Shockingly enough, it's been another busy week. But, we survived and didn't have any complete meltdowns so it's a win. The number of students needing interviews is almost under 200 at the moment but that will go up a bit after the weekend like it always does. Somehow it seems almost manageable.
We had a devotional with Sister Amy Wright (Primary Presidency Counselor) on Monday and it was beautiful. I loved when she took a couple of chapters in 3rd Nephi and pulled all the bad circumstances out and then the good. It was really fun to see how both were happening at the same time and how similar it was to our day.
The good
A zone devotional this week started with this slide:
Elder Baldwin then shared how he was able to learn from the spirit a better way to look at a spilled bowl of cheerios and have a memorable moment with a small son. I love so much when people take every day experiences and show how the spirit of God works in our lives so regularly.
After missing the temple last week, we went to the Bountiful Temple on Thursday and it was quite wonderful. I love this entrance from the underground parking.
We seem to trade off days of bad connections and missed interviews but we eventually got hold of most of the students who were set up to talk to us. Sometimes all we can get is the bare minimum answers and other times we have lovely conversations. I just have to remind myself that the fact that we can have any sort of conversation on the other side of the world is pretty miraculous.
Saturday we were up in Logan again, cleaning the basement apartment. It is looking much better and we have a pretty doable list of repairs that we'll work on over the next little bit. We had dinner at McDonald's with our Logan bunch and the grandkids had a great time in the play area. It was a fun, busy day and a very nice break from all the interviews and computer work.
Today we taught the 6 and 7 year olds again and they were great. We just show up every Sunday with a mostly prepared lesson that can be adjusted to whatever age and then see where they put us. It's a fun adventure.
It's our monthly One Heart Gathering and we're sending some missionaries home that we really do not want to lose this month. It's a sad reality of missions.
The Temple Square gardens continue to amaze us
From Gary: We had our One Heart Gathering which showcases the new missionaries that joined us this month and then we listen to the departing missionaries that we have grown to love. I was reminded that it is indeed an amazing place to be when we work at Church Headquarters. We are involved with dozens of departments and assist them in their work. We now have about 1400 Senior Missionaries that are working here in our mission. A little over 200 of us are full-time missionaries and the rest live close enough to Salt Lake that they can come into Headquarters and assist in the work. We have made many eternal friends with the missionaries and Church employees that we work with.
Most of all, I was reminded that this truly is the work of God to build His kingdom on the earth! He is involved with us every hour of every day! We feel His presence here whenever we pay a little bit of attention and recognize it.
I also know that every one of the believers of Jesus Christ who pray and work with their families to find the way back to our eternal home are building the Kingdom of God just as much as we are here! We just get to spend almost every waking hour engaged while we are missionaries!
What a great blessing it is to have parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and even great-great-grandparents that embraced the gospel and were willing to sacrifice so much to bring it to their families. We love this work!
Have a glorious week!
Elder and Sister Pack
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