Twentieth Week

Salt Lake Temple Square Mission
October 20, 2013



 

 
This last Monday a transfer conference was held.  This is where the sisters go home, new sisters come from the MTC and those that were outbound come home.  We have been to three of these conferences already and it is wild.  There is a lot of screaming, yelling, and crying going on.  We so hate to see sisters that we love dearly go home and some go outbound for two to three months.  We will miss them so.  It is also difficult for us to greet thirty-three new sisters and try to remember their countries and names.  But, this is what missionary service is all about... 

We are finding ourselves getting involved in more administrative responsibilities.  When Elder and Sister Creer left the mission we picked up many of their duties.  However, we are sharing these assignments with Elder and Sister Curtis.  We are now having event meetings with the senior couples and trying to coordinate our efforts.  Taggart organizes the meetings and so far they are going well.  We will really see an increase in activities in the spring, but as for now we can plan for the future.  We will miss our schedule from last summer because our responsibilities will increase dramatically.

Tressa

We did have the opportunity to go up to Pocatello today to see Tressa.  We went to the Sacrament Meeting at the care center where she works.  We were so happy to see her face-to-face and discuss certain issues with her.  She has to work through a few things before she is baptized, but we are confident that this will happen.  In the meantime, we have a discussion this Thursday with her.  She has a testimony of the Gospel and is excited for this next step in her life.  She is always in our thoughts and prayers and we wish her only the best.

I had an amazing experience with a young man on Saturday.  Taggart and I were separated for a time and I met Cesar in the North Visitor’s Center.  I asked if he had any questions and then he just started to talk and talk.  Apparently over the past several weeks he has been studying the Gospel and has truly felt the spirit in abundance.  He told me he was lost and now he is found.  He admits that he can’t get enough information about the Church.  He is constantly reading, studying and praying about what he learns.  We talked about the Godhead, particularly the Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith, families, prayer and other topics.  He had invited an inactive member to meet him on Temple Square because he wanted her to get involved with the Church again.  I invited them to see “God’s Plan for Families” and they both just cried and cried.  He said he was going to Church on Sunday and would email us.  On Sunday evening he did send a lengthy email so excited about what he had experienced that day.  He met with the missionaries and is on fire.  His baptismal date is set for November 16^th and we will definitely attend.

That same Saturday night when I met Cesar, Taggart met with a man who said he wanted to be baptized.  Unfortunately, he is homeless and Taggart was concerned about his intentions for baptism.  In fact, he confronted him and wondered if he wanted baptism strictly because the Church would help him.  He said this was not the case.  Anyway, he went to stake conference on Sunday but was disgruntled with the members because he felt they were judging him.  Taggart made some calls and gave him the name of a bishop in the homeless community and wanted him to meet with him.  We will see what happens and the next step for this young man.

The Temple on Beautiful Fall Evening