Adventures From the Weekend of My Birth

I reckon I better do a post about my birthday weekend shenanigans.  I'll dive right in with the events on Fri.  My second longest mission comp, Santa Maria, was coming up for the weekend and wanted to get together with me and another of our mutual comps, Palu, so our plan was to meet in the Draper area and have dinner.  After work, I had a message from Santa Maria that Palu wasn't answering her phone so that we could finalize where to meet and all.  I had been been hanging out in the American Fork shopping center, where I had picked up a present for Santa Maria as her birthday if the day after mine.  Since I was already out and it was getting a little later in the evening, she and I decided we'd meet in Murry, where Palu lives, so that maybe she could join us late if she called back.  Since I wasn't at home and don't have a smartphone, I was internetless and asked Santa Maria to give me the exit for the restaurant I should get off at.  She told me 13, which sounded wrong to me, but I started on my way armed with this info hoping to figure it out as I went.  Unfortunately, that didn't so much happen!

As I got on the interstate, I saw that I was in the 290's area and figured she must have meant exit 313, but I figured I still look for Murray signs too, just in case.  I kept feeling like I was going way too far, and eventually I did see a small sign that said Murray, but figured there would be another exit since I couldn't get off safely after seeing it, but there wasn't.  Before I knew it, I could see Temple Square and knew I was all the way to SLC.  All through this time, I'd been calling Santa Maria periodically describing my lostness, and when I discovered I was all the way to SLC, we decided to just meet at City Center.

It was awesome when we finally did get together.  I was so happy.  It was like we'd never been apart, and all her mannerisms and conversation reminded me keenly of those days as a missionary.  We talked for about 4 hours, and I told her what I've been up to and learned about what's been going on in her life.  She's in the early stages of going through a divorce after her husband cheated on her, and her story broke my heart.  She's moved to St. George in the aftermath of the affair, and is trying to piece her life back together.  We talked in depth about her situation and the things she's been dealing with, and I think the opportunity to talk about it was good for her, as she doesn't really have friends down in St. George.

We also reminisced about the mission and discussed what we knew of the other missionaries.  At one point, she mentioned that her MTC comp had gotten married without saying her name or anything.  I mentioned something about her having served in Boise, and Santa Maria admitted that she couldn't remember where the comp, with whom she had been very close, served.  I could remember because Santa Maria had talked about her a lot when we were together.  I could even remember that her name was Juncal, which blew Santa Maria's mind.  We had a good laugh that I remembered more about her MTC comp than she did!

I thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  While Santa Maria's troubles have weighed on my soul in a way I haven't really felt since working with struggling investigators as a missionary, I'm incredibly grateful that I was able to meet with her.  As much as I think our meeting was helpful to her, I think I needed it just as much.  I felt like I was in some way becoming myself again in a way I haven't done for a long time.  There is something special about a great mission companion that goes beyond friendship and into a real understanding of each other in the most important ways.  I was delighted that that hasn't at all changed even after all the new developments in both our lives over the past 6 years since we last saw each other.  I'm still worried about her, but I'm also so happy that she's making good progress in her life.

The Monday after we met, she did her naturalization ceremony, and though I wasn't able to attend unfortunately, I was so proud of her for continuing to move her life forward in positive ways.  Talking about it also brought back memories for me of going to Palu's naturalization ceremony with her on the mission.  That was a really awesome experience that I'm really glad I got to participate in even in a very peripheral way.  It was really awesome to see so many people from every imaginable background and culture uniting themselves in a common heritage and culture here.  It made me so proud to be a citizen of a country where that is possible and positive.

I have pictures from the naturalization day, but not on this computer, so this picture with Palu will have to do for now.

My actual birthday on Saturday was fun too, though the morning started off on a rather poor note.  I took the time to make myself pancakes when I woke up only to realize I couldn't find my syrup was after they were all cooked!  Nor did I have a single thing like whipped cream, applesauce, or even sugar to make them tolerable to eat.  So I ended up making a breakfast burrito instead and saved the pancakes for when I could locate some syrup.  The crazy thing is that this same situation basically happened again last night.  I made pasta and got it all drained and ready before realizing that my three jars of tomato sauce I almost positive I bought were nowhere to be found.  At least this time, I was able to improvise a pasta salad type recipe that I liked well enough that I think I will do it again.  I need to figure out where the pantry Brownies are hiding all my food, though, or at least start checking for all the ingredients before I start preparing a meal!

After breakfast attempt #2, I did chores around the house like laundry, some dishes, and cleaning my room.  We were enjoying the first decent snow of the season, so I was a little hesitant about going out, but I had decided a day or two before the I would go see Frozen, which I was excited about, on my birthday as a gift to myself.  It was a little touch and go getting there, as the roads were quite slick, but I was glad that I did.

The movie was so awesome!  It's one of my favorites from recent memory, and while I could have done without some of the crudeness they worked in, I thought both the music and the plot were excellent and uplifting.  I suppose a movie like that is bound to make you think of your own life, and I kept thinking of my relationship with Marinda through the whole thing, especially because of the Scandinavian setting.  If she's game, I think it would be fun to cosplay Elsa and Anna next year for Halloween or something.

After the movie, I had just enough time to run to Panda Express for dinner before hurrying over to Gerrit and Elisabeth's for Gerrit's partial-surprise party.  While he knew we were all coming over to celebrate, he didn't know that Elisabeth had arranged for us all, as in both of them, John, Emily, and Joel, to go to the Discovery Space Center right in North Pleasant Grove that Gerrit had long been interested in trying out.  He was definitely pretty surprised when Elisabeth came in with a babysitter and announced what we were doing.

