Helping Hand

We spent the afternoon over at a members house (Annie Pyrum). She is a widow raising 3 semi-handicapped granddaughters. They are very active and regulars at our FHE. Annie used to be a Evangelist Pentecostal preacher. She is raising her oldest sons 3 daughters, Olivia, Selina, and Mary Kathrine, 19,17,15. Their mom is a crackhead and the dad is in prison. Annie has full custody and therefore full responsibility. She is also taking college class over the computer so she can get an office job in social services. Her physical health is not very good and has a difficult time getting around. She wants a job that she can sit at a desk. Her house is heated with oil. She has a tank that holds 300 gallons but can only afford $100.00 worth which is about 37 gallons. She was having a difficult time trying to light the furnace, so she called Doug and asked him to come take a look at it. He was able to learn how to bleed the tank so that the furnace would stay lit. Surprisingly even tho it has been raining off and on for a couple of days, pouring right now, the temp has been in the 60's and hi 50's. Doug is looking forward to next week. The temp is suppose to plummet and be cold enough for the rain to turn to snow.

Yesterday we spent down in Port Jervis, 22 miles south of us, at the Doctor with a young Elder. he is going to have hernia surgery and will be staying with us to re-coop. We are so happy to be able to help Pres. Searle and his wife, as they are so extremely busy with ALLLLLL the mission stuff.

Last night we were able to help Crystal McCune with a few things in her new apartment. She has been living in a scary Motel for the past month waiting for section 8 inspectors to inspect the apartment she found so she can move in to it. Crystal is on government assistance because of her health. She has a deteriorating back and can hardly get around. She has two little girls, Deloris 7 and Kylie 5. Her son is in a juvenile detention home in a neighboring town, Jon is 15 and her oldest daughter Rena who is 17 and married with two kids just moved down to Alabama. She is from the west coast but here in the east to escape a very abusive ex-husband. She is so excited about her new place that to me is veryyyyyyyyyyy scary. I guess a little water and some paint, a vacuum and mop can make a world of difference. (MAYBE!). Anyway, we went to walmart to get her a few necessities. That's is something we are good at. All her possessions have been in the motel with her and her two girls. It only took about three car loads trips to move all her stuff. I don't think I will ever complain again. It took me days to just pack some boxes to mail when we moved out here for our mission, and weeks to prepare our house for our kids to move in. (This was the little family we tied quilts for in FHE)