Christmas Season on Temple Square

CRAZY week. I guess I should start with Thursday which was Thanksgiving. We only worked half of the day and then the whole mission went to a really big party-rent-out place nearby. It had a huge reception hall (probably where they would have a wedding reception) where we had Thanksgiving dinner, a theater with big comfy chairs, a wallyball court, and a game room. I did about everything there was to do there. I even played wallyball for a little bit, and I usually don't really like to play wallyball / volleyball because it hurts my wrists and it hurt this time too, but it was fun. It still doesn't compare to a Thanksgiving with your family, though.

 

I'm trying to remember what I did this past week because we've just been so busy. A lot of our time has been spent working out the Christmas schedule. Since the Christmas lights have turned on here at Temple Square there are tens of thousands of people that come here every night so we've had to adjust our schedules to meet the change. Sister Moore and I have had some quality excel spreed sheet bonding time trying to get everything right. We have some assignments during the Christmas season: opening movies, being at the desk, or running God's Plan for His Family. Sister Moore and I had to make those assignments for the North 1 zone. One of the new changes since Christmas is that we go home at 9:45pm instead of 8:45pm. That means that we have a lot more finding time in the evening. The schedule has been quite complicated to get all worked out, but I think that we've got it. The difficult part about being a missionary during the Christmas lights is that there are just SO MANY people here that it is difficult to invite the Spirit into contacts with people. It's something that I'm trying to figure out how to do.

 

It has been a little slow this week in terms of missionary work because we've spent so much time trying to figure out how the mission should adjust to the Christmas lights. Something that President is emphasizing is contacting and inviting with the Spirit. I'm excited for that emphasis because there are just so many people here and a lot of them really don't want to talk with us. So, it's something that I'm trying to improve on. Easier said than done.

 

Sister Moore and I went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir yesterday and it was their first Christmas concert. I love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, they're pretty much amazing. Speaking of Christmas, I started out Black Friday by reading Luke 2. Don't worry, we didn't go shopping after that, but it was a great way to start off the season. As I was reading verses 13 and 14 caught my attention:

 

13.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14.  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

I would like to think that we were a part of those heavenly hosts that were praising God. I'm sure that we knew just how important it was for the Savior to come to the earth to perform the Atonement. Without Him the entire plan would be frustrated. I've become more and more grateful for my Savior on my mission. He is my purpose for being here. It's a great time to reflect on exactly why we celebrate Christmas.

The Play by Play

It was quite a week. Here are some of the highlights:

 

1. We had Zone Leader Council. That is were all of the Zone Leaders meet together with the Assistants to the President and the President and learn how to be better leaders and where we are going to take the mission. The Assistants (Sister Bryers and Sister Rodriguez) are quite the jokesters and they wouldn't tell us where it is was going to be. So we all met at 9:30 am and they led us outside and we walked up the the Capitol building. Yup, we had Zone Leader council in the public lounge in the Capitol building (which we had rented out). I had never been in the Capitol before and it was a beautiful building, it's modeled after the US Capitol building. It was a great and spiritually uplifting meeting. We talked about how we need to be "show-how" leaders and not "tell-how" leaders. Another thing that president talked about that caught my attention is that if you only see what you see and hear what you hear then you don't see enough or hear enough. It is so critical that we rely on the Spirit as leaders to know how we can help those that we are leading. It is definitely something that I need to work on as a leader. I'm still working on knowing what I'm supposed to be doing--Sister Moore helps me out a lot.

 

2. We had Leadership training this past week too. It was mostly a repeat of what was talked about at Zone Leader Council, but it was still great. We met in the Conference Center in one of the rooms that are used for translation during General Conference. It was pretty neat to be able to look out over the auditorium there (it's being set up for the Christmas concert now).