I think I will mostly describe what happened, despite the spoilers, as I doubt anyone who reads this will be all that likely to go.  If you think you will, don't read this section, or make sure you choose a different mission, because you'll know the scenario pretty well after this.  We started off with a briefing in which we all chose roles to play.  Gerrit was captain, of course, Elisabeth was first officer/sensors, John was tactical, Emily was communications, Joel was pilot, and I was operations.  I was pretty glad I chose to be female Data, because I think my role was perhaps the most fun.

We were then given the what was known along with our orders.  We were on a battleship being sent to a planet called Olympus to meet and assist one of our science vessels that was already there.  We were to study a ceremony on this planet that happened every 10 years wherein a bunch of children from the non-spacefaring inhabitants were taken up by their "gods" to dwell with them, never to return.  We were told to learn more about this ritual, protect the scientists, and not get ourselves killed.

We then went up to the "ship" where we each did a little training on our roles.  I had several things that I controlled.  Most importantly, I monitored and allocated energy usage.  There was a level required for each system to work, but not enough power to run them all at once without potentially overtaxing the system.  When a system was damaged, I was to divert all it's power to other areas and keep the power level balanced.  Next, I was in charge of balancing the power feed through the dilithium crystal to keep it from being shattered through overuse.  I also operated the transporter and controlled the allocation of supplies like probes, torpedos, etc. from the cargo bay.

To start the mission, we had to disembark from the space station we were docked in.  The employee who was running our simulation was playing a number of roles, one of which was the engineer who helped us through that process.  He was telling each person exactly what they needed to do to leave, such as telling Emily to hail the station, and Joel how to pilot out.  I knew from the training that one of my roles in the energy department was to switch from station power to internal power, but figured the engineer would tell me when to do so as he was pretty well micromanaging everyone else.  As soon as we got out of the dock, however, everything went dark and I immediately switched to internal power to restore everything.  The engineer then basically apologized for not telling me when to do it earlier, but I told him that though I figured he'd tell me, I had it covered when he didn't.  We all had a bit of a laugh on that one.

It was then Joel's big moment to shine, and though he originally plotted us to warp into a black hole and then managed to run into an asteroid in the asteroid belt we had to pilot through, we eventually made it safely to Olympus.  Through this time, I wasn't too busy, though I did pretty quickly have to adjust the stream through the dilithium crystal and also adjust power levels so that Joel had enough to warp us to top speed while not leaving our defenses all drained of power.  The engineer was poking fun of Joel through this whole time and Gerrit and the rest of us joined in a little, which was pretty funny.

Once we got to the planet, we learned there was a signal of some kind originating from a nearby moon, and we flew over to investigate.  Emily had some communications stuff to do through here and she eventually got us set up to eavesdrop on the message the was being relayed through a station on the moon.  The aliens detected our presence and Gerrit got his big moment in the sun.  When the aliens contacted us, we were told we would all need to be quiet except for Gerrit essentially as everything we said would be heard.

The alien was fairly belligerent and asked who we were and what we were doing, essentially.  Gerrit was telling him all kinds of explicit info about us, like that we were from Earth, where Earth was, that we only had two ships in the area, etc.  While he's answering all these questions so directly, the rest of us were trying to indicate to him not to reveal so much about us, as obviously that wasn't necessarily a great idea.  The alien told us that they took the children to be slaves in their mines and whatnot, and that their culture depended upon this slave labor and that it didn't really hurt Olympus as well.  Gerrit, of course, said that we couldn't condone enslaving others, especially when the Olympians didn't know that was what was happening.

The alien response to this was to begin firing on us after transporting two intruders onto our ship.  Gerrit then told me to transport the intruders into space, but since I would just tell the computer verbally any location I wanted to transport them, I suggested putting them in the brig, though I had no reason to know it existed.  Apparently, that wasn't against the rules, so that's where they went after I targeted them.

We went back to the planet to protect the science vessel so they'd have time to transport up their scientists. An alien ship started firing on the planet and then firing on us.  By the time the science vessel was safely in the asteroid field, we were pretty badly damaged, though John was firing on them as much as possible.  We started to run for the asteroid field ourselves, but our life support system went out and their ship wasn't damaged at all in spite of our continual attack.  I was pretty sure we were going to get destroyed, but at that moment, the science vessel came in and started drawing the fire, and told us they could blow up their ship to destroy the enemy.

My job was to beam all the crew to our ship as fast as possible before the science vessel was just destroyed from the enemy fire.  I went as fast as I could, and I was good at targeting quickly, but the computer wasn't responding to my vocal commands very quickly, and I had to repeat my transport command numerous times for each transport to go through.  I think the system was confused, because I was doing my orders on top of Gerrit and the other talking a bit.  We did manage to get everyone, though, and Joel was told to warp us out as fast as possible as the science vessel exploded.  The display screen dramatically showed the shock wave emanating from the explosion coming toward us, wiping out the enemy vessel.  It must have been programmed like this, but our ship only warped to safety a split second before we were totally destroyed, and we were all yelling and going crazy watching it.

That was the end of our mission.  Our commanding officer congratulated us on essentially accomplishing our mission, though perhaps not as effectively as might be wished.  Once we all got back out to the entry area, the employee told us that we did better than a lot of groups and said there were some that died in the space station because they didn't follow undocking procedures properly.  He said the way our story unfolded was the normal course of events and basically that we couldn't have done much to have improved upon the final outcome.  My comforting thought was that since we had gotten away with the intruders in our brig, we'd be able to question them and get more info on the new enemy for the future.  I couldn't help wondering what the employee moderating for us would have done if Gerrit had essentially said, "Oh, you enslave children?  That's cool.  Can we help?"  That might have thrown a monkey wrench in the whole scenario!

