One of the choice blessings that come from Crismon's calling as the Stake President is the sweet opportunity of hosting one of the authorities in our home. Elder Robert Mack Call from Tacoma, was our Area Seventy that presided at our conference. He brought a wonderful spirit to our conference, and we felt of his great love for all the members and for us. Saturday morning, Feb. 27th, Crismon picked him up at the airport and brought him to our home for lunch. Then they spent the next hour or so visiting with some less actives. They had some very good visits with them. One brother in particular who has been inactive for years, was now in the hospital with pneumonia and wasn't doing well. He was touched by their visit and blessing, and expressed a real desire to get his life in order to take his wife to the temple.
Two days before he arrived I worked very hard making a chicken soup to serve on Saturday for lunch. That night I had the feeling I should check with Alisha was she had planned for her Saturday evening meal. Turns out we had both planned the same menu; soup, salads and rolls. It was too tired on Friday, nor did I have the time, to go to the grocery store to buy something else. I thought of a different meal I could do with the food I had on hand. I made a chicken pasta salad, fruit salad with a poppy seed lime dressing, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and I had purchased some good french bread from Fred Meyer. Fortunately, everything worked out OK on Saturday for lunch and it tasted good.
That evening Alisha put on a delicious meal at the church house in between meetings with the wives of the stake presidency, the mission president and his wife. (Pres. Craig Ballard & Sis. Melissa Ballard). Pres. Ballard is Elder M. Russell Ballard's son.
Sunday morning I served the Maple Pear-Apple Oatmeal Bake. Elder Call especially liked it and asked for the recipe! He is the one that makes the oatmeal at their home and he had never tasted baked oatmeal before. After the Sat. night meeting, he and Crismon had bread, milk, and Alice-Anne's delicious bottled peaches.
Crismon had three talks to give during the conference. He always speaks with humility but power. You can feel the mantle of his calling upon him. He always gives such good talks, related from scriptural insights. Elder Call goes by the spirit and is inspired on people to ask to come up and bear their testimonies. Turns out they were exactly the right people for him to ask for a number of reasons. One of them was LaCressa Clardy. She has had many struggles and one being feeling the love of Heavenly Father for her. He spoke with her afterwards and said, "The Lord knows you and loves you." He said there was a light over her when he saw her in the audience, and he knew she was the right one to ask to speak. The Holy Ghost really directs these men.
Elder Call shared a very tender story about a car accident that their son-in-law and granddaughter were in. Sadly, the granddaughter died and the son-in-law lost his job as it took a year of rehabilitation. It was such an emotional story, and also one that drew all of them closer to the Savior.
I recorded in my journal on the evening of Sat., Feb. 27th:
"Considering the stress I'm under and all the work I've been doing, I am amazingly blessed of the Lord. He is sustaining me greatly. I typically would be in much more pain and weakness. I feel His generous hand to me."
Crismon is blessed to serve with his two good counselors, Paul Hansen and Steven Christiansen.