 

3. Sister Moore and I (and another companionship) went to a baptism! It wasn't for anyone that Sister Moore and I had taught, but it was wonderful. Darryl was the person getting baptized. I guess he used to work in the Army, but he is absolutely terrified of water because he almost drowned as a boy. It took three attempts to baptize him. At first he wanted to be baptized going forward and they tried that two times, but he didn't fit. So they did it the normal way and it worked out. He sang "Amazing Grace" afterward and it was beautiful. It was wonderful to be there and see just how happy he was with the decision he made and feel just how happy his Father in heaven is with his decision. Baptism is just such and important step and brings so many blessings. Even Jesus Christ himself tells us in 2 Nephi 31:12 --

 

 "And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do."

 

4. Sister Moore and I met a wonderful couple at the desk this week. There was a huge plasma physics convention in Salt Lake this past week and it brought a lot of people to Temple Square. Vic and Betty were some of those people that came. They actually came to Temple Square because they were curious about what Mitt Romney believes. So we talked with them for a little bit, we talked about family and about plasma physics. I kind of understood the plasma physics part, but not really. I got to tell them about how I love science because it is just evidence to me that there has to be a God. Nothing so beautiful or with such incredible patterns could just be random. It made me think of Alma 30:44

 

"...and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

 

They referred for missionaries right then. It was a miracle. They're Jewish at the moment.

 

This is less of a highlight, but fun to tell, Sister Moore, Sister Igelzia (from Brazil), and Sister Cruz (from Arkansas) went to a Korean restaurant today. It's because Sister Kim and Sister Jung who are both from South Korea wanted to go to this Korean restaurant on their p-day but didn't get to because they couldn't find anyone to drive them. So we went and picked up their food for them and ate lunch there ourselves. It was fun.

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 'Tis the season to be grateful.

 

"...live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." --Alma 34:38

 

Another Transfer!

It's transfer number seven! I can hardly believe it, and we're already about a week into it now. Goodness. You're probably wondering what I'm doing this transfer, so let me tell you. On the Monday before transfers (which is on Wednesday) we meet as a zone early in the morning and they read off our assignments. In my mind I thought I might be staying with Sister Imazeki perhaps as a district leader, or maybe I would train because there were 17 new sisters coming to the mission. Well, I'm not doing either of those. I'm a Zone Leader. The mission has a hierarchy which goes Mission President, Assistants to the President, Zone Leaders, and District Leaders. I've only ever been a senior companion, and the only thing I've ever lead in my life is sacrament hymns and my beehive class. So this assignment was most definitely unexpected for me. It was almost as surprising as reading my mission call to Temple Square. I'm excited to get to know and serve all of the sisters in the North 1 zone (the zone that I've been assigned to). I don't know them all very well yet, but I can already tell that they're amazing missionaries already. There are six companionships in the North 1 zone (not including Sister Moore and I) and three of the sisters in this zone are in their first transfer. My companion is Sister Moore and she is the missionary that everyone wants to be companions with, so we're having lots of fun. Sister Moore is from Colorado and goes to BYU-I and she is an amazing missionary.

 

This morning, Sister Moore and I conducted a training for our zone. It was a different experience for me because I've never really done anything like that before, but I think it went well enough. The foundation for this training was Matt 11:28-30

 

28.  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
 

I love these verses, they are some of my favorite. We talked about how we need to rely on our Savior as missionaries and that we also need to teach people about how they can rely on the Savior. I have found this to be true. My mission has become much more meaningful to me as I have learned more about who Jesus Christ is and how I can rely on him. He set a perfect example for me and through Him I can have peace now and have the promise of living with my family for eternity. What a beautiful message it is that we share. I am so blessed to be able to serve a mission; Heavenly Father knew that I needed it.

 

This week they introduced cell phones into our mission. No more pagers! The best part about these cell phones is that we are going to be able to text our investigators. The idea is that we will send them short powerful texts (ten words or less) on a daily basis so that they can keep close to the Spirit. The doctrine of daily contacts is taught in the Book of Mormon (Alma 21:23):

 

23  And Ammon did preach unto the people of king Lamoni; and it came to pass that he did teach them all things concerning things pertaining to righteousness. And he did exhort them daily, with all diligence; and they gave heed unto his word, and they were zealous for keeping the commandments of God.
 

