11 April 2010

11 April 2010

Greetings Dear Ones,
I hope this has been a good week for you. We love you and miss you but we are enjoying our time here in Texas in the service of our Lord in this part of his vineyard. We have enjoyed getting messages and photos of the grand kids enjoying the fair. The fair has always been a great family time for us – I hear that many of the Nelson’s have carried on the tradition, that is wonderful!
This is a beautiful time of the year here, but then Spring is wonderful every where I suppose. On our P-day we traveled out to Athens and Tyler, Texas where saw some beautiful gardens, the azaleas are especially beautiful and many other bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, iris….. There are also many wildflowers growing along the road sides and in vacant lots. There were field after field of yellow flowers, and the blue bonnets are a Texas favorite (their state flower).
We were able to go with Charlie and Karla to an organ concert in Fort Worth. Joyce Jones was the organist and she was incredible! Her pedal work was truly amazing. Her feet played as fast as her fingers.
Today was the Dallas 6th Ward ‘Easter Sunday’ or at last the day that we remembered and celebrated Easter, last week being General Conference. Jack and I sang with the choir, they had the youth and primary also sing some songs and it was all very nice. A great spirit of reverence and joy was felt there.
Yesterday after the Center closed at 2:00 we went to the Dallas Arboretum, it was the last day of the ‘Spring Blooms’. It was very busy and we got there an hour before closing, had to take a bus from several blocks away, stand in line for long periods of time but we felt like it was worth it, so beautiful. Word had it that Laura Bush was there earlier in the day. Brother Labum’s daughter (that had the twins) got a picture of her.
Jack’s knee has started to hurt him again quite a bit so he has decided to start the process to see about getting the injections again. We pay a healthy sum for additional health insurance while here so he might as well use it as he needs it. So he saw the doctor, well someone in the doctors office and tomorrow (Monday), he will have an x-ray etc etc.
We had a busy week at the Center. Many things going on and many people came in. Doctor and Sister Hanks have some job leads that look real promising for them. It’s wonderful to watch them and others, from when they first come in, in despair, not knowing what to do, where to turn next, then seeing them change from that point to one of hope and encouragement as they prepare themselves and make steps towards getting that next job.
The Hanks have 8 children and two of them are needing help with getting a job or getting better jobs. They are living in other parts of the United States but they got them to go into Church Employment Centers in their area. However they have not developed all the same resources as our Center has so we have ended up working with them long distance on a couple of things.
Our managers here have been amazing in what they offer here. We are very fortunate to be here with them, serving and learning.

Tuesday we had a volunteer fellow come in, retired and in his 80’s, he is a Greek/Italian, speaks 5 languages, very intelligent, has made a better than ‘good’ living. He and Jack had a great time visiting. Jack learned a lot from him. This man was working in Iran because he spoke Arabic. He was on the plane from Tehran to Beirut when it was high-jacked years ago. The demands the terrorists were making were not being met so they took a young man in a military uniform that was sitting 2 seats behind him, brought him to the front of the plane and shot him. They opened the door and threw his body out onto the tarmac. This man carried with him a great hatred of the Muslim people because of this. He wanted to get rid of this but was never able to do so until 30 years ago when he joined the church. He was able to leave these feelings in the past and move on with his life.
One thing that I thought was very impressive about him however, even though he had spent his life as a top paid executive, he was there to serve, he was willing to do whatever needed to be done. What needed to be done was a menial task of sorting some boxes and putting papers and posters in order. He was more than glad to do it and was happy to be there.
The Hanks were in also that day and they were able to discuss with this man about their son who has a degree in Mid-Eastern Studies. He is wondering what direction to go in his career right now and the volunteer was able to share a lot of insight with them. It’s amazing how it all works out.
A young man came in earlier this week, a nonmember but knew about the cannery. He wanted to buy some wheat, grains, etc. He is so amazed at what we have here. He knows that many of the other food banks in the area are out of food. He is working and has an income but wants to build his supply of food for a rainy day. He’s impressed that we have been doing this for years. When asking how come we have food and others don’t it was explained to him that we have our own suppliers, or canneries, cattle ranches etc. He was really amazed. I wanted to shout ‘It’s because we have a living prophet who guides us.’ Sometimes we forget and take these blessing for granted and its nice to be reminded of how blessed we are.
