Pioneer Day

All the sisters in our apartment

We've had another good week here at Temple Square. It was Pioneer day this past Sunday and Utah celebrated it on Monday. We got to go to the parade on Monday morning. It was the most Mormon parade that I've ever been to. Stakes in the area made their own floats and there were temples on the floats. It was very strange to me. But Pioneer day was good. I got to go to Music and the Spoken Word in the Conference Center and hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing pioneer songs. My favorite was when they sang "Come, Come ye Saints". It's amazing how much the pioneers went through and the great faith that they had to come here, and I get to tell their story at Temple Square.

Sister Williams talked with Luana this morning and she is doing great. I'm pretty sure she is going to get baptized within about the next month or two. We found out about another miracle this week. I think I might have told you about the family that we took around Temple Square and through God's Plan for His Family and they referred for missionaries when they went back home. Well, Sister Fogg talked to the mother and the missionaries have already met with them and she really enjoyed it. Not only that, but she was defending the Elders at her own church. I guess she told her Sunday School that she was meeting with the missionaries and they told her that she could just shut the door on them, but she said "why not let them in?". One of the gospel principles that they really liked when they were here was the idea of eternal families. Someday they'll have an eternal family too.

We took a great tour yesterday with two young men. We met them in the North Visitors' Center because one of them was wearing a Red Sox cap and Sister Fogg is a Red Sox fan (By the way, it's amazing how many contacts you can start with people because they're wearing Chicago Cubs stuff). One of them was a returned missionary and his friend, Chris, was not a member, but has lots of member friends. We took them up to the Christus and you could tell that Chris was absorbing the Spirit that is up there. We could tell that he felt the Spirit throughout the whole tour. In the end he referred to meet with missionaries. It was a miracle. It always amazes me how big of a role the Spirit plays in conversion. As a missionary it's really just my job to try to help people feel the Spirit and then they can choose if they want to accept that or not. 

The Temple Square mission is the best. There are some wonderfully prepared people that come here and I love helping them feel the Spirit.

China at Temple Square

Me, Sister Garcia and my companion, Sister Fogg

Hi Everyone! There have been some exciting things going on this week. Earlier this week we had about 60 Chinese business and government leaders come to Temple Square for a VIP tour. A VIP tour means that (typically Zone Leaders) take "important" people around Temple Square to places that Church Hosting thinks they should take them and they only explain about the history--no inviting. So there were about six Mandarin-speaking companionships assigned to take these Chinese VIPs around. While they were on the Square Sister Fogg and I got a glimpse of these people. One Sister took her group into the Tabernacle and a man--who appeared to be very important, and also aware of that fact--had a photographer and a camera man following him around documenting his trip to Temple Square. It looked like an awkward tour to give, but I hope that Temple Square uplifted the image of the Church in China. The outreach that Temple Square has amazes me.

We had a Zone Conference this morning in the Church office Building auditorium. President Holmes told us that that is the place that the Prophet and Apostles have leadership meetings in April and October and lots of other meetings. Our Zone Conference was focused on 1) The Savior, and 2) how to be better missionaries and share His message. So they trained us on how we can plan, study, and teach better. Planning for Temple Square is probably different than other missions because we don't always teach the same way and with as much foreknowledge about exactly what we're going to be teaching. So one of the things that they told us to do was to plan for a concern such as "what is the purpose of my life?". Then we can study for and be better prepared to teach to that concern the next day. Another thing that I liked was the challenge they gave us to read the Book of Mormon and highlight all of the answers we find to "questions of the soul", such as "Is there a God?", "What does Jesus Christ expect of me?" and so forth. I hope that by the end I'll be able to use the Book of Mormon better in answering peoples' concerns.

We saw Elder Perry on the Square this week. He was here with his grandchildren.

We didn't have very much RC time this week but I got an inbound call (someone called in), from a man in Texas. His fiance--who I gathered lived a distance from him--is a member of the church and he was trying to find a church for her to go to when they got married and she moved there. So I told him how to get to the information on www.mormon.org about what to expect when you go to church. Then we got talking about what was important to him with religion. He is Christian and he was saying that the most important thing to him is knowing that Jesus Christ is his Savior and all of the little details that we can get into with different Christian denominations just aren't that important. I told him that we also believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the only way that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again. I told him a little bit about our belief in eternal families and he said that he knew a little bit about that belief and was really interest to learn more. So I invited him to have missionaries and he agreed. I'm excited for him to learn more about how he can strengthen his relationship with his fiance and hopefully someday be married for eternity in the Temple. The knowledge that we have about the Plan of Salvation is incredible. Before my mission I didn't know how amazing it was until I realized how little of that knowledge other people have. The Plan of Salvation lets us know why we are here on earth, that we had a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father before we were born, and that there is a way to live with Him and our families again. I definitely have a better appreciation of the knowledge that I have now.

A Great Week at Temple Square

It has definitely been a great week here at Temple Square. Sister Fogg is a runner so I've been able to run in the Canyon nearby in the mornings instead of running back and forth in a park. It's probably about at three mile run and we run by a river with mountain water in it and we're surrounded by the mountains (more like big hills, I guess)--a nice relief from the Temple Square bubble.

