Hungry Homeless; Gender - part 2; Stake Conference

 

Our first picture is our Tuesday institute class that we support & provide a meal.  This week was about "becoming", an interesting way to talk about Gender, part 2.  The class went somewhat like this:

At our funeral, how would we like to be remembered?  How we will be remembered has a lot to do with who we are becoming.  In Mathew 5:48, Christ said "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"  I understand this to mean "complete" & in Hebrew it is used in connection with a covenant relationship with the Lord - it doesn't mean we will be sinless, only Jesus Christ was sinless.  Christ did not consider Himself  "perfect" in this definition because he had not "completed" His Mission & atonement on earth.  When He appeared to the Nephites as a resurrected being, He included Himself in the category of "perfect" when He taught the Nephites in 3 Ne 12:48 "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect".  His atonement was complete.  

The doctrine here is that we are all "incomplete" right now, and are in the process of "becoming" a "completed" son or daughter of God.  We are still very imperfect in this life, but we are striving to become more like our Father in Heaven.  Everyone's path of learning & becoming who God would like us to be is different.  Some of us go through heartbreaking experiences before we might find the true path to become who God wants us to be.  Some of us suffer terribly from sin & poor choices..............

Like the homeless 30 something young man (Josh) who wandered in to our institute class at the beginning - he had a torn & tattered dirty grey backpack on & had a haggard, hungry, gaunt look about him.  We greeted him & welcomed him into our class.  The aroma of Debbie's home cooked dinner must have appealed to him, so we invited him to stay for dinner and the class.  His words were slow & shaky - his countenance dark & cautious, his look of hopelessness disarming.  He stayed for the whole class & after asked if we knew where he could stay for the night?  We couldn't let him sleep in the institute building, so we called an emergency county number & actually got a live person, who determined that the nearest homeless shelter was 6 miles away from our location, but they closed at 5pm.  We talked to Josh & offered to drive him to that location to see if perhaps they would let him come in anyway.  We felt sad that he was in that situation & asked him what he was doing in San Diego.  Josh explained that he lost his housing in Kansas because of some mistakes that he had made, so he wanted to go somewhere warmer, so he walked, hitchhiked, etc across the country to San Diego and was hoping to get any kind of job here.  We wondered what kind of mistakes he was talking about, but we didn't feel comfortable asking.  We finally dropped him off, gave him some cash we had on hand & wished him the best.  Seeing the pain & suffering his choices may have caused him, our hearts ached for him, as I'm sure a loving Heavenly Father must ache & shed many tears for his lost children.  

I couldn't help but think how many of us are spiritually homeless & on strange paths.  Some among us are confused  & are afflicted with Gender Dysphoria that will hopefully be rectified through the loving, saving, healing atonement of Jesus Christ and our faith in Him in the eternities,  perhaps after a long process of  "becoming" in this life.  I feel that we must have love & compassion for all around us, since none of us have "become" all we need to be yet!  

We were able to attend a baptism where the Sister Missionaries taught a couple of young girls the gospel - the members here are so welcoming & creative in trying to make the baptism special!

It seemed like half the ward showed up in support of these two young girls!

Our Ward is preparing for a temple trip this Saturday to the LA Temple - we are trying to help all of the recently baptized converts to come with us, so hopefully, we can get everyone!

This weekend was our Stake Conference and we had a visiting 70;  Elder Siegfried A Naumann spoke to us during several sessions of Stake Conference.  Some of the funny or significant statements:

(1)  After explaining about the 10,000+ submissions for the new hymnbook, he said, "it might have

been easier to fight the war in heaven than to finish this new hymnbook"!!

    (2)  He shared with us that in his training, President Nelson said, "The Savior is not coming yet                        because we need to gather Israel first!!"                                                                                              (3)  We get to decide what salvation we will get, and which kind of body we will receive. If we                         repent and choose to live a celestial law here, then we are choosing a glorious future in                           eternity through the atonement of Jesus Christ.                                                                               (4)  Doctrines of eternal truths answer the why? questions - Principles (eternal laws) answer                           the what? questions.  Transactional Obedience focuses on applications & blessings, but                            transformational obedience focuses on the Doctrines & Principles (better).

We occasionally have the opportunity to have over a set of young missionaries for dinner - tonight we had Elder Provencio & Legg over for a tasty meatloaf & potato dinner & Elder Provencio & I had a little jam session since he plays the cello also!  These young missionaries are great!

