Week 3

As I was reading through my journal for last week, I realized that my days will be so very similar. It will be difficult to share meaningful things with you about my mission without a little effort on my part. So I'll start with the summary of happenings for the week:

Monday mornings are mission devotionals where everyone meets in the beautiful chapel of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The mission choir sings and there are six or eight short talks by missionaries telling about themselves. I was going to sing in the choir - I went to the practice, after all. But no one mentioned that there's a choir uniform! The women wear white tops (with a little red flower that's provided) and black skirts and the men all wear red ties. I don't see the point frankly, but then I'm not in charge! Well, I got there at 6:15 for nothing because of course I wasn't wearing a white top. Oh well. I'll think about next time! 

I'm learning my responsibilities in the Mission Office. I'm really enjoying what I do, and I feel that I'll pick it up quickly. There are a thousand little details to manage, and I haven't learned them all yet. My trainer, Sister Smyth, is giving me the pieces as I need them, and I'm writing everything down even though she has a thorough binder of to-do lists - yes, binder! I still don't have access to all the software and databases because the permissions have to come from Church headquarters. We're hoping that this week I'll be fully functioning.

On Tuesday I passed Elder Gong in the parking garage. I really wanted to speak to him and thank him for his sweet voicemail when Doug died, but we're told strictly not to engage general authorities in conversation for various and understandable reasons. I might have broken that rule, but he was obviously coming from the temple and seemed to have something on his mind because he looked deep in thought. Hopefully there will be another time to appropriately do it. I saw Elder Stevenson in the cafeteria on Wednesday. I might have to start keeping track of GA sightings like Camille did with handshakes when she was in high school! With Doug's callings we were occasionally invited to events where we could meet them, and she got very excited about it. 😉

On two Tuesday nights each month the sister missionaries go to the Humanitarian Center to tie quilts. It was a fun evening. My cousin (once removed) Kathy Withers is a church service missionary there, and I was able to meet her. Her mother is my cousin, and I don't think we've ever met before unless it was when we were very young. She's closer to my age than her mother was. It was fun to make that connection!

On Friday, Jenna (my dear friend from forever) came after her shift at the Conference Center, and we went to dinner at the Garden Room, which is on the top floor of the JSMB with a beautiful view of the temple. It's always fun to get together, and afterward we drove around the city for a while and got milkshakes at Crown Burger. 😋

I think I might have to keep "the joke's on me" section going. Yesterday (Saturday) I invited Sister Davis to go to Walmart with me to do a little shopping. We were greeted by a smiling older Polynesian gentleman who came up to me and said, "How do you know that your church is the true church?" I thought, oh great! here's my test! So I said something about the Holy Ghost confirming it to me, and he pressed a little more. "How do you know that it's not telling you the wrong thing - how do you tell evil from good?" So I looked at Sister Davis and told him more about how I know and she chimed in too. Then he got this broad smile, and we could tell that he was kidding us. He told us that his friends ask him if he's LDS or a Mormon, and he says, "No, I'm a member of the CJCLDS church," and then goes on to say it's the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We got a good laugh - at least he did! I think it was a good test, though, for when that happens for real!

Every morning at our Zone devotional we recite the mission scripture. It's taken from Mormon, chapter 7, verse 9:

"9 For behold, this is written for the intent that ye may believe that; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also; and if ye believe this ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of God among them." 

I've added the bold type because that's where they put the emphasis when saying the verse. I wanted to be sure what that and this were referring to, so I read verse 8: 

"8 Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews, which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you." 

We know that the record from the Jews is the Bible, so the verse is telling us that the Book of Mormon was written so that we could believe the Bible, and if we believe the Bible, then we can also believe the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is another witness for Jesus Christ, and I love reading it every day. I encourage you all to do the same; and if you're not, then you can begin now! I know that the Book of Mormon is true and was given to us in our day so that we may come to know Jesus Christ better and serve Him better by learning of Him. I'm so grateful for my testimony that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration and he translated the Book of Mormon for our day. I'm also very grateful for our pioneer ancestors who accepted the gospel and sacrificed so much so that we, their descendants, could be so blessed today.

Thank you all for your goodness and example to me!