She Thought We Deserved Flowers...

A lovely lady in our office felt that teaching our first Career Workshop and living to tell about it was cause to celebrate, so she gave Sister Peterson and I flowers. How did she know I love roses?! Our caseload is getting larger and larger with no end in sight....so many good people trying to find work. We are into a schedule with attending the temple...every Saturday morning at 9 a.m. We stopped by the mall to see Ashley again. She was warm and receptive but since her family moved and was busy settling in, she has not had time to read from the BoM. Last night we took Oscar and Karina (who were LDS as children) and their two boys to a Mexican Fiesta Fund Raiser for the scouts in the Spanish Branch. Oscar said that when he is without work (construction) he feels like the sinking Titanic with water coming up to his neck and into his mouth. Pretty vivid description. A Russian gentleman came in yesterday....he lost his job of four years because his wife got mad at him and had him thrown in jail. I recognize I hear one side of the story, but even if part of what he told me was true....the Jewish mother who favors the oldest son.....yes, and there is more, but I will refrain. We had a PRONET meeting (networking) Thursday night at our building. One of the interesting comments from the speaker that stuck with me was that employers are hiring people who are already working or recently fired, yes fired. They want someone they don't have to train and who is already up to speed....doing more with less. Now just try and get that valuable experience! I am telling some of my candidates, with my boss's approval, to volunteer to do an unpaid internship for two weeks, or a month and see if it turns into full time. Today we traveled south to visit two wards and promote our services. We enjoy the sameness and the uniqueness of the wards we visit. One branch is getting a brand new building because activity dropped 30% when they were assigned to a ward half an hour away...people just can't afford the gas in many instances. They were formerly meeting in a renovated bank. Here are some acronymns I learned today: PUSH: Pray until something happens; OWTS: Obedience Warms the Soul. How many ITL's have you had this week? Invitations to Learn. Not surprisingly, the number of people baptized increases with the number of ITlL's accomplished. One young single mother in RS asked everyone to pray for her as she has an job interview at a fast food place on Tuesday. When Sister Peterson and I were leaving church to return home we saw her mother with the hood up on the car in the parking lot...walking into the building to get assistance. It is just hard to see so many people with basic needs challenges! Imagine if any one of us were facing the prospect of being turned out of our homes onto the street with nowhere to go! I cannot wait for the day when we fully live the law of Consecration and the United Order!

The First One is Behind Us

Tuesday and Wednesday Sister Peterson and I taught our first Career Workshop. 27 people signed up and 11 came, which actually thrilled our bosses! If you consider that the majority of these people came discouraged and left upbeat and confident, then we did alright, but I won't feel satisfied that we have done our job until they each find a job! Today I worked with a lovely sharp accountant from Guatemala. She has superb skills and 10 years of experience, but it is the language barrier that is holding her back. I think we did a good job of organizing her resume' and showcasing her considerable skills and experience that will have employers take a second look. Then there was the lady who has 20 years of experience in the air freight industry with good skills...she was flown out to CA by the hiring company only to be passed over because in the final analysis they wanted to pay near entry level salary to this highly qualified worker. My heart is very tender towards my sweet illegal and her husband. They are the parents of two boys and she is desperate to find work, but the laws have tightened considerably in Georgia. He was working construction in North Carolina, but that job ended. Then there is my brilliant Dr. Basra who is probably on his 15th interview....all of them have been high-powered. There again, he has done some amazing things during his career, like being the only expert in the united states in certifying detector tubes, I know....but sometimes when we are practicing for an interview he does not get some of the subtleties of what it is the interviewer really wants to know. My the contributions he can make once someone gets past that. And how about the former RS President who after 15 years of struggling with her schizophrenic husband who won't take medication is now spending her nights in a Womans' Shelter?! How does that happen? Life is so hard for so very many, but I got to talk to Rylee tonight and her kitty sleeps on her head, so all is right with the world.

Sling Shot Success

Today for our "Saturday Afternoon Public Planting", since it rained, we decided we would go to the mall and plant ourselves where the mothers let their children play. At our mall, there was a variation on that theme....a Sling Shot"bungee jumping up and down $5 for 5 minutes" activity. There were no parents around except a father who was filming his son jumping, so we started talking to Ashley, the attendant. We had a good discussion about the Savior and the Restoration and Ashley ended up accepting the BoM I had in my purse and said she would read it. Her grandmother is the pastor of the church she attends, so....but she is a sweet girl, and Heavenly Father is always in charge of what happens next. As a matter of fact, after Ashley accepted the BoM it became very busy with no let up, so that tells me right there Heavenly FAther has blessings in store for Ashley. It was my companion's turn, but the lady she sat by on a bench was not interested in religion. (She was trying to figure out why the hospital system she is over with 5 hospitals in the system just let 400 people go when they are making plenty of money!!!) We felt very blessed and happy and told Ashley we would stop by next Saturday to see how she felt about what she was reading. Please pray for Ashley...and for us.

Settling Into a Normal Routine at the ERC

This past week I spent a great deal of time on the phone following up with job candidates who registered as long ago as 2009. I have three hundred more to contact before moving on to 11 other stakes. I am not the only one calling, so that is encouraging. I found a sweet married mother of two little boys who came with her into the office while we worked up a resume for her. She is illegal and originally comes from Guatemala, and....was baptized into the church as a young girl. Her husband is evangelical, so they attend his church, but....contact has been re-established. She is able to bring up our shared faith, but I am not, other than in very general terms that does not look like proselyting. She has a tax ID number so we are hoping to find her immediate work. Saturday morning in the temple I asked Heavenly Father to please let us meet someone that day who we could talk to about the Gospel. After we returned home at 3:00 from all of our errands I suggested to Sister Peterson that we go sit by the pool and see what happens. Sure enough, a single mother with four children came across our path. She was preparing to bar-b-que and brought her own grill, but forgot the lighter. I volunteered our matches and Sister Peterson went up to get them and then had a very nice conversation with Mico who we will see again. One of our supervisors called and offered us symphony tickets for that night since her husband was not feeling well, so I was able to have a conversation about the church with the lady sitting next to me there. Sister Peterson and I decided we are going to be somewhere every Saturday afternoon where we can come in contact with people and share our message. Pray for us for the sakes of those with whom we come in contact.