Category: Uncategorized

Spending time here in the Headquarters Mission is a unique experience. There are somewhere around 300 missionaries and that does not include the Temple Square Missionaries! About 2/3 of our missionaries are single sisters and there are quite a few missionaries that are 10-15 years older than us. It is a little strange to be around so many elderly people. 😉 It does mean that our Sacrament meetings are very reverent, but then we didn’t get to enjoy a primary program this year. There is good and bad in everything. President Nelson has said that, “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”

Since I work in the Discovery Zone of the Family History Library I get to help parents and children explore their heritage. It is really delightful to watch the children get excited about their ancestors. At the library entrance there is a sign that says, “We believe families are important. Our family ties stretch far into the past and continue beyond this life. We have a responsibility to help each other discover and learn about our heritage. Knowing where we came from helps us understand who we are and where we are going. You are a divine, unique and important member of the human family. Let us help you discover your story.” This week I helped a young Jewish man from Minneapolis  and an Armenian woman from North Carolina. We have people visiting from all over the world and some just coming in off the street to use the restroom or sit in the warmth for a few minutes. It was a busy week with the start of the holidays.

We connected with our family on Thursday as we celebrated Thanksgiving. It was great to share dinner with some of Rick’s family and to chat with other family members through technology.

As Thanksgiving leads us into the Christmas holidays I am feeling both anxious to be on my way to India and excited for the traditions that I love. The lights on Temple Square and surrounding blocks are on and beautiful. The daily music performances have begun. The decorated trees in the various buildings are amazing. The “Giving Machine” is set up and we were able to go and select a gardening kit and family meal from the vending machine which will be donated through various charities to those in need. I am grateful for this time of year that focuses us on those things that are the most important–our Savior, family, and loving others.

 

 

The Goodins got their visas and are by now in Vanuatu! It was great to see their excitement and imagine our own when those visas do come — any week now!

We did something different today. It was so worth the change in our normal Sunday morning routine to go to the Music and The Spoken Word concert on Temple Square. (Pretty easy when it’s only a block from our apartment!)

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra did a special Thanksgiving program with some old favorites, including Alleluia Fanfare/Praise to The Lord, The Almighty, Simple Gifts (featuring the Bells at Temple Square!) and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It was glorious, and a great reminder of the blessings we have and enjoy daily. Quoting announcer Lloyd D. Newell, “one of the greatest blessings [God] offers is the peace and perspective that fill our souls when we live in thanksgiving each day.” I think we’ll just go ahead and make this a Thanksgiving Week!

I found it quite a contrast from yesterday’s outing to the Clark Planetarium (a brisk but nice 6-block walk). After getting our tickets we had some time before the IMAX show began, so we looked at some of their exhibits before settling into our seats to watch the Mountain Adventure: Out of Bounds 3D extravaganza. The music for this tribute to the outdoors began very loud — too loud for comfort. It was nowhere near the soul-feeding music we heard today.

The show featured an Olympic gold medalist snowboarder (Torah Bright) and a couple others tackling some very formidable mountains. We got both the observing of extreme adrenaline rush seeking and the raising of climate change impact awareness!

We’ll never snowboard down an “exceedingly high mountain” or see a Polar Bear in the Arctic. Likewise we’ll never sing with the Tabernacle Choir or play with the orchestra or the bell ringers. But it’s fun to watch people do what they love, especially when they’re very good at it. And we do know the joy of blending our voices with others in choirs singing praises to our God. It feeds our souls to produce as well as consume good music!

I also noticed on our hike yesterday the contrast between the painful part where we left the trail and the better part where we stayed on it. We were on a section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail we hadn’t been on before, but upon encountering a confusing fork we went the wrong way (the signage leaves something to be desired). This way looked like it might reconnect with the main trail further up, and since we started uphill on a sort-of trail and didn’t feel like backtracking, we endured some tough, steep terrain, complete with slippery grass and rocks. Getting back to the real trail was a relief and a joy!

Everything depends on pressing forward on the covenant path, and because there are many off-ramps there are on-ramps to get back on. This trail of faith, repentance, commitment and recommitment via baptism and the sacrament, and receiving the Holy Ghost — and enduring to the end in this “overarching spiritual quest” — is the one we want to walk in.

