043 Tuesday to Tuesday (Feb. 11-17, 2015)

Let’s start off with thoughts of our only boy, Adam. They say three’s a charm, and while we would have been perfectly happy with another little girl, the pressure was on to have a boy Lenhard to carry on the name. There are no other male Lenhard’s in our line so Pappy Lenhard was hoping greatly (as was daddy Lenhard) that a boy was in our future. I have to say that it is not fair that our boy should have gotten so much hair from the very beginning, and dark hair at that. Adam was born at St. Vincent’s and was welcomed with much love. Sad to say that by the time he showed up, I was used to girls. Boys were a strange phenomenon.

Look at the hair - June 1979

Adam was a quiet child (truly he has remained that way throughout his life). Maybe it was because he had two sisters and a whacko mom who never gave him time to talk. However, in our defense, it was hard to communicate with a child who did not want to enter into our trips of fantasy in little kids books. NOoooooooo. He wanted grown up books that mom’s aren’t prepared to read or understand. I can still remember taking him to the library and while the girls and I filled our arms with tons of great children’s books we found that when it comes to checking out, he is nowhere to be seen. Filled with frustration that I would have to look for him, I knew where to go. Sure enough, he is in the adult science section looking at books with science pictures. “But Adam, you can’t read this.” “I can look at the pictures, and I can read it.” Ugh! 

He never had a bad picture - 1983

Cute pjs - 1981

Today, I’m grateful that the young man stuck to his guns. Once, in the car, Craig said that the radio was playing and someone was telling an obscure joke meant for adults (not dirty). Adam started laughing, and Craig realized that he totally knew what they were talking about. Then there was the time we started giving him math facts, and he could rattle them off almost as fast as we could give them.

Playing at Flat Rock Park in the stream there.

Somewhere I have a much better picture of him camping!

I really liked this costume - him, not so much.

Adam brought a great deal of joy to our family. When he was ready to potty-train, he did it himself. He took off a dirty diaper, went to bathroom, and never would have a diaper again. If I had known how easy it was to train boys????????

He spent a lot of his growing years in sports, baseball and wrestling in high school. He even did a year or two in track - ugh! I hated that sport and disliked the coach.

Don't you just love a guy in uniform?

Not much uniform to love here, haha

Now for Mission Life:

Wednesday started out with the promise that it was going to be busy.  Transfer day!  Before we could even get to transfers starting at noon, we went to visit Denise and give her some adult time. It is hard being a single mother and not having the “in” with the other sisters in the Ward. She has no car, so she is totally dependent on others to attend activities with the other mothers. Her baby is in school beginning at 10:45 each day until 2:00, but she is in need of fellowship with other sisters. That day found her sick, and we got her out of bed. She couldn’t take care of herself, let alone Timmy. He was sick also. When he gets sick, it can turn into a nasty respiratory illness which I’m sure Bethanne can relate to with her experience with Jackson.

There were 25 missionaries going home the next day, and President Cutler didn’t want them just standing around the whole afternoon while all of them were brought to the Stake Center. He was giving final interviews that afternoon and wanted the missionaries involved in doing something. So we organized them and took on cleaning the Chapel and checking on anything in the building that needed fixing. It was like herding cats. It was obvious it was their last day together with their missionary buddies, and honestly, they could disappear and find more excuses to be somewhere other than where we needed them to be. The job got done, but it was interesting to watch. 

Sister Silva in front middle (black) and Elder Bluth is tallest in back.

 That evening we went to the Mission Home to have a final, farewell dinner. It was fun talking with those who were leaving. After the meal, we went back to the Stake Center for Testimony Meeting because there just wasn’t enough room at the Mission Home. Sister Silva was leaving. She was one of the Sisters who lived in our apartment complex with Sister King and Sister Askerlund. We will miss her. Elder Bluth was another one. He bore his testimony before he left and said he couldn’t wait to hug his mom because she made it possible for him to be out here. Of course, my heart went out to him. We have worked with him here, and he’s a good guy from Arizona. We ended up holding on to a tub of stuff for one missionary who promised to come get it in a week. It was almost 10:30 by the time we got home that night. A day well spent!