Have a great week!

AI has come to the mission, Wedding Bells, Missionary, Operation Get It Done-ford, Mission Prep

 AI (artificial intelligence) has hit the mission. Someone created an AI called “Holly”. I don’t understand it, but somehow she can gather the referrals for our Zone and separate them according to District. As each companionship responds to the referral, “Holly” deletes the name from the list. She will remind them and other things that I don’t know. Anyway, technology is being used to further the missionary efforts.  Each morning, the Elder in charge of  "Holly" says "Holly, go fetch", and she collects all the data for referrals.  Then the Elder says "Good Dog", and then all the missionaries have access to the new referrals for the day.  Amazing!  A Miracle!

One of our young adults from our Temple Prep class, Amy, received her mission call a couple months ago.  A couple of weeks ago, she and her family flew up to Provo and she went through the Provo City Temple for her Endowments.  Amy left this morning with her parents, and flew up to Provo to enter the MTC this week. This is the only picture I was able to get from the family.  I wish I could have gotten a picture with her missionary attire and her name tag.  She's so excited to serve.  Her sisters said that she's been packing her suitcase ever since she received her mission call.  She's serving in the Gilbert Arizona mission.

We have an engagement in the YSA ward!  Frank and Beatrice got engaged last week.  Frank is in our Bishopric, and Bea is a Gospel Doctrine teacher.  They are both amazing young people.  We are so happy for them.  There is hope for the YSA's!  

Our mission president posted the following letter on the Senior Chat.  The sister that wrote the letter is from Japan.  The mission president wanted her to get her Driver's License to help with the driving with her companions.  I thought I would share this with you as an example of one of the many ways Senior Missionaries serve and help the missionaries.

"Dear Seniors, I am amazed at your efforts and goodness and love with and for our missionaries. Here is an excerpt from a letter to me from one of our sweet young missionaries. THANK YOU for loving and caring and lifting and building these young people. It IS worth every effort. I feel so honored to be part of such an amazing team!

“Successes: Getting a driver's license. I owe it all to Sister/Elder Hardy for letting me use their computer, Sister/Elder Page for fighting the DMV with me to get the permit, Sister Christian for helping us for 3 days with driving, Sister Pollock for teaching me how to parallel park, Sister/Elder Carlson that helped me with taking the driving test, that one YSA member that let us use his car, Sister/Elder Phillip for helping with the letterhead, Sister Murakami for being patient with me, Sister Thomas and Sister Finau for helping me study for the written test, and President/Sister Merritt for being supportive and signing the letterhead.”

You are probably wondering what "Operation Get It Done-ford" is.  Well, our Stake President's last name is Dunford.  He implemented a program in our Stake with the missionaries.  In the past, a Dinner Calendar would be passed around the ward to help feed the missionaries.  The missionaries would go to their home, enjoy dinner and conversation, leave a short message, and head out.  The new Stake "Love, Share, and Invite" program is more missionary minded.  Instead of a Dinner Calendar, it is a "Lesson Calendar".  The missionaries bring a little white booklet to the family. This booklet has blank pages for the members to write down their goals.  The missionaries will follow up with them throughout the week. After a brief dinner, where conversation is directed to the members and learning about them (their conversion, temple experiences, testimonies etc), they are then invited to practice a Role Play with the missionaries practicing with the members so that they can be prepared to talk with their friends.  The goal is to get more referrals from the members and to help them feel more comfortable talking with their friends about the Gospel.  The Lord continues to help missionaries and members know how to find and share with their friends.  

Our Mission Prep class was pretty small today - we only had three youth show up!  But it ended up being a good experience for the three who came.  We were discussing "Questions of the Soul" and how we can find answers to life's questions in the Book of Mormon.  We had some discussion and then decided to role play some of the questions that our friends might ask.  We had a set of Elders come to help us out. So with the Elders and these three students, they took turns either  being the missionaries or the "Friend" and asking some of the "Questions of the Soul".  As they practiced this, I began to be aware that the two most quiet of the three students were actually speaking up and participating and asking very good questions.  It was a blessing for them to have a small group; where they would feel comfortable speaking up.  

