Jack Frost Nipping at our Noses

This past week we took a short trip to Utah to see a doctor.  Ely is 3 hours from anywhere so the people here have to go to Salt Lake or Cedar City to see a doctor.  There are a few here but not specialists and we have not heard good things about the doctors in Ely.  We left Tuesday and got there just in time to go to dinner with our former New York Mission President and his wife.  That was a fun time. 

 

Wednesday morning we were able to go to our granddaughter Bethany’s preschool program.  She was way cute and we wished we could have stayed for more concerts and recitals. 

I spent the rest of the morning at the pulmonologist’s office having tests and doing fun stuff to try to figure out why I can’t breathe (a minor thing).  She said what I had suspected, that it’s probably a combination of the altitude in Ely (6500 ft.) and the allergens.  Marc may have mentioned that there are more people here on oxygen that we have seen anywhere else.  I’m hoping to avoid that last resort.  Then Marc spent the afternoon at Costco having his hearing aids adjusted.  Exciting, I know.

We were anxious to get back to Ely and get back to work.  We stopped by Marc’s mom’s place on our way out of Utah for a sort visit then headed west.  Sorry to those we didn’t get to see on our whirlwind trip.

We are finally past the finding people to teach stage in this ward and are in the actual teaching stage.  Three of the people we are working with were at Sacrament Meeting today so that was a happy thing.  It was our Christmas program so they may have gone anyway but we like to think we helped.  One man even introduced us to all his family which made us feel good.

 With some of the people we visit we discuss Come Follow Me lessons and with some we are starting from scratch with the missionary lessons, depending on where the member is at and how long it has been since they attended church. 

We have seen the need for a Come Follow Me study group for single adults and ran it past the Stake President.  He was all for it since they don’t have any single adult program here.  Now we have to iron out all the details and figure out when to hold it since people work shifts here—usually 6 am to 6 pm or 6 pm to 6 am.  They often alternate shifts and it’s hard on them.

We are taking our charge from President Godoy, to watch over the young elders, to heart and have been inviting them to dinner and/or lunch.  We dropped in on a couple elders one morning (we warned them that would happen) but we took donuts so it was all good.  We wanted to observe them in their habitat and are trying to determine if there are any problems brewing.  So far—so good.  Their apartment is in sort of a sketchy area and we asked them if they felt safe.  They said they did and that there were a few druggies in the area but that they were very nice.

The 1st Ward Elders' Apartment.  I wanted to complain to the
mission but we realized it's fairly nice inside and they would
be hard pressed to find a better place in Ely.

Christmas is a little different on a mission.  It’s hard to teach people the week before and probably after.  People are busy and missionary visits are not high on their priority list.  On Christmas day, the 6 elders will come here for a district council meeting in the morning and then will stay for lunch and maybe games.  Then we have invited a single man from the ward over for dinner.  It will be a busy day after all.  I look forward to talking with our kids, even though we do it often.  It has been cold here but not much snow yet.  A white Christmas is expected though.  Yay!

Our Little Tree

People here are very nice to us and we hope we can stick it out till June.  We’re hoping when the weather starts to warm up a bit I’ll be able to breathe easier.  I’m exercising my faith till then.  We love Ely and enjoy our work here.

An every day occurrence about half a block from us.