I enjoy meetings

 

Hey everyone!

This has been a pretty good week out here on the mission. I know I probably say that a lot at the beginning of these E-mails, but then again, the mission in general has been pretty good! Anyway, you are probably wondering how the funeral for President Monson went, so I will start off with telling about that. I was able to attend that, but the day before, I was also able to attend his viewing. However, when I had passed the security checkpoint at the conference center, I had turned around to see that my companion was not there. As it turned out, he had brought his bag along, and so had to go somewhere to drop off his bag as he attended the viewing. So, it took me a while to reunite with him (as well as the rest of the district - they all decided to take their bags to the viewing too). So, after that, we had gone through a long but quick-moving line through the conference center, which eventually passed by President Monson's coffin. As I passed by, I had the distinct impression then that he truly was a prophet of God. I knew that he was before, but not with the same conviction as I now do. 

The funeral was also a somber experience. Luckily for me, I was able to attend this in person - the entire mission got tickets with which to attend, and the church campus closed down as well for this, so there were no zone conflicts with this. There were messages shared by President Monson's family, as well as members of the First Presidency. I am thankful to have been able to attend this meeting to remember the life of the prophet. It is an experience I will never forget. I was alive during the ministry of Gordon B. Hinckley, but I don't remember much of that - he passed away when I was still pretty young. As a result, President Monson will always be the prophet of my childhood years.

Anyway, after the viewing, I had other business to attend to before attending zone - specifically, I was asked to attend a new young elder training meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to prepare young elders who had arrived in the last two months for the two years ahead of them. As Elder Beeson had only come in last December, and I was his companion, we went over to this. You may remember me not saying anything about this when I trained Elder Stacey, and this was because this meeting was a newer change in the mission, which came in about three months ago. This meeting lasted for four hours, though there was a ten-minute break in between, and we got free lunch when it was over. The messages prepared for this meeting were shared by mission leadership: the assistants to the president, the young elder coordinators, the second counselor in the mission presidency, and of course President Fenn. I feel that this meeting went quite well, and I think that my companion, as well as myself, had learned some important information for service in the mission. Besides, the sandwiches at the end of this tasted pretty good!

This was not the only meeting which we attended this week - we also had our monthly young elder conference this week. At this conference, the birthdays for the month of January were announced - this included my own, as well as a couple other young elders (both of which also served in the data services zone with me). Aside from this, there were some messages shared which were somewhat similar to those shared in young elder conference. It was also similar in the fact that, at the end of it all, we got free lunch! I quite enjoy meetings such as this - it is always good to learn more about the gospel, including how to do better as a missionary! Besides, there is nothing quite like hearing President Fenn speak to us! 

There was also a Book of Mormon class which happened last Monday. This took us through the entirety of the book of Jacob. It is not a long book, though there is some good doctrinal insight in there. President Fenn, along with the rest of the Book of Mormon, understands this book quite well, and I have been truly enlightened at this class. Whenever I attend these classes, I remember that I do not understand the Book of Mormon as much as I sometimes think I do, and it reminds me to read up on the scriptures and gain more knowledge about them. Scripture study and doctrinal knowledge are essential, especially when you are a missionary - I guess that is part of the reason why we have had so many of these meetings. But, I am not complaining about attending meetings! 

I may have mentioned to you planning on celebrating my birthday Monday. However, I have not been able to do it then - again, I had a Book of Mormon class then, which takes precedence over bowling any day! Besides, I wouldn't have been able to get permission for this anyway - such is considered a P-Day activity. I am alright going on Saturday though - I am just happy to be able to celebrate my birthday. So, I will be going later today to do that. I will only be going with my district to this - I had invited some other people, but Elder Duran just now told me that they won't be able to come. But, just hanging out with the district will be good, especially since it is Elder Duran's last month on the mission - he will go home on the 23rd of this month. He has served well, and he will be missed. Who knows, I may be called to take his place as the district leader...

Finally, there is zone work. We have been working on pretty much the same stuff as we have normally been working on, but now, the more experienced missionaries in the zone (myself included) have a new project. You see, the training we have received in the zones has not been quite the best for us. Up to this point, they have not had training modules specifically for young elders. The modules we have received were created by senior missionaries, for senior missionaries. As a result, the training has not been efficient as it could be. So, the experienced young elders have been asked to create PowerPoint to train new young elders into the zone. The training PowerPoint I have been asked to create will train new young elders on how to handle cases regarding temple ordinance issues in FamilySearch. This is a nice challenge for me, and I hope that my work will be useful in training new young elders in to this zone, so that they can serve the best that they can.

Well, there is my week for you. I feel like it has been quite eventful, especially after looking over what I have typed out about it. I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week!

From,

Elder Bryce Petersen

P.S. I have attached a couple of pics from previous weeks to this E-mail. I hope you enjoy!

Challenge: The mission has been spoken to a lot regarding unity. This has been a subject in a few of our meetings, as it does seem that the mission has been having troubles with this. I have seen a bit of this myself, and things have been improving in that sense in the mission. So, how important is unity? Abraham Lincoln has said that "a house divided against itself cannot stand". This applies for any group of people, whether this be in temporal situations, the church, and even in the family. The concept is simple - when we work together, we will be able to accomplish so much more. On the flipside, if we are divided and work against each other, then we will degrade, and take steps backward. So, how can we become more unified? Becoming unified often does not just happen - it must be worked toward, with a conscious effort on the part of everyone involved. Unity first comes from the avoidance of things which can hinder this growth, such as complaining and arguing. Even thoughts of such should be controlled, if not avoided completely. Second, we must see things from other peoples' points of view. Walking a mile in the shoes of another will help us understand why they think the way they do, and will help us better understand their opinions. Also, make sure never to exclude anyone for any reason. Exclusion will make the victims feel less valued, and will stain feelings towards people on both ends of the alienation. Finally, in the place of complaining and arguing, we must build each other up, and help each other succeed. If everyone in the group succeeds, then so can the group itself. Of course, not everyone will agree with every decision made by the group as a whole, as we are all different. But, these differences are alright - we were made to be different, so that we can complement each other nicely. Building unity is necessary in any group effort, and will help make things more possible for any group.