It seems that each week provides us with new experiences and opportunities. We went to the Church for our second Missionary Coordination Meeting on Tuesday and found that it had been replaced with Welfare Training and that the Bishop wanted ALL of the missionaries to attend. The training was provided by Sister Garcia (Bishop's wife, Church Employment Center Director for the region). It was great! She covered what a Welfare Committee meeting should cover, who should attend, and most importantly how and what type of support can be given to those in need. This was especially important for our Elders to hear, since they bring those with the most need to the Bishop. It was brought out that Fast Offerings can be used to help with Rent and Utilities, but that the Church never pays your consumer debt.
Bishop Garcia asked us to give two of the youth a ride home from their activity that night. We agreed and didn't realize until later that they lived 25 miles away. It was a pretty rough part of town and we followed the Bishop's advice to "don't get out of your car". Evidently he made a deal with their father that if the father brought them, Bishop would find them a ride home. The Lord protected us as we supported the Bishop in this assignment.
On Wednesday, the Bishop had all of the missionaries over for his monthly "Breakfast with the Bishop". The food was wonderful and Sister Garcia's efforts on our behalf did not go unnoticed or appreciated. It was great to meet with all of our newly transferred in missionaries. We still have 10 missionaries assigned to our ward. Eight Elders and us. We had a three hour meeting and went over all of the members in the ward that the Bishop had assigned the Missionaries to visit. We were given nine families to focus on during the next month.
After we got home, the Bishop called and asked us to take Carlos (Ellen's husband) out looking for a job. So off we went to the Bishop's house to pick him up and drive him down to New Orleans Business District to check on a job. Then we went to the "Whole Foods" store so he could fill out an application. We didn't know there was a Whole Foods store here, so we got to look around inside one of our favorite stores. It felt like home!
Thursday we worked on flyers for the upcoming ward Cultural Night. We made business cards and had meetings with the Zone Leaders. We planned for our visits for Friday.
Friday we finally got to go out and make some visits. We were so grateful for "Babe" (our GPS). She got us to all of the addresses, even though two of them were wrong. We took pies to the families and found only one at home. Arleen Lino, she is American, born of Honduran parents, raised in New York and has only been to church 3 times in the past year. Her husband is the Elder's Quorum President (he is Honduran and speaks English and Spanish fluently). She doesn't speak Spanish, so I'm sure she gets just as much out of our Sunday meetings as we do. She recently had a baby boy and starts a new job today. She was on her way out when we stopped by, so we let her know that we loved her and that we wanted to visit her again. She said that would be great.
One of the saddest things we witnessed this week, was the destruction of Katrina. It's amazing to see that 70% of the homes that were damaged or destroyed by Katrina have not been touched. They stand as a witness of the power and destruction of God. The Linos live in an area where lakefront mansions look like they have been bombed. Some are boarded up, but most are just standing there, with windows blown out and roofs blown off. The water line still visiable on the brick walls and fences is about five feet high. We have learned that this is where the sediment settled and that the water actually was 5-8 feet above the sediment line. It's so sad.
General Conference weekend was wonderful and we were able to watch all but the Priesthood Session at home. What a blessing KSL-TVs video broadcast was for us. We hope that everyone made the time to watch conference. We know that Pres. Eyring and Quentin Cook were called of God. It was especially wonderful to attend the Priesthood session of Conference together. (Missionary Companions stay together.)
President Eyring gave a wonderful talk in the Priesthood Session.
He spoke about the three messages he had and that we all can have; if we pray when faced with a hard assignment.
1st - Assurance from a memory when Heavenly Father has helped you get thru a difficult time. Thoughts like: "Haven't I always looked after you?", "Remember and Fear no Evil" and "Remember and Have No Fear".
2nd - Forget yourself and start praying for the people you are called to serve.
3rd - Go to Work - Do Something. Help Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ help those you serve to receive the blessing of eternal life.
Things we can do to invite the Spirit into our lives: See and Say No Evil. Choose where your eyes go and don't let them linger on evil. Watch what we say and how we say it.
Needless to say, General Conference Weekend was a wonderful blessing for us. It gave us the spiritual boost that we needed. What a blessing it is to hear the talks in our own language! Now we know how the hispanics feel when they get to hear the gospel in their own language.
A wonderful thing that we witnessed this weekend was at the Priesthood Session. There were more Hispanics in the Relief Society room than there were caucasions in the Chapel.
Share the Gospel with those around you. We love the Lord and pray that his greatest blessings will be upon each one of you.
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