Two Sweet Little Old Ladies

Last week we celebrated our liberation from covid by packing up the household of Sister A.

During 2022 she had fallen eleven times, so it was time for her to move nearer her family, in a fine suburb on the other side of St Louis. Sister A was our beloved chorister, so her colorful presence will be greatly missed. She enjoyed dressing up, sashaying her walker up the ramp to her place of honor. We honor her devotion to the gospel and to our ward. Her husband died as they were about to begin their senior mission, twenty years ago. She went forward and fulfilled that mission by herself. She always brought more than one dish to a ward dinner. She continued to can, to sew, to bake cakes, and to research her family history. Her walls were covered with framed family photos.

Unfortunately she lived half an hour from most of the members. Our ward is lucky to have fifty folks in attendance on a Sunday — and half of the number are in the rapidly retiring contingent of baby boomers. Our group is so small that we do not have enough cars to transport everyone to Sunday services. We joke about hiring a Baptist church bus… Trying to get our members to the doctor, to the grocery store, to the bank, to the barber — well, that’s no joking matter: we simply do not have the cars or the drivers to get it all done. The irrepressible Sister A once phoned a random name on an old church list. Yes, he lives in her little town, but his heart is elsewhere and he’s asked not to be contacted at this time. Sister A did not know him. She did not know anything about him. She phoned him, and by golly if she didn’t talk him into a ride to the bank. Yes, it’s time for her to live nearer her family. We would hate to see her victimized in any way.

The employed members all provided boxes from places where they work. Sister M had just packed herself up for a spring move to Oklahoma City — to be with family, because she keeps falling down and hitting her head. She generously shared her collection of soft packing materials. We had everything we needed to do a good job of packing for Sister A. It took us 23 hours, plus the substantial help of others. There were dishes to wash, clothes to launder, items to group and organize. We folded and bagged as much clothing as we could and stuffed it into drawers. We gathered jewelry items all over the house and put bagged them together in one drawer. We separated the dry food from the wet food. Sister A could open a phone store, with all the various phones and phone charging cords that we found…

I found that I’m no longer accustomed to being on my feet four or five hours a day. I got some good exercise, and I slept like a log each night. Thank you, Sister A! Elder Z likes to work out, so he enjoyed the work.

In the same week, Sister J realized that she would not be returning to her mobile home. She’s been sick and weak, in assisted living or the hospital, since before Thanksgiving. She is one of our favorite folks to visit, having made the greatest progress in reading the Book of Mormon — and consistently attends Church on zoom. We plugged in her wheelchair, so that it would be ready for the Elders to move. They took her power recliner to the nursing home. We picked up a few sentimental items for Sister J — the thimble and spoon collections from her wall, a few photos, a jewelry cabinet. Her greatest concern was to retrieve various items which she thought her friends could use: a men’s walker, a bath bench, a manual wheelchair, a foldable walker. Another friend collected the rest of her clothes for her. Elder Z cashed out her piggy bank for her, paying extra for all her copper pennies. We phoned the mobile home park this morning and are helping her to change her address.

It was icing on the cake to actually speak with the son of Sister J in another state. He is hoping to move her nearby. We are so glad to hear this! Sister J and I are the same age. In the right setting, she has many more years of life ahead. We believe her son can and will arrange a more appropriate home for her.

Usually on our mission in Missouri, we spend long hours transporting people to clinic and hospital appointments in Washington, MO and St Louis, MO. We are in a vast countryside of small farmers and ranchers — and actually, a number of factories, as well. Some of our members do not have cars. Our hope is that they can regain their health and go back to work… but that will only happen if they keep their medical appointments and work on their lifestyle issues. Our calendar shows that we are driving folks to their doctors three to six times each week. This is a very different sort of mission for us. We’ll let you know how many thousands of miles eventually are added to our car…

Once every six weeks we inspect missionary apartments for safety and cleanliness. Of course the windows and doors must be lockable, the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors must be in working order. Sometimes we repair furniture and screens, or demonstrate how to clean something in the bathroom or kitchen. Our young Elders and Sisters are quick to remind us, “But we didn’t come on our missions to clean house!” For the most part, they keep their apartments in good order. Recently another senior missionary couple has arrived in our stake. So they will take up half the apartments we were inspecting. No complaints about that! They will keep plenty busy assisting the soldiers who are members at Fort Leonard Wood.

The furthest missionary apartment we inspected was on the way to a popular tourist destination, Lake of the Ozarks. This is actually the name of one of the wards in our own stake. Many miles in advance, the tourist traps begin. So rather than photograph actual missionary apartments, we’ll show you this local treasure from Camdenton, MO:

All around us are caves to be toured; endless numbers of fishing and rafting spots in the Meramac River; countless parks and forests. There’s even a small museum for the bandit Jesse James.

But we have no interest in being tourists. Our purpose is to have gospel conversations, invite others to be taught by the young elders and sisters, and then, after baptism, to help them get in the habit of daily prayer and reading the scriptures, in addition to weekly attendance at church. We are living among good, God-fearing folks. We have additional knowledge about Jesus Christ, his gospel, and his instruction for us in these latter days. We may spend most of our time driving folks to medical appointments, but along the way, we have plenty of opportunities to share gospel messages from General Conference talks and Bible videos. We are grateful to be serving in Missouri!