Fifteenth Week of Our Mission

Training at Zone Conference on the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Presentation to the Sister Missionaries

Elder and Sister Fagersten - Friends from Iowa

Elder and Sister Frost on Temple Square

 

 

 

Fifteenth Week

Salt Lake Temple Square Mission

September 15, 2013

This was a very busy week for us with a lot of comings and goings.  We think that perhaps up until General Conference we will have many duties and responsibilities.  Our days and weeks are going by so quickly that we can’t believe that it is already the middle of September.  Winter will come and we will wish we had more activity.

Our investigator, Tressa, is really embracing the Gospel.  We had two discussions with her via the phone this week.  The Call Center was down with the first discussion so we used our cell phone and passed it between the two of us while talking to her.  That was a little awkward, but she bore a strong witness of prophets, God and the Book of Mormon.  Of course, I (Kimm) cried.  We just know that she will be baptized because all the concepts we present she readily agrees with.  This is really an out of this world experience for us with a golden contact.  No doubt if she is baptized, we will want to be with her in Pocatello for her baptism.

Also, we had two days of zone conferences this week at the Utah of the Daughters of Pioneer’s Museum.  As was mentioned earlier, we got to present both days on the Book of Mormon. We felt that we did a good job and really tried to inspire the sisters to teach from the Book of Mormon and have a burning testimony of it.  The spirit was with us and it seemed that the sisters were engaged and committed to using the Book of Mormon more effectively throughout their mission.  We are always amazed by the leadership of these good sisters and their remarkable presentations and commitments to teach the Gospel.  All in all, we had two great days of learning.

Today, we had a special visit from our friends the Fagerstens from Iowa.  Gary and Katherine are here in Utah getting ready to go into the MTC for their upcoming mission to the Dominican Republic.  It was really a thrill to be able to see them again to exchange memories, stories and confirming that we are brothers and sisters in the Gospel.  We went to “Music and the Spoken Word”, toured the Square and then came back to our apartment for brunch.  We love this couple and know that they will be terrific missionaries for the Lord. 







Fourteenth Week of Our Mission

Mimi with her Husband and In-Laws at her Baptism

The James Taylor and Choir Concert

 

 

 

Fourteenth Week of Our Mission

Salt Lake Temple Square Mission

September 8, 2013

 

Probably the greatest news of this week is that Mimi White was baptized in Kentucky!  Yesterday was the big day and we were privileged to talk with her prior to the baptism.  She has been in our hearts and prayers for two and a half months.  She wavered at times and we didn’t know if this baptism would occur.  We are so proud of her even though the support from her husband may not always have been there.  But hopefully because of her example, Rick will come back wholeheartedly to the Church and they can be married in the temple within a year.  Because of her example too, the children may in the future embrace the gospel.  This event was truly a miracle for us!

As we mentioned in another entry, we are teaching Tressa from Pocatello, Idaho.  This last week we had a discussion on Tuesday and it went very well.  Everything we said she seemed to agree with and had no questions or concerns.  Then we were able to see her in person on Friday along with her friend, Ron, because they came to the James Taylor Concert at the Conference Center.  We were able to take them around the North Visitor’s Center and actually have several discussions.  It was great to talk face-to-face with them because when you teach via the phone the personal touch is not really there.  She seemed to accept everything we said, but she did have concerns about her position as a non-mother.  She wondered what her role was in the scheme of things in this Church.  We are going to be sending her a great talk by Sheri Dew which should give her a lot of comfort on this subject.  We have another discussion scheduled for Wednesday night.  We can’t believe that this golden contact fell right into our hands.  Tressa believes it was divine intervention and so do we.

Speaking of the James Taylor concert, we went on Friday and then again on Saturday until intermission.  This was quite the concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Utah Symphony.  James Taylor has always been one of Taggart’s favorite recording artists, so it was really exciting for him to be there.  The usual conservative audience went wild and he played several encore numbers amid the roars from the crowd.  It is really amazing to us and the guests on Temple Square how the community and Church can provide such a wonderful event for free.  Actually each day we are astonished by the beauty of the Square and the care that is taken to make everything look so perfect, clean, beautiful, and all venues are complimentary.  What a wonderful church we belong to!

We had our first “Hospitality Tour” this week.  There were about 45 guests in the group coming from all across the country.  They were escorted around the Square by the sister missionaries with us hanging out in the rear to answer any questions. The group then went to dinner at The Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Actually, we had some great doctrinal discussions as we were walking around.  This was my first confrontation with questions about women in the Church, Blacks and the Priesthood.  Hopefully they went away with sound information and less negative feelings.  Taggart had two great discussions with men who shared their beliefs and wanted to know so much more about the Church.  These men seemed like perfect contacts and future members.  We shared our business card but had to be careful because of the nature of the tour to share a Book of Mormon.

We are preparing this week for Zone Conference.  President Gillette asked us to take a few moments to share a concept with the sisters.  We chose to talk about the Book of Mormon.  Taggart has worked so diligently on the presentation, as he always does.  Hopefully the spirit will be with us as we share our testimonies of this great book and the importance of its use in missionary work.

We missed one significant item for this week.  As we were walking to the Beehive House on Labor Day, Elder L. Tom Perry was walking toward us.  He was so kind and generous to us because he stopped and talked to us.  He was wearing casual clothes and he said no one usually recognized him when he was in informal attire.  We had a good chat about his son who Taggart went to school with and then he went on his way.  What other place but Temple Square could you see and meet an apostle of the Lord.  What a thrill for us!

