Bishop Kruger has given us a new person to work with. Her name is Delores McCloy. She prefers to be called Dollie. She is 67 and lives alone in her apartment. She is somewhat of a hermit and hardly gets out except for the spring and summer months. During this time she sits under a tree outside of her apartment and talks to everyone who stops by. She is skin and bones and hardly eats. Because her apartment is infested with bed bugs she has not fully moved in or at least has not unpacked most of her things. Her health is not good and because of back problems she sits in and sleeps in a recliner. She is delightful to visit with and she is quite vocal about her opinions on things. During one of our visits I came away with a bed bug in my wool suit. So needless to say we need to be careful when we visit.
We have begun holding Family Home Evening every Wednesday night at the church. It is quite the family we have. Both Innocent, Alicia and Ivan come every week. They both need to be taught the basics of the gospel and seem to enjoy the lessons. One of the lessons was on prayer. We asked Alicia to give the opening prayer. She struggled a little through it. What was special was her expression of gratitude for us being in her life and helping her and Ivon. She cried during the prayer which brought a special spirit to the lesson. Another lesson was on reading the scriptures. We gave them their own scriptures and challenged them to use them. We gave Ivan his own Book of Mormon picture book which he seemed to really like. Innocent is a spiritual person and has read and knows key scriptures and stories in both the Old and New Testament.
During the end of October and first of November I spent a lot of time with Innocent in helping him find a new job. We used LDS Employment Services and was able to find him a job with a maintenance company that the FM Group of the church uses for their landscaping and snow removal. Since Innocent has a CDL they were offering him $15.00 an hour for driving the salt truck and plowing the snow. Well as time went on we found out that the job has not turned out the way we thought. He is being paid two different wages; $11.00 an hour for shoveling snow and $15.00 an hour only when he drives the truck. Most of his work is shoveling snow and it has been inconsistent. He expressed a desire to find something with a steady schedule and better environment. There was a recent job fair put on by the LDS Employment Services which he attended on his own. He had several interviews and was hired by Convergys a customer service call in center that companies hire for their customer service. He was hired to take calls from French speaking customers. He starts January 18th. They are starting him at $12.00 an hour and after 7 weeks they will move him to $14.00. He is really excited and we are happy for him. It is good to see that he understands his personal responsibility to be self reliant. We are proud of him that he did this all on his own.
Alicia received an eviction notice and was asked to be out by the end of November. We tried to talk with the management company as to why the notice was given and were told it had to do with incomplete paperwork. We never really found the true reason but the Bishop was able to help get a new place in ward. She moved during the Thanksgiving week while we were at Jason's. She needed to get rid of all her furniture since they too were invested with bed bugs. On our return we were able to find her a new couch and love set, a big leather chair and a chest of drawers. The Bishop helped her with beds.
Since Christmas is a time of giving and service we knew that our families would need help. We want to thank our family, extended family and neighbors for their generous help and contributions. We were able to provide a wonderful Christmas and had money left over so we bought gift cards to Walmart and Target and gave them to the Bishop to give to others in the ward. We enjoyed shopping for Christmas Trees and making decorations for them. Molly helped in making Stars for each tree. She had so much fun making them. Barbara spent most of her time shopping for the gifts and wrapping them. Needless to say she was exhausted when we were all done. But it felt good to serve. It got us both in the spirit of Christmas.
Our home Stake (South Jordan Parkway Stake) each year, on the first week-end in December, hosts a Nativity Festival. Members of the stake donate their personal nativities from all over the world and they are on display. The Festival is full of other activities for the kids, music and sing along from each ward choir. We took Innocent to this which he thoroughly enjoyed. His favorite part was sitting in the chapel listening to the musical performances and sing along. We found out he is quite the singer.
For one of our FHE's we took Innocent, Alicia and Ivan to Temple Square for the lights. As long as Alicia has lived in SLC she has never seen the lights. It was a cold night but we all enjoyed our time.
We also had Innocent over for our family Christmas dinner. He enjoyed talking with Kenny Romney who served a mission to Belgium as well as talking to Molly who is learning French in Kindergarten. Since sweet desserts are new to Innocent he tried one of each. He liked the pumpkin pie the best.
We have included some pictures of our special Christmas this year.
We love serving and this Christmas will always be remembered by our service to others.
