Through the fire and the flames

Hey everyone!

Okay, the week has been an interesting one, for mostly two different reasons. The first is the addition of twelve new young elders to the mission! Of course, I am hosting again - this time, they are Elders Heath and Haroldsen, from Orem, Utah and Gilbert, Arizona, respectively. They are still adjusting the the mission, as is to be expected. If they can adjust to living up to mission rules, then I feel they will be great in this mission! I think back to the other times which I have hosted - the two times back in the beginning of my mission, when I was still training myself, and the two previous months, where I have gotten them started in their mission. All whom I have previously hosted, who have not already gone home (who so far only include those from my very first time), are currently doing quite well in the mission, so I have pretty high hopes for seeing what these two can do.

The other big thing which made this week interesting was Pioneer Day. As I am sure you have already guessed, the day was scheduled for us all. The first thing which we had an opportunity to do was attend the Pioneer Day parade. I wanted to go, but my companion did not; he said that he does not like big crowds like this. Therefore, I stayed back at the apartments with him through the morning. In the afternoon, we had planned on all hiking up to Ensign Peak. We were taking vans on up there; however, the logistics of moving a mission which now has 100 young elders with four vans which carry five missionaries each was a bit inconvenient. But, by and by, we eventually were all driven up to the trail head, where a clever family had set up a snow-cone stand. Needless to say, they had earned my dollar. We then hiked up to the peak. The hike was; not quite as long as I remember it having been; however, it was just as exhausting!So, we all got to the top, and enjoyed the view together. 

We were then directed to hike back down to President Fenn's house for a barbecue which he was putting on for us all. We went, and were greeted with a hearty brisket dinner! So, we ate until we were all stuffed, after which President Fenn shared a short message with us all. Once this was done, we were set to go back down to the apartments in the vans; however, as I am sure some of you may know from the news, there was a fire up on Capitol Hill, where President Fenn's house is. This fire was close to us, but not so much that it posed a danger to the mission. However, the roads were all still closed off. so, the elders waited at the house while President Fenn went down to negotiate something with the authorities in charge of taking care of the fire. The decision was that we could walk around the blockade by foot, and go to the apartments like this. While walking down there, I was able to catch a glimpse or two of the hillside where the fire happened, and it was utterly blackened! Of course, no houses were down where it happened, and to my knowledge, none of them went up in a cloud of smoke, but it was still quite a sight to see; therefore, I have a picture of it attached to this E-mail for you all to see. 

Once all of this excitement was over with, we had a short break at the apartments, and we then went to watch a movie, which I believe to have been titled "The Work and the Glory", covering events surrounding the Restoration. It is actually a part of a three-part series, so though the movie was pretty good on its own, I would also like to see the other parts so that I can get the full story. Anyway, after this, there was not much else going on this day.

Now, Sunday was also quite interesting. Of course, I had helped out at St. Joseph's Villa again. This had gone similarly to my previous experiences, which experiences are great! It will almost be a bit of a shame when it all ends next Monday, when I will not be able to attend every Sunday anymore. But, I guess that almost every assignment has its end. After St. Joseph's, I went to Sacrament Meeting, where I actually shared a message. The subject of my message was on Elder Uchtdorf's recent General Conference talk, "Behold the Man". As the talk already cover's its own subject pretty well, I felt that it would be better to simply describe how it applies to our mission. After this, me and my companion had a dinner appointment. I am not sure I have talked about these previously, so here is what they are all about. The seniors on the mission love us, to the extent that, a while back (long before my time), the mission had to control how they prepare us meals. This comes in the form of "dinner appointments", which are assigned to elders in the mission; every Sunday, if one gets an appointment this week, they eat a dinner with a senior missionary host or hosts. This week, I had eaten with a few senior sister missionaries, as well as my companion and another companionship in the zone. A picture of this happening is attached. This happening is also a pretty enjoyable experience on the mission, which I do look forward to. It is nice being able to talk to the senior missionaries a bit, and get to know them.

We also had a Hail and Farewell dinner for our incoming and departing missionaries. I have talked about what this is before, so I will not share a ton of details about what exactly it is. All I will say is that I was reminded in some ways of my first few weeks on the mission. I was once up there on the stage introducing myself; someday, I will go up there again to announce my departure. Much has changed since then. There are now few elders on the mission who have been here longer than me, and they are all somewhat soon to depart. It is a bit of an odd experience, to realize that I am no longer the new guy in the mission. In some ways, I still feel like I am a bit new to everything. But, then again, I have changed much since this time. So, I will spend my time remaining doing the best that I can out here before I am through, because it is not over until it is over. 

So, there is my week. Of course, the Hail and Farewell indicates that the next transfer is soon to be. I am not sure what exactly this will mean, but knowing that it will be next Tuesday, this will be my last E-mail which I send until then; therefore, the next E-mail could come in any day of the week after that point. So, don't panic if you do not receive an E-mail from me next Wednesday - I have not forgotten you! Anyway, I will let you all know how transfers go, and what fun and crazy things happen therein. Have a good one everyone!

--

From,

Elder Bryce Petersen

Challenge: This week, I don't have much of a formal challenge in store for you; instead, I have my aforementioned Sacrament meeting talk attached to this E-mail. I would advise reading it, and seeing if there are any potential applications therein.

SM Talk 07/22/2018

Elder Bryce Petersen

Good afternoon everyone, my name is Elder Petersen. I am currently serving in the Data Services zone, which is one of the zones in this mission where missionaries have constant access to a computer. This means that I have access to all the tools necessary to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting, and so had no excuse to use to get out of this.

