I'll start first with the end of the week. On Friday we headed out early for Rapid City and our much anticipated appointment with the Rheumatologist. The final diagnosis is Polymyositis Rheumatica. It is not an autoimmune disease but it is a disease where the immune system over reacts and causes a great amount of joint pain. The treatment is steriods and since that is what Elder Lindsey has been on we will now start the very slow (over the next six months) process of weaning him off the steroids and thus avoid the problems that flare up with long term steroid use. The doctor feels that if we wean him off the steroids slowly we have less of a chance of the disease flaring up again. We will see the doctor again in three months just to follow up but Elder Lindsey is feeling better every day and is getting his strength back. Thank you for your prayers and your calls and messages. We have felt your love and feel very blessed.
After our appointment we found the mission office and stopped in and visited with two of the couples serving in the office.
Elder and Sister Sampson from Lehi, Utah work the front office.
Elder and Sister Uluave from Provo Utah. She is the mission nurse and he handles referrals, gas charges and other missionary expenses.
Next we went to Walgreens and got our flu shots then on to McDonalds for a quick lunch. After lunch we headed to a tire place where we got new tires on the Tahoe. Then since we were in the big city we took advantage and did our grocery shopping at Walmart stocking up on canned goods and refilling the freezer with meat. We spent Friday night at the mission home and were very excited to have the chance to see the movie "Meet the Mormons." The movie itself isn't showing anywhere close to us and because young missionaries aren't allowed to go see it in the theatre the Mission Presidents all got copies. We can't wait to be able to get a DVD to show here in Rosebud. We loved the movie, the stories were wonderful and it was so well done.
This picture is looking up the driveway to the mission home.
Elder Lindsey at the front door of the mission home.
Us with President and Sister Andersen. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get to spend some one on one time with these good people.
The mission home is huge. They can easily sleep over 20 people without pulling out air mattresses and during transfer weeks they do just that! Sister Andersen does all the cooking and laundry for the large groups that spend time there. Serving as Mission President isn't for sissies!
Saturday morning we were up early and after stopping at Lowe's and and Walmart (again) we headed for home. This time when we arrived at Wall we decided to take the 35 mile loop that goes through the Badlands National Park. It was so beautiful, we stopped at a couple of overlooks and put others on our list for the next time we take this drive.
The pictures are beautiful but they don't begin to do it justice. You'll just have to come visit so you can see for yourselves. The real highlight of the day was seeing these bighorn rams walking down the side of the road. We've seen a lot of wildlife in our travels but this was a first for us.
We arrived home about 3:00pm on Saturday. It took awhile to unpack the car and when we were done we both agreed there is jut no place like home!
Our early part of the week was spent getting the motorhome ready for winter, cleaning the church and visiting a couple people who will benefit from attending our ARP classes. On Tuesday I attended the Relief Society cooking class where I was able to meet a couple more of the sisters and today at church it was great to be able to greet them as new friends.
Elder Lindsey built new stairs...watch for the finished product in next weeks blog!
This is part of what we've done to winterize the motorhome, 10ml visqueen on wood frames attached to the motorhome with non residue duck tape. It was a lot of work but hopefully will pay off when the temperatures drop.
On Sunday the phrase "We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto" goes through my head because things are very different in this little branch than what we have at home. Yet each Sunday has been special and the opportunity to be a part of it is such a blessing in our lives. Today at Branch Council we talked about specific things we can do to help reactivate the members who aren't attending right now. Rosebud has enough members to be a ward if even half of them were active. There is much work to do.
One wonderful thing that happened in our family this week was that our granddaughter Kati finished her 18 month mission and arrived home from Ukraine on Wednesday. We talked to her on Facetime for a few minutes. We are so proud of Kati and her commitment to serve our Heavenly Father. We can't wait to hug her!
We hope you have a wonderful week. Our love and prayers are always with you.
Elder and Sister Lindsey
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