 

 

 

 

 



 

Thirteenth Week of Our Mission

    Teaching Tressa (Our Investigator in Pocatello) from the Call Center 

The View from the "Roof" in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

The Flowers in Front of the Beehive House

Flowers in Front of Both Church Administration Buildings

 

 

Thirteenth Week of Our Mission

Salt Lake Temple Square Mission

September 1, 2013

Well, we have been on our mission almost three months on September 3^rd.  We are getting into the routine now, getting up early and working the Square until mid-afternoon most days.  We still find ourselves tired each day because greeting and talking to people takes some energy.  However, it is a good tired and we are grateful each day for this opportunity of serving in such a terrific mission.  Our love for the sisters grows stronger with each passing day.  The trouble is when we just get to know and love them it is time for them to go home.   Several sisters are leaving next week and already we have shed a few tears.

We had our first discussion with Tressa this week.  We really didn’t have a true discussion because she just asked some questions.  They were difficult ones to answer, but she was satisfied with what we said. We scheduled another appointment next week, a real discussion on the Restoration and Book of Mormon.  She seems very anxious to learn more and we hope and pray that the Spirit will be with us and Tressa as we proceed.  It was our first time together in the “Call Center” and we had some difficulty with the technology, however with practice I know that we will be successful.  This “Call Center” is wonderful and we plan to chat and talk with people who call and have questions especially during the winter months when Temple Square slows down.

We had the opportunity on Friday to go to the Bountiful Temple with a group of sisters.  President Gillette gave the opportunity to each sister to go to and see the new film that is being presented there.  We really felt the Spirit and the film was wonderful.  Many of the sisters mentioned that they truly understood the temple experience for the first time.  Taggart got to speak to them before the endowment session and said words of inspiration concerning the temple.  Afterwards I got to hug each sister as they entered the Celestial Room.  What an experience for all of us!

On Thursday of this week all of the senior couples (part time and full time) who serve on Temple Square got together for a meeting and a dinner.  These part time couples basically handle the “Hospitality Tours” during the week nights.  Because of their dedication and diligence a special dinner was planned at the Roof Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  We weren’t involved with the “Hospitality Tours” this year, yet we were able to enjoy this dinner too.  The view was magnificent and the food was terrific!  Because it is such an expensive restaurant, we were treated royally with special boxed mints and even a rose to take home. 

We are hoping against hope that Mimi will be baptized this next week.  We went to the Deseret Book Store and bought her a special picture of the Salt Lake Temple and sent it off as a baptismal gift.  We are wishing that this picture will be a reminder of the promise from Rick to be married in the temple a year from her baptismal date.  Next week we expect to have great news to share about Mimi and her baptism.

Just a final note, this last week we took many flower pictures.  The grounds on the Square are so magnificent that each day we are struck by their beauty.  Soon winter will be here and those flowers will be torn out and we will be so saddened.  Our walks around the grounds and the beauty we see make our hurting feet bearable. Therefore, we had to have a visual record for our memory book in the form of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 



Twelfth Week of Our Mission

Our District - Attending the Temple

The Temple in the Morning

Beautiful Flowers on Temple Square

 

 

 

 

Twelfth Week of Our Mission

Salt Lake Temple Square Mission

August 25, 2013

We had quite the week of excitement as Temple Square missionaries.  On our “P” day the South Visitor’s Center was evacuated because of a chemical leak.  I (Kimm) had been manning the South Visitor’s Center just before this occurred because the sisters had a morning meeting and we worked for them.  Needless to say we were worried about the sisters, but only three had to go to the hospital.  Our main concern was that the chemical leak had been a deliberate act, however, a worker had just mixed the wrong chemicals that created this situation.  So, all was well, but there is always a concern that some mischief maker could play havoc on the Square.

Of course, as mentioned last week, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to visit the sisters and share his testimony.  The excitement for an apostle to come was electric and on the day of his visit everyone was in their seats promptly.  Unfortunately, he had a meeting that morning so he only got to stay with us a very short time.  What impressed us most was his love and concern for the sisters.  Missionary work was the theme of his comments telling us that we are all investigators and we must always do what we tell our investigators to do.  He also was very personal sharing from his own history.  We did not realize that he was a first generation member of the church and that each day, every day, he thought back to his own mission as a young man.  After his comments, he opened up the floor for questions.  The time went too quickly and so he had to go.  He had promised to shake all the hands of the sisters, but time did not permit.  He told the sisters that he would return and we hope he will.

Also, we had the opportunity to go to the temple this week with our district.  We so appreciate these sisters love and support for us because they waited for us to complete our shift on Temple Square before we went.  Sister Gillette (our mission president’s wife) had given us family names so it was extra special.  Afterwards, we treated the sisters to pizza and ice cream at our apartment.  It was fun to get to know them on a more personal level.  We love them! 

I (Kimm) had the opportunity to give a talk to the sisters prior to their hiking to the top of Ensign Peak this week.  I had not realized what a significant peak this was in church history and so it was fun for me to research this sacred site.  I felt the spirit in abundance and tears flowed freely. 

Well, we did have a minor miracle today.  As we were greeting people after the organ recital a couple from Idaho starting talking to Taggart about the Conference Center.  After that visit they then proceeded to come and talk with me and two sister missionaries.  The first comment out of their mouths was, “How can we get the missionaries to come to Tressa’s house?”  (Tressa was the non-member with the member.)  Anyway, they told us that they had tried to contact the missionaries without any success.  They had become very discouraged when no one responded to their invitation to come and teach.  We jumped at the chance to be part of the teaching experience.  So we called them tonight and tomorrow we start missionary discussions!  How great is that!