Last Sunday I was given the assignment of choir director for our missionary branch. I am a little intimidated with all the wonderful musicians in this group. We will see. This is a dream ward choir because of the talent here. It will be fun after I get my feet wet.
I have been training a new missionary for the past two weeks in the Training Zone. It has been a different experience and fun on many levels, but I will be happy to be back in Historical Families again full time. There is a lot going on for us.
Last week I was invited to sit in on a fairly informal meeting about Oral Genealogies. It seems that those priesthood leaders in charge are feeling a pressing need to look more closely at what is happening with these genealogies. They are coming to realize that oral genealogies are prevalent in many parts of the world and that it is a resource that we are losing quickly. The countries in Africa for instance. The young people in the villages are not wanting to stay in the small village and become the "storyteller". They can see more opportunity by moving to the bigger cities, not staying and spending their time memorizing multi-generations of names and relationships.
There is an African proverb that states: "When a storyteller dies a library is burned". Some of these men/women can recite up to 60 generations of people in their tribes. One of the interviews we put up from the hard drive we recently received from Ghana named 469 individuals. I couldn't name that many people in my own family! She was one of 2500 oral genealogies we received from Ghana and Nigeria on one hard drive. These people have signed releases for the Church to use their information, some with a thumb print because they don't have a signature. So we scan the document and put it up online with the names of the people in their genealogies. I think it is very cool to see that thumbprint. It will be interesting to see how things will develop in the next few months. I think our 200 Tongan records surprised a few people. It is nice to be part of a developing project with such potential for good. There are some different tribes (of the lost 10) that are being identified in far away parts of the world. Interesting, huh?
We are in the thick of the Christmas season here. People are exchanging gifts and there are more and more events. My brother-in-law (former MoTab member) received some coveted tickets to the Choir concert with David Archileta and Michael York for last Thursday, the 16th. It was their dress rehearsal performance, but the tickets were all gone and the Conference Center was full. It was a delightful evening. He has a very nice voice and is so cute. He is very humble about all the attention he gets and was very appreciative but was not at all "idol" like. He presented himself professionally and was obviously grateful for the opportunity to sing with the choir. At one point at the beginning of the show he said, "When I was a little boy I dreamed of singing with the Choir...." We just chuckled because he is still such a little boy. It was rather funny, but endearing.
An interesting bit of information for the Christmas season. Elder Bednar spoke at a local Stake Conference about a week ago and a missionary who was there shared some of what he taught them. He spoke of the symbols of Christmas, the tree, lights and the shepherds. The thing he taught about the shepherds was interesting to me. Some may know this, but I didn't remember reading it before (I probably did, but just didn't remember). He taught that the shepherds where the angels came were not just any shepherds and they were not watching just any sheep, but it was the herd of unblemished sheep to be used for the sacrifices in the temple. Those who were watching them were special shepherds who had been hand picked by the priests to watch out and care for those sacrificial lambs. Not so unusual that the angels would have gone to them to let them know that the "lamb of God" was born that night.
I always wondered about why those shepherds....why that particular flock. Now I know. Bruce R. McConkie apparently taught that sometime ago.
We are looking forward to having our children all together for this holiday. We have lots of great things planned and we will enjoy many traditions in this place like we would at home. One of them is the gingerbread decorating/construction project we have done for 4 years now. It will be a little different, but we will still have fun and we will find someone to judge our work. The girls have decided that since it has now become an annual event, we have to name it so they did....."The Moulder Cup". No, our family is not at all competitive!!! hahaha
Now I just have to do something about a cup!!
We woke up yesterday morning to another light snow, but later in the day it turned to rain. It has rained most of the day today on and off, so all the new snow is gone and much of the packed snow that has been shoveled into little gray piles. I hope that we will have a white Christmas, but it isn't looking like that will happen here this year. Since we will be driving back and forth a bit between here and Provo, it is much better to have clear weather.
Last week we received a wonderful surprise. A big box of goodies from Church friends from home! What a fun thing that was for us. We were like little kids opening the box and oooing and awwwing as we read the cards and notes and saw all the things that had been sent. Everything from gum to CD's and cash to socks. We particularly enjoyed the testimonies of the Sunday School class for us to put into a Book of Mormon to share. We will try hard to accomplish that even though we don't interact with the public in our assignment. Thank you all for your thoughtfulness. It is very much appreciated. We loved feeling like we are still part of the Woodlands Texas 2nd Ward even here in Utah. We love you all.
Christmas time is a wonderful time of the year because we are all reminded of the love of our Father in Heaven and of His Son, Jesus Christ. Because of this we all try to treat others with a little more kindness and show a little bit of the love that the Savior has shared with us. He came to earth humbly to do his great work for us and I am so grateful to know that through Him I can be forgiven for my sins.
I love singing the carols of Christmas with their thoughtful phrases:
"Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay close by me forever and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care and fit us for heaven to live with Thee there." May it ever be so is my pray for us all.
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