Brother Shute

Last week was High Council Sunday, and the High Councilman, Brother Ferguson, brought Brother Shute as his companion speaker. I've been hearing about Brother S since we arrived in Baton Rouge a year ago--mainly that he makes and gives away bread almost daily and feeds the missionaries regularly. Someone wrote about him in 2013 and sent it to the Church News, although I'm not sure it was published. This is the article:

Brother Richard Dean Shute, 73, of the Baton Rouge 3rd Ward personifies the scripture, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matt 25:40)
The missionaries serving in the LSU area estimated that over the past 32 years, Brother Shute has baked 45 loaves of wheat bread a week for a total of 75,000 loaves. He brings his basket of fresh, homemade bread to the stake center and distributes the loaves to various ward and stake members at no charge. The ward uses his bread for Sacrament Meeting. He doesn't drive and gives a loaf of bread in exchange for rides.

Brother Shute quotes his feelings about his bread making service from the second verse of Hymn #219, Because I Have Been Given Much. "Because I have been sheltered, fed by thy good care, I cannot see another's lack and I not share my flowing fire, my loaf of bread, my roof's safe shelter overhead, that he too may be comforted."

He is an ordinance worker at the Baton Rouge Temple. He is very compassionate and thoughtfully remembers the temple workers by leaving two loaves of his bread on the break room table to nourish them. They are especially thankful for this act of kindness, since it is a small temple without a cafeteria or vending machines.

The missionaries are grateful to Brother Shute for his generosity in providing meals for them. On Mondays, he has as many as 10 elders at one time for a dinner of red beans and rice--their favorite! Since Monday is one of his baking days, each companionship leaves with a loaf of bread.

During the holidays Brother Shute is especially busy, and his bread is in great demand. Once for a ward presentation of "Christmas Around the World," he baked bread from some of his recipes of 65 countries for a tasting booth.

Brother Shute performs his labor of love volunteering many hours at great personal cost and with several physical handicaps. He is truly a disciple of Christ and shows his love for his fellow saints by his actions as "The Bread Man."

Learning from our Plaquemine Missionaries

Today being Sunday, we did our standard driving tour to the smallest doctor's office ever, Nottoway Plantation, the smallest church in the world, Mike the tiger and the capitol. But the best part of the day was at church where our 4 Plaquemine missionaries spoke in Sacrament Meeting. I tried my best to take notes but didn't get down as much as I would've liked.

Brother Stabler had asked each of them to talk about how their missions had changed them. Since each has a variety of service times it was a good variety of challenges overcome or to be overcome and experiences.

Sister Morris, the newest of the 4--having served for almost 5 months, started with some of the words to "You Raise Me Up," and "Footprints." She said that she doesn't recognize any changes yet because it's still early in her mission. It made me so happy to hear her resolve to depend on the Savior to lift he and strengthen her, because I know she's struggled with missing her family. But it sounds like she's on her way to becoming a great missionary.  Sister M used scriptures from the Doctrine & Covenants and applied them to her circumstances.

D&C 6:8 "...even as you desire of me so it shall be unto you; and if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation." She knows she has the means of "doing much good in this generation," and is here in Louisiana for a reason.

D& 6:14 "...blessed art thou for what thou has done' for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou has inquired thou has received instruction of my Spirit. If is had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time." The Lord has a plan for each of us, and if we will inquire of Him, we will be taught and we will be given direction.

When I am down and oh, my soul so weary. When troubles come and my heart burdened be
Then I am still and wait here in the silence until You come and sit awhile with me.

Your raise me up so I can stand on mountains. You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on Your shoulders. You raise me up to more than I can be.

Elder Baker shared how he decided to com on a mission. After he was baptized in 2012 he had no intentions of serving a mission even though he was encouraged by his mom, Bishop and friends.While some of his friends were preparing for their mission there was a day when he was alone at home and decided to pray. Then he started reading Alma 37 and began to feel a joy so strong that after reading verse 33 it hit him so hard that he couldn't even finish the chapter. Alma 37:33 begins: "Preach unto them repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ..." He was filled with love and happiness and received a strong feeling from the Spirit. It was then that he vocally said to the Lord, "I will serve a mission."

Something Elder Baker said he'd learned is to say "I love you" to people. He was never able to do that--even to his mom. It took a lot of work and prayer to love everyone but as missionaries "we need to love all who we serve and teach as especially our Savior and Heavenly Father. My love has grown for them immensely. I have prayed to love as they love and see people as they see people." Elder B now has a strong testimony of that. Missionary work is so important to him now. If we love the Savior and Heavenly Father we'll love doing their work and will help bring His children back to Him.

