November 28th 2010

28 November 2010

We have much to be thankful for. We are serving in a wonderful place with great people and have many opportunities to serve others on a daily basis. It’s somewhat different than what we thought we would be doing when we submitted our papers to be missionaries but we know the Lord knows us personally and has put us in a spot to learn and grow in many ways.

Monday and Tuesday of this past week were busy helping people who came into the Center needing and wanting help in their job search. We helped people sign on to ldsjobs.org, build a resume, rework a resume they’ve already begun, work on their career plan, encourage and help them identify companies and businesses where they would like to work, etc., etc. Sister Lyle has been out this week recovering from her foot surgery. She manages the front desk/office procedures so I helped there. She taught me how to do the daily updated reports of job placements – that has been a fun thing to do, to see people who have gotten jobs for that day. So far we have had 127 this month in this area; Julie likes to have at least somewhere between 125 and 150.

Last Sunday we went out to Weatherford 1^st Ward after having called the candidates throughout the week. I wasn’t sure if we had really done any good and if the efforts were worth the time – maybe we should spend our energies doing something more worthwhile. However, when we got to the Center Monday morning there was an email from a man whom I had contacted earlier in the week and then we met at church. He expressed gratitude for our effort in coming to visit the ward and the work that we were doing and that we really were making a difference. It was really nice to get such a note from him. Then on Tuesday Elder Nelson saw the Bishop of that ward in the Storehouse while he was getting some food orders for people in his ward and he told him how glad he was that we had visited their ward. So I guess we’ll just keep on keepin’ on.

We were sad to hear that Nathan Mahana moved to southeast Texas with his parents yesterday. His father lost his job a couple of weeks ago. They have a house in the southern part of the state so they moved there. No more practicing my sign language! He was really a great help to us at the ERC, especially during this time of a new website and the great need of getting jobs posted on it. He has typed hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of jobs on the site. He has given a great service. He has such a great sense of humor too, he will be missed!! He was one person who could just go to work and get so much work done without all of the distractions the rest of us face.

I believe that last week I mentioned the two new men that were hired to help with Employer Development, Elder Nelson’s area of expertise. Already one of them has been hired on a new job! We are excited for him, which is one of the goals for them to work on their own job search while they are doing work for the Center. Since they are hired as part time/temporary they are told to take advantage of a job opportunity if it comes their way. Now to look for another person to take his place. Of course that is Julie’s job not ours.

Wednesday morning was very slow, no one came in at all so Julie P. told us we were going to close at noon. So of course at 11:30 people started coming. I also took a call from a Bishop in Waco who needed some assistance with the website. I answered his questions, directed him to articles that I thought would be helpful to him and his ward council, and then followed up with some email attachments for the Ward Clerk regarding the necessary steps in MLS.

By 12:30 we were able to walk away. Since the Center was closed Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the Thanksgiving holidays, we got permission to travel down to the Houston area. We were very glad to get an early start on our trip. We stayed in Houston Wednesday night. Thursday we visited the NASA Space Center. We didn’t think very many people would be there on Thanksgiving and were surprised at how many were there. However, not many of them spoke English, it sounded like they were from all parts of the world. It was very interesting and enjoyable. There were quite a few films about different aspects of the space program, displays, etc. The highlight was going on a tram to the actual buildings where they train the astronauts, seeing past shuttles, rockets and seeing mission control center. The International Space Station orbits the earth 6 times a day and travels at 17,500 miles an hour, or 500 miles a second. That’s some pretty fast travel!

We spent most of the day there, then traveled back to our motel and went across the street to ‘Cracker Barrel’ for our Thanksgiving dinner, not quite like you get at home but it tasted pretty good. We missed the cranberry relish and pomegranate salad for sure. We did have several invitations for dinner here in Dallas, the Morells, the Moalas and Kim Heaton but our minds were set.

