February 14 Senior Couples Valentine dance

Feb 14th: Valentines Day today. We are still preparing for the National Director conference on May 6th and working on helping hands materials and getting bid from printer. I posted an article about our new Mormon  Helping Hands SE Area Director on Facebook after receiving the bio I requested.  I also posted updated the information about Sister Mkhabela and Sister Marriott interview. It will be hard to top our original story where we received over 7000 viewers.

Friday night a dance was set up for the senior couples in the back lobby of our apartment building. No one uses this entrance/exit, so we have a lot of our large gatherings there. Some of the couples decorated the area with hearts, etc. and it looked very festive. They got white plastic chairs from somewhere and a few tables for the goodies.



The following invitation was sent to all of us senior couples from the area office and Temple workers: "Come and enjoy socializing, music, table games and even a dance! Do you have a song that is special to you or that brings back wonderful memories? Before we play your song, we'll ask you to tell us why it is special to you. Requirements: Please choose a song that is danceable (One song per couple). Please give us the name of the song, the artist who performed it and the approximate decade it was popular. We'll try and find the song on either Amazon or Itunes." 


They found all the songs and there were some good ones and some stinkers! ha. Picture this, About 40 old people sitting in plastic chairs around a tile dance floor playing old tunes many people have never heard of and dancing, regardless of bad knees, backs etc. We actually had a great time, with Elder Kyle really tearing it up on the dance floor.Some of these songs may surprise you:

I Honestly Love you-Olivia Newton John/ Your Song-Elton John/Whatever Will Be Will Be-Doris Day/Save the Last Dance For Me-Drifters/Lady in Red-Chris DeBurg/Love At Last You Found Me-Anita Kerr/I Cross My Heart-George Strait/Dream Lovers-Bobby Darin/Could I Have This Dance-Anne Murray/Unchained Melody-Righteous Brothers/Weekend In New England-Barry Manilow/Hawaiian Wedding Song-Elvis Presley/Lara's Theme-John Henry Borland/You're the Inspiration-Chicago/I Believe in You-Don Williams/Down by the Old Mill Stream-Mills Brothers/Faithfully-Journey/All Shook Up-Elvis Presley/Dream-Everly Brothers/Blueberry Hill-Fats Domino/Time in a Bottle-Jim Croce/Can't Help Falling in Love-Elvis Presley/You're the One That I Want-John Travolta/Surfer Girl-Beach Boys/Johnny B Goode-Chuck Berry/Annie's Song-John Denver

One of the funny things that happened was that the couple who chose 'Down By the Old Mill Stream' (Actually he chose it) the wife was a bit embarrassed and said she didn't know why he chose that song. He is the area office doctor and she used to be a nurse. She is very petite and pretty and very sweet. He explained that he chose that song because one of his children was created down by the old mill stream. She turned red and protested that was not true. When they played the song, she told them they could stop; it is a terrible song. They kept it playing and about that time, a younger couple came out of the elevators to go to the parking garage. They heard this horrible song playing and a bunch of old people sitting in plastic chairs in a circle facing each other (No one could dance to that song). I would have love to be in the car with them and see what they had to say about that. Ha. Us seniors really know how to have fun!



Sister Eppel, the temple President's wife and Temple Matron then spoke about the temple being a place of prayer, meditation and worship where we go when we have trials to experience joy and gratitude.

The Temple President said: "I want to invite you on a journey to take sweet counsel for every individual today. On the temple is written, "Holiness to the Lord - Holiness to God." When you enter you feel a sense of peace, kindness, love, patience - a refuge from problems. Set aside the temporal world. Inside the temple, everyone is equal. On Saturday morning many youth come to the temple to do baptisms. They have a look in their eyes of love and humility. As I speak to them, scriptures come into my mind about turning the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children.