Meeting people

On the first day we attended church, we met with the Bishop and he gave us about 15 names of people he wanted us to visit.  The first lady we visited opened the door just enough to see who we were and started to close the door.  I called through the closing crack, "I have soup!!"  She opened the door just wide enough to take the soup and rolls.  I said, "I'd really like to see your quilts."  She said, "NO." and that was that.

The second sister was home, but didn't have time for a visit as her significant other was just pulling up and they had to go into town.  She took the cookies, however, and was polite.  Then, we found out she immediately called the Branch President's wife and complained that we had come and that everyone KNOWS she does not want anyone to visit!!!  (But she DID like the cookies.)
Ditto with sister #3.  She came out, took my homemade bread, and made a comment to the effect that she was sure "someone" would eat it.

So you can see that meeting new people has been hard for me.  I'm always nervous to cold call them.  I keep saying to Craig, "What's the worst thing that can happen?  They can say No?"

But this week we met some wonderful people.  We visited with Dick and Heidi Jarvis for about an hour.  Heidi is going to be our tour guide to Chicago.  She has a friend who is a travel agent and is going to plan a "tourist" day for us.  She goes quite often and will make sure we don't end up in a bad part of town.  We loved them.

I had called Monique Outzen several times with no answer.  We had stopped by twice and dropped off cookies.  Then, out of the blue, she came to church on Sunday.  I liked her immediately.  Her son plays baseball, so we went to his high school game today.  We are going again on Thursday, and having pizza with her family afterwards.  Yea!!!

We stopped by another family (the second time with cookies) and only the daughter was home.  I knew she was nervous about having anyone come in when she was alone, but as I was leaving, I told her I did tutoring.  She began telling me that she was failing math and could really use some help.  I wish we could have connected earlier because there are only 3-4 weeks of school left.  But I'm so glad someone is finally taking me up on my offers to help.

I also had TWO spur-of-the-moment serving opportunities.  I saw an older woman struggling to carry groceries.  I pulled over and jumped out to help.  She hugged me.  It was sweet.
The second opportunity came as we were waiting to drive across the street.  We could see a woman digging holes in her lawn (and not having an easy time of it).  We pulled up.  She asked what we wanted.  I said, "I've brought my husband to dig your holes."  "What????" she replied.  Too funny.  It only took Craig about 10 minutes to get the job done.  Way to go, Honey.

This is Ernestine.  We spent a few hours helping her clean out her flower beds.  And as you can see, it was windy.  It's ALWAYS windy.

This is Ernestine's yard from the back looking toward the street.

She has problems with moles.  The little building that looks like a doll's house is her garage.

We visited with Kelly.  She lives on a large piece of property bordered on two sides by small streams.  As you can see, the beavers have decided to build across one of them.  Cool, huh?

Craig and I went on "splits" with the sisters and zone leaders.  I took the sisters to dinner at Steak and Shake.  I even went tracting with them.  They are Awesome.

So as we were driving past this empty foundation, our neighbor explained that the building that USED to be here was destroyed by a tornado last year.  Oh yeah.  See the buildings in the background?  Those are our apartments!!!  Yikes.

Spent the morning shoveling sand.  This is Stacey, our neighbor.  We love her.  She's a slave driver!  In case you are wondering, I'm taking the picture from my "sitting-down-supervising" position.

It's supposed to be 85 degrees on Wednesday.  Finally!!