We capped our week with this evening’s dinner and subsequent gospel discussion at the home of President and Sister Holmes. A wonderful spirit was there as many members of the Discovery Zone revealed through their gracious words how firmly committed they are to following the Savior, empowered by His grace through the “guiding, directing, comforting and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”

After all,

[The Savior] marked the path and led the way,
And every point defines
To light and life and endless day
Where God’s full presence shines.

Have a great week, and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It has been another busy week beginning with a devotional on Monday evening in which we sang with the choir performing “Peace in Christ” and Sister Sharon Eubank spoke. Since she is the director Latter-day Saint Charities I had a secret hope that she would need to make a trip to India and I would have the opportunity to meet her. That probably isn’t going to happen but I was able to say hello to her afterward and shared that we are headed to India as soon as we get our visas. She was excited for us and thankful for our willingness to serve because there is so much need. She told us of a sister who served there. This sister was touched by the poor conditions of so many people in India. She wrote home about the poverty, the smells, the lack of proper sanitation, shelter and food. She felt extremely sorry for the poor people of India.

Meanwhile the Indian people felt so sorry for her because she was fat and sweat profusely and had to wear nylons. She had no smell. It was like she came from space—she didn’t smell like anything! (Sister Eubank said it better. Wish I was as articulate as she is.)

So, it is all a matter of perspective and what is culturally acceptable to you. Obviously there are certain things that are unacceptable no matter your culture but it is important to remember that what we think matters may not be what is needed by those we endeavor to serve.

We decided we needed to build some muscles so started working out at the Wellness Center in the Church Office Building. It is a very nice facility and I feel privileged to use it. We found some muscles we haven’t used lately! We will continue with the twice weekly regimen.

Friday we received comp tickets to the Utah Symphony. They performed Wagner’s Prelude, Interludes and Entry of the Gods into Valhalla and Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 with Stephen Hough on the piano. The piano was absolutely incredible but I enjoyed the Wagner more.

We finished the week with a pretty typical Saturday–laundry, cleaning the apartment, grocery shopping and a short hike.

 

They say the brain craves novelty.

We certainly had a different week, full of changes to the usual routine. We decided to go home and get our vehicle, some warmer clothes, and other useful and nice-to-have things. We got permission to take a short overnight trip Tuesday and Wednesday, and with another couple’s kind loan of their car, we were on our way to Rexburg. The O’Dells were very accommodating of this unusual visit, and we are very grateful to them for the good care they’re taking of our home.

It was raining/snowing on the drive back to SLC Wednesday morning, but we had no difficulties driving two separate cars and got Taunya back in time for her noon assignment.

New and different for me on Thursday was a special project I was asked to help with. It allowed me to learn how to edit family tree information that already had source documents attached, correcting names and dates that were entered incorrectly, highlighting by putting a rectangle around the part of the document where the handwriting had been misread, and justifying the corrections I made. Interesting work that improves the quality of the family search database.

On Thursday I was also recruited to help the Housing crew the next day get some new apartments ready for more missionaries who would be arriving Friday afternoon. I and Elder Goodin helped Elder Farnsworth assemble some kitchen tables and office chairs. Actually, it was Elders Goodin and Farnsworth putting them together, I just helped put them in the apartments, and arrange the furniture already there in some kind of logical way. Elder Baird had asked me to check that all the WiFi routers were working correctly in six apartments, plus I hung a couple of shower curtains, and then helped Elder Goodin hang a closet door!

Friday evening we had dinner and a great visit with my brother and his wife in Riverton, which we were able to drive ourselves to rather than rely on public transportation and rides from them to and from the station. Not to disparage the Utah Transit Authority, but having our own wheels is way more convenient and less time consuming! We also enjoyed driving ourselves for a quick trip to Walmart yesterday!

Today we went to a break-the-fast dinner that Elder Farnsworth invited us and the Goodins to. He and Sister Farnsworth and several other couples all have apartments on the third floor of the Deseret Apartments, and they all get together every first Sunday. We felt pretty special being invited and warmly welcomed!

Tomorrow we look forward to our mission fireside where the guest speaker is Sharon Eubank, former first counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, and current Director of Latter-day Saint Charities. It’ll be a treat to hear from her, plus the choir will be singing Peace in Christ to make it even sweeter!

