Jan 28, 2015

 YES! I got the whole branch list typed into a data base. I told the Mission President as we were eating dinner with them. He just shook his head and said, “Why? It’s already on the computer.” That burst my bubble and made me feel a little sad, but Rex made me feel better later when he reminded me that we don’t have access to the church computer or their records to play with and sort. Someday President Layton might appreciate our labors.

   Now the foundation is laid, it is time to start having fun with it. We met with the Relief Society President. Our meeting was not what I expected. She and her two counselors were sitting on one side of the table, and she pulled out two lists. One was a list she had typed of sisters who had attended at least once last quarter. The other was a faint list of all the RS sisters, printed out by the clerk, mostly with “unformatted address,” not even mentioning road name or mango tree. We gave our suggestion that visiting teachers should teach in their own areas so they don’t have to walk across town, but she didn’t say anything back to us. She just started going through the big list with her counselors, asking them one by one if they knew the sisters. Rex and I felt like flies on the wall. Finally we were rescued by a phone call from the sisters saying they needed a ride. We excused ourselves, left our things there, and said we would be back. We returned 35 minutes later. Without any words, the President gave us the lists. She looked totally overwhelmed, like a deer in the headlights. We asked how we could best serve her. She mentioned the lists had few addresses, and she needed to know areas so she could assign visiting teachers. We went home and went to work. Rex helped me. We did a search on our data base of only the active sisters from her list. This was harder than we thought it would be, since some sisters still go by their maiden names, and we had them listed with the same last name as their husband. Plus, they didn’t list their whole name for an easy search.  We eventually found them, made corrections, added addresses and a few cell #s, and printed them out by area. We left out a few who had moved and added a couple of actives. The next night, we gave the Relief Society President our revised list. When she saw it, her eyes lit up, she smiled, and she said, “Now we can assign visiting teachers.” We had made a positive difference.

   We made a similar list for the Young Women’s President. She also seemed pleased. The Young Men’s President is less active so we are holding off on that for now.

  The clerk printed off a list of the Young Single Adults in the ward. They haven’t replaced the printer toner yet so the list was almost illegible, but Rex forged through it, and we did a search. We worked on it part of three days, each day until we were too tired and Rex’s eyes were getting hurt. Yesterday, we were again getting tired. I was making some changes before we could go on.

Rex said, “Are you ready?”

“No, wait a minute.”

“Are you ready?”

“No, I have to change this name. Just wait.”

“Are you ready?”

“No.”  

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Ready?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Ready”

“Yes.”

“Ready”

A little exasperated I said, “Yes! Rex, just give me the next name.”

“I am. R E D D Y. The name is ‘Reddy.’” He broke rule #1, but we both had a good laugh over it.

     Rex especially likes the words 15 letters long with only a couple consonants. He found two names he would love to use in melodramas: Mudliar for a villain & Lotta Ham.    

   Last night we finished the list. We were working with 200 names. We left out those who we were told were married or moved. We still have 148 young single adults listed in our branch. We have been asked to get to know them and invite them to weekly activities. As we do, we need to find out who is here, who is married, who has moved, and who needs further education.

    We were asked by our family to back up and clarify this: We were at Zone Conference, and they were talking about leaving the 99 and going in search of the one. Rex turned to an Elder and said, “In our branch, we have 99 coming and 642 who are lost.” The Elder almost fell on the floor laughing, but it is so true. As we have prayed about it, we came up with a plan to present to the Ward Council. It is called “Operation Lost Sheep.” We will be asking the help of every branch member to reach out and bring the lost sheep back into the fold. With their assistance, we will verify and update the records. We will see who has moved and send their records. We will see who has died and record it. Then we will count those who are left, befriend them, and bring them back into activity. That is our goal. That is our vision.

Love you all.