Fallin' Fast Again

Monday morning we went to work at about 5:30AM and as we came into the JSMB and walked past this room the light was on the little stage with the piano up and some of the chandeliers were lowly lit. This is the room where our Branch Relief Society meets each Sunday. It is a wonderful room and it was a beautiful sight in the stillness of the morning. A friend took this picture and shared it with me. It was such a calming moment for me as I knew the day would be filled with responsibilities. This moment helped me meet the day just right.

I love fall. I love the cooler weather, the leaves changing, the fruits and vegetables that ripen, the anticipation of Thanksgiving, and General Conference. Each year I seem to want to savor it more and more, but that is true of everything. I am getting older and I want to enjoy each moment. It was a busy week.

In the zone, Africa has begun the final step which I am responsible for. I have 4 sisters working on the loading of the new records which are ready. I will reload the 1112 records that we loaded online in February while they do the new ones. It will be slow for them at first, but it will soon be easier as they get into a regular rhythm because it is very detailed stuff. We are very excited. I completed New Zealand last week so that is done and I taught two classes on Community Trees to the missionaries on the International Floor of the Family History Library so they could use what we have to help patrons. The Tuesday class was a little rough but the Wednesday class was much better.

Wednesday we had a temple devotional again in the chapel of the SL Temple. Elder Marlin K. Jensen spoke to us again this year. He spoke last year just before General Conference also. He is so good. It was a wonderful talk about the temple and how we are taught the idea of context perfectly there. He taught us that by knowing what is before and what comes after helps us to better deal with our lives in the here and now. The scriptures define truth as things as they are, things as they were and things as they will be so this concept of context is important for us to understand our place in the universe. He told of a the wife of a counselor in a stake presidency who was in a terrible accident and was comatose for some period of time. When she awoke, she had lost all of her past memory. She didn't know him or their children and was having a difficult time dealing with the fact that she was married, etc. He was able to use past correspondence (he had kept their letters while he was on his mission) and his journals to help her try to reconstruct their lives together. Eventually they did and she fell in love with him again and all was well but for 5 years he was never comfortable leaving her alone because he wasn't sure she wouldn't leave and not be able to find her way back because she had no anchor to her past.

Elder Jensen taught us that Heavenly Father is attempting to give us context so we can exercise our agency with the greatest degree of awareness and get off course. He said that many of the commandments in today's world are not so compelling without the context of the plan of salvation (i.e. Tithing or Chastity). Understanding the context of these guidelines/commandments will ultimate determine what we do or don't do and it's all about a change of heart because of our agency.

The end result of Christianity is to do good. If we act out of compulsion we don't have the change of heart; we aren't choosing to do good. Regimented behavior can never turn us into a Heavenly Father or a Heavenly Mother. By understanding things as they were and things as they will be our moral choices are easier and then we will make choices in accordance with His will because it has become our desire to do so. I am trying to understand this context so that my desires are more consistent with the Lord.

That devotional on Wednesday set up the weekend for me and I was ready to listen to the talks at General Conference. It was a fabulous feast. Nothing in particular struck me but I have noted several talks I want to ready in detail when the Ensign magazine comes out next month. I do want to share a funny conference related story.

Conference time around the Square is wild. So many people in from out of town, lots of meetings and all the GA's are here. One of our fun, cute missionary sisters was walking during lunch last Friday and was involved in her own thoughts but noticed that coming towards her were three men and they didn't seem to be moving to the side to let her pass. She thought, "They should be moving for me, I'm not going to move for them!" So she just barreled between two of them while saying, "Comin' through!" One of the men then said, "Have a nice day" and she looked up into the face of Elder Scott. It was his bodyguards with him and they were not about to move from his side! She was mortified!! It couldn't have happened to a more fun lady. She is great.

Friday afternoon we were doing our own research and Ed came to the apartment where I was working and suggested we try and make the trip into the mountains to see the fall colors this evening. It was 3:30pm and he thought we could get on the road and beat the traffic. We did not realize that there was a BYU home game that evening so it took us twice as long to get to the Alpine Loop exit but it was worth the trip. Here are some pictures. I think it will be even better next week so I hope we will have the time to make another trip.












I tried to get a good picture of the two of us but Ed was getting cold and losing patience with me while I had a difficult time setting up the timer on my camera, so this will have to do.
Greetings from the Fall!