Thursday evening 3 crew members traveled back to earth from the Space Station, landing in Russia. In Houston they have a NASA TV station that we happened to find. It was interesting to watch, having just been there earlier that day. They showed Houston Mission Control Center and talked about many other things that we had just learned about.

One thing they brought up was all of the activity and exercises that the astronauts have to do while in space. As soon as they leave the earth’s atmosphere and no longer have gravity, they immediately start to lose bone mass, their blood rises and other things happen because of the lack of gravity. They aren’t sure if babies could be born in space and if they would develop normally. Interesting that it appears that you have to be ‘on the earth’, with earthly conditions such as gravity to have our bodies develop and function normally.

Also some very happy news for Gloria, she called and told us that her family had just called her and invited her to Thanksgiving dinner with them. She was so thrilled and we were so happy for her. We just love her, she’s such a great lady.

Friday morning we traveled down to Galveston to look around. It had turned off very cold, windy and rainy but we were able to drive around and see some of the interesting sites. There is a large historic district with many old homes and mansions. They have a lot of history there. They had a museum about off shore drilling that we went through that was interesting. It is an interesting port city; we enjoyed eating seafood along the docks. We saw quite a few things on this trip that we are not usually exposed to.

After lunch we traveled to Port Arthur along a string of islands. To get there we had to take a ferry to get to the islands. It was very fun, even if it was freezing cold. Most of the homes are built on stilts. Galveston and this area was very hard hit by Hurricane Ike a couple of years ago but they have most of it rebuilt. However, there are still some roads and buildings that are closed.

The thing we enjoyed most about Port Arthur was getting there, it was a very interesting drive along the coast. They have some very tall bridges, they have to be built high enough for the ships to pass underneath.

Here in Texas most things end in ‘er,’ or ‘est.’ They are not bragging, just telling the truth. Saturday morning we went to the San Jacinto Monument. It looks much like the Washington monument in Washington DC, with the exception of a star on the top. AND it is ‘taller’ than the Washington monument by several feet. We were able to go up to the top and enjoy the great view of the city and ports.

I’ll attempt to tell a little of the history as good as a non-history person can tell it. The Texans were defeated at the Alamo, including Davy Crockett, Bowie. The next battle was fought at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, their battle cry was, ‘Remember the Alamo!’ This was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution, led by Sam Houston. The Texas army defeated Santa Anna’s Mexican forces in a fight that lasted just eighteen minutes. About 700 of the Mexican soldiers were killed and 730 captured, while only nine Texans died.

Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, was captured the following day and held as a prisoner of war. Three weeks later, he signed a peace treaty. This paved the way for Texas to become an independent country. It also paved the way for nearly all of the western states to be part of the United States. Prior to that time that area was all a part of Mexico.

Interesting to think of what was going on in Pioneer history at that time. It seems to me that there was a lot more at stake than giving the families some much needed money. It was very important to our history for this to be the outcome. Brigham Young was indeed inspired to support the cause by sending the Mormon Battalion.

Also in this area was the Battleship Texas. We were able to tour the ship and enjoyed taking a view into ship life. Brian has told us stories when he was aboard ship for many months at a time, it makes it a little more personal and interesting.

We were able to make it back to Dallas and the apartment by 6:00, glad to be back after seeing many interesting things. It was good to stay busy and kept us from getting too homesick. It would have been hard to be in the apartment for 3-4 days without our missionary work to do.

It sounds like family at home had some great family get togethers, we so grateful for all of you and love and miss you so much.

I was able to catch up with Stake President Blake today and get the final signatures for application for the Harmon grant keyboards. I think it’s ready to send off now. I think these two ladies are very deserving. President Blake was not aware of what has been going on but seemed very pleased with the program and it’s progress.

We hope you all have a wonderful week. Back to work tomorrow.

Our love,

Grandma & Grandpa Nelson, Dad & Mom, Jack & Gaye

Elder and Sister Nelson

Jack n Gaye