Saturday, March 27, 2010

More missionaries moments for us.....

Yesterday was a very interesting day. First thing this morning a man called and asked if we were Mormons. I said we were. He said his friend’s mother had just passed away in Utah and she was a Mormon. He didn’t want to offend his friend by saying something wrong and didn’t know what we believed about death. He asked if I could send him by e-mail a poem or words from a song that might be appropriate to send to this friend. I told him that even though we were sad when someone died, we knew it was not the end because we would see them again. I told him that Daddy said “Today is Mom’s graduation day!” on the day she died. He then had to hurry and hang up because he got another important call.
I started to write the e-mail to him telling him of the Plan of Salvation with the pre-earth life, this life and the next life. I told him that we were spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father who has an individual plan for each of us and that we can live with Him again. I wrote the words to “O My Father” and had part of the words to “I Believe in Christ” when the phone rang again. It was the gentleman again apologizing for hanging up on me and being so abrupt. He said the phone call was one that could have cost him his job had he not answered it. He then said, “I was intrigued by the comment your father made when your mother died. How did you handle that?” I told him that I knew it was a temporary separation from my mother and knew I could see her again. I then said there was probably a grand reunion going on on the other side with those loved ones who had passed on before this lady, including her husband. He was quite complimentary and said, “what a beautiful idea”. I told him I would send him a phamphlet on the Plan of Salvation and a DVD of Families Can Be Together Forever and he said he would like that. I volunteered to have the missionaries deliver them but he said that might be something he would be interested in in the future. I send the e-mail off and within about ½ hour I received another one back from him thanking me over and over for being so kind and helping him understand our view on death. I told him his friend would be impressed that he was aware enough of the O My Father song to send it to her.
In the afternoon I got a package from the Orland Florida mission with 8 demo DVDs of Gladys Knight along with cards that had been filled out by 8 people. Gladys put on 2 firesides in the Orlando area the first part of March and they got 900 referrals form then. Now that is quite the lady when she can hand in that many in 2 days. She and her husband had born their testimonies and told why they had joined the church. She promised them if they would fill out the card she would have some representatives of the church (missionaries) deliver a DVD along with a Book of Mormon and a Restoration DVD. It was fun to send these to the missionaries to deliver. Tim said he thinks Gladys was called on “a mission to spread the gospel with her music” by the First Presidency some time back. I don’t know if she is still officially called but she is doing a great work to try and help still.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Happy birthday to me.........

I turned 61 today! It was a dreary rainy day. Tim remembered the minute he saw me in the morning. About 10:30 Elder Parry came in and told Elder Burrows he needed him to help with the phones. I had been training him on a couple of different programs on the computer. They left the office and went out into the hall. I had needed to use the restroom for a while and thought “Now’s my chance to run to the bathroom.” As I headed down the hall I saw a group of Elders and Sisters near the door to the entrance of the building, huddled up and it looked like I could see fire. They looked up and gasped. I thought it was because they were caught with fire. As one of them backed up I noticed they were holding a cake and trying to light it. I immediately turned around and went back into the office realizing what they were up to. They then came in singing to me with the candles burning. Elder Parry had made it. He was so tickled with himself. He said, “Look Sister Holdstock, it’s a double layer one.” It was orange flavor with chocolate frosting. It really meant a lot to me!
Janet, Sisters Cluff & Ramey, Elders Wardle, Burrows, Holland (AP) and Parry
This is one way to take care of ruining our diet.
Take a good look at this "double layer" cake.


I was also able to talk to Amber, Jeremy and a had a shout out from Josh. Josh was working at Amber’s house while I was talking to her so he yelled it to me. Canyon and Maxwell also sang to me. It was darling!!
We found out for sure today that the Martin’s from Olympia Washington will be entering the MTC on Apr 5 and probably get here about the 25 so we might have a couple of days with them. She will do the referrals and he will most likely do the cars.
We went to McDonald’s for dinner and had a salad. Tim is so conscious about our diet now that he sat there after he ate the salad and said, “I’m still hungry” He took a look at the menu and what he might have to fill him up and then said, “I’m not getting anything else. I will go home and have a little cup of non-fat sherbert.”

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Double the work....double the pay!!

This has been an unusual week. Janet was bored to tears for the first 3 days and then transfer information was available and now she is swamped. Tim is barely keeping his head above water. He had his first accident report to fill out. One of our missionaries rear-ended another car. We are sure missing the Dallings and the fun they brought into the office. We put in a couple of 11 hour days this week and worked for 7 1/2 hours on Saturday (our preparation day).
It is transfer week so we are in for a very full week this coming week.