February 12, 2013    This is suppose to be a cold and rainy month but so far it's been a little cool but very little rain.  Mind you, I am not complaining!  I just know that the state really counts on rain during this season to keep everything from drying up the rest of the year.  Eric and Tracie will be flying in late Friday and returning Monday a.m. so we are sure hoping for great weather.  We are so excited to see them.  We spent Friday and Saturday with Amy and family celebrating the twinners birthdays as well as John's.  Alph is our California doctor and we went early hoping that he could get an x-ray of John's hip that has been causing him so much trouble at night.  He wrote him a script for physical therapy and John had his 1st appointment today and was really impressed. When he went into the office there was a big, British bulldog walking around the office while drooling profusely.  (Californians LOVE dogs!)  John asked if that was going to be his therapist and the receptionist replied, "Of course, when his drool lands on patients it has magical healing power!" John, of course, started petting the dog like crazy.  I'm very proud of him for not giving into the temptation to rub his saliva covered hand onto his hip right there in the office.:)  Our weeks usually are about the same as far as activities go.  As we've said previously, it is our responsibility to teach "new member" lessons to those who are newly baptised.  We are working with 2 young, 10 year olds, a boy and a girl, who are so bright.  I must admit, that at times, we become discouraged while working with the adults and wonder if we are making any difference in their lives.  Then we have the privilege of "reteaching" gospel principles to children like these two, and we are quickly reminded that we are affecting the rising generation and that the Lord has great hope and trust in them to follow gospel teachings. The home we went to tonight has gotten quite full!  A brother and his sizable family have moved in indefinitely with the family that we are teaching.  The new family are not members of the church so we hope there will be opportunities in the future to visit with them.   As we were walking up the walkway the children in the home were looking out the window and when they saw us starting yelling, "Grandma and Elderly Downs are here!"  Ahhh, the innocence of children to keep one so humble.  John asked them how old they thought he was and they said, "Hmmmm, 50?"  And we of course, said, "How I wish!"  When we told them our age they couldn't believe it.  They said that in the islands, folks usually die between 50 and 60.  Our big push with unemployment has fizzled.  We worked a lot of hours with 4 folks who we thought had the most potential, with lots of encouragement and guidance, to no avail.  So many of our members do not have phones and so we have to go to their homes and hope that they will be there if we want to talk to them.  Gas has just hit $4.05 here so we really try to organize our visits in geographical units to make the wisest use of our time and our gas.  We have a zone conference this Thursday all day and have been asked to help inspect the missionaries' cars.  Althought neither of us are mechanical, we are pretty good at spotting neglect or abuse of cars.  That knowledge comes from raising 7 teenage drivers. :)  My Sunday School class had their first totally obnoxious Sunday last week.  It was like an undercurrent of wild energy was running through everyone's veins.  The lesson was on the importance of education, temporally and spiritually, and I wanted so badly to get them to think about it and really "get it".  Finally, I said, "O.K., I've had it!  I can't believe I actually asked to teach this class and that I willingly spent several hours preparing the material!"  The class went dead silent.  One of the rowdiest kids said, "Sorry, Sis. Downs, we'll be better next week."  So there is hope, I think. :) The scriptures tell us that "the glory of God is intelligence" and so we continue to learn and grow and hope that we gain wisdom along the way with new found intelligence.  Have a great week!  Since this is the week to show our "love",  see how many times this week you can show your love to anyone you see.  Love ya!!