A little report on some of our previous candidates – Wayne, a homeless fellow who came in frequently and with whom we became good friends with. Kristi and Jill were able to meet him when they were here. He got a pretty good job and now he has gotten an even better job so we hardly ever see him anymore. I guess that’s a good thing. Well of course it’s a good thing.
Things are not going so well for Roberto, he may have to find a shelter to stay in and receive some help from the state.
When people are members you have so many more resources. They can meet with their bishop and receive additional help, what a wonderful cushion we have. We –(I, the managers already know) have to learn more about the city, government agencies to be able to refer our friends to if their circumstances become desperate. If people come in and they are hungry we feed them from the store house but we don’t send food out of the storehouse. That requires a Bishop’s food order. Well most of you know that already.
Each Wednesday Julie has a web-i-nar where she visits with different groups of people. Such as ward and/or Stake Employment Specialists, small business, BYU Management Society and other miscellaneous topics. This last Wednesday was for the Stake Employment Specialists. Each quarter we open the Center for the people who can and want to come in and we meet together in person. It was nice to meet many of the Stake Employment Specialists that we know by name but haven’t met in person. What a great group of people.
There are some more revisions on the web site that are expected to take place the end of this week. We have to learn about them, then get the word out to the leaders. One of the big changes is that the Bishops will be more involved in giving the capabilities for the Ward leaders, where up to this point we have done that. This puts the Bishops in the driver’s seat for moving the program forward in their ward and will help to keep them in the loop of what is going on.
Some people want to remain more anonymous but be able to use the site. They don’t want the ward leaders to know who they are and any information about them. With the new revision each person will have the ability to remain private and not share their information. I spoke with one such person yesterday. I was very upfront about it, told him exactly who is notified if he signs on etc. I explained that the benefit of other people knowing is that you have additional people helping you. He wasn’t very sure about it all. I told him to wait a week before he signed on and then he could keep his information private. That would give him some time to think about the direction he wanted to go. Usually the case in this type of situation is that someone has not been active and has not been in the church for a while and needs the help and benefit of the program but is not really ready to have that close of contact with leaders and members yet. Everyone is in a different place and that’s okay.
Saturday was the ‘New Leader Training’ for the entire area. Donna usually gives this presentation for Employment but she was out of town. Julie was doing a youth conference, the Phelps were doing a workshop in a stake. Jack was asked to do the New Leader Training – which is for all new leadership in the wards and stakes. He had me help a bit too but he did a very good job.
After that was finished I was asked to do some training with the Development Specialist (about 10 people). While we were doing this we were also answering phones, making copies for other leader’s presentations and assisting the people who came into the center. It was quite busy at times but we made it!!
Earlier this week the Sister missionaries had asked us if we could go out on splits with them in the evenings. I took a few days to ponder and pray about this. One part of me wants to say ‘of course, we would love to do that.’ The other side is reality.
Where as they have those morning hours to plan their day and to study, we are up first thing at the Center – and then we are pretty much engaged every minute. If we get a 10 minute lunch break we have done good. The evenings become important for us to unwind, prepare for upcoming presentations, study, both scriptures and employment concepts, etc. So we had to tell them that we weren’t available to do that on a regular basis. Besides that we are past the century mark and we just plain get tired some times. I in fact had to go in late on Monday because I was so tired. Jack came and picked me up at noon and by then I was ready to go.
Also this week we have had several people who got introduced to us from coming in for the Census testing. We have one more week of that and then the testing will be over – hopefully they will then start hiring! It seems like there are always new experiences and more things to learn. One of the gals who came in for some help is looking for a job as a bartender and/or work at Hooters. So I got to learn something about what it takes to get your license in Texas to serve alcoholic beverages. Not something we encounter everyday at an LDS employment agency. Do you think Salt Lake will raise their eyebrows when they see some of our job placements?