Sister Lindstrom, who'll be going home on February 5, gave a powerful talk on learning how to submit to the Lord's will. She talked about Amulek, in the book of Alma, who said, "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." Submission to God's will is more than accepting our circumstances, but it's doing and being our best and enduring the hardest, as well as, the easiest times. She quoted the Apostle Paul. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

The Lord provides strength for us through the Atonement. These are 5 ways Sister L has been given His enabling power.
     1 - The power of the Holy Ghost. As baptized members we have been given this gift. Do everything you can to live worthy of his constant companionship.
     2 - The Book of Mormon. The whole purpose of the Book of Mormon is to help us get closer to the Savior.
     3 - Prayer--communication with God throughout the entire day, not just morning and evening prayers.
     4 - Serving others. During difficult times, when I've chosen to focus on helping others, Heavenly Father has ALWAYS met my needs.
     5 - Temple attendance. The temple is powerful. Attending regularly before my mission helped prepare me to receive revelation at other times.

The principle of submission is illustrated in the scriptures. One example is Alma and his people who were in bondage to Amulon and the Lamanites. The Lord answered their silent prayers by "easing the burdens put upon their shoulders" and they were able to "bear them with ease."

The second example was that of the Savior in Gethsemane. "If thou be willing, remove this cup...nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." An angel then appeared and strengthened Him.

The pattern: 1) The burdens were heavy. 2) They struggled. 3) They turned to God. 4) He strengthened them.

Sister L then shared 2 examples from her life that followed the same pattern but taught her to trust in the Lord. One was the delay in entering the mission field after receiving her call. The timing had been perfect for the holidays and schooling, but knee surgery caused a postponement, and she was devastated. Enduring and submitting to the Lord's will helped her through the challenges, and even just "surviving" her mission. She goes home having learned that the Lord has orchestrated her experiences, has been with her, strengthened her and enabled he to continue because she understands and has learned to benefit from the power of the Atonement.

Elder Brimhall didn't end up with much time but managed to share a great message. He cited D&C 4:6 "Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence." He said he thought he had these attributes before his mission but has developed so much more and learned what it really means to love your fellow men. He has learned to be humble and submissive. "My mission has changed me forever. I will continue to do what I'm doing--without a name tag." He shared a quote from Pres. Monson, who said, "Whoever will share his testimony will strengthen it. Whoever selfishly keeps it will lose it." Also, I Corinthians 9:16 "...woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel." It's our duty to preach the gospel!

Tabasco Again!

After beignets 3 days in a row (yesterday was in Baton Rouge) the boys had to settle for doughnuts. They survived:)

Part of today's activities took us to Avery Island and the Tabasco plant

They don't bottle on Saturdays but still conduct tours

Lunch at Prejean's with the Mardi Gras gator, Zydeco music and food with a Cajun flair--and maybe a bit too much spice. If I'd wanted that much heat I'd take cayenne capsules on an empty stomach!

A Day in NOLA

First stop in the morning is always the World War II Museum, but today was just a little different. After we crossed the street from the museum parking lot we were looking inside the building pictured below. It's where they restore boats, etc. They've been working on restoring a PT boat since since long before we arrived in LA. While we were trying to see through the tinted windows the man asked if we'd like to come in. I said, "I didn't know we could." His response was, "You can't unless I say so." I'm thinking he must be the boss. Then he kindly showed us around and explained the project.

The plan is to restore it to usable condition then take it around the United States and hopefully the worlds doing tours. But I was so busy taking pictures of the boys that I didn't even take one of the boat. Where was my head? It's a lot bigger in person than I thought. McHale's Navy--with Ernest Borgnine--just didn't do it justice!

What an honor to take the grandsons to the WWII Museum! They loved it all, and we spent more time there than usual. We weren't in a hurry since we'd done much of the NOLA sightseeing on Wednesday. There's a new pavilion, Campaigns of Courage, that opened in December, and we haven't had the opportunity to see it yet, so we were there for quite awhile. This exhibit emphasizes America's effort to defeat the Axis powers in the European and Pacific Theaters. The Road to Berlin: European Theaters Galleries is what we saw. Road to Tokyo: Pacific Theater Galleries will open later.

I loved the exhibits that recreate actual battle setting and villages with crumbling walls, bomb-torn rooftops and icy pathways. The museum has the great ability to make good use of multimedia which brings the reality of war much closer to home.

Then it was back to Cafe du Monde for beignets--round two!

Later in the evening we introduced the boys to the Louisiana Bass Pro Shop. It's one of their favorite stores in California, so we knew they'd love this one, and they did!