A scripture that’s been on my mind lately is 1 Corinthians 2:9. Here Paul is quoting Isaiah, and the Lord even uses the same language in Doctrine and Covenants 76:10. I like to think I have a pretty good imagination, and I can imagine a lot of amazing things that we have to look forward to in the months and years and centuries ahead, in this life and well beyond. But I believe what the Lord and His servants say that what the Lord has in store for those who love Him is inconceivably marvelous and wonderful!

India will have its own freshness and newness, for which we still yearn. But I just keep thinking that the novelty and variety we experienced this week is nothing compared to the vast and variegated array of glorious blessings to come!

This week we learned that our visa applications were actually sent off to the Indian Embassy! It has been a long process since India is now only granting one-year visas. The batch of visas for the group ahead of us was the start of this change and it took a few days to verify that it was not an error and that they would still be going. Since ours had not yet been issued we had to wait and see if we would be going under the new conditions. We are and so they were submitted. I imagine it will be at least a month.

This morning I found a cockroach in the bathroom. Yuck! I think God really has a sense of humor and is weekly giving me something to accept in preparation for our Indian adventure. This week it was a bug. I’m sure there will be more and bigger ones in my future.

We have several couples that have received their visas and are heading to their missions in New Zealand, India, Australia and Spain. We got to inherit some of their stuff. I was very excited to get a pair of kitchen shears, an iron and an ironing board. (We haven’t quite figured out how to dry Rick’s white shirts without wrinkles.) Funny how such simple things can be exciting when you’ve been making do.

The only spiritual thought I have pertains to the dry bones in Ezekiel. Seems fitting with tomorrow being Halloween. Just as the bones were made to live through the word of the Lord, we too can live as we allow His word to fill us with light and truth and joy.

People are more important than things. It is good for hard-core introverts like me to keep that in mind. I don’t think the inverse is true at all, but if you’re like me, things are more interesting than people. A personality perhaps even rarer, but for me abstract things — thoughts, ideas, ruminations and cogitations — captivate my attention the most.

But it’s more and more evident that love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and other fruits of the Spirit manifest almost exclusively in interactions and relationships with people. And whatever else they are, one thing people are not is abstract!

Since our visas have been delayed, and we really don’t know how long we’ll be here, rather than finding reasons to pass up opportunities, we are getting involved with the people and activities of the Headquarters mission.

Notable this week:

FHE for the Data Quality Assurance and Source Records Preparation zones at the Holmes’ (mission president’s) residence — sandwiches and other good food, and a great discussion about the Holy Ghost afterwards.

To celebrate our 42nd anniversary, dinner out splurging with filet mignon — a treat we won’t be eating again for a while!

Choir practice learning some fun Christmas music.

Dinner and visiting with fellow India-bound senior couples, plus an Elder who served there 10 years ago with his wife doing humanitarian things. A very pleasant evening — we ate good Indian food and were introduced to something new — Lassi — a fruity (mango this time) yogurt-smoothie-like drink that’s apparently very popular.

Chili cook-off for which we served as judges, so got to sample all 10 of the entries.

A romantic getaway just up the hill at a bed-and-breakfast. A great capstone to our anniversary celebration!

Encountered on a walk: a distinguished-looking older gentleman with a neatly trimmed beard, walking his dog but stepping aside so we could pass, greeting us with a smile and a hearty “Good morning! How are you folks today?”

I hope to be that pleasant and cheerful when I get to be his age!

Other people power moves that warm my heart:

A friend’s or family member’s insightful and encouraging reply to a blog post. A senior sister in my zone asking for my help with a computer question. A very musical senior couple taking time to help me learn a difficult passage in a Christmas song. A kind dinner invitation from a loving sister, her daughter and family.

Up with people!

(more…)

We’ve finished our first full week in the “mission field” of Salt Lake City, Utah. (I think that’s funny.)

While we wait for our visas I have been assigned to work in the Discovery Zone of the Family History Library. Mostly I help people set up an account so that they can begin to build a family tree. It has been fun to see people get excited as their tree expands, especially if they are able to connect into research that has already been done and they are able to go back many generations. Rick is serving in the Source Records Preparation (SRP) zone. He is reading records that have been photographed and typing the information into the computer so that it can be searched easily. Things like marriage, birth and death records. In other words he is doing indexing. So we’ve been busy working 9-5. It is a bit of an adjustment, especially for me because pre-mission I may have worked that many hours a day but I was used to setting my own schedule.