The whole thing was incredibly fun.  I had a great time.  While I think some of the others weren't all that occupied through sections, at least, I always had something or another to work with to some degree.  I was pretty constantly adjusting the energy levels, checking the crystal stream, or sending John and Elisabeth probes and torpedoes when I wasn't more actively doing my transporting.  It was also fun doing the cheesy shaking in the chairs like the original Star Trek actors when we got hit and whatnot.  We were all laughing and having a good time throughout.  For anyone who can go, I highly recommend it.  I'm not sure it would stand up to repeat visits all that often, but it was definitely fun to try once, and I can see switching to a new position with a different scenario enlivening things.

Overall, it was a fun couple of days.  I enjoyed getting to hang out with people I love and do things I enjoy.  A birthday weekend doesn't get all that much better than that!

Thanksgiving Weekend, This Year and Last Part III

On Friday this year, Rachelle brought a friend up from Utah who she knew from Texas.  Her friend, Chris, was converted and baptized by a young man in his high school who gave him a Book of Mormon.  They lost contact for a couple years, during which time Chris sold the BOM for 50 cents at a yard sale.  They re-met in a class later on and the friend asked Chris if he had read the BOM, and Chris felt so guilty about selling it, that he started going to activities and such with his friend and was converted.  Chris wanted to come with Rachelle to Idaho Falls because he knew that his friend who converted him was serving there as a missionary.

Chris wanted to surprise his missionary friend by bearing testimony in a ward where the Elder was serving.  This meant that he, Rachelle, Grandma, and I found ourselves attending an unknown ward on Sunday.  We walked down the hallway of the church toward the chapel only to find that the chapel doors were secured by a heavy chain and menacing lock.  It appeared at first that maybe this was a ward that was VERY unwelcoming to visitors, but we soon found that the meeting was being held in the gym.  Apparently the building's chapel was being remodeled and they'd been meeting in the gym for several weeks.

Rachelle and Chris hid until the meeting was about to start and then slipped in at the back.  Chris was first to bear his testimony.  The effect was pretty striking as he related his conversion and his preparations to serve a mission himself and then revealed that one of their elders was the one who converted him.  The elder than got up and bore his own testimony of member missionary work and the power and joy from the Lord that it brings into our lives.  He was very humble, but well-spoken, and the whole effect of the 1-2 punch of their testimonies was powerful.  I doubt that anyone was able to walk out of that "chapel" without feeling a renewed desire borne of the Spirit to do more missionary work.

I myself was strongly moved, but even as I reflected on the messages shared in that strange setting, my mind was continually recalled to the even more strange and powerful sacrament meeting I attended that very weekend the year before.

After loading up all our gear in the morning to be prepared for the trip home, all of us filed into the chapel wearing our work clothes for the day.  It was very bizarre to see all these people in clean, but rough and grungy clothing assembling for meetings, but the Spirit of worship in the room was intense from the moment we assembled and listened to the short prelude music in absolute reverence.  We opened with a Christmas hymn that resounded with gratitude and were blessed by one of the most sacred sacrament I can remember.  While there was a strong personal connection to God I felt as I partook of the redeeming emblems, I was also powerfully in touch with the feeling of community intimacy that was present.  We were truly one in attitude, desires, and purpose in our individual acts of worship.  It was clear that we were all feeling the same sense of reverence, goodwill, gratitude, and love.  The Spirit was almost overwhelming.

After the priesthood carefully and lovingly reassembled finished their work and were dismissed, the stake president of the stake whose chapel we were staying in spoke for a few minutes and expressed the great gratitude that he, the other local leaders, and the people of the area felt for our service.  He read several scriptures about the blessings and joys of service that were all the more poignant in the midst of our consecrated efforts.

After he finished, Pres. Waite took a few minutes and his carefully measured comments amid frequent, momentary pauses belied the emotion he was trying to control.  He spoke of Christ's birth and ministry and the eternal sacrifice that was wrought for each of us.  He then said that our greatest opportunity to express our gratitude for that great gift is to serve our fellow men as the Savior would in in our stead.  In doing so, we honor Him as we show we understand the price that was paid for His precious children.  At the end, we closed with another heartfelt carol.

The whole service was only about 30 minutes, but it was the most powerful sacrament meeting I can ever remember attending.  There was a simplicity and yet a depth to it that I think can only be experienced in special circumstances.  The Spirit was all the more palpable because of our unity in purpose and feeling as a group.  While only Pres. Waite spoke from among us, he was able to fully express the things that were in all of our hearts.  It would have been the same if any member of the group had spoken instead.  The only other time I have felt such a spirit of unity, joy, and gratitude was during some of our group meetings on the mission.  I believe that feeling is as close as we may come to the Celestial Kingdom on this earth.  But there is no reason that we can't feel that sense of Zion more often if everyone will only work for it.

We then left for our day's work.  Our team was assigned to work on the main street in one of the business fronts.  It ended up that the building we worked in was normally home to a community art center for children and youth.  Immediately after the flood, this space had been used as a local distribution point for relief supplies, first aid, and reporting in Gerritsen Beach.

All that activity left the members of the organization little time to address the needs of their own building, so the water damage and mold had been creeping up in force by the time we got there.  We ended up ripping about the bottom 5 ft of the drywall through the whole building and slicing up and removing all of the sodden carpet.  It was difficult work as the carpeting was all still quite waterlogged and heavy to work with.  Some of the wall material crumbled away easily, but the upper sections were moldy, yet stiff and difficult to pull away.  Hauling the muck away left plenty of work for everyone.  We then helped to clear out their basement space, where tons of crap had been trapped after it had been washed down there by the flood.  There was all kinds of nasty trash that we pulled out.  Apparently a lot of the lower spaces in the area had ended up like that.  The heads of the charity, who lived above the space, tearfully thanked and embraced us all as we finished our work.

