This week, like all weeks, flew by but also crammed a weeks worth of hours into every single day. Three Zone Conferences....which means we haul all the boxes for that zone to whatever church it is held in, do training for part of the meeting, help fix the lunch and serve it, I mend slacks or skirts for an hour or so, Bruce inspects cars, we help with the clean up and then hurry back to the office to do what normally takes us 8-10 hours in just 4-5. Then we hurry home to do missionary meetings, home teach less actives, or go shopping for the next dinner for missionaries at our apartment. It is exhausting. My saddest moments this week....mending pants for Elders that are threadbare. I know they can't afford new pants and I know I must make these sturdy enough to ride a bike 15-20 miles a day for another 6-7 months. My funniest moment this week....Elder Taggart was training them how to use the new car kits he has put together for every companionship. There were two white towels per kit, one to wash and one to dry each car. Then he explains they are to put them in their laundry with their dark load and not with their garments. One Elder pipes up and said, " what is a dark load?" In the economy of an Elder, there is only one load a week....thus the grey garments they all bring home. Lol!
We got our last hepatitis shot this week and I forgot to tell the pharmacist not to put rubbing alcohol on the site. I reacted horribly with itchy bumps everywhere he put the alcohol. Such a dumb mistake but it meant I was on Benadryl every night and slept soundly.
Another loaves and fishes story: we had three big loads of laundry this week but not enough coinage (common theme around here). When we went to the partial roll, not only did we have the needed $6.75 in quarters, there were quarters left. Then one of the dryers was unavailable, which saved us $1.00 so we can do laundry this week too. I know, such a small thing to you but we appreciate every quarter.
We had two Elders come to Thanksgiving dinner Wed. Night. We buy two roasted chickens from Costco, fix potatoes, stuffing, a veggie platter, gravy, and I had baked two pies the night before. These Elders have been out their whole mission eating Mexican food and they really crave home cooking. I laugh.....Costco is my home cooking because I don't have a wife home to fix the dinners while I am at work. They ate and ate and ate and then we sent all the leftovers home with them, which made them friends for life. This week we have another set of Elders coming. They save their miles and ride bikes so they can use car miles to come to our house for dinner. A small service I can give the hungry Elders here. One Elder challenged us to give away 10 pass-along cards this week. Within two days I had spoken to and given away two. We don't get out much so I have to take advantage of every opportunity we have.
Our Gazelle arrived so we will now hopefully get in 30 minutes of exercise daily. It is hard to fit it all in but we feel the need to stay in peak condition. A side note, my arthritis is almost gone....at least the pain I used to feel daily. My fingers type a good share of the day, I am up and down constantly in the office, and I am unloading and lifting literally hundreds of pounds of books and supplies weekly....not to mention mailed boxes we lift and carry into buildings for the missionaries. I am grateful for the relief from pain, especially when I sleep. Another mini miracle.
Three stories...while serving dinner in downtown Chicago, I visited with a convert. She said she would do anything for the missionaries. Her father was a Methodist minister. When she investigated the church, he was anti- to the max. She felt she had found the truth so she joined anyway. He gave her a bad time for years about being associated with such a church. She smiled and loved him anyway. On his deathbed, she tried to call many from his congregation because he wanted comfort from those he had served. No one came.....not one person. Finally she called the missionaries. They were there within 15 minutes and gave him a beautiful blessing. He was finally at peace and ready to make the transition called death. He died 15 minutes later. Se said, " I will do anything for the missionaries. They brought me the gospel and they came when I really needed them." These poor, poor people as far as worldly goods, but what good solid saints they are.
We went to the baptism of two of our favorite Elders....because they made it a point to invite us. The man being baptized was a former gang member. These Elders say their biggest challenge in teaching investigators in " the hood" is that most of them have murdered, several times. Then the process can't move forward. We drove for an hour, arriving in the worst part of Chicago I have been in thus far. You have to ring a doorbell to be let in the church building because of the area of town it is in. It has to stay locked even when meetings are being held. This African American convert had the sweetest eyes and humble countenance. He realized there could be grave consequences from gang members but he proceeded anyway. The Relief Society room was filled with ward members. They usually only have 60 people to sacrament meeting and here were most of that number on a Sat. Afternoon. The baptism was sweet, then he had bought a new white t shirt to wear afterwards. What a blessing to witness the mighty change that can and does take place in people's lives. The two Elders then needed a ride home. We helped them clean up the refreshments they had furnished and then got in the car. They usually ride their bikes, a 10 mile distance, to this building for meetings. As we drove closer to their apartment they warned us to lock our car doors and not to make eye contact with anyone on the street. They said we were now the only white people in "the hood". One of these Elders is from the Phillipines and the other from Sandy Utah. Neither one of them grew up with a father in the home. They have baptisms almost weekly. In two weeks they will be baptizing a Phillipino family of 5. They are fearless. They are happy. They are bold. I can't forward their mail to them because their landlord steals it. But they press forward with faith. As we dropped them off they told us to get out of there as quickly as we could. We had some tense moments as we got stopped at lights and at one bus stop where a man approached our car. I was chanting " avoid eye contact, don't approach our car, avoid eye contact, don't approach our car." I wanted to go back and pick up those two Elders and bring them home with us. But this is their assignment and they are servants of The Lord on Gods errand. I love our missionaries.
The third story.....we had stake conference this weekend. Our missionaries couldn't come to the Sat. Night session unless they brought an investigator. Three sets of sisters walked in with investigators. They are awesome. To make a long story short, we ended up taking one of the investigators on a building tour after conference. He was extremely impressed. We then gave these sisters a ride to the mission home because their ride had gone to the hospital during that session. As we got to the mission home where they were staying, the President came out and asked if the Taggart's would come in and stay awhile. Sister Woodbury was at the hospital with this sister missionary and the Pres. Couldn't be alone in the house with these sisters. He soon got a message from his wife to come to the hospital with Elder Taggart to give a Priesthood blessing. We were there until 11 PM and didn't get home until 11:30. When the Pres. Expresses gratitude for the Taggart's and their dedication and availability, we know he loves us. We are oh so grateful he is the President and we could go home and sleep the few hours we had left. He now had 4 sister missionaries at the home and his wife would nurse the one sister all night. The next morning, today, Sunday, we received a text about something we were to do at stake conference. There are 40 missionaries in this stake serving and during the intermediate rest hymn, all of us marched up the two aisles to sit in the choir seats. I just lost it. To be part of this group is such an honor for us. To be part of the "hastening" is a blessing. The Stake President then used us as a visual aid for the rest of the conference. He pointed out that we are not here to have members assist us in missionary work. He said we are a resource to help members with the missionary work. The monkey was placed directly on the back of the members. He said our job as members is to invite others into the lifeboats we are in. We need to extend our oars to save those floating in dangerous, shark infested waters. He is a good man who has caught the wave and is extremely helpful to us. We love President Scott. I ask ElderTaggart how it felt, his first stake conference sitting on the sidelines. He said it felt good, right, less stressful.
Sweet is the work.......sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. We are experiencing both. You can too. Be a little more bold. You don't have to go to " the hood" . Do it in the safety of your own neighborhood or store. Invite. Offer people an oar to get into the lifeboat. We have been blessed with this message....now go and share it.
Love,
Sister Taggart
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