I must make mention of my two brothers first. I woke up my eldest brother to wish him a happy birthday. He wondered why I was up so early. I assured him I was on Chicago time and it wasn't so early here. Glad he is my brother. Then yesterday I got to spend time with my baby brother and his wife in the Chicago temple and then dinner. They must drive 2 1/2 hours to attend either the Chicago or Nauvoo temple. Since they have spent their married life in the Midwest we haven't had many occasions to spend one on one time with them. Dana had lots of questions, they saw our apartment it didn't repulse them, and we had fun getting caught up. Thanks for being my brother.
I have won a place in the Hall of Fame in every one of these missionaries hearts..... Or stomachs at least. New missionary training meeting, I'm responsible for the whole lunch--$4.50 per missionary allowed. Most of them are sick of Mexican food. Hmmmmmm---Little Cesar's Pizza---$5.00 per large pizza. Promise each of them half a pizza--$2.50--which leaves me $2.00 per missionary for a killer Caesar salad,lemonade,and cookies for dessert. Everyone is happy and stuffed and I come in $85 under budget. Win- Win. 70 pizzas, 24 heads of romaine lettuce (broken the night before) Countrytime....I'm getting good at this. One major problem, I get to the building and there is only one 1 1/2 quart pitcher in the entire building. Are you kidding me? No in Chicago they either lock everything up tight or the English wards take it out of the buildings so it doesn't disappear when the Spanish branches come in. They do the same thing with paper in the library, hymn books, anything portable. So I stirred and poured and stirred and poured and stirred and poured until I was fuming. I was ready to yank a few temple recommends.
As we sat by two Elders, Elder Taggart said, " Did you get your car tabs and put the sticker on your license?" The Elder responded, " Oh, we were supposed to put that sticker on the license? I put it on the back of my name tag !" Heart skips a beat....then he starts laughing. Gotta love em.
We are pleased to report our former gang member who was baptized got accepted into law school. We are so proud of him. As I entered the information on his baptism in the computer, a warning popped up for his single mothers birthdate. " the mother was 12 when she had this child." I thought that could not be right. I checked. Everything was correct. This man has finally beat the odds and is going the right direction.
Two Elders accepted a referral from me this week---a lady teaching Bible classes in the city who wanted hundreds of free Bibles from us. They contacted her, offered her a case of Books of Mormon. She declined but ask if they had any comfort to give several in her class who have suffered death of a loved one. These two offered to teach the Plan of Salvation and she accepted. These are my Elders!
Elder Crook (from Wyoming) went to Bishopric meeting in his ward and as they were assigning home teachers, he noticed only the Elders were assigned to go home teaching. He serves as first counselor in the Bishopric.....in his spare time. He tried to suggest home teaching is a Priesthood responsibility for Elders, Teachers, Priests, High Priests. They had never heard of such a thing. He said he didn't dare suggest they open the handbook, which they have never done, because it would blow their minds. Elder Taggart was surprised to find out in one of our wards they only assign home teachers to active members to keep percentages up. Senior couples are desperately needed, even in Chicago.
As I did mail the other day, ( which has gone from 30 letters a day to 90) I realized how much you can learn from letters sent. Two Elders receive letters from a prison, some come with awesome stamps from foreign countries, we get letters from almost every state. I can tell when a grandparent writes because the address is written with a shakey hand and they arrive like clockwork---once a week. With e-mail weekly, letters from parents are not as frequent. I think that is a shame. There are a couple of dads who write to their sons daily. There are steady boyfriends or girlfriends who write weekly. One Sister received letters from three different Elders serving in different countries, in one day. An Elder received 25 birthday cards from his mom on his 21 st birthday. That is a record. I love letters from younger siblings, written in pencil, very large. A Sister received a letter from her Elder brother, serving in Japan. I detest nicknames, known only to friends and family that the dumb secretary is supposed to guess who they go to.
The MOM on the return label with address isn't much help either. Like the missionaries, when one has your name on it, a smile comes to your face and your heart picks up a beat or two.(not soliciting mail, thank you)
Elder Taggart gave a Priesthood blessing ,a beautiful one I might add, and the recipient went ballistic afterward because he didn't say what she wanted to hear. Never had that happen before. We may not be invited back to home teach.
So our life is full. Fall is in full swing here and we wish it would stay just like this. Winter is just around the corner and we keep getting warnings about it. We are going just about fast as you can go, loving our work....most days......and glad we chose to do this mission before we settled into retirement. Our temple president will be released after three years, on Nov 1 and they are to report to the Hong Kong Temple by Nov.15 for their 4th mission. What an inspiration. We love you all. We miss you but we are needed here, for many reasons. Have a great week as we know we will.
Love,
Sister Taggart
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