I had a regular line at the temple which put me all over the place, functioning in many areas, helping, and assisting. Brother and Sister Davis are the new shift coordinators and they are learning the ropes and working hard to keep us in line. Saturday found me in the baptistry with large groups of youth coming in. Sister Smith and I were in charge of handing out clothing, keeping up with the laundry, and running cards up to the office for recording. One young woman stood 6'5" tall! She towered over everyone else, including her dad who was there. I had a conversation with her and yes, she does play basketball and hopes to play for USU. Go Darren!
One day I was in clothing/till with Sister Bustamante. She is in training so she ran the till with my supervision. (Me supervising her over British money; that is a stretch!) It is almost like Brynlyn babysitting Collins! We had a great time and enjoyed conversation with learning more about each other. We had about twelve patrons to service and Sister Bustamante froze only once. Sister Hyde, from the office who trains us on the till, came in and Sister Bustamante couldn't think of what to do! She was pretty funny and we had a good chuckle after Sister Hyde left.
We learned definitions of mercy and grace during one of the preparation meetings from Brother Littlefield.
Mercy: Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
Grace: Grace is getting what you don't deserve.
Our Savior is the master of both and His love for us is endless.
I got out the sparse Christmas decorations we have and put them up. I made the advent calendar and we had made a trip to Haskins to find a nativity set to put in some of the pockets. It took some looking as there do not seem to be many of them sold here. They go all out with Christmas decorations, even some stores set up just for the holidays, but anything Christ related is few and far between. YouTube has a host of Christmas movies so we have been watching them throughout the week. They help bring in the spirit of giving and putting others ahead of ourselves.
I was over to the accommodations centre a couple of evenings for music rehearsal. In the process I came upon some of the temple workers playing games. Brother Searle had a Christmas notebook with him loaded with carols and asked that I play some of them. Others gathered around and sang. It was so nice to hear the music and enjoy such a relaxed time of singing and enjoying the spirit of friendship.
We helped Sister Hale with her Internet and family history and now it seems to be working out quite well for her. We also helped the Garrett's move into the lodge. They are in Masih's flat and appreciated the help. I know how hard it is to break away to eat when you are so involved, so I made a plate of food and took to them. We then rode to church with them so Bob could help direct Steve as to where to go. He has a tom-tom but still learning how the roads work here.
We had FHE on Wednesday. The Garrett's were in charge and gave a great lesson and had popcorn and a citrus drink she had made for refreshments. We were in charge of the game and with Julie and Nelson's help we came up with "Two Truths and a Lie," Now, this was a bit of a stretch for the Brits, but for the most part they jumped right in and we all had a great time discovering things about each other. There were 20 of us in total so it took some time but all had fun. Dad's lie was he was chess champ in high school and my lie was I shook hands with President Ronald Reagan.
This weekend was stake conference and we went to the Saturday night session as well as Sunday. Elder Patrick Kearon, counselor in the European Area Presidency was the presiding authority. President Frost, the stake president, spoke on being as Ammon in sharing the gospel. It does not have to be a hard thing, just a natural thing to do. He asked for all the members that had been baptized in 2014 to stand and then come up to the front. There were about 15, and he said this was about a third of the total. A young couple who have a daughter named Amelia stood up. We have gotten to know Ameila while volunteering in the nursery. I did not know they are recent converts because they embrace the gospel so well. He then invited a young couple, Mark and Andy, to the stand and wanted to ask them questions about their conversion.
Andy had been sent to Los Angeles with her work and had been placed in a family's home to stay the four days she was there. The family happened to be LDS and she noticed right off they were different. She felt peace in their family and knew that was something she wanted. She was impressed with how they handled situations without getting mad, pointing fingers, or accusing. They discussed and managed details with kindness and patience. Conversations led to the church and they explained some of it to her.
Mark noticed in their phone conversations when she was gone that something was different. Then when he picked her up at the airport he felt the difference. The family contacted their missionaries to send the missionaries over here to their home and when they began the lessons Mark and Andy knew this was what they wanted.
President Johnson told the story of when their son had his first Christmas. He was 15 months old and Sister Johnson had carefully selected a few gifts for him and had wrapped them with care in anticipation of his joy on Christmas morning. Christmas morning arrived and the parents joyfully handed the little boy a gift to unwrap. He seemed fascinated with the paper while parents were waiting for him to pull at it to discover the greater gift inside. He was intrigued with the brightly colored paper and continued to hold the gift, feeling the paper with his hands, and looking at the colors and designs. President Johnson, eager for his son to unwrap the gift, pulled some of the paper up so it would be easier to open but the child continued to enjoy the bright paper. To make a long story short, President Johnson ended up opening the gift and showing the boy the toy only to watch him have no interest in it but to grab the bright paper and continue to play with it! His message was that some times we are caught up in the social part of the church, its classes, programs, and activities, and do not take time to examine the gift inside - the gospel. When we examine the gift inside and live the gospel each day, that is when our testimony grows, we feel the love of the Savior, we use the atonement, and find purpose in doing good.
Elder Kearon talked about the simpleness of the gospel in sharing it. Its doctrine is simple and is in music. He had us all sing, "I Lived In Heaven."
I lived in Heaven a long time ago it is true.
Lived there and loved there with people I know, so did you.
Then Heavenly Father presented a beautiful plan,
All about earth and eternal salvation for man.
And, he is right, the gospel is simple and this song does say it all.
We ended Sunday with a fireside presented by Brother and Sister Rogers, missionaries here. They live in England and their daughter and son-in-law participated in the program. The parents told their conversion stories, the son-in-law, who is very gifted, played the piano for all the music as well as sang in two items they presented as a quartet with voices blending in harmony. It was absolutely amazing the talent that was shared in testimony and spirit.
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