Spring time in Chula Vista, hungry Missionaries, and Gender

 This week has proved to be a busy one!  The first picture is to show Debbie all dressed up for Church with her Missionary tag and all - it also shows the amazing 70 degree weather we are having with blue skies and of course the beautiful palm trees surrounding the Church!  This is how nice the weather has been to us!

The beautiful spring time flowers are starting to bloom everywhere, and the brown hills around San Diego are GREEN!

With the help of a few other Senior Missionaries, we had the privilege of serving the hungry Young Missionaries lunch on two different days this week - some 80-90 of them, so we fixed them a baked potato bar with a bunch of trimmings, fruit, tossed salad,  and cookies with ice cream.  They seemed to enjoy it!

I ended up speaking in Sacrament meeting & we taught our Missionary prep class to a growing number of High School Seniors.  We found that the youngsters like to role play, play Kahoots, eat refreshments and play table tennis & foosball after the class.  Unfortunately, we found out that the Church is selling the institute building, apparently because their aren't enough students utilizing it!  It is in escrow now and will most likely be gone within a month.  Kind of sad :(

We continue to enjoy the YSA's and their enthusiasm for life;  Each one has a unique personality & you just have to love them!  Our Institute teacher will be gone this week, so we have been asked to sub in for him on a sensitive topic - Gender.  Thankfully, the Proclamation on the Family, as well as guidance from our Apostles & Prophets helps to clarify that "All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

It is a blessing that God knew well in advance that our world would be confused about this divine gift of our gender and gave us the Family Proclamation back in 1995 to help clarify this truth even before it became the issue that it is today.  The differences between genders  are complimentary & an integral part of God's plan of happiness & progression.

Debbie & I continue to be thankful for the experiences that we are having to help gather Israel; it gives us a sense of purpose & an opportunity to give back to the Lord for the many blessings we have!

 Driver's Permit Test, Meatloaf and the Spirit, & Christ

I'm finding it more difficult to write in our Blog, because the weeks are pretty similar.  It just about feels like Ground Hog Day!  Even our pictures are all starting to look the same.  So I think I will write about the experiences we had that were unique to this week, with a little of the ordinary added in.  

This week was Transfers, so we took our District Council out to lunch; instead of In 'N Out we went to Chick fil A.  I think they liked the change, but our budget not so much; so next transfer we'll probably end up back to In 'N Out!  The missionaries are always so grateful!

We have three Sister's that live across the parking lot from us.  Sister Matsushita is from Japan and does not have a US Driver's License.  The Mission President has asked to to work on getting it, so she can be a driver.  The computers at the church are so slow, so we invited she and her companions over to our apartment to use our computer.  Sister M. went in our bedroom to have a quiet place to take the Learner's Permit exam, and the rest of us had a nice visit.  After 20-30 minutes she came out, unsure if she passed.  A few minutes later she checked her email and she did not pass.  So we went over some questions with her and she prepared to go back in the bedroom to retake the exam.  I suggested we have a prayer to help her remember.  She said a heartfelt faith filled prayer and went in to tale the exam again.  Stan got out his cello and began playing for the other sisters.  Only about 15 minutes later, a beaming Sister M. came out and declared that she passed the exam.  She was so happy.  She said a big weight was taken off her shoulders.  The Senior companion said they would have to take her over to the church parking lot to practice driving.  Before they left, we fixed Broiled Cheese sandwiches and enjoyed sharing lunch together.  

This picture is from our Mission Prep class.  The three sisters on the left are the ones that came over to our apartment.

We invited a couple of young men from our ward over for dinner.  Kale is from Hawaii and was baptized over a year ago.  Eric was just baptized last October, and we've been working with him to be ready to go on his first temple trip.  I made Meatloaf and baked potatoes and beans for dinner.  You would think they had never eaten meatloaf before, they kept eating it until it was nearly gone.  It's like they never get home cooked meals!  We had a wonderful conversation with them after dinner.  We started off talking about tithing, and the blessings that come with paying a full tithe.  we shared stories and experiences.  The Spirit flowed in with the conversation as we talked about studying Come Follow Me, Chiasmus, and even gender.  It was the best dinner and conversation we've had in a while!

We learned how to do Contour Drawing at our Friday night activity.  Contour drawing is when you can't lift your pen up off the paper.  You do continuous strokes to create your drawing.  We drew each other's profiles. There is a reason that we didn't take any pictures of this activity!