As we boarded the bus for our journey home, all of us regretted not being able to stay longer to help these people so desperately in need.  I couldn't help thinking that though we were able to make a little progress for the people we helped, we were only do the far simpler work of demolition for these people.  The work of rebuilding would be much more difficult, and I could only pray that they would get the help they'd need for it.  My main reassurance was that I knew there would be many other faithful volunteers to follow us and lend their cheerful assistance.

We found out that there were 500 LDS volunteers in the Brooklyn area from all over the East Coast over the weekend we were there.  We saw some of them as we traveled between assignments, and though we didn't know each other, it was delightful to feel a part of something greater and hugely significant for that area.  All through the weekend, we had people coming out of their homes to greet us and thank us, recognizing our yellow vests.  One man told us that the residents thought of us as "the yellow Mormon ants" crawling around everywhere, toiling efficiently and happily, removing the people's overwhelming burdens and shouldering them ourselves.  It made me think of the One who shouldered all of our burdens alone in the Garden, and though none of us individually had power to do much, collectively, we were able to be His tools to continue that work on the earth.  I'm so grateful I had the singular opportunity to be part of that.

Thanksgiving weekend has been eventful for the past two years, though certainly not as much this year.  As I served the living in New York last year and the dead in the Idaho Falls Temple this year, I have been reminded that perhaps the greatest way I can show my gratitude to God for all He has done and given for me is to carry out His work through service to the best of my abilities.  In participating in His work, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, we honor Him and show the depth of our love.  I am so grateful that through that service, I also grow to understand my Father and my Savior better.

Thanksgiving Weekend, This Year and Last Part II

Saturday was out main workday.  We piled onto our bus early to get started.  On our way, we had a couple of interesting encounters with religion.  One of the things we noticed as we looked down Court St. where the chapel we were staying at was located was a beautiful old Church which we all admired.  I think it was Erin who said she would like to attend a service there.  We discovered, however, that would be very difficult not only because of our extremely tight schedule, but also because the church was no longer a church, but a law office with condo space!  It was pretty sad to think of this magnificent building that once hosted worshipers was now committed to something so entirely worldly.  I couldn't help thinking how glad I was that though we referred to the church we were staying at as "the bathroom church" because it's this ugly, nondescript square building with a tiled exterior, at least the heart of it was still filled with people striving to follow the Lord's will.  I'll take that any day compared to a beautiful, grand cathedral with nothing but hollow worldliness left inside.  Its a modern equivalent of the whited sepulcher on a societal scale that unfortunately reflects one on an individual scale for the area too.

The second encounter was much more positive.  As we drove through Brooklyn approaching the LDS nerve center where we would receive our assignment, we went through an Orthodox Jewish section.  It was really awesome to see all the people living their religion as best they could walking around on the streets.  There were quite a few men walking around in their black hats, coats, and beards with women in equally somber dresses with headshawls.  There were also many young Jewish children walking together in groups, probably coming out of their Sabbath Schools together.  Getting a little glimpse into their world, especially on their Sabbath was really interesting and inspiring to me.

After receiving our assignment to serve in Gerritson Beach, we were driven to the area and dropped off near where the FEMA headquarters was set up.  While most of the buildings and vehicles we saw were largely still standing where they were left, it was clear that the area had had serious flood damage.  Pretty much every vehicle we saw was marked by some insurer or other for processing.  Many buildings had broken windows, sagging porches, and other marks of disaster upon them.  After unloading, we quickly donned our yellow Helping Hands vests, collected our tools, and divided into groups of about 10 to work.  

Each team was given assigned houses based on homeowners who had called the church to request help.  We were also instructed that we could help others who requested our assistance in person, though if the tasks were too large, we were to help them get on the list as well.  The first house my group was assigned didn't have anyone home, and we weren't allowed to do anything unless a homeowner was present.  So we moved on to the next place.  

The homeowners were so grateful to see us.  They had managed to clear out pretty much all of the ruined furniture, but needed assistance in tearing out the ruined hardwood flooring and about 3 ft of the walls on their ground level.  Our team quickly got down to work.  I started with pulling out nails in the floor and then assisted with pulling all the rotting floorboards out of the house.  It was hard work made worse by the fact that there were a ton of little particles flying about in the air, so that even with the masks and goggles, our work was uncomfortable at best.  None of us required more than a light coat even though it was bitterly cold that day.

After the living room floor was done, I worked on tearing down rotted walls with about half the team while others finished up tearing out ruined kitchen and bathroom appliances, cabinets, etc.  By the time we finished, it was lunch time and our hosts kindly ordered local pizza for us.  During the break, we got to hear about their lives and what they'd been through.  Their was an incredible outpouring of love and gratitude on both their side and ours that was very special and unique.  We were united in a peculiar bond borne of the Spirit.  When we left the house, the bottom floor was almost entirely stripped.  I couldn't help hoping that we hadn't gotten too overzealous in our demolition and turned it into complete destruction!

As a funny side note, during one of the times I had to step out for fresh air and a drink, one of the guys in our group told his story of how a nail in the house had punctured his sneaker and nicked his foot, so he had to go and get a tetanus shot from the hospital truck that was serving the area.  When the nurse was taking off his socks, she asked, "Why are you doing this kind of manual labor in $300 socks?"  He told her he just grabbed some from his roommate's drawer.  All of us who were listening to this story demanded to see his socks and when he pulled up his cuff, we saw the clear Dior symbol!  We all had a good laugh about that one.

