Message—11 July 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
Another week has flown by; here are some of the things we have experienced this week. On Monday, July 4th, 7 new missionaries arrived in the mission; 2 Elders, and 5 Sisters. When the new missionaries arrive we are invited to help the President with some orientation to help them know the details of how things work in the mission. We take only about 5 or 10 minutes or so. We provide a scripture background for why the apartment needs to be kept clean and orderly by using D&C 88:118-119. After reading the scripture we explain the connection between organizing and preparing everything so the Holy Ghost can be present to guide and inspire them. The Holy Ghost is absolutely essential as a third companion in order to find and invite and help people to receive the gospel. The Holy Ghost will not be present in a disorderly and unclean apartment to help the missionaries study and prepare to teach each day. We also explain that the apartment is really the Lord’s apartment since the rent and utilities are paid by the church, and the missionaries $400 is used to reimburse part of the cost. The cost of most apartments here in the mission range from $400-$700 per month plus utilities. So you can see that the church does pay over half of the cost of rent and utilities, thus the apartments really do belong to the Lord. This information helps the missionaries understand how important it is to keep the apartment clean and orderly. Our monthly check of the apartments helps remind them to keep the apartment clean and orderly. Most of the missionaries do really well at keeping things in good order. Sometimes we go and help the missionaries do a good cleaning. The new Sister missionaries were really put to the test since they only had a few days to learn what they needed to know to begin immediately serving at the Historic Sites and give instructions and teach and testify of what took place at the different sites. Each new group of missionaries just keep getting better and better.
Since we were asked to help a few days during the Pageant to be at the Grandin Building to answer questions and give some brief information about the events and people involved in the publishing of the Book of Mormon; we needed some training. On Wednesday afternoon and evening we went to the Palmyra Stake Center which is across the road from the Palmyra Temple, to receive the instruction. The instruction was given by Sister and Elder Lenker who supervise all the Historic Sites and the training that is given. Also President and Sister Christianson gave some great instruction as well. There were about 40 senior couples who volunteered to do a two week mission to help during the Pageant. One couple is Carl and Sherry Johnson, Carl worked with me in the BYU Library; he is still working there. Another couple is Vaughn and Susan Evans; Vaughn is the Bishop in my sister Kathy’s ward in Logandale, NV. We then went to the sites at which we would be serving and received more detailed instructions from the site supervisors; ours supervisors are Elder and Sister Shepard, and Elder and Sister Nielsen. Elder Nielsen’s father taught elementary school at Sunset View where our children attended; our son Todd had him for a teacher. We have been studying the site training manual for about two weeks so we will know some of what we need to know. We had a great experience on Friday, which was our first day at the Grandin Building. Maxine was assigned to be in E. B. Grandin’s Office on the first floor; and Richard was assigned to be in the Bookstore room, also on the first floor. Richard was right at home in the bookstore, talking about books, printing, and binding, and church history. We are looking forward to our other three days of service this week. One large youth group came through the Grandin Building while we were there. They were from Dayton Ohio; when they told me that, I asked if they knew Blake Carter; and they said you mean Patriarch Carter. I answered yes, and they said he was their Stake Patriarch. Blake is a brother to Mac Carter who I farmed with at home in Provo; I have known him for many years. One of the young ladies said she was the 50th person to receive a patriarchal blessing from Blake. What a small world. This same group were annoyed by the Anti-Mormon guy outside the front door to the Grandin Building; and said they were going to go out and sing “Praise to the Man” to him. We do not know if they did or not since we were so busy inside talking with people.
The Pageant on Friday evening was just wonderful; there was a very strong presence of the Spirit there during the performance. The participants in the pageant really have to put in a lot time and effort in a short time period to learn their parts and do them in unison with the pre-recorded sound track. They did not know what their part(s) was(were) until about a week before the pageant. Some of them had more than one part. The performers also have to learn how to help with setting up and taking down parts of the set to get ready for the next scene. They all did very well. The performers and the stage crew and directors combined include several hundred people. They really do well. The appearance of the person representing the Savior when he comes to the people after his resurrection and also when he appears at the end representing the second coming is very impressive.
In the middle of the week President Christianson informed all the missionaries that Elder Costa of the Presidency of the Seventy and his wife were coming to the Pageant on Friday. Elder Costa said he was staying over the weekend and would like to speak to all of the missionaries at a fireside Sunday evening. This was a very special experience to be taught by Sister Costa and then by Elder Costa. They are both great people and very good teachers. Their messages were very motivating and we all felt the power of the Spirit. While we were waiting for a few of the Sister missionaries and Site Couples to arrive, Elder Costa took time to shake hands with all the missionaries, including the senior missionaries. It was a very great experience to be present.
We hope the technology for Skyping Austin and Josie’s wedding to us on Friday will work so we can see this great event in their lives; hopefully we will get to see some or all of the rest of you.
We love you all and appreciate your thoughts and prayers in our behalf; please know we also pray for all of you as well. We are always happy to hear from any of you. Heavenly Father lives and loves us as does His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and they want to bless and help us in our lives. They hear and answer our prayers according to Their wisdom and timing and love for us. The Book of Mormon is true and is a great source of help and encouragement in how to live so we can find true joy. President Monson is the prophet today, Joseph Smith was the Prophet of the restoration.
Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard
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