So Much Has Happened!

It's been a little while since I've had P-day, so I'm quite excited for a little break! We had transfer conference this past Wednesday and it was in the Tabernacle. No one knew why we were having it there because we usually just have it in one of the theaters here, but it turned out that it was because they set up for us to take a tour of the behind-the-scenes of the Tabernacle. Clay Christiansen gave us an organ demonstration while we sat in the choir seats and then we got to enter the belly of the building. I saw the men's and woman's wardrobe, and they had their suits and dresses in their cubbies. We saw the recording room that they have downstairs and the music library. They told us that they have about 2,000 pieces of music in their library. It was pretty neat.

 

Then came the moment when we found what our new assignments were. My new companion is Sister Wilson from West Virginia and I'm in the Extended Zone. The Extended Zone is in charge of different venues on Temple Square: West Gate, Beehive House (Brigham Young's home), Humanitarian Center, and Welfare Square. On transfer day (Wednesday) I was assigned the Beehive House on Wednesday nights. So that day I went to the Beehive house for the first time--in my memory--and took and gave my first tour of the house at the same time. It was definitely different from giving tours on Temple Square. It is a whole new challenge to relate Brigham Young's home to the Gospel. I definitely didn't get it down in the eight ours that I was there, but that's okay... So then the next day we had to cover for some sisters at Welfare Square because Sister Wilson had served there before. So I once again took and gave my first tour of Welfare Square at the same time. Welfare Square is where the church has its dairy, bakery, cannery, and employment services for those that need assistance. It was a really neat place. Luckily we only had to take one tour with one person. He was a recently returned missionary and it sounded like he had more goals set for himself than he had time to live. Hopefully things work out for him... Then the next day I learned that we're actually going to be doing the Humanitarian Center on Tuesday and Thursday nights (our assignment changed). So now I will have given a tour at every venue on Temple Square. I'm quite excited to be able to serve in the Humanitarian Center. I look forward to learning more about the service that the church offers.

 

So here is the big news of the week. Luana got baptized! Her baptism was on August 14 and she was more than ready for it--she knows this is the restored Gospel. I felt so privileged to be able to teach her a little bit and help her feel the Spirit in her life. Her parents are both Catholic and she has met with missionaries at other times in her life, but this was the time for her and I got to be a part of it. How exciting is that!?

 

I had an answer to prayer this week in a very real way. Lately I've had problems having enough people to call to share a message with. We need to have a certain amount of calling time--six hours a week--and I didn't have enough people to call for six hours, and it was frustrating. So finally I prayed that I would find someone that would trust me enough to call their friends. That morning Sister Fogg and I had an 8:30am motor coach that we needed to be at West Gate for, so we were there at 8:00am. Just as we were opening up the booth, Charissa (a returned missionary who served in Italy) came up and started to talk with me. She was such a wonderful person and so great to talk to. I knew that she was the one that was going to be able to help me out--and she did. She had eight people that I could call for her. It was an answer to my prayer literally two hours later. It turned out that the 8:30am motor coach wasn't actually coming until 9:40am and Guest Services just forgot to change it in the computer so we didn't actually need to be there that early, but we really did because I was supposed to talk with Charissa.