This photo of our Garden City District was taken on Friday 2 March 2012 before several of the elders were transferred out. From left to right standing is E. Carlson, E. Silva, E. Gingrich (ZL), Elder Henslee (ZL transferred), E. Gurr (transferred), E. Contreras, E. Olsen (working in Lamar CO.,transferred), E. Cordones (transferred), E. Neesen (waiting for visa, transferred), E. Rowland (also working in Lamar CO, transferred). Seated is E. Howlett, S. Howlett and E. Brandon (DL transferred).
On Saturday, 28 January the activities began in earnest with a practice of our little Garden City Ward choir in the morning. We had been asked to sing prelude music for about 20 minutes and one number during the Sunday morning session. Throughout the rest of the day we continued to visit less-active members. Gill and Michelle Asebedo also asked us to help them get to Lakin to visit her mother in the hospital there. That took quite a bit of time as it is over 30 miles each way. We took the quilt we have been putting together for our newest granddaughter, Miriam Lenore Felt, and we spent our time after a short visit with Michelle’s mother, out in the car pinning the quilt together.
Once we returned home we borrowed a sewing machine from a sister in the ward and began to sew the quilt binding edge, but ran out of time, so we dropped it and went to the evening gatherings. We picked up Gill and Michelle at their request so they could attend. The activities started with a pot luck dinner for which we had prepared "funeral potatoes". There were hardly even scrapings left in our pan when the dinner was over. Then we had the Saturday evening Adult session. What a marvelous meeting where the evening was spent talking about the eternal unit of the Family. Did you know that in the Celestial Kingdom people will belong to family wards? That was a new idea to some of us.
Our gathering for a potluck dinner at the church before the Saturday night meeting of our Stake Conference 25 and 26 of February 2012.
At the last stake conference we had had our mission president, his wife and the Denver temple president and his wife all speak. Since then, the temple president’s wife had been killed in an auto accident. It was a sad but happy occurance because they will miss her terribly, but they knew where she was going. However, since they were near the end of their temple assignment, those in authority have authorized the president, who wanted to finish his assignment, to continue alone with his counselors. Therefore, one of the counselors and his wife came this time. We also had Elder Keith Edwards of the Seventy here, so we had a very enjoyable meeting. It was directed "in a manner after the spirit" and was wonderful. Elder Edwards asked some risky questions of the audience about how families should live, but the response was appropriate and uplifting. He then added some "revelatory comments." We learned the meaning of "revelatory meeting," and were told that all church meetings, even presidency or committee meetings should be of that kind.
Sunday morning started with a new member meeting, and Gill and Michelle asked us to bring them to that one too. Several new members spoke of their conversion. That one ended, and just a few minutes later the choir began singing the prelude. Against all predictions, the audience became quiet and attentive. We were only a small choir of about 10 singers, but the audience listened, and the meeting start-time arrived in a much more reverential mood than we had ever seen before. After the start of the meeting the choir sang another number, then moved down to a row of seats that had been saved for us. We all fit on one bench. Again, the meeting was directed "in a manner after the spirit" and was wonderful.
Here's another great luncheon for all the stake members after the stake conference on Sunday. Lots of food and lots of people to eat it.
At noon, when the meeting ended, they cleared the cultural hall and set up tables for another lunch. Our stake covers hundreds of miles in several directions, and the stake presidency didn’t want to send people home hungry, and didn’t want them going to restaurants to buy lunch on Sunday. So they asked the members to bring chips or cookies, and the leaders supplied buns and pulled-meats to put in them. It was a simple lunch but met the need for the day.
Many of the people we work with had attended the conference and it was so great to see that the efforts to distribute our reminders made a difference. Wonderful!!
The following Monday there was a Garden City Zone meeting for the missionaries. Most of them had come to the conference, so it was appropriate that they stay for another day. And we had another good day. It is always great to have counsel from our mission president, APs and Zone Leaders.
Tuesday was our P-day, but we spent some of the time in service efforts, and still got our washing done, etc. We had several appointments scheduled for the rest of the week, and we met all of the ones that weren’t rescheduled. The meeting times that were changed ended up being productive in that we got calls to help some in need. We spent some time in the hospital helping people that didn’t have the transportation they needed. One day we went to the hospital twice, went to another medical office twice, and then took a member to the government offices. We didn’t have much free time to try to make new contacts, but we did get to talk to several new people anyway.
Seen here are two of the regular members of our English Class: Miguel Benitez (former Branch president of the Garden City Spanish Branch which was merged into the ward) and Roberto Velasquez (a former bishop in Mexico and is here trying to merge into the United States life), with Elder Howlett, the teacher.
On March 1 we had an appointment that had to be rescheduled, so we went to visit others we have been working with. After knocking on one door we noticed a man across the parking lot who seemed to want to get our attention. When we walked over to him he told us our contact wasn’t at home, but after talking with him a few minutes he asked us take him to a store. We got him and his wheel chair in the car and proceeded to take him where he needed to go, and we talked all the way ending up giving him a pretty good first lesson on the Restoration. Once we got back, we were ready to leave when the member showed up, and we got to see her too.
Next we tried to visit another member who had been away. We wanted to see if she was back, because we want to take her with us to help make friends with someone we are teaching. As we were parking in front of the house, the sister drove up, and her husband was with her, and they were driving their own car. The husband is a truck driver and has been away for several weeks. He had come back, and they had purchased a car. Wow! We had made many trips to help them with their transportation needs, and now he was home and they had a car. What a pleasant meeting.
This is Geovanni Gone' Macias and her husband Roberto Macias who helped us translate our "Gospel of Jesus Christ" power point presentation. She is a translator for Finney Co. courts and also a counselor in the Young Women organization of our church. Roberto is a counselor in the Elders' Quorum of the Garden City Ward. They have a beautiful little family.
All of these meetings today were unplanned, "let’s visit ____ while we are in the area" types of contacts, but they were very productive. Then tonight before teaching the English class, we visited a family who had helped us translate our Power Point presentation of the third lesson (The Gospel of Jesus Christ) into Spanish. We went completely through the presentation with the two adults even though there was a party in another part of the house to celebrate the visit of the wife’s mother. They gave us their time reviewing and correcting the Spanish in our presentation, and the Spirit was very strong among us throughout the work. My oh my, what a wonderful week!
Our son, Eric Howlett, came to visit us on his way home to Ohio from his pilot training school in Gilbert, Arizona. He bought a little Honda from his cousins Van and Sarah Rowse whom he lived with in Arizona for the few months he was there.
(Follow-up note: A few days later we revisited one of our members, and she informed us that the fellow who lives across the parking lot has asked us to come back to him. He's the one we taught the first lesson while traveling to and from the store. We went to see him and got an appointment to continue teaching him. He has told us he was Catholic, as if that was supposed to scare us away, but it didn't work. We were delighted to schedule the next visit.)
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