I once was because I know those answers come as a result of
prayer. It is a wondrous thing to realize that the Spirit is answering prayers,
and we just have to pay attention to get the answers.
How are all of your families? We miss you so much, and love to talk to
you when we can. We pray for all of you, and we know the Lord is paying
attention to all that you do. Please keep holding your families close. They are
very precious to us.
Just a note: In 1997, while on a
visit to BYU-Idaho, Elder Maxwell stated “God has reserved spirits for this
dispensation who have the courage and determination to face the world, and all
the powers of the evil one, visible and invisible, to proclaim the gospel and maintain
the truth and establish and build up the Zion of our God fearless of all
consequences. He has sent these spirits in this generation to lay the
foundation of Zion never more to be overthrown, and to raise up a seed that
will be righteous, and that will honor God, and honor Him supremely, and be
obedient to Him under all circumstances.”
Furthermore, he stated, “The youth of this generation have a greater capacity for obedience than any previous generation.” Now, how’s that to make you feel awe over your little ones.
Furthermore, he stated, “The youth of this generation have a greater capacity for obedience than any previous generation.” Now, how’s that to make you feel awe over your little ones.
Love to all,
Elder and Sister Lenhard
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