As we proceeded to our next assigned house, we were approached by a man who asked for help putting up some new dry wall in his basement.  As the job only required about half our team for a bit, we split our group and I ended up going to the assigned house.  This home belonged to a widowed grandmother who was requiring care after the incident, so we were under the direction of her neighbor, who was permitted to oversee.   We began by pulling tons of old waterlogged crap out of her crawlspace that had been their for who knows how long.  Among the rubbish, I remember two broken water heaters, several doors, lots of random bike parts, and various nasty toys along with a TON of old pipes and extra insulation that pretty much fell apart as soon as you tried to pick it up. We had assembled a huge pile in front of her home by the time we finished down there.

Next we began tearing up flooring and pulling out furniture from the first floor, I mostly stuck with chipping out leftover tile in the foyer area and then ripping up old linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom, but since the owner was not present her neighbor only had us remove the clearly damaged stuff.  His house had also been severely flooded, but he took time out of his own work to help direct help for his neighbor.  We commended him for his kindness, and he told us that he and his wife had always striven to help their elderly neighbor with whatever she needed and also to make her life happier.  I admired his true charity and the love he had shown not only in an emergency situation, but also in his daily life.  I felt really blessed to have met him; he was a very good man.

By the time we finished our work there, it was starting to get toward the end of the sunlight.  Apparently the other half our our team had ended up going to work on another house after finishing their impromptu job and my half team was told to go assist one of the other teams in finishing their project.  Their house was right on the water, so the area had been hit harder than the more inland part where we had just finished working.  When we got there, however, we were told that the team was pretty well done.  One of the neighbors in the area came out to say thank you and to tell his story.  He said that he's seen more yellow vests in the area than anything else and that the Mormons were getting the work actually done, while the FEMA workers basically did nothing to help with actual clean-up.  He said that the "yellow ants" had flooded the area in the first few days after the water receded and had been everywhere ever since.

By the time we finished chatting with this man, the sun was setting and we were all called back to the bus.  Everyone was pretty nasty after the day's work, but fortunately arrangements had been made for us all to shower at a gym a few blocks from the church.  After we returned from there, we were turned loose for the evening.  Jeff, Margaret, and Erin were hoping to see a show on Broadway, which I wasn't opposed to, but only if it was reasonably cheap and also didn't run too late as I didn't want to be tired for the next day's work.  We took the subway in this time and split up on Time Square to check ticket prices.  The choices narrowed down to were Mary Poppins, which I would have enjoyed seeing, and Mama Mia!, which I definitely did NOT want to pay for.  It turned out that both were more than we wanted to spend, so instead we went and ate at a pretty tasty Japanese restaurant, where Erin told us stories about the semester she had just spent in Japan.

Afterwards, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  It was a beautiful place, and had many interesting relics and such along with the stained glass and all, but it was a very different feeling from visiting either an LDS chapel or even the temple.  While there was a feeling of worship, it was pretty devoid of the Spirit for me.  I appreciate all who are trying to honestly seek the Lord, but there is definitely a distinct difference between having part of the truth and the fullness of the gospel!

At this point, we were all pretty exhausted from the day's work and the previous day's walking, so we went back the the bathroom church early and played cards, which I had brought and generally hung out.  It felt good to do that, as I didn't typically get to spend time with people my age those days.

Well, again this post is longer than anticipated, so I will conclude with Sunday in Part III.

Thanksgiving Weekend, This Year and Last Part I

This Thanksgiving weekend has been a great one.  It was a year about family.  I was blessed to enjoy time with my grandma, aunt and uncle, and a number of my cousins.  I even had the chance to do a family history interview with Grandma and go to the temple with her and do sealings.  In the midst of all my relaxing and enjoyment, my mind kept returning to thoughts of my Thanksgiving weekend last year, which was certainly very different.

Last year I was living in Virginia still and my mom came to spend the holiday with family here in Utah.  That left just my dad and me at home for Thanksgiving.  We invited our elderly neighbor from down the hill to share our big meal with us.  She is a widow and both of her children have passed away already, so we try to visit and help her, though I think we all could do better at it.  I cooked a turkey breast for the first time, and it turned out at least reasonably well, I thought.  The meal and company was somewhat smaller than we've had before, but I enjoyed the day still.

Hurricane Sandy had hit the Northeast earlier in November, and on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, our ward had mentioned that the stake might be organizing a group to go help with relief efforts and wanted to see how many volunteers could go.  I signed up because I like to be involved with such things and as I wasn't working, it seemed like perfect timing for me.  I was surprised, however, when on Wednesday, I received an email confirming the trip would be over the holiday weekend.  Frantic arrangements were made, and so even on Thanksgiving I was preparing to leave early the following morning for New York.

The stake had hired a bus to take us all up, but it was only arranged to make a stop in Charlottesville and one in Waynesboro for our side of the mountain.  So at 5:30 AM, I hopped into my car loaded with all the useful tools we had in the house and started for Waynesboro.  As I drove, I couldn't help thinking of all the shoppers that were also up at the moment, but for very different reasons.  Most years, I myself would have been taking advantage of Black Friday sales, though much later.  That year, however, that idea felt very distant and foreign to me.

As I drove straight east on the long road to the stake center, I had the moon and 1 bright morning star, probably Venus directly in my sight.  In the quiet morning, on the day that marks the beginning of the Christmas season, I felt a kinship with the wise men and the shepherds, following the star to Christ.  While I would not personally greet the tiny Savior, I knew that serving His children in His stead would draw me closer to Him.

The trip up was pretty uneventful.  There were about 50 of us, including President Waite, the 1st councilor in our stake presidency.  Mostly men were there, but there were also about 10 women.  4 people from my ward came.  By the time we made it up to the church we were going to stay in and unpacked, it was getting too dark to do any work that day.  So we were turned loose and told to be ready bright and early the next morning.  I ended up clumping with three others from my ward, Jeff Goodsell, Margaret Patterson, and Erin Reed.  We decided it would be fun to walk into the city and explore a bit, with the thought of seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center.