Well this is getting long but there is another experience that I would like to share. I am beginning to worry about so many people reading this, I am rather a private person, someone who knows me and understands where I’m coming from I am okay with but Jack noticed that someone from Thailand is reading our blog – for heaven’s sake, how does this happen?? Well please take everything in the spirit of love and testimony that I share it with.
Two things happened, several days ago a young man (I realize that is relative- to me that is someone in their 30’s) called into the Center; Jack answered the phone, he was the front desk operator at that moment. The fellow said that he had a criminal background and he was needing some help and wondered if anyone would we be willing to work with him. Elder Nelson explained to him that we try to help everyone and he was welcome to come in.
Now lets go back to last weeks Wednesday night training. Julie (manager) shared some thoughts with us. It looks like my notes are at the Center but I’ll just wing it. Basically she described 3 words. If we ‘help’ someone it comes from the place that we know something that they don’t and we are therefore smarter and/or more knowledgeable than them; therefore it becomes part of our ego in our ability to help. If we ‘fix’ someone then it assumes that they are in some way broken, therefore we take on the assumption that we have the ability to fix them, again a part of our ego. However, if we serve someone we are working from the same plane and letting a higher power assume the role of ‘helping and/or fixing.’ (If anyone is actually interested in these thoughts I could write them from my notes and make better sense of this.)
Thursday evening I decided to stay up a little later and go over some training notes that I have from the Center regarding helping people with criminal backgrounds. I took my highlighter and marked the parts that I thought important.
Thursday Julie and I were at the front desk going over some things when a young man came in needing assistance, he upfront volunteered that he had a criminal background. I looked at Julie, thinking, knowing that she would be able to help better than I but instead she said, Oh Sister Nelson will help you.
We went into our office for the initial interview that we have to get to know people, where they are at and what guidance we may be able to offer. I was fearful because I didn’t really feel capable of helping him. But I remembered the things we had been taught the previous week and tried to work from there. I really had quite a profound experience. I was not able to ‘help’ him – from the above definition because I really didn’t have the knowledge to do so anyway. I didn’t have the ability ‘to fix’ either. Therefore we visited on the basis of how might I be of service to him – letting the spirit do the real teaching.
He shared with me his situation and how he got to be where he is now, he was very open and very humble about everything. I asked him how he heard about us. He replied that he was going through the yellow pages and calling everyone that was listed in the job/career categories. When he told them he had a criminal background they all told him that they couldn’t help him. But when he called here the man was kind and said they tried to help everyone so he came to us.
I was grateful that I had taken the time the night before to do some studying and I pulled out my marked copy and we went through it. There were other places and resources available that he can go for help also and it was wonderful to witness this beaten down fellow as his face and eyes would light up at times when he discovered something that would be of benefit to him. I was straight forward with him from the beginning and told him I didn’t know and understand a lot of things and would need to learn from him also. We probably spent a good 2 hours going over things. I felt the spirit very strongly in the whole process and if at any time I became nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to do or say the right thing to help him, I simply reminded myself that I wasn’t there to ‘help’ or ‘fix’, my role was to serve.
Well this has been a loooooong letter today. We have had a very full week with many unusual experiences. So grateful we are missionaries and have that extra measure of help to serve our fellowman.
One last experience I will share with you, if anyone is still hanging on to this, I had a conversation that I haven’t had in 5 full months. A Ward Employment Specialist came in wanting some assistance. We went over where we were from, she said she didn’t know where Logandale was, she only knew where Mesquite was – close enough. Come to find out her mother is a Reber from Mesquite, her Grandmother is Daisy Reber AND she is a descendant of Dudley Leavitt so we share Sarah Sturdevant as a great gr, gr,…Grandmother. We are both related on Dad’s side and on Mom’s side. Met a double cousin right here in Texas. We had a fun visit.
We look forward to another busy week this week. In fact it doesn’t look like we will get a full day for a P-day this week but we will be happy for the half a day and for the many opportunities to learn, grow and serve. But we’ll save that for another week. 
With this we send our love to each of you. Thanks for your support, love, encouragement and prayers. Thanks for staying in touch, missionaries love those notes from home and friends.
Our love and prayers are with you,
Grandpa & Grandma, Mom & Dad, Jack & Gaye
Elder & Sister Nelson

Jack n Gaye