Last night we attended the Senior Missionary FHE.  We enjoyed a delicious Baked Potato Bar and good conversation.  The highlight of the evening was being taught by Elder Stringham about the last week of Christ's life.  The slides he showed from his trip to Jerusalem reminded us of the time we were so blessed to be in the Holy Land.  As he reminded us of all that Christ went through the last week of His life, I felt such sadness and great gratitude for His willingness to suffer and die for all the children of God.  I don't have words to express how I felt, but I'm grateful for the reminder as we start off this month of celebrating Easter and our Savior's life.  We're so blessed to serve with so many amazing Senior Missionaries.

Let God Prevail, YSA Institute & party, Cactus flowers

 Greetings!  This week the storms have subsided and life has gotten pretty much back to normal - as we went through the storms of the past several weeks, we saw how the media blew up the impact!  For the most part, the rain had a fairly minimal effect on San Diego, with the exception of a few areas where the drains got plugged & caused some water damage.  So..... we were just fine!  Our week went through its fairly predictable cycles with preparing dinner for the institute, district council with the Missionaries, & Mission Prep class.  We did have a couple events where our help was requested by our Institute director, so Thursday night we helped with a Seminary & Institute night especially for the youth, where BYU & Utah CES people came to play some games with the kids enticing them to consider the value of taking Seminary & Institute.  Their objective was to help kids become "disciples of Christ" by taking advantage of Seminary & Institute.

Our Institute instructor, Brother McKay had an inciteful discussion about being accountable & having unity, asking "How does more accountability to God change our relationships with others and provide greater unity?"  As we become more accountable to God, we draw closer to Him, and become more "one" with Him - this process allows us to become more unified with our brothers & sisters in the Gospel as well. 

 He also reminded us of Russell M. Nelson's discussion of the meaning of "Israel" found in his Conference talk October 2020:

"With the help of two Hebrew scholars, I learned that one of the Hebraic meanings of the word Israel is “let God prevail.”⁴ Thus the very name of Israel refers to a person who is willing to let God prevail in his or her life. That concept stirs my soul!

The question for each of us, regardless of race, is the same. Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in His?"

God is doing His work to gather each of His lost sheep.  In Sacrament meeting on Sunday, we heard from a returning YSA member who had a prompting that he was missing out on something important in his life.  While shopping on Sunday someone said something about the Lord's Sabbath day & it pricked his heart.  He googled the Church and found out that there was a Chapel  just 5 minutes from his location.  As he came to Church, the spirit confirmed that this is where he should be - he had an answer & his heart was softened.  Where ever we are in life, we must remember that it can be so much richer & better as we "let God prevail in our lives!"

Our Mission Prep class started up again and we actually had 8 people come (the students had voted to continue the class). We had a "Kahoot" (interactive game) on our review of last weeks lesson on the restoration that the youth seemed to have a lot of fun with!  We then brought together a panel of 5 full time Missionaries - 3 Sisters & 2 Elders so that the youth could ask them any questions that they had regarding full time Missionary service!  The Spirit was very strong during class, so we felt good about what we were teaching!  God is serious about His covenant to gather Israel again.   It turned out to be a successful night.

Saturday night was a big YSA institute party held at the San Diego Institute.  The directors went all out to invite all the High School Seniors and YSA's to enjoy Grilled cheese sandwiches with specialty cheeses, pulled pork, bacon, buffalo chicken, guacamole, pesto, etc and homemade churros.;  games featuring Mini-golf, ping pong, pool, stand up an empty coke bottle with a ring on the end of a string tied to a fishing pole, popping balloons by throwing darts, baseball throw to knock down stacked cups, dancing, basketball free throw game machine,

etc!!  Quite a shindig.

Signs that spring time is coming are happening already with some pretty flowers showing up on the cactus:

Lastly, Debbie had a birthday this past week!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Debbie has been a great blessing to me & to all that know her - WE LOVE YOU!

 Bayside Park, Safari, Dixie, BYU International Folk Dancers, Mission Prep Class

One of our favorite things to do as Senior Missionaries is to join with the young missionaries for their lessons.  We were invited to a lesson Tuesday afternoon after District Council.  We have met the missionaries at various locations for lessons, so we are never quite sure where we'll be meeting them.  This time they told us to meet them at Bayside Park.  We had never been there before, so we put it in the GPS and away we went.  It ended up in a location just like the name says; right next to a Bay!  I thought to myself that these missionaries are sure blessed to be able to teach in such a gorgeous location.  

