Jan 23, 2011

Sister Nelson and Sister Morell in Austin Tx

23 January 2011

We have some wonderful news this week! Monday, the 17^th of January, Dustin and Laurens new little baby boy arrived. His name is Luke Stanley Nelson, we are so blessed to have another little boy added to our family. From what we hear Mom and baby are doing good and the other children, especially Allie, are excited to have a new brother.

We’re so glad to hear of the progress that is being made with the Dalley’s house. It’s so humbling and we are so grateful for all of the assistance that has been given to them by so many people. We heard they finished up with the insurance adjustors and were able to have a work day yesterday. About 50 people came to help and they were able to clean out their house down to where only the studs of the walls are all that is remaining inside. What a huge effort!!!

I’m not sure how the days and weeks seem to go by so quickly and so slowly all at the same time. Sometimes it seems like it was a lot longer than just a week ago that some of these events took place, but here it is the last week in January already.

We, all Church employees, and the missionaries who work with the church employees, had this past Monday off for Human Rights Day. We kept things pretty low key, enjoyed hearing the news about the new grandson and did things here at the apartment, I even had a chance to do some cooking, that doesn’t happen very often at all. Strangely enough I miss it a little bit. We were able to go out in the evening for dinner with Charlie and Carla, and then play music with the Bryner’s.

Tuesday we made up for the day off, it was extremely busy at the Employment Center. We had a lot of people come in and for most of them it was their first time in so we spend more time with each one individually to see where they are and what they could use some help with. Sister Lyle has not recovered from her pneumonia yet so she is still out; also Sister Phelps, who had shoulder surgery last Fall, has had some trouble with her shoulder, it seems she has a stress fracture. They had some doctors appointments Tuesday morning and weren’t able to come in till after 3:00 pm. So Elder Nelson, Donna and I were kept very busy that day.

Actually Wednesday it was basically the three of us working on the floor too, since Wednesday is the Pehlp’s P-day. It was busy but not too bad.

One of the most unusual candidates that I worked with this week was a lady in her fifty’s from Zimbabwe. She spoke pretty good English but had a very strong accent, if I really concentrated I could understand her. She is a very sweet lady who wanted to find work as a live in baby sitter or help care for an elderly person.

Friday was our Career Workshop. We had two people in it, one who could read a little and the other who couldn’t read much at all so we had to take a more ‘picturesque’ approach. It all worked and came together.

We had a lot of job notifications come through on email this week, however it was so busy that I didn’t have much time to work on getting the jobs posted on the website. We had a volunteer come in Friday to work for 4 hours. If they have any computer skills we have them help us post the jobs on the website. This lady had ‘some’ knowledge of computer. She didn’t know how to copy and paste but was willing to learn. I worked with her for quite a long time but she got the hang of it. I had her up at the front desk on a computer near where I was working so I could be available to help with questions as needed. Toward the end of her stay she mentioned that she is also looking for work and that she had tried to apply for jobs on line but many of them require you to copy and paste your resume. She wasn’t able to do it, therefore she was unable to complete the applications. She was very happy to have learned this new skill. You never know what it is that may help some one, sometimes you just happen on to it – or better said, the Lord leads you to it.

Saturday ended up being quite a slow day as far as candidates coming in to the Center. It made it nice because I was able to get a lot accomplished as far as posting jobs. Elder Nelson and I worked together, I would post the job then he took the names of the companies and did some research on them to see if they were ones we would want to have added to the site. For example we discovered that Peterbilt’s main office is in Denton, and they are doing a lot of hiring right now.

Saturday afternoon Charlie and Carla invited us to go to their granddaughter’s 6^th grade volleyball game, which by the way was very good, those little girls are very skilled. The 6^th graders beat the 7^th grade team even. Mark Morell is the coach so everyone was happy. We stopped and got pizza and then went to the monthly book club meeting. They decided that for next month they would ready the book about Boulder Dam.

On Thursday, our P-day, we went to Austin with Charlie and Carla. Charlie had an organ in a church that needed some repair work done. We dropped him off there then Carla, Jack and I went to a Texas museum down by the capitol building that was really interesting. We drove the truck down because the lady at this church has a reed organ that needed some repair work done on it. We were able to load it in the back of the truck and bring it back to Plano for Charlie to work on. We were so happy to do some small thing for the Morells. It seems like they give us so much and that we are not able to give back even a small portion in relationship.

Paul Leatham as the Ward Mission Leader was involved with the confirmation of two convert baptisms today, so we know that he is busy and helping the preaching of the gospel move forward in this area.

I read an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal about the unemployment rate in Nevada. It has gone up again to 14.9%. It said that people have been concerned about how to survive the recession, now they are trying to figure out how to make the recovery that is going on in some areas work to their benefit. One thing that people are doing is moving to other areas, such as Texas! I remember that the first few months after we arrived that people were quite taken back, both members and especially nonmembers, that we would be sent FROM Nevada, who has the highest unemployment rate, TO Texas, who has the lowest unemployment rate. As it turns out, we are helping the people of Nevada, we’re just helping them find jobs in Texas!! (Along with several other states, such as Utah and California.)

Well that about wraps it up for this week. We hope that everyone has a good, safe, productive week. That this week we will all be a little better, stronger and/or smarter than last week. We know that it is through the challenges that we grow and we know the Lord loves each of us and watches over us.

The Bishop's Storehouse Complex, Dallas Texas

Our Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandpa & Grandma, Jack & Gaye

Elder & Sister Nelson

Jack n Gaye