I'm excited to see how keeping in better contact with people will help them to be baptized. We had an entire training on this because we really need to be obedient with these cell phones; they can easily be misused, but also if they're used correctly then we will witness lots of miracles. (The cell phones are new, so we haven't really been able to use them much yet, I'll let you know how it goes)

 

This week I've been working on diligence because in 1 Nephi 10:19 it says "For he that diligently seeketh shall find..." and I'm taking that literally. I'm trying to be diligent so that I can find people that are ready to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. The real life application of being diligent here at Temple Square means that I call LOTS of people in the RC. Yesterday I called people for two or three hours and only one person picked up the phone. It wasn't the person that I was looking for, but she told me that her friend (the person I was looking to talk with) already has a church and wasn't interested in mine. Such is the life of a missionary, I guess. I'll keep calling, though. I know there is someone out there that is just waiting for me to share with them the restored gospel so they can have these same blessings that I'm privileged to.

The Keystone of our Religion

Sister Imazeki and me

We had a really great week here at Temple Square. The best part of it was getting to go to the Bountiful Temple. Everyone in our mission got to go and we went on different days, so I went on Tuesday. We met in the parking garage at 7:20am and all drove up to Bountiful. It was raining and then snowing, so I was glad that I wasn't driving. We went to the 9:00am session and it was wonderful. Bountiful is a beautiful (and very large) temple. I really liked the celestial room because it had big windows and there was lots of light coming in. It was so wonderful to be in my Father's house and to remember how much He loves me.

 

We also celebrated Halloween here. It was my favorite Halloween in my memory. They closed the square at 5:00pm so we all went to the basement of the South Visitors' Center and watched two movies in the theater there. We saw "Disipicable Me" and "The Best Two Years". We were also provided dinner: pizza, cupcakes, and lots of candy, as well as a toothbrush and toothpaste. It was really nice just to sit and relax and I didn't even have to worry about dressing up!

 

I had a really great phone call in the RC this week with Sarah. She was referred by her friend at General Conference and I finally got a hold of her! The bulk of our conversation started with me inviting her to read the Book of Mormon. She said, "sure, but first I have a question: why do I need the Book of Mormon if I already have the Bible?" So I went into explaining that the Book of Mormon is important because it teaches and testifies of Jesus Christ and if one has a testimony of the Book of Mormon then they know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church restored once again to the earth (last paragraph of the Introduction to the Book of Mormon). Then she asked why it is important the Joseph Smith is a prophet and not just a good person and her questions kind of went on from that. She was really trying to understand and had a lot of really good questions. Interestingly, in the end the answer to all of her questions was that she needed to read the Book of Mormon and ask if it is truly the word of God. The conversation made me really realize just how critical a testimony of the Book of Mormon is. If you don't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon then everything built on it crumbles. That's why it is called the keystone of our religion. So in the end, she said that she would call her member friend and set up something so that she would be accountable to her to read the Book of Mormon. Sarah didn't refer for missionaries right then, but I know that if she reads the Book of Mormon in the sincerity of her heart, with faith in Jesus Christ, and with the intent to act on what she reads, then she will come to know that the Book of Mormon is indeed the word of God.

 

Today we had our first big snow here and Sister Mata'utia, from Australia, is absolutely amazed by the phenomenon. She has never seen snow before so every new experience with snow for her is magical. She loves to have snow in her hair, she likes to take pictures with snow, she said that she would like to roll around in the snow and pretty much experience it in any way that she can. I think that when it is April and still snowing, she'll think otherwise. But for now it's cute.

 

Well, this coming Wednesday is transfers and I find out what is happening to me on Monday morning. I'll let you know what happens!