We so enjoy our visits with some of the elderly and widows. These people are often lonely and have a lot of time on their hands. They are so gracious and happy to have people visit them. It's an honor to go into their homes and feel the warmth of the spirit from lives of devotion.
Tuesdays are always busy doing house work and getting things done that we don't have a chance to do during the week, like the laundry and budget.
Tuesday night we were invited to go to dinner with our couple that we taught Temple Prep and then went to the temple with them. Their baby is so cute but growing up so fast and has such a cute personality. Nice reward for doing work that is so important for eternal families.
Wednesday we had another nice visit with a widow sister. Her husband died three years ago. She spends a lot of time alone so loves company. Her son lives close by but only stops in once in a while which leaves her with a lot of time on her hands. Ruth has crocheted some little pumpkins and attaches a thought on gratitude by Pres. Monson to them. The people are thrilled to have something for Thanksgiving as well as this thought. "A grateful heart...comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives... Someone has said that feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
Thursday we had several visits. One was to an older couple, both of them are 79 years old. She is quite active but her husband is not, He has not received the Melchizedek Priesthood. We had a wonderful visit and encouraged them to write down some of their history and even go to the family search library to record an oral history. The husband has the mersa virus and spent about four months in the hospital. I have had some strong feelings about him and even wakened during the night thinking how we could encourage him to take his wife to the temple. I have recorded these impressions and we are going to meet with them again this week to see if we can move him toward the next ordinance. We also visited another widow and a less-active sister in the same ward. We hope these visits will help them return to activity in the Gospel.
This week ended like the last one, attending a funeral. One of our close friends found out she had cancer just recently. We served as assistant coordinators with them and became fond friends. She went fast and passed away quite suddenly. There were a large number of our temple family at the funeral and as the casket was wheeled from the chapel we were asked to form an honor guard along the sidewalk. The funeral was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful sister and friend.
There are a lot of council and correlation meetings with missionary work. They are very important so the work is done effectively. In addition to transporting our sisters as needed, our weeks are pretty full but we love it. The work is true and it is worth whatever time it takes to get it right!