A Week of Celebrating

Anyone who has lived in Utah knows that the Pioneer Day Celebration (July 24th) is big. It has been very fun to be here while all this celebrating is going on, in particular to be downtown. The Square is a very busy place this time of year with summer and celebrating. Families with children are everywhere. They are precocious and active.

One such little guy last week was having a lot of fun chasing the water in the creek down North Temple but took a bad spill and received a bloody nose for his reward. He was about 4 or 5 years old and the family around him was anxious and didn't have anything to take care of the problem. Ed came to the rescue by running for ice and a cloth from our apartment. I couldn't help but recall the many similar falls with our children and then I recalled a few of my own. Life is full of them, isn't it? But we get up, clean up, fix up and carry on.

Due to the holiday on Monday we had another short week, but no sleeping in. We met our August Missionary Social Group at about 6:30AM Monday to go together to the sunrise service held in the Tabernacle. There were cute men dressed as the long ago Mormon Battalion who posted the colors in the Tabernacle. It was so cute.

A choir formed from local choirs sang. Richard Hinckley, son of former Pres. Gordon Hinckley, spoke. He reminded us that this valley was desolate 164 years ago but now we enjoy the fruits from things we did not do. He reminded us that there were many who came before us, some who were unlike ourselves who cultivated harmonious relationships with each other, many who were not of our faith. There were many who came who were passing through because Utah was a stop on their way out of poverty. Many stayed. He spoke of his wife Jane and her paternal grandfather, Lester Freed, a jewish man from Bohemia. He decided to stay and opened a store that became the largest furniture and carpet store in the west for many years. He was very active in the community. He married Jasmine Young, one of Brigham Young's daughters. Elder Hinckley told of Lester saying that in their bathroom they had three towels, one marked Mormon, one marked Jew and the other marked Gentile. Lester would joke that he wasn't sure whether he was the Jew or the Gentile because he was not a member of any particular faith at the time. Elder Hinckley closed his remarks by quoting his father as saying, "It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation and strength for what lies ahead."

I am a lover of drums. The drum lines of bands just do something for me and of course there were bands as part of the parade which staged a block away from our apartment so after the Tabernacle devotional we changed our clothes and walked to So Temple to watch the floats and bands and horses and buggies stage for the start of the parade. We only got to hear some practice, but it was great. Because it wasn't part of the parade route the participants were relax and talkative and the crowds weren't there so they would wave at us and ask how long we have on our mission, etc. The lds.org float participants were particularly energetic as we waved at them from across the street.Did I also mention that I love the roman riders? I was told that these three riders are the third generation of roman riders in this group. Pretty cool.

Wednesday brought another temple devotional. Our new Mission President and his wife spoke together at the pulpit in the temple chapel. Following are a few points I have recalled this week:

• Temple are the closest place to heaven on earth. Elder McConkie in The Mortal Messiah said that temple are a house where a personal God personally comes.
  
• After the first day of the dedication of the SL Temple Wilford Woodruff had a vision. He shared with the brether the following day that apostles and elders of the Nephite nation and the nations of old had been at the dedication. He told them that they rejoiced more than we do because they know more.

They then shared 10 blessings that come from our Temple worship:

1. Keep alive our spiritual strength and see more clearly my place in the universe and separate myself from common things. (Widstoe)
   
2. Protective powers that bless our families. (Pat Holland)
   
3. Reap harmony in our lives. (Hinckley)
   
4. Feel a peaceful, hallowed influence. (McKay)
   
5. Personal revelation..
   
6. Receive pure intelligence of spiritual learning. (Packer)
   
7. We become Savior's on Mt. Zion. (Joseph Smith)
8. The Lord will bless us.
   
9. We will feel loved and touched in this place of kindness, love and light. We shall be able to bear every trial. We shall have a beacon pointing us toward celestial glory. (Monson)
10. Our opposition to truth will grow smaller and in unexpected moments will come revelation. (Widstoe)

President and Sister Peterson concluded with this:
If we establish an eternal celestial pattern in our lives by temple attendance then when the Savior comes it will be more what we have become than what we have done. It will be our lives based on what we have learned and applied from the temple.

I am so grateful to be able to walk across the street to the temple and feel the possibility of these blessings in my life.

I received a tender mercy from the Lord on Friday morning last week. I had been training two other missionaries how to load more Tongan records online using the little program TNG. It is a simple but detailed process and like all things computer, requires certain steps and precision. While loading the pdf files we noticed many of them, far too many, were bringing an error message, "This file already exists. Do you want to replace it?" Well I know they do not already exist in this program so I was puzzled and I struggled for a day and a half trying to find the answer to the problem but it wasn't coming. On Friday morning I was voice for our companion prayer and I asked Heavenly Father very specifically to help me know how to solve this problem so the work could move forward that day. At the office I sat and pondered the problem again. After about 30 minutes I realized that the only files that were not loading were the ones with a number sign at the beginning of the file name. The program just didn't like the sign....... It wasn't a bolt of lightning. It was just a logical thought that came to me, but there it was and I knew that my request had been heard and answered. I love those moments. I feel so loved.

We also felt loved on Thursday evening as we were honored quests at a Tongan feast to celebrate the publishing of the Sister Mapu's book, the first such book by any Tongan member of the Church. She and her family were most gracious to us. We ate a real Tongan feast including a pig, taro root, sweet potatoes, and many things I cannot pronounce. It was such a sweet time to see her loved by her family. It was a Martha Stuart moment for me.....a really good thing.Now it is on to another wonderful week!