Hello Blog Followers:
These past two weeks have been slow and easy. Since there are no students during the day, we haven't been out to the Institute building much except for Monday FHE with the Branch and our Tuesday and Wednesday evening classes.
We have both decided to write our life history which fills the time between studying and trying to contact the YSA's in the area.
On June 27th we drove up to Medford to attend the Temple. That is a 2.5 hour drive each way so we start early in the morning. We made our reservation for the 11:30 Endowment Session. (Reservations are strongly encouraged at the smaller temples to assure there will be enough workers scheduled.) We arrived back in Redding around 5:30 p.m. We're getting more acclimated to the long drive required for temple attendance here.
The YSA Branch Activities Committee planned a swimming party and BBQ at the home of our Branch President and his wife - Mike and Cindy Sumsion - on the 29th. They have a beautiful home and a very nice pool and deck area. It was 112 degrees in the shade! We didn't take suits to swim but that cool water was looking pretty enticing by the time we left around 7:30. The Sumsions reported the next day that the kids stayed and watched movies until 10:30. Good thing the party wasn't at our house. Everyone would have been asked to leave by 8:30 so Nan could go to bed.
On July 3rd and 4th we inspected the Elders' and Sisters' apartments here in the Redding Stake to make sure they were keeping things clean and any maintenance problems could be reported to management. Interesting that because of the influx of missionaries, especially sister missionaries, we have sisters that have been out two months training those that have been out two days. The Elders are usually out 4-5 months before they are asked to train a new Elder.
We didn't have Institute classes the week of the 4th because most of the students said they would be out of town or otherwise unable to attend. We have been a little disappointed in the lack of interest in evening Institute but this is our mission calling so we continue to prepare and teach, prepare and teach. Kent has 3-4 to his Mission Preparation class and Nan has double that to her Teachings of the Living Prophets class on Wednesday evening. With all the publicity and numerous texts we send, we expected a few more to each of the classes.
We were a little sad on the 4th because we were missing the Doris Barlow Family Reunion for the first time in 23 years. But, Joel helped Pam contact us with "FaceTime" using her ipad. We were able to talk with and see all our children there and many of our grandchildren. We're so lucky in our mission that senior missionaries don't have the strict rules the young missionaries do about contacting family and friends. We didn't bother fighting the crowds to go to any fireworks but around 10:30 p.m. we could hear the "bombs bursting in air" all around us.
For our Break-the-Fast on Sunday, the 7th Nan made the Chinese Chicken Salad recipe she got from Alecia many years ago. Everyone raved over it. Could be because everyone was so hungry from fasting but we both felt the salad turned out really well.
July 9th marked our One Year Anniversary of the day we reported to the MTC in Provo. It doesn't seem possible that a whole year has passed. We're looking forward to the next 11 months. We've figured out how the Institute runs and we've made friends with many youth. Things couldn't be better.
On July 10th and 12th we inspected the Anderson Stake apartments. The town of Corning was the furthest away - about an hour south of Redding. It was fun to meet those missionaries we only see during Mission Conferences. We won't be doing the Anderson Stake apartments when school starts again because of time constraints. Perhaps by then President Weston will have found some other oldsters to take over for us.
Pam called on Thursday, the 11th to report the large paned window in the living room had fallen in. The rod that is holding the curtains kept the window from crashing to the floor. Back in 1996 a major accident happened and that front window was smashed in from outside. Kent backed into the window with a rented tractor with a bucket on the back while trying to grade the front lawn for sod. We had Jones Paint and Glass come to replace the window. Since JP&G fixed it the first time, we told Pam to call them to come fix it this time. It was a simple matter of gluing the glass back in place so it's all taken care of now. Pam certainly has her job cut out for herself trying to keep our house from falling down around her ears.
The Branch Activities Committee tried another swimming and BBQ party on Saturday, the 13th but it wasn't attended very well. Maybe because it was only 98 degrees that day and no one felt the need to swim to get cool.
Kent is the Membership Clerk in the Branch so he is constantly trying to find the YSAs on our rolls that we've never seen at church. There has been limited success in inviting them to come to the Branch but he mostly gets 'numbers no longer in service' or "Please don't call again."
Hey everyone - keep the faith and carry on. The Barlows