We started off from the church and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, which gave a nice view of the city as the sun set.  We walked through Chinatown and just kept going. We ended up walking through Grand Central Station, which was beautiful, and went from there to Rockefeller Station, where we were disappointed to discover that the tree was erected, but hadn't been lit yet!  It was still fun to watch the ice skaters and walk through the Lego store there, which had all kinds of amazing Lego sculptures, including a huge dragon that wrapped its way through pretty much the whole store!  On our way back, we stopped by some interesting toy store which featured a menagerie of huge stuffed animals that I enjoyed.  It was a pretty freezing and dreary evening, with some sleet starting as we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge again.

As an aside, it was on the Brooklyn Bridge on the way back where Margaret and Jeff, who had been dating for a little while, held hands for the first time.  This Thanksgiving weekend, on the 1st anniversary of that occasion, they were married in DC!

I was completely beat by the time we got back, so I was ready for bed.  I wasn't sure why I felt so exhausted until we realized that we had walked something over 10 miles that evening!  I was enjoying the sights and getting to spend time with my friends joking and talking such that it didn't seem that far.  The next day, I was definitely regretting all that walking as I started the day out pretty dang sore before the work even started!

I hadn't anticipated writing so much, but I've only covered the first day and still have a lot to talk about, so I think I will put the rest in another post for later.  Stay tuned for Part II!

The Spirit of Temple Cleaning Past, Present, and Future

It may sound kind of weird, but I really like getting the opportunity to help with temple cleaning.  This week, I had the first opportunity to do so since my mission.  I guess the reason most people aren't really jumping at the opportunity to go clean is because for the most part, you end up doing some pretty boring jobs that often don't seem all that important for a long time.  My work this time was pretty much no exception to that rule.

I was one of the first ones out the door after the orientation and ended up in the same group as our Stake President and his wife, the Stake RS President.  Our little group started out cleaning out lockers in the men's ordinance worker dressing room.  This involved carefully sanitizing and cleaning each locker.  It even went so far as using magic eraser to get off all the scuff marks and q-tips to clean all the dust out of every little cranny in the locking mechanisms in addition to pulling out the old cough drops and other surprises hiding in the lips on the side of each locker.  It was definitely a pretty tedious and exacting job, but it gave me a chance to reflect on some of the experiences I've had before in cleaning the temple.

On my mission, I had two opportunities to help with cleaning the Salt Lake temple.  The first time was the week directly following General Conference.  The four of us sisters who were helping were allowed to change into our white jumpsuits in the Bride's Room.  While we were waiting for our escort to come pick us up, we joked about how we were no doubt the ugliest-clad people those mirrors have ever seen, and how it was a sign that missionaries have no business being in that room while serving!  Our assignment was to clean out the Solemn Assembly Room.  This was pretty interesting as we were essentially the clean-up crew after the meetings the General Authorities have leading into conference.

Among other things, we got to put away the apostles hymnbooks, which they essentially use for their entire service as apostles.  They are stored in the room where James E. Talmage wrote Jesus the Christ.  In that room, we also had the chance to look at the hymnals of past presidents of the church, like President Benson's.  Most of the hymnals were fairly nondescript, except for the name of the person in them.  I will always remember President Hinckley's however, as he would write in the corner of each hymn page the dates on which they sang the song.  Some of them (like In Our Lovely Deseret, thankfully), had apparently never been sung during Pres. Hinckley's service.  Others were sang pretty often.  As I thumbed through, it seemed that I Need Thee Every Hour is the hymn that is sung most by the GA's in the temple, which seems appropriate since I can't think of any group who need the Lord every hour in their work.

The second time I cleaned the temple, we were replacing springs in the chairs of the World Room.  This was actually incredibly difficult for my companion and I, since more often than not, a lot of strength was required to get the new springs on.  Pretty much every time, we had to get one of the elders to come over and put the new spring on for us after a while of fruitless an exhausting attempts ourselves.  At the end, I felt like I had really done next to nothing in contributing to the work of the temple; plus I was quite frustrated and tired. Yet, even after all that, I ended up having a really incredible experience in the temple that day.

There are some things that are too sacred to relate that we had a chance to see after our work, but I will mention a few things we were privileged to see.  We were taken to the fourth floor of the temple, which is where the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve have their weekly meetings.  On this floor, we saw some of the original, hand-carved furniture that was used in the temple.  The chairs were so beautiful and delicately carved in ornate designs.  It was clear how much effort and time was invested by the faithful pioneers, who were still trying to scratch an existence out of the land.  One of the chairs is said to have been carved by Brigham Young himself.

We also got to go up to the highest room of the temple, where the counter-weight for Moroni hangs.  On our way back down, our guide showed us how the circular windows open, rotating around a vertical pivot in the middle, leaving two slots on either side that lead directly outside.  We even got to wave at the people pointing at us from down on the square, though they probably couldn't see us very well!

The whole experience seemed to be an allegory of life to me.  It is only after we endure the tedium and frustrations of life in faithful service of God that we will be blessed with special and sacred experiences that draw us closer to the Lord.  Even when our contributions seem completely insignificant and we feel most inadequate to perform our tasks, God will bless us for our simple, honest efforts.  It was a day that I doubt I will ever forget.