                                                Stan and I next to the Bay!

We really enjoyed the lesson.  The Elder's taught a lady named Leilani.  She has been investigating the Church for a couple of years, but whenever she got close to baptism, something happened.  She has had a hard life, but she is filled with a love for the Lord and His teachings.  The Elder's challenged her to set up a baptism date, and she scheduled it for March 2.  I hope it happens for her this time.  She really is a golden contact.  

For Valentine's Day, we met a few other Senior Couples at the San Diego Wildlife Safari.  We had fun walking around enjoying the animals, the beautiful plants, and just hanging out with some of the other Seniors.  

My sister, Dixie, flew in  Thursday evening.  She had a conference on Friday and Saturday, but we were able to spend the evening with her and then take her to the airport on Saturday.  Thursday evening we enjoyed a yummy dinner at a middle eastern restaurant called Istanbul, and then went to the Balboa Theater downtown San Diego and enjoyed the BYU International Folk Dance team performance.  We enjoyed talking and being together.  When we picked her up on Saturday, and on the way to the airport we drove up to La Jolla Cove.  We only had about 30 minutes, but we were blessed to find a parking place and enjoyed a short walk to the shoreline to see the famous seals on the rocks.  It was great being together. 

The Mission Preparation class that we've been teaching Sunday afternoons has kept us busy with preparations.  We thought today was our last class, but last Sunday the Stake President asked us if we would consider continuing the class on a regular basis.  So we will forge forward creating more lessons from Preach My Gospel.  Today for our "final" class, the youth prepared short lessons with questions and scriptures to do role plays teaching the full-time missionaries who were acting as their "Friends".  I was walking around listening to each of the groups, and I realized how important this is for those who want to serve a mission.  Most of us read and study and learn about the Gospel, but don't have too many opportunities to teach it.  This practice that they are getting now will help them in the future as they go to the MTC to prepare to serve a mission.  

Mission Tour of General Authority Seventy - Elder Ojediran

Greetings!  This past week, we had the opportunity to have a special zone conference with Elder Ojediran, a general authority seventy from Africa, who toured our Mission.  He met with half of the Missionaries on one day & the other half on the next day. 

Elder Ojediran had a number of inspirational messages for us during the 2 hours that he spent teaching.  He asked us:  Who has invited us to serve on a Mission?  Christ.  Who will watch our grandchildren while we are away?  Christ.  We are on the Lord's errand & we should go in the power of our ordination - we should be who the Lord wants us to be, so we should let God prevail in our lives.  He told us that there is no better place for us to be, than right here, right now - so we must learn to enjoy the moment and learn to love where ever we are assigned to serve.  

He made some interesting parallels between his assignment as a general authority and our assignments as Missionaries:

• He doesn't decide where he is to live
• He doesn't decide what his assignment is,
• He doesn't decide who he serves with,
• He doesn't decide what language he speaks, and
• He doesn't decide whether to wear a suit on a plane!

Likewise as Missionaries:

• We don't decide where we labor,
• We don't decide what our assignments are,
• We don't decide who we serve,
• We don't decide what language we speak, and
• We don't decide whether to wear missionary attire!

The Lord is at the helm, so we get to serve where He desires!  We do get to decide if we are going to trust Him and His will for us, as manifested by His prophets, seers, and revelators!  We strive to bring others to Christ through covenants and ordinances - it is never about us - Jesus is the light!  When we accomplish something good, it is because the Lord has been merciful to us - it is for the Glory of the God.

Elder Ojediran gave us some great things to think about!

We had our usual weekly YSA family home evening, providing a meal for the institute class, District Council with the Young Missionaries, teaching the Missionary Prep Class, & various other meetings, but we had a new opportunity to invite one of the nice pickleball couples that we have met to have lunch with us in our little apartment during the week.  After lunch we had the opportunity to teach them a little about the restoration of the gospel & introduce the Book of Mormon.  They are both Methodists, but they like hearing messages about other religions, so we gifted them a personalized copy of the Book of Mormon & highlighted the introduction as well as Christ's visit to ancient America.  They said they would start reading it, and would enjoy coming to see what one of our worship services is like!!

I think that some of the most rewarding and fulfilling things that we do, are to help teach people about God's plan of happiness & help bring people a little closer to Jesus Christ!