On Thursday, we picked up Denise and had to take her to the funeral home. Her grandfather died, and she was staying with her father so it wasn’t that far to pick her up. We went in with her to make sure that she would be ok. The rest of the family had not showed up yet, but they were going to take her home with them.

Then we picked up Victor and took him back to the Genealogy Library at the Stake Center. He is going great guns with his family work. He will need to get an interview, and we will be ready to take him to the Temple for baptisms.

That night we had Pathway, so I spent the afternoon immersed in the math. Craig got ready to drop me off after Pathway and then proceeded over to the North Stake Center to attend a Priesthood meeting and talk with the Stake President about how we can help the North Stake. He didn’t get home until almost midnight that night.

On Friday, we had to do some minor detail work. We went to the gym that morning, and then thought we would be able to mail a package that a sister had left (her luggage was too heavy). The PO was closed because of some computer glitch. It was supposed to be closed all weekend so that was a wash. We took our papers to the Mission Office to have our lease renewed for the next year. Afterwards, we relaxed for the rest of the day. We have a neighbor upstairs who is a former military man with PTSD. Strange goings on up there, and at night, he begins to pace. He is a big man, so we can hear every step. I’m more likely to be able to go to sleep with it, but when he starts, Craig is wide awake. If anyone visits, Craig has had to tap on the ceiling with the broom to get them to be quiet. Consequently, late nights and waking on and off all night makes for a very bad day.

Saturday saw us heading to the City Branch for our last baptism ever to be held there. A man by the name of Dave was getting baptized. We had met him a couple of times while he was being taught. In fact, he saw an ad or something on the TV that had him calling SLC missionaries. They taught him several lessons before sending him to our missionaries. We were not real excited about his getting baptized because we just hadn’t seen much of him and didn’t really get to know him. Craig said that in Priesthood he asked good and thoughtful questions. Anyway, when we got to the Church early to help with anything, he wasn’t there. The missionaries had to go find him and get him to the Church. We must have been there at least an hour before they came back. Sure enough, he came to be baptized. He had his daughter with him. We don’t know anything about his family, and we need to get to know him and work with him like we have Denise and Victor.

Later, we went to check up on Denise; she was still sick but felt like she could go to Church on Sunday.  We made arrangements to pick her up since her usual ride would be out of town.  This was to be our next-to-last meeting in City Branch. Next week, we will meet to find out what will happen to us. Denise is already claiming that it isn’t a good thing. Change does not make her happy. On the way home, it started to snow.

On Monday, it was cold. We had gotten a couple of inches of snow through the night. It covered some of the ugliest snow that had been piled up along the road, but it is snow nevertheless. We got out and went to the gym, and it is amazing how clean the roads became just about a mile or less from here.

By that afternoon the roads were clear, and Craig went to get the car cleaned. It needed it. We spent the day doing paperwork for upcoming activities.

On Tuesday, we had District Meeting. We love our meetings, and these missionaries are good young men and women who really do work hard to do the Lord’s work. One set of missionaries is made up of a young Elder from England and his companion, who is Samoan. They are so funny. The English lad (Elder Mann) tries to make fun of my southern accent every chance he gets. He has a twin who is serving in North Carolina. I can’t remember which of their parents is American. They met at BYU, but they live in England. I can never tell when he is pulling my leg and telling me some crazy story. When I ask about things I’ve heard about England, he rolls his eyes and denies most of it. They hate their monarchy. He laughs and points his finger at us when he says we love them more than they do. They would be happy to give them to us. We tell him we have a king already. Hahahaha

That afternoon we spent about 3 hours in math practice. Bless these dear sisters. One of them quit work this semester just so she would have the time to spend on math. Another works from 2:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  One of them is the RS Pres. in the Spanish Branch. They are so dedicated. We spend a lot of time laughing.

Another week down in history. I’m so going to get caught up with my writing. My calendar is so full of notes so I won’t forget, and then I do anyway.

Our Scripture for this month comes from 2 Nephi 26:12-13 (actually, just the last few words from 12 and then all of 13):

     “Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God; and …. He manifesteth himself unto all    
     those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every      
     nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and 
     wonders, among the children of men according to their faith.”

Elder and Sister Lenhard