So I was thinking of these things while I was silently cleaning my lockers in Timpanogus.  Eventually, I started working on a row opposite a guy who was in my cleaning group.  We had a low conversation in which we discovered that he had been roommates with one of the Elders I had been good friends with on my mission.  In fact, this elder had been a major influence in inspiring the fellow to go on a mission and continue faithful in the church!  As he warmly related the impact of missionary friend's gentle encouragement, I was filled with pride and gratitude.  It filled me with joy to know how one of my co-laborers in the mission had continued to bless and serve others after his mission ended.  The account of Alma meeting with the Sons of Mosiah after their diligent service jumped to my mind and I felt in some small measure as they must have at that time.

Not long after our conversation, the fumes in the room we were working in were deemed too strong to allow us to continue work there, and we were moved to wiping down furniture in the female ordinance worker's devotional room.  Off this room, we were shown one of the mechanical rooms, but it was determined we wouldn't have time to clean that in our shift.  I was impressed that even the industrial areas of the temple are apparently carefully wiped down during cleanings.

After this job was done, everyone else in my group had to leave.  As it was an extra 45 minutes until our shift was officially over, my group leader set me on wiping down all the trashcans and kleenex boxes from the first floor.  She said she would be back soon to check on me, but she didn't return before I finished, so just decided to wipe down all the furniture in the foyer I was working in while waiting.  I was in an area secluded from the rest of the work groups, and enjoyed the peace of the moment with a few hymns running through my head and gratitude running through my heart.  I wasn't doing the normal work of the temple, and what I was doing wasn't really very important in the scheme of things; but I felt so blessed to be there serving.  The Spirit was still palpably present to teach me, despite the unusual situation.

When my supervisor came back, she started wiping down the lights in the adjacent female temple worker study/waiting room.  Once I finished in the foyer area, I went in and cleaned the furniture in that room.  As we worked, she told me about how the supervisors are all part of the paid, normal cleaning staff of the temple and what they do.  She also told me that this coming Tues and Wed, they will be cleaning the crystal on all the chandeliers.  As they apparently don't always get all the help they need and are open to volunteers beyond the assigned stakes, I decided that I am going to try to go back and help this week, especially as they are worried about not getting the important stuff completed on schedule.  If I get to help with the crystal cleaning, I will be especially excited, but I mostly am just glad to have another chance to lend my service to the Lord.  Whether or not the work itself is thrilling, I know I will be blessed by the opportunity just as I always have been when serving in any capacity in the temple!

Photos courtesy of LDS.org

The New Car and It's New Name

I've been extremely grateful for this old van.  When the car died on the way to UT from VA, I figured I'd basically have to buy whatever vehicle I could find close by in my first few days.  When Grandma offered to let me use the van, at first I wasn't excited about the idea; but now I'm so thankful that I changed my mind.  It has allowed me to have some good experiences, like getting to attend David's baptism which I would have otherwise missed.  

I was worried that Old Faithful wouldn't even make it back to Utah, but by-in-large it's been a pretty hassle-free ride.  It may have caused me some embarrassment at times, but I would be in a much worse situation now if I hadn't had it available.  Having the van allowed me freedom to wait long enough to settle in and find the right car for me.

So here's my new car!  It's a 2011 Toyota Corolla and had about 50,000 miles on it.  I bought it as a Toyota Certified Vehicle from Karl Malone Toyota in Draper last Saturday.  I definitely wasn't planning on driving away in anything but the van when I went there, but they offered me a good deal based on what I've seen in the area, so I took it.  They were even nice enough to have someone else drive the van back to the house for me so I didn't have to inconvenience Gerrit and Elisabeth.

I admit, buying a car kind of terrified me.  Making big decisions like this is not my favorite thing overall, especially since I have the tendency to second-guess myself.  My main missgiving in this case was that I didn't get my own mechanic to get a look at it before I purchased, which I hope won't come back to bite me. I figured I was pretty safe in getting a certified vehicle.  It's definitely nice to not have to worry about finding a car anymore, and while what I really wanted was a hatchback, I'm pretty satisfied in getting another Corolla as my family has had several of them which have worked quite well over the years.

One of my co-workers told me that I have to name my car, so I put a bit of thought into it over the week I've owned it.  My first idea was just to go with Goldie, but that seemed far to prosaic.  I was then drawn to naming it Sif, after the Norse goddess renown for her golden hair.  It seemed this would be an appropriate allusion to my Scandinavian heritage, but I figured that was kind of obscure for general consumption.

My co-coworker also said that it's best to name your car after taking time to get to know it's personality.  I never really thought about cars having a personality, but I guess they kind of do.  There's the ones that try hard, but always seem to be breaking down anyway.  Then there's the temperamental ones that will just break down without warning and then start back up again inexplicably as well.  And if you're lucky you get an Old Reliable that sticks with you through thick and thin.

I haven't had long with this car, but I think I've gotten something of a feel for it's personality now.  What has really struck me about it is it's smoothness.  It's so quiet and fluid in it's movements, it doesn't feel like driving exactly.  Rather, it's like seamlessly swimming through the air.  So I've decided to name it the Goldfish.

Soon I will take the van back to Idaho.  While I'll be relieved to do so, I think I'll also miss it a bit.  It's not only served me well now, it's also been good to my immediate and extended family in times of need over a number of years.  It may not be in as good of shape as it was the first time my family used it when I was only 8 or 9, but it's still doing all it can to do right by our family.  I'm so grateful Grandma was kind enough to let me use it with very little prior notice!

The Importance of Being Serviceable

Now that I'm working full-time in addition to trying to sort out getting a new car and apartment, my truly free time is pretty limited.  For the past few weeks, I've mostly been snatching an hour or two at most on weekdays.  As a result, weekends have really become quite precious to me.  Last Sat, I ended up spending most of my evening in a dealership.  After finding out the car I was planning to purchase had been in a wreck and was shoddily prepared, I was dreading spending this Sat at a new dealership.  I decided to take a walk/run before leaving on my trek up to the dealership in Draper.

