Hey guys!
Well, this week has been quite a wild ride, to say the least. It seems like forever ago that I got to visit the Church's video set in Goshen, the one they used to film the Bible videos documenting the life of Jesus Christ. The drive was an hour and a half from the apartments, which was in reality a nice break little from the life of the city. The first part of our time down there was spent cleaning up tumbleweeds which littered the set. I believed this would take about as long as clearing the thistles the day before. However, we only did it long enough to fill up a large truck bed, which only took about twenty minutes. After that, we had a guided tour of the set, learning a bit about how it was filmed, some facts about the actual city of Jerusalem, etc. The whole thing was a great tourist experience, and I am glad to have had an opportunity to go visit!
I have told you last week about how my companion, Elder Goodsell, was going to leave soon. Well, that happened last Friday, and I anticipated moving, as I packed up my things and moved my stuff into the apartment in which lived Elders Lindsay and Reeves. With that came a bunch of challenges, including packing all my stuff up, unpacking it yet again, and realizing I forgot a thing or two or ten. Of course, all this was expected, that is the nature of moving apartments here in the mission.
What I did not expect, however, was the honorable discharge of another missionary who was working in the Granite Mountain Record Vault the very next day. I do not know quite why this happened, but I was assured it was all good things. Anyway, this left his companion, Elder Mitchell, all by himself. So, the immediate reaction of the President and his assistants was to move the other extra missionary (me) in with him. So, I got a zone transfer to the Vault, and I got to move apartments yet again, for the second time in two days. As you can probably expect, I was a bit stressed, but excited to begin work in such a zone! However, as I soon found out, it was not meant to be...
The next day, we did not go out to the Vault, because it was Sunday. So, I attended Sunday meetings with my new district, which was actually in a different branch than International (the mission has two branches, one for those serving in the Library, and one for the other zones). Not much was different, aside from organization of the meetings - Priesthood meeting was first, followed by Sunday School, then Sacrament, a reverse of the other branch.
Later that day, we had a fireside with none other than Stephen King (not the Stephen King), head of one of the Church's media departments. He talked to us about how the Church uses media and advertising to present itself to the world. It was a nice little presentation, and it was interesting to see how the Church went about this business. However, it was right after this fireside when I was told by one of the AP's that, due to clearance complications with the Vault, I was going to be reassigned to International. That meant that I was to move back in with Elders Lindsay and Reeves. So, last Monday, I got to do my third move in four days. I am still remembering things I left in the apartment I shared with Elder Goodsell. However, I have survived, so that's good!
Yesterday, some of the Young Elders had interviews with President Tate (the last one's he will be giving), and my district was among that group. This meant I got to talk to both President Tate and his wife. They both apologized for all my moving, and they commended me for enduring it with a good attitude. Sister Tate had a bit of a form she read off of, which had a checklist with basic self-care items listed. I was able to tell her that, though there was room for improvement, I was doing quite tell with them. I do feel like I owe that in part to my experiences as a missionary. I may have said this before, but serving a mission is probably the best way to prepare young people to take on the world, and live independently. Anyway, the interviews went great, and I left with confidence that I was doing well, and could follow the tips they gave me to do even better!
So, this was quite the week. I got to go visit the church's film studeos I had an unplanned transfer to the Vault which lasted for only a day (without even going out to the Vault), and I got to move three times in four days! The week has not been uneventful, and though there were some pretty fun things which happened in that time, I am glad it's over. Judging from President Tate's language when he interviewed me, I probably will not get transferred at the next conference. Not only does the Presidency want to go easy on me after this week, but the Zone Leadership here in International does seem to like me, and will try to hold on to me for a bit longer. So, I don't see myself going out to another zone any time soon (no, not even the Vault). So, that's it for me. Your challenge is this: I have learned quite a bit about genealogy while I was out here on the mission, but probably the biggest thing I have learned is that anyone can do it - if you can read this E-mail, then you have the technology to connect to a lot of the records directly, and you can request more to be sent over from here in the Library. So, this is my challenge to you - try your hand at doing some genealogy work for your family. If you do not know how to go about it, learn how using online resources from FamilySearch, and from elsewhere on the web. Okay, guys, stay safe, and have a great week!
From,
Elder Bryce Petersen
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