Meet Marc & Tanner

What a delight to have our oldest two grandsons arrive in New Orleans from California this afternoon. Tanner, left, just tested out of high school and is planning on doing some online classes through BYU until he can go on his mission sometime after he turns 18 in November. Marc is our pre-missionary on his way to the MTC then Italy in March.

After picking the boys up we hurried to the Metairie Cemetery to do a drive thru before closing then drove through the Garden District, on our way to the hotel, to give them a bit of the flavor of New Orleans. After checking in we headed for dinner. Poor guys had a small breakfast and hadn't eaten on the plane, so they were starving. Dinner was lousy, so it's a good thing we wrapped up the evening's activities with beignets. They were a huge hit.

First stop after their arrival was the Metairie Cemetery

Dinner in the French Market was rather unremarkable, but the boys LOVED Cafe du Monde. Welcome to New Orleans and beignets!

Elder Morrell's Mishap

I've been waiting to find out about Elder Morrell's mishap and finally had a few minutes to get the whole story. On 12/13/14 he, Elder White and the Office Elders were playing basketball in New Orleans with an interfaith group--sanctioned by President Hansen. On the way down to NOLA Elder White received a speeding ticket:( Boo. Not a good way to begin the day.

After arriving at the old church where the game was to be played, they stretched out, warmed up and began to play. Elder M had made one basket when he went up for a rebound. The ball came directly down on his pinkie, and he felt something move. He could feel that the bone was out but thought it was just dislocated. So he tried to pull it back into place. No luck. Elder White told Elder M that he needed to go into urgent care, but he was reluctant to leave, because the game had just begun. Good thing he listened to Elder W, because x-rays showed that the bone was broken and displaced. The doctor splinted it and told Elder M that he'd need surgery for it to heal correctly.

When the 4 elders came out of the urgent care there was a parking ticket on the windshield of their car! The ticket was for parking less than 20 feet from an intersection. What makes this so annoying is that there wasn't a sign or any markings on the street or curb. On most New Orleans street corners where parking isn't allowed there's a big painted triangle indicating where you can't park. Not here. Marc and I even passed the exact location recently and are still baffled as to why they were cited. Heaven knows that all that money NOLA is taking in for parking tickets isn't going to street repairs! What a lousy day this turned out to be for 4 of our favorite elders.

Urgent Care X-rays

The misplaced pinkie

Six days later--before surgery

Lucky thing Elder Morrell is not a southpaw! Funny thing. His finger looks just like my arthritic pinkie, but his will straighten out. Mine won't. At least not in this life:)

Post-surgery pics

The pinned pinkie

Amazing what a few pins can do

He says it doesn't hurt!

I thought I should put a face on Elder Morrell's hand puppet. This reminded me of Shari Lewis and Lambchop! If you're much younger than me you won't even know what I'm talking about.

The hand puppet came off after about 2 weeks, but his finger is still immobile. Since removal of the puppet, Elder Morrell has been doing a lot of therapy on his fingers and wrist. It's amazing how quickly the body "forgets" how to move after such a short period of time. With any luck, the final bandage will come off tomorrow. (January 15)

Zone Conference with Elder Teh

Today was a combined 4 Zone Conference with Elder Teh, from the First Quorum of the Seventy. Some of the missionaries travelled 3 1/2 hours to get to Baton Rouge, so they came in yesterday and stayed with the local elders and sisters. It was great to have several of them come in either before or after the meetings. Most of the ones whose pictures I managed to take live 2 or more hours away, so we don't get to see them very often.

Sister Blaylock, Sister Ririe, Sister Butterfield, Sister Call, Sister McMullin and Sister Arntz

Elder Sabey, Elder Mecham, Elder Smith

The Assistants with the Oakdale Elders--Elder Rush (on his knees) and Elder Barker

Marksville Elders Garceau & Stevenson and Alexandria Elders Rogers & Castro

After driving in from New Orleans this morning, conducting an 8 hour conference and interviewing a few missionaries, Elder and Sister Teh came to the mission home and had dinner with all of the senior missionary couples except one. What a pleasure it was to meet  and visit with them. They were so pleasant and personable. In spite of his young age, Elder Teh has held many callings of responsibility in the Church. He moved his family to Salt Lake from the Philippines a few years ago. They have a son and daughter attending BYU and another daughter lives with them and attends LDS Business College in SLC. The Teh's were so enjoyable to talk to. It would have been nice to have more time with them, but they had to return to their hotel in New Orleans, where they're staying with their youngest daughter. Happily for them the 2-Zone Conference tomorrow is in New Orleans and they won't have far to go.