I hadn't really planned my route, so I started out just going up the same way I normally go to get to Battlecreek Canyon.  On the way is one of the crossings for the Murdock Canal Trail, so on a whim I decided to take that as I'd only done a small portion of it before.  I was really enjoying it. so I just kept going until I hit the intersection with the Lindon Heritage Trail, which I've also only done a portion of before.  I normally like heading up the shelf as high as possible on my walks because I like the views; and the Lindon trail was heading up, so I took it.  I ended up hiking all the way to the top and then straight back down to the part of that trail I've done before heading back toward home.  I knew that it was probably getting pretty late because of all the unplanned detours I was taking, but I felt all right about it.  It was nice having time to think and enjoy the stunning colors of fall.

All in all, my meandering route was around 5 miles as far as I can figure.  Needless to say, I was starting to feel pretty sore as I headed down the homeward stretch.  I was also quite parched since it had been two or three miles since I'd had a drink, so I was looking forward to getting home.

A couple blocks from home, I saw an elderly woman in her front yard sitting on a little bench by a huge pile of leaves holding a garbage bag.  At first, she didn't really register much on my radar because I was focused on my own thoughts, mostly centered on how I would use the rest of my spare day.  Then, almost without my realizing why a couple of memories popped into my mind.

The first was of an incident near the end of my mission.  My comp and I were running late for an appointment.  We came to an intersection and I noticed a man in what appeared to be a dead car at light over to our right.  I saw him, felt like we should help him, and then decided that we didn't have time and should just go on.  Right after I made that decision the light changed and I started driving forward.  My comp simultaneously said "we should stop and help that man."  I immediately recognized that her thoughts confirmed mine and I pulled over right away.  We were able to help him with the help of others who came at the exact moment they were needed, and in the end we were barely late for our appointment.

The second memory that flashed through my mind was of a member I also met on my mission.  He was an amazing member-missionary, even in the heart of Utah.  He met one of our investigators who he referred to us by noticing on his way home from work this man moving into the neighborhood.  He immediately stopped to help and was able to build a relationship that lead to this man meeting with us.

After recalling these two memories, my attention focused on this elderly woman and I stopped to help her.  She and I talked about her family and a little on my background as I filled two garbage bags with leaves.  As she went in to get more bags, two young girls came over from across the road and began to help us.  We learned that they were 3rd grader friends who had been having a sleep-over when they decided to help us.

After finishing another bag more quickly with their assistance, a mother and her 2nd grade daughter came over with some more rakes and began helping as well.  Needless to say, the work was completed quickly and goodwill was felt all around.  Though I knew only a few cursory details about each of these people, I felt a measure of the love that the Lord has for them.  Despite whatever failings any of us had, there was also potential and desire to do good as well, and that is what the Lord was focused on.

As I left to continue home, I was filled with gratitude.  First of all, I was grateful that the Lord had not allowed me to miss out on a wonderful opportunity to meet and help good people.  I was also thankful that I now live in an area where people notice the needs of others and take action to fill them.  Beyond just that, I was struck by the youth of most of the other helpers.  I am so glad to see these girls learning at a very young age to heed the Spirit and do good.  I know that they will be greatly blessed throughout their lives for having gained this capacity early.

While in many respects, my Saturday was not very effective as I didn't end up having time to accomplish many of the things I had planned, including more car and apartment searching, to me it was more fulfilling a day off than many I have had in quite awhile.  I am thankful that God set up the world such that we are able to serve each other, for in this service, our lives are incredibly enriched.  I hope to better develop the capacity to recognize and fulfill the needs of those around me; and I'm glad that I had the chance to work on that yesterday.

Photo is of the Murdock Canal Trail from the Herald Extra.

How This All Began, Rather Against my Will!

I always thought I would not start a blog until I actually had my own cute children to focus on, mostly for the sake of keeping interested family members informed on what is going on.  However, over the past few weeks, my opinion on the value of personal blogging has slowly evolved.  It started when I read a blog post from a friend, who is also single, that had some ideas I found personally inspiring.  I guess that experience must have been ruminating in the back of my mind this weekend during General Conference.  While there were many lessons that I learned as I listened, one idea that kept popping up in my head was that I should take time now to raise my voice in the cause of good.  Just as my friend's post did for me, there is always the chance that some of my recorded experiences and thoughts will be of some use to someone else.  The idea of starting a blog drifted into my train of thought again while I was in the temple yesterday, so I suppose I had better act on it!  I would love to think that something I say might touch many hearts and minds in powerful ways, but I find it much more likely that this exercise is more designed to bless me than anyone else.

There is something renewing about self-reflection.  Mostly, self-reflection is something I do in my own head, and in the process, flashes of insight come that help me to understand myself and the world around me better.  Unfortunately, these flares of pure intelligence are usually fleeting, so I forget them fairly quickly.  At various stints in my life, I've been pretty good about keeping a journal, but only if I make a regimented habit out of it.  The problem is, eventually I fall of the journaling wagon and go through long periods of written famine!  That's a sad thing because I've found that time spent journaling is never wasted.  Unpacking my thoughts systematically in writing allows me to reflect more perfectly on both their flaws and their beauty.  The somewhat unexpected result is always a sense of gratitude for all I have been given and the experiences I have had.  I think that is the real reason I am doing this; because I need that chance to step back and appreciate my life and the world around me more often.  If I can help someone else along the way, all the better.

I don't expect this blog to be all that focused.  It won't be like a political or fashion blog where everything is neatly centered around a specific topical area.  Instead, I hope to use it to record the good I observe in the world around me in every facet of my life, and the things I have learned.  With luck, there will be something of value to trickle out of this Brooke as I run my personal course!