Life is different in other ways as well. We have walked .9 miles to the grocery store twice and took light rail and the bus to get to a trailhead to go on a hike. All of these things are little steps helping us to be more prepared for India. I realize Salt Lake City is much more familiar than India will be but we are becoming more used to people that are homeless, begging, disabled and mentally ill, traffic and sirens any time of the day and night. Oh, can’t forget date night at the laundromat.

We were reading in Jeremiah and came across this verse.

Jeremiah 12:5–If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?

It said to me that if I find things daunting serving here I really need to up my game to be ready for India. I know that we are all entitled to heavenly help and am counting on that blessing.

 

Nothing like the unknown that we will face in “Phase 4” (actually arriving in India!), but “Phase 3” (awaiting our visas) still has us guessing. Like what we’ll be doing for the next little while.

We arrived at our nicely furnished apartment on Friday afternoon, and were met by two Elders (seniors) from the branch who helped us get settled in. One of them is our Branch Leader, Elder Steel, who kindly took us to get a few groceries.

Adventures thus far:

• Swap meet where we met some fellow senior missionaries and got some useful items (like a toaster).
• Bus ride from downtown to Centerville to shop at Walmart for some essentials (like yoga mats!), and
• Walk/hike to Ensign Peak (2 hours, 5.25 miles, 1152 feet elevation gain).

Not an adventure per se, but today we attended our first sacrament meeting in the very nice (and quiet!) chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. We met some more super seniors, and President and Sister Holmes, mission leaders for the Utah SLC Headquarters Mission.

Tomorrow starts with a mission devotional, then a visit to the mission offices (also in the JSMB), hopefully to learn what our assignments will be. One less unknown!

Even though we are anxious to be doing the humanitarian work in India we were called to do, we are grateful to be here, and to have this opportunity to learn and grow in other ways.

We humbly acknowledge that the Lord sees fit to try the patience and faith of His people, as He did with Alma and his group of believers, who endured far more than what we are called upon to go through (see Mosiah 23:21-22).

We are so richly blessed that having to patiently wait is a miniscule trial by comparison!

Does anything ever turn out the way we expect? Over the course of the last few weeks we have seen things come together and have to acknowledge the Lord’s hand in the results. (Like selling our car within 2 hours of posting it.) I’m not sure of the purpose for spending most of our first week as “missionaries in training” in isolation though.

We arrived at the Missionary Training Center Monday morning and were shown to our room. After settling in we went to orientation, lunch and then had some large group meetings and smaller classes, dinner and then another meeting. Rick’s runny nose was worsening, and he could not stay awake. (It was different than his normal drowsiness.) It seemed to me he had a slight fever and so we decided to take Covid tests. His was positive and so we contacted the powers that be and were told to stay in our room until it was decided what to do with us. We ended up being moved to a hotel and were offered Zoom classes for the remainder of the week. Rick’s symptoms were never very bad, and he was able to sleep quite a bit.

From this week’s experiences we have a greater desire to overcome the natural tendency to turn inward by showing Christlike love to all those around us and feel we will have plenty of opportunities to do that as we serve as missionaries. Developing Christlike attributes is a lifelong journey on which we progress one step at a time.

The saying “knowledge is power” has always intrigued me. I know what it means — that a possessor of knowledge has a power or advantage over a non-possessor of that knowledge. But the idea always bothered me that knowing something someone else didn’t know meant becoming proud or arrogant. Or else that it was impetus to try to take advantage of others because of it.

However, there is an Antidote to Pride-Poison! It goes along with our “mission scripture” of choice: Proverbs 3:5-6.

And do we ever have an urgent need to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding!

Right now, my understanding of and knowledge about India, and the exact nature of our assignment once there — well, to say that it’s limited is a comical understatement.

Despite all we can do to find information to read, videos and movies to watch, people to talk to who have been there, or who are currently there — there’s just no substitute for the experiential knowledge we will get over time.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8:2 — And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

I like to think that I know a few things, but do I know what I ought to know?

Time will tell!