Elders Richeson, Nilsson, Vincent, Docstader, Irick (hand over heart), & Knight; Elders Nilsson, Irick, Dockstader, Richeson, Vincent, Knight, sister Price & Diana with Sister Robinson throwing popcorn as we played the answer game; sisters Price & Robinson.

OCTOBER 29, 2009 THURSDAY

Before we left for our district meeting we did several things. Diana popped popcorn for the game we were responsible for and I did some research on the computer for Elders Nilsson and Irick. We also got a call from Elder Norton asking us if we they could come over today to get a haircut rather than tomorrow. They forgot they had to change their wash day for some reason and so couldn’t come tomorrow.

The research consisted of answering the question, “If the First Presidency and all the apostles died simultaneously, would the keys of the priesthood be lost or do they still reside in any other body of the Priesthood?” The game we played today involved throwing a nerf ball around that had things written on it that needed to be done by the person who caught it. Whatever the right thumb was on, the one who caught it had to do or say it before the person with the bowl of popcorn could get to them. If he couldn’t think of anything, the one with the popcorn started stuffing it in their mouth until they could complete the task which made it all the harder as his mouth got fuller. It was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of cleaning after it was over. The rest of the meeting consisted of a section on German, a success story, a spotlight on Elder Irick, and a section of being better teachers. Each meeting opens and closes with a prayer. Since this was the last time we’ll see Sister Price before she goes home to Roosevelt, Utah, Saturday, we took several photos just so we would remember her.

After the meeting we went home and got ready for Elders Norton & Schulte to arrive for their haircuts. They we a little late, but we kind of expect that because they as are we are always dependent on the public transportation. Both of these Elders have pretty decent hair to cut without any weird cowlicks and such. The last two times I cut Elder Norton’s hair he made sure I knew he didn’t want it cut too short, but then both times, asked me to cut it shorter. I essentially had to give him two haircuts both times instead on just one. This time I didn’t ask him how he wanted it cut, but just went ahead and did it. I made sure it was short enough that he wouldn’t ask me again to cut it shorter. He seemed pleased with it just the same. Elder Schulte is from Taylorsville, Utah, and has been in the field eight months.

Simone Enderle, our neighbor, was still in the hospital so we decided to go pay her a visit. She looked pretty good, but she told us it wasn’t only just weakness and being run down, but she was having stomach pains and had no appetite. She is a small woman and has lost weight which she cannot afford to do. She also had some anomalies in her blood they were trying to diagnose. They haven’t been able to determine what’s wrong with her yet. She said they were going to do an endoscopy and she expressed some angst about it. Since I had been through the procedure, I explained what was going to happen and, if all went as it should, it was a simple and relatively painless procedure done under sedation. That allayed some of her fear. We had a fairly long friendly visit and she expressed gratitude that we came. She told us she had reached the time in her life that she probably needed to move into an assisted-living facility so she would have help if an emergency happened. She is in her nineties, but has seemed pretty spry.

Diana called the Neidhart’s to make final arrangements to help her neighbor move. Ewa wasn’t home, but she returned the call later. Diana told her that we had arranged to have the missionaries and the mission van help on Tuesday for a couple hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon and that it would go smoothly if the neighbor had all her things boxed up and ready to go. We tried to call Liz once more, but she didn’t answer her phone again.

Senior missionaries have been her neighbors for a long time and since we’ve been here, she’s noticed we have a lot of fine looking young men visiting us. The well-dressed, well-mannered missionaries have made an impression on her as well as past senior missionaries. This gave us an opportunity to talk about the Church and it’s missionary program.