July 25th 2010

25 July 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings from Texas. We have had another great and busy week. The Center continues to stay busy. We have many new people coming in and then we usually have some that come back several times a week for several weeks as they attend workshops, work on the resumes and do job searches. At any one time we always have quite a variety of nationalities, we are keeping tuned up on different accents ranging from Asian, Indian, African, Costa Rican, Hispanic etc. It is nice to have a full time sister missionary who can speak Spanish because we usually have a couple each week that come in that don’t know much English.
It is still a great experience to help so many people everyday who need some type of assistance or an encouraging word. Many of the candidates who sign on to the web site don’t complete their profile, less than 20% (of the 2300+). They search for jobs and then are done – especially those that sign on from home. As we get more companies and businesses to sign on – which Jack works with – they are able to search for employees, by job titles and keywords in their profile. There is a big disconnect there – so we make phone calls and encourage people to complete their profiles so it can all work together.
We have several people coming in now who are our ‘friends.’ A couple of them like to come in early and join with us in our morning devotional. They say they like to come in and pray with us. Indeed there is a great spirit and feeling there. We are told that the day the prophet came to Dallas and broke ground for the Dallas Temple he also came to the Employment Center/Bishop’s Storehouse and dedicated it (after a remodel) as a temporal temple.
One morning we had a good discussion – those Protestants really know their Bible. One was very anxious to share and join in the conversation. He tried to press his point to another friend, but he kept saying ‘I like to hear what the Sisters say.’ We were finally able to wrap it all up and get to work on job searches.
Church employees as a whole had Friday the 23rd off. So the Storehouse was closed and our managers could have closed the Employment Center that day too. However they decided that most of the world here doesn’t really know about having that for a holiday so we remained open – and stayed busy. I’m pretty sure that there weren’t very many missionaries that got a day off anyway.
Julie went out and got some Texas BBQ for our lunch to make up for it. All who were in the Center were invited to join us.
Saturday after closing we went out to Mansfield and visited Sister Lyle. Her foot is progressing along nicely. She seems to enjoy our visits, a good friend. She has BYU channel so she recorded the Mormon Tabernacle Choir 24th Program. We were able to watch it with her. It was so good to listen to it, that is one thing we miss out here. It was very different this year, whereas it was celebrating the Choirs 100 years but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Donna, were you and Dennis able to go to it this year?
Jack was also able to hang some brackets for her curtains while we were there. She sure appreciated that. I think Jack was glad to have some tools in hand for a few minutes.
Our piano classes were being taught on Tuesday for a while but we moved them back to Wednesday. During that time they were on Tuesday we signed up to feed the young Elders dinner. We finally thought we had it all figured – Jack could drop me off at the apartment right after 5:00, he could then go pick up the Elders (we live outside our boundaries) while I cooked the pizza. He could be back with them by 5:45, I could then leave and be to the Stake Center by 6:00 for piano class. A ward member was to pick them up at our apartment and go help give a blessing. Great plan, it just didn’t work. The Elders were 30 minutes late in getting back to their apartment after their last appointment. They are just so totally drenched after riding their bikes in the humidity that they had to dry off. They didn’t get here till nearly 6:30, of course I couldn’t leave till they got back – but it all worked out fine. The Sisters took care of things at piano class till I got there.
Our piano class numbers have dwindled down, which was to be expected, especially during the summer. We have about 5 children and 5 adults – which actually is a workable number. We are progressing along. There are several of them that have had a little previous experience in music so they are having to learn not only new music concepts but how to say everything in English. In the Spanish culture they don’t identify the notes as ABCDEFG but rather as do re mi fa sol la ti do, so they are having to transfer their thinking over but they are working hard at it and coming along nicely.
Our P-day activity this week was a trip to Austin, the state capitol, with Charlie and Carla. It was a 4 hour drive so we left at 6:00 am. We visited the State Capitol building which was very beautiful. It has a dome much like the one in Washington DC. The Texans say, ‘Not to brag but it is 30 feet higher than the nation’s capitol.’ Then they go on to say, ‘It’s not bragging if it’s the truth!’ It is a very beautiful building with beautiful wood work. We enjoyed it very much.
Then we went to LBJ Library. It was very good too. There also had a display about Walter Cronkite. So we really revisited the history of the 60’s era. We are at that stage now where you can remember the ‘history’ because you lived it.
Another special treat this week was an evening with the Morrell’s playing music. This time Duane Bryner joined us on the cello. It was wonderful to have the harpsichord, recorder and cello all playing together. All the music that Charlie and I have been playing also has a cello part. He is a very good cellist and it was so much fun to put it all together. I loved the sound of it all.
Duane recently made a trip to St. George and visited with relatives there. He doesn’t know Clair Bryner – Dad do you know who Clair’s father would be?
The Russell’s invited us over to dinner this afternoon after church. It was great to enjoy a delicious dinner with them and spend some time visiting. People our age and a little older have really seen the church grow in this area. It’s always interesting to hear some of the stories.
It sounds like the Nelson’s had a fun family reunion this past week. Thanks for the pictures you have shared with us. Save us a spot for next year!
We hope you have a great week. Our love and prayers are with you – we appreciate the love and prayers that you offer in our behalf. It makes a real difference.
Our love,
Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma, Jack & Gaye
Elder & Sister Nelson

~CTR~
Jack n Gaye