I had finished the Book of Mormon for the
second time this year at the beginning of the month. I have to say I’m quite
proud of myself, and I feel that I learned things this time around I hadn’t
learned before. Along with the Scriptures, I’ve used the Institute manual to
help add further insights. I’m also reading Jesus
the Christ (and loving it). This next week we have Pathway starting again.
We have 23 enrolled, but hardly anyone has paid. They have to have it paid by
the first class, so we will see what happens. If they put off paying it at the
beginning, they can add a one-time fee of 5% and pay later. It ends up to be
$15. Most of the students will take the fee. We are excited to see Pathway
begin. This time around we will have the Book of Mormon Religion class also, so
it will be a 2-hour meeting on Thursday nights to deal with. That will be a
change, and we will see how it works. We have been notified that Madison did
not make their classes this time which is really a shame. They had four to sign
up. We have been asked if we will take any of those people if they want to come
an hour to class. Of course, we said we would, and we have one who will come. I’m
kinda worried about her though. She has learning disabilities, and in our
communications, it is obvious she does not understand what I say she corrects
me each time and tells me it doesn’t make sense, I should have said so and so.
I’ve asked her to get a blessing before she starts class to help her deal with
anxiety and to help her understand what she is committing herself to doing. We
shall see!
Anyway, the reason I started on this topic is
that I will now start reading the BOM with the students. I hope to finish it by
the end of the year. It is amazing that I can read an average of three chapters
a day (once in a while I forget), and yet, I’m paying more attention than ever.
It has been a great blessing to me.
On the 9th, Wednesday, the next
batch of Elders and Sisters were transferring, going home, etc. The new
missionaries came in on Tuesday, so Wednesday was devoted to making sure all
had their final interviews with the President, they are fed lunch, luggage
comes in and has to be sorted, everyone is allotted a place to sleep for the
night – usually Elders to the Mission Home and Sisters to the hotel (they know
those Elders way too well hahaha). There is a testimony meeting that evening,
and so the day is busy, busy. Craig and I have been asked to have a service
project for them, and Craig arranged for those Elders who are leaving and have arrived
at the Stake Building in time (they are coming from all over the Stake to pick
up new companions, bring in those who are leaving, etc.) would go to Salvation
Army and sort toys for the upcoming Christmas season. It was really fun, and I
think the missionaries enjoyed doing it. It sure was more fun than trying to
herd cats to clean the Stake building.
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| Missionaries who are leaving - most we worked with in mission |
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| Sorting and packing toys for the Christmas season |
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| We work with Stephanie at Salvation Army for many projects |
It is disappointing when some of the
missionaries who had served right next to the Mission President will look at
you and tell you they aren’t cleaning the Chapel, and then they walk out. So
when I talked to the Senior Missionaries who are in charge, it was decided that
it wasn’t going to work to clean the chapel. But President Cutler wants them
involved in some type of service before they leave. This was a success, but don’t
know if it will happen again because Salvation Army has to have them at a
certain time before they let their people go home, and President Cutler needs
them to stay around to be interviewed, etc. We shall see.
On Thursday, Craig had a CAT scan for his eye.
He has been having a rouge time with one eye that starts to hurt, and he feels
like to it going to pop out of his head. Hopefully, the CAT scan will give us
some information as to why this is happening. He has some pain medication and
eye drops that are supposed to help. He started off the day with blood work
done that morning. I think he has probably given lots of gallons of blood over
the years. They should name a blood bank for him. Hahahaha
From 12-2 then that day, we were at the Indian
Summer Festival (American Indians). This is a fun festival. I love seeing all
the costumes. They had a puzzle there that had been put together showing where
the Indian tribes were located in the U.S. It was unbelievable how many there
were. Most of them I’d never heard of before. Here in Wisconsin, several tribes
have come from Canada and moved back and forth between the two countries.
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| If there is anyway to enlarge this, you can see hundreds of Indian Tribes shown in the places they lived. |
On Friday, we worked the festival from 12 to 10
at night. That’s a long time, and when we get home from a day like this, we are
done for. It makes our legs hurt so much. We did have a much bigger area this
time, and lots of computers so it was nice working there. The best part was
when a man came up getting some information. I asked if he was from Wisconsin
so I could tell him about the library here and its sources. He said he was from
Virginia. I asked where, and he said it was a little town in the hills. Where?
Grayson County, Virginia where my ancestors are from. I was jumping up and
down. He knew about Chilhowie, Marion, and all the places I have relatives. His
name was Suit, and I’d never heard of it in my work, but I’m going to be
looking for his family. He gave me his email, and later I emailed him and told
him about the Grayson Historical site online. It was a testimony to me that the Lord is
watching over me as I do the work for our family. If you want some blessings,
you should jump on the genealogy train. Craig and I are taking family names to
the Temple every week now. Usually, we will take several so they can do the
baptisms and confirmations and we will pick them up the next week for the
initiatories and endowments. It is hard to get initiatories done in the Chicago
Temple. They don’t often have enough people to work to have that area open.
Once I went to ask for just one name to be added in the group, and they just
said they couldn’t add it in because someone was doing their own work and
couldn’t do my one. I’ve learned to get there early in case we have to do our
own initiatories (which I love to do).
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| There is something written on each skin about different aspects of the Indian cultures. |
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| Craig doing the war dance |
Saturday we pulled a full day also from 12-10.
It’s a good thing they had so many others helping in the booth so that we could
get out a little and do some exploring. We went to one shop that had people
from Ecuador selling stuff. They were members of the Church and asked us when
and where they could go to Church the next day. How small is our church world?
On Sunday, we were able to go to Church and
leave early to be there by 12 and work until 6. This is a great festival. We
met some people who ae re-enactors or those who settled the area. They cook
outdoors (and invited us over for supper), and they give demonstrations of how
the old settlers did things. They are members of one of the local Church units,
and they have Dowells in their family. WOW, two connections in one festival.
Love it!
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| Demonstrating some kind of craft |
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| The members of the Church had this tent and others beside it that they paid to be part of reenactment. |
When Monday came around, we were so tired, hurt
in way too many places, and just worn out. We got up, went to the gym, and came
back and collapsed for the day. This meant we just did things at the apartment.
We worked on Pathway stuff for the upcoming Thursday, checking to make sure we still
had plenty of students. Every day it seems there has to be an email to clarify
stuff as various students will call in asking questions.
On Tuesday, our District meeting was cancelled
because the President was doing interviews on Thursday, and we would be meeting
then. We are going on an overnighter this weekend with the Barleys to Door
County. If you look at the Wisconsin map, we are going to the area near Green
Bay but looks like a thumb sticking out of the mainland. We have never been there,
but we have heard that it is beautiful, especially at this time of the year. We
really like the Barleys. They will be leaving in October, going back to
Farmington. We plan to stay in contact with them. They are wonderful
missionaries, and we have loved serving with them. We went by the office to
clarify what we need and get the time for leaving, etc. This is not like us
because I like to know I have a place to stay. They love to just head out and
stop wherever and whenever. We will see what success or nightmares we have to
report.
September’s scripture is 3 Nephi
27:20 –
Now
this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth and come
unto me and
be baptized in my name that ye may be sanctified by the
reception of the Holy Ghost,
that ye may stand blameless before me at the
last day.
Elder
and Sister Lenhard
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