Choose the Wright

Hey everyone!


Now, this E-mail is a bit early; I believe I had failed to mention that transfer conference would be this week, and also forgot to remind you that my P-Day E-mail could come at any time this week. Anyway, for those of you wondering what the leadership changes are this transfer, they are as follows: as Elder Young has returned home, Elder Buers has replaced him as an assistant to the president; Elder Hartner has taken Elder Buers' place as a Young Elder Training Leader; we have two young elders serving in the mission office with the senior missionaries already serving there, Elders M. Snow and Coleman; our four new district leaders are Elders Luebke, Melling, Hale, and Buttars. It should also be noted that we now have two young elders, Elder Taylor and his trainee Elder Rangus, who both are fluent in American Sign Language, are now serving in the Deaf Services zone of the Family History Library, helping deaf patrons who visit the library. The new trainers, and their trainees, aside from those already mentioned, are given below: (and yes, I did copy/paste from an Excel spreadsheet to make this chart)
Elder McDonald is training Elder Pastor
Elder Blanton is training Elder Showgren
Elder Shults is training Elder Arndt
Elder D Morgan is training Elder Willis
Elder Schetrompf is training Elder Brunson
Elder Harris is training Elder Buckley
Elder Walker is training Elder Lane
Elder Clark is training Elder Devine
Elder Irvine is training Elder Vaka
Elder Buttars is training Elder Spears
Elder Gale is training Elder Ferguson
Elder Jensen is training Elder Bellos
As for myself, I am now companions with Elder Wright, and our P-Day is now on Wednesday; I did also move apartments; however, I am still serving in Data Services, as always. My district has completely changed up, which makes sense, as two of my three other district members (including my former companion) have now become district leaders themselves; both are still in the Data Services zone, which now has sixteen elders serving there.

Now, amidst all the changes, this week (or weekend, I should say) was quite notable, for reasons aside from the obvious. Right after leaving E-mails, I had gone on down to the Manti pageant with the rest of the young elders. We had loaded up two buses, and the ride was much longer than anything I have yet endured on the mission. Granted, I have been on much longer car and bus rides before the mission, so this was nothing new; also, the countryside passing by was not half-bad, a nice change of pace from the same-old which I have lived with for over a year now. When we had arrived, we first attended the temple down in Manti, which was a unique experience. In the celestial room of the temple, me and Elder Melling actually came across the same man who had donated the two huge sacks of bread to the library last Thursday! He had just happened to be there for the pageant, and thought to attend a temple session while he was down there - the same one which we were in! It truly is a small world within the church!

So, after the temple, it was time for dinner. Luckily for us, a local turkey farm (I believe it was) was providing a huge turkey dinner for attendees to the pageant. The young elders were well fed there! After this, me and Elder Melling went off to explore the town. There was not a whole ton to see; most of the non-restaurant shops down there were closed down for the event. But, we did pick up some lemonade and popcorn being sold at a food court set up for the event. The people had up a donation jar to help fund a mission which one of the children of the people running the stand was going to serve; I think that it he would be entering the MTC today. So, after all this, we went back to the pageant, and took our seats for the event. The pageant itself proved to be a great performance! It essentially covered everything Mormon, from the Restoration, the Book of Mormon itself, and the trek westward. (Unsurprisingly, they included some bits about the settlement of the Manti area.) When it was all done, we all filed back on to the buses home. The buses finally rolled on back in to the apartment parking lot at 2:00 in the morning. Because we knew this was coming, President Fenn had already announced that we were permitted to sleep in the next day, which I did gladly. (Now, I know it has been said that for a missionary, the Holy Ghost goes to bed at 10:00, but as staying up past this time was an implication of this approved activity, I think I am alright)
I learned that day that, if I do not set an alarm, I will awaken around 8:30. That is a decent time to wake up for having slept in. However, I was not able to get up and do a whole ton - I was sick with a cold, which I had been for a while; it was worse this day though, so I was not able to do much of anything. Elder Ferguson, who we were hosting, also was feeling sick, so I had Elder Lane, his companion, take my companion, Elder Melling, to church with him so we could stay and rest. Being sick, I must say, is very boring. Rest too is boring. (I tried making garlic knots, but they did not turn out as well as I had hoped)
The next day, I was not able to join the choir for the Monday morning devotional due to the same cold. I was able to make the meeting itself, and go in to zone; one does not simply sing with a cold though... This was the day I got the notice I was going to be moving apartments. Elder Melling also got an interview notice with President Fenn; I thought that he was going to be a trainer for his last transfer, but it seems that the Lord had other plans for him. Later that Monday, President Fenn had planned a special event for the mission, a conference about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. I remember attending a conference of this type twice before; it began with the mission having a special dinner in the lobby of the conference center, after which we moved to the Assembly Hall on Temple Square to hear a message from President Fenn. The choir actually had two numbers at this meeting, "Give Me Back My Prophet Dear" and another one about Joseph Smith, the name of which escapes me; the lyrics for both were written by John Taylor, who was with the prophet at the time of the martyrdom. Unfortunately, as previously described, I was not able to sing with them, sadly... But I did attend the conference, and learned more about the event than I had ever dreamed of knowing! (not that this is something I often dream about.) I had walked away with the same great feeling I get after getting out of any extraordinary church meeting/conference! (in case you don't already know, that's the feeling of the Holy Spirit)

Anyway, I'd cover the events of the next day as well, but have they not already been shared in the first part of this E-mail? I am happy to see that Elder Melling is able to spend his lat month as a district leader, and that I can introduce a new elder to the zone. Perhaps I will be able to train him on mission support! I will let you know how all of this goes. Have a good one, everybody!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: Recently, I was asked by my zone leader to give a talk for sacrament meeting on Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "Behold the Man", given at this recent General Conference. This message was given in regards to the part of the Savior's life where, after he was scourged in an attempt to free him from capital punishment, Pilate had presented our Savior to the mob thirsty for His holy blood with the phrase "Behold the man!" However, it is noted in the talk that these, his enemies, only saw Him as One who had offended them, and had committed no crime save it were wounding their pride; they did not behold Him for what He truly was - the Son of the living God, come to Earth to atone for their sins, and free them from an otherwise certain spiritual doom. Many have a similar problem - though few people alive today see the Savior of their souls as one deserving of what those of ancient times punished Him with, to many He is simply a historical figure. To them, He simply taught good principles, did good deeds, and changed the world from the better in simple ways. Is all of this true of Jesus Christ? Of course! However, stopping there is an understatement of all that He has accomplished in His short ministry in the flesh. Again, He is the true Son of God, who had suffered immensely with an utterly massive, incomprehensible burden beyond the power of words to come close to describing and man to begin to comprehend; He had given His precious life freely when the suffering was finished, and afterward had broken the otherwise hopelessly indestructible chains of death for Himself and for all mankind. Most importantly of all, however, is that all of these tasks impossible to all others were wrought about by Him for you. There is nothing which you have done which He has not already paid the price for; all sin, though grievous to us and to Him, has been paid for; it is up to us to "behold the Man" and to accept all that he has done for us, that our sins may be made white like wool (see Isaiah 1:18). Reach out to him, and accept all that He has done for you and for me; study His words, especially those in the Book of Mormon shared by Himself and His prophets. Such will be the way that we will all be able to prepare to again behold the Man in the flesh.