Salt Lake Temple Square Mission

March 2, 2014

Tabernacle and the Temple in March

Unfortunately, I have been sick for most of the week.  Perhaps I have been too cocky because I haven’t seen sickness for months.  With so many sisters and visitors coming to Temple Square there are germs everywhere.  Anyway, the illness hit me very hard and consequently Taggart has been a lone man without his companion for days.  Being down really makes you appreciate the healthy days and feeling good.  The sisters have been very kind to me bringing remedies for me to try so that I could get better. Sister Xu from Vietnam brought over a rice soup and instructed me to eat it because it was good for me.  She also said I should drink at least ten glasses of warm water a day.  Sister Jin from China brought us stir fry.  We are always getting a little something from them even if it is only a candy kiss.  They love to share and to give.

Taggart still had discussions with Junior and Diane this week.  Junior just wants to debate so Taggart doesn’t see these discussions going anywhere.  Diane is the same.  She loves portions of the church and its doctrine, but there are other things she cannot accept.  Unfortunately, we may lose Diane too.  Jason couldn’t come to the Square on Saturday but we hope to see him next week for sure.  He seems to be the only progressing investigator we have at the moment.  As some sisters left the mission they gave us some of their contacts.  We still have work to do in getting in touch with them.

We have been planning food for zone conferences coming up next week.  It has been a little wild and crazy getting answers to questions such as when, where and what time things would happen.  Anyway, we hope all will be in order next week.  Taggart has also been working on a large hospitality tour coming up next Wednesday.  There will be 150 people coming from thirty-two different nations.  

Our Beautiful Temple in March

We heard from Cesar this week that his sister had her baby.  He testified to us again of the spiritual nature of the whole event and the Plan of Salvation.  We bought her a baby gift and hope to take it to her soon.  Because she had a bad experience with the missionaries, we hope that maybe we can have an influence on her in a positive way.  We also need to see his cousin, Nayelli, again and reinforce what she has been learning.  We don’t want to lose the opportunity to follow up with her.

Another celebrity sighting took place a couple of weeks ago by Taggart.  As he was walking by the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in ran into Sheri Dew, author and former counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency.  Anyway, he stopped her and thanked her for the gifts she gave to the sisters at Christmas time.  She said if she could do anything more to please call on her.  Well, he approached her personal assistant this week and asked if she could talk to the sisters in Relief Society.  We have not heard back as yet, but hope that she will respond to his request.  It would be wonderful if she could speak to us because she has been one of my favorites for some time.  By the way, I just finished her latest book this week, Women and the Priesthood.