 

Guess who said "hi" this week at West Gate? Elder Oaks. Sister Fogg and I were sitting in there and he walked by with his grandchildren and his wife and he told them to wave "hi" to the missionaries (us). It was quite exciting. I waved back.

 

We've met some really wonderful people on the Square this past week. We took around a couple from Canada and they were here on vacation and left their four boys at home. We took them around and "experienced" Temple Square with them. They are very family oriented and have strong faith in Jesus Christ so It was wonderful to be able to talk with them and to be able to feel that about them. The last place we took them was to God's Plan for His Family, which is a video presentation that moves from room to room and you see the good and hard experiences of a family and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ really helps them. It is a powerful presentation and the Spirit is always there. As we were going through, the wife started to tear up and I could also tell that the husband was feeling the spirit too. After the presentation he told us that it helped him to realize how they had gotten away from having God in their home and how much he wanted to have that again. It made me so happy to hear that Temple Square left them with a desire to have a stronger relationship with Heavenly Father. They also referred for missionaries which made me even more happier. I love this work.

 

I've been learning a lot from Sister Fogg. One of her strengths is definitely charity--she loves people. When we're at West Gate she is always outside talking to people and trying to help them. It's great how we're given companions that help us develop Christ-like attributes. She is a wonderful example to me.

 

We heard from Luana by email this week. She is in Portugal and the missionaries have contacted her and brought her a Book of Mormon in Portuguese. She was taught in a member's home and had a powerful experience with prayer. She is also attending a baptism this week and has been invited to pray about being baptized herself. Miracles. I can't believe the missionaries in Portugal contacted her so fast.

 

Nicole should be baptized and married by now, but we haven't heard back from her yet. I think she is quite busy. Hopefully we hear from her this week.

 

One of the things that I've been learning on the Square lately is how important love and charity is. It makes all the difference in a tour. If people can tell that you care about them and have a true desire to help them, then they are more receptive. It doesn't really matter too much what you say to them, but if they can feel the Spirit that is where the true learning takes place.

Picture from the West Gate!

Running the Gate!

Transfer FOUR!

Hi Everyone! I'm in my fourth transfer starting today. I'm still at West Gate (Yay!), but I have a new companion now. Her name is Sister Fogg and she is coming back from outbound so I don't really know her very well, yet. She was serving in the Spokane, WA mission for two transfers. I hear that she served at West Gate before, so she knows what she is doing there. That's nice. I don't have to move apartments either! I just have to move rooms because Sister Williams is still my roommate (yay!). Sister Williams is also my District Leader...also yay! That means that I still get to see her a lot and work with her. Also, Sister Guanzon is coming back from California today from her outbound. I'm excited to see her. 

Maybe you're wondering what we did for the Fourth. Since we can't all leave the Square at once, half of us had a party in the morning and the other half had a party in the evening. I was the evening party shift, which I was quite happy about. We went to Brigham Young park and played games and had hamburgers and watermelon ... plus some other food. Some of the Sisters wanted to play baseball so we made an attempt. Half of the Sisters that wanted to play didn't know anything about the rules of baseball or what the objective is. It was a little bit funny. There was one sister from France that ran all of the bases and made it to home and then asked, "now what?". She didn't understand that when you make it back to home base it counts as a run. We also did skits with our districts. Afterwards there was a lot of watermelon left over, so Sister Williams and I hauled one back to our apartment and we cut off the top of it and everyone grabbed a spoon and started to dig in. We didn't finish it in one night, don't worry.

Oh, when Sister Williams and I were on West Gate on Independence Day morning, we had 300 Koreans come through on motor coaches. I don't think I've ever seen so many Koreans in my life. 

So Nicole should be baptized and married by now. We haven't heard from her since those big events, but I'm hoping that she sends us some pictures.

Ever since I've been at West Gate I've had a lot more to say in my sleep. A few nights ago Sister Williams heard me say "I know that the prophet is called of God ... it's pretty cool, isn't it".  Last night I sat up and I was trying to explain something to someone. All that Sister Williams can remember me saying is "7:30", but I think I woke myself up as I was talking and realized that I didn't need to explain it to "them" in the middle of the night. I've also stood up a few times because I thought I needed to go and do something, but before I went anywhere I realized what I was doing and went back to bed. 

Yesterday we took a wonderful member on a tour. Yesterday was his first day in Salt Lake because he was moving back to the States from Poland. He got himself off of the straight and narrow a few years ago and hit rock bottom pretty recently. He had a serious suicide attempt and it was evident from the scars he had. He came all the way here to try to reactivate himself in the church and get himself back on his feet. It was a amazing to see the faith that he had and the desire he has to come back. We took him to the Conference Center and showed him the auditorium and also the Book of Mormon paintings. We shared with him Ether 12:27:

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

It was a really wonderful tour, and I'm glad that I got to know him a little bit. I'm excited for him to continue to grow in the Gospel and to have the Spirit back in his life again.