It is a beautiful (though hot) day today, isn’t it. The weather was cooler and more pleasant last April, when we had our most recent General Conference, given on Easter Sunday. Of course, a day coinciding with such a holiday is truly a good opportunity to share a message on the reason why we celebrate Easter Sunday – the Atonement, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. On this Easter Sunday, Elder Uchtdorf did just this in his talk “Behold the Man,” which address is the subject of my talk today. I feel that it would be somewhat superfluous to expound more on the doctrine than what has already been taught in the message itself; therefore, I wish to consider together with you how the teachings in this talk can apply to us as missionaries serving in the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission. For those of you who are visiting, and not serving in our mission, I would invite you instead to consider what the talk has to do with family history work, and our responsibility to redeem the dead.

First, the talk summarizes the Atoning sacrifice of our Lord, including the agony of Gethsemane, the humiliation of His trial, the horror of the cross at Calvary, and finally the glorious Resurrection. We are reminded that the motivation and purpose behind such a sacrifice is deliverance from both temporal and spiritual death, and eternal life for all of God’s children, which goal is His work and His glory. As God is no respecter of persons, we can know with a surety that such an infinite sacrifice could not be confined within the veil of mortality; all that Elder Uchtdorf says regarding the Atonement applies to those on the other side of this veil as well, as we learn in D&C 138. As a result of this, all members of our families, dead though many may be, still have the blessings of the Gospel available to them in the spirit world.

Elder Uchtdorf then tells us what must be done on our part to take full advantage of this priceless gift. To illustrate his point, he shares a more detailed story of Christ’s trial before Roman authorities, shortly before He was nailed to the cross. Extremely exhausted by the events of the day, and beaten to what would be near death for a mortal man, Jesus was presented to the mob who thirsted for His blood by Pilate, who declared, “Behold, I bring him forth to you that ye may know that I find no fault in him. … Behold the man!”

This final profound statement is, of course, the theme of Elder Uchtdorf’s talk. He admonishes us to, in our times of trouble, behold the Man, stating that “those who find a way to truly behold the Man find the doorway to life’s greatest joys and the balm to life’s most demanding despairs.” Beholding the man, in this context, is to remember all that He has done for us, and the more things which He is willing to do for us if we will so much as come closer to Him, and partake of the blessings of His Gospel.

This is all good and true, but what does this have to do with family history work? A person can only progress so far in the Gospel, and may have a strong testimony coupled with faith to move mountains; however, this only can get one so far, as the Savior Himself teaches us that “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Can one fully behold the Man if he is still separated from His presence by a lack of baptism and other saving ordinances? The work that we do connects people – real people living in the spirit world – to their God, and allows them to enjoy fully the blessings of the restored Gospel. With every record added to FamilySearch’s database, every account someone receives help registering for, and every visitor to the Family History Library introduced to family history – as well as all else that happens in this mission – people on both sides of the veil are blessed to be more able to behold the Man, and more fully accept His invitation to come unto Him.

As we have all heard before, family history work is not only for those who have passed on. Joseph Smith, in an epistle on this subject, taught us that “we without [our dead] cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect”. We can also behold the Man as we take part in this work, as we are perfected with our dead. When one thinks about it for a moment, the work which we do in the temple for our kindred dead is truly all about the Savior – without what he did, salvation would not be possible, neither for ourselves nor for our dead. Temple worship, when done in the right frame of mind, can help us to more fully appreciate the Atoning sacrifice of our Savior, as we remember that it extends to every single person for whom we receive baptism, and all else required to connect them to their Father in heaven.

In closing, I would challenge us all to accept Elder Uchtdorf’s invitation to “behold the Man”, seeing him for who He truly is, the Son of God who Atoned for the sins of all who have ever lived, regardless of which side of the veil they currently dwell on; let us also strive more earnestly to work so that those who have passed on may be able to do the same. I pray that those of us who are missionaries of the Headquarters Mission will be able, through our service in this mission, to assist others in doing the same, that both living and deceased may be more able to come unto Him who is holy. I testify that He lives, and because He lives, so can we all, including those who have passed on. I testify also that, as we work to bring our kindred dead to the Redeemer, we all will be more able to experience the full blessings of this Gospel. Of this I testify, in the name of He who made this all possible, even Jesus Christ, amen.

As scheduled (finally)

Hey everyone!


So, I was finally able to get this E-mail out on my scheduled P-Day, as I had previously promised. However, that still required a bit of scheduling and compromise - the mission had it's senior missionary mission conference today (Why does the mission always schedule these things on Wednesdays!!), and I was involved in the choir. I was originally planning on forgoing the choir for that single day in favor of P-Day, but the director of the number we were doing, Sister Crowl (you may remember her name - she was formerly one of the zone leaders of this zone), had convinced me to make the performance. So, I did that, and I immediately attended a zone meeting to discuss important happenings in the zone. We had been meaning to meet together for a while, and I had reminded everyone once more yesterday that we needed to do this. I am glad that I did, because we needed this meeting. Once this was done with, I had began my actual P-Day. Our original destinations were Smith's and Wal-Mart, but we also ended up going to a watch repair shop as Elder Perkins was with us, and needed his watch fixed (not that I'm complaining - he was our driver this time anyway). And so, once all that was done, I stopped at the apartment for a quick lunch, and now here I am!

As for the rest of the week, it remained quite interesting, especially yesterday. Yesterday began with me helping working with a telephone company getting in to the apartment complex by looking up their number for him. You'd think that they would have been waiting expectantly for him... I then went off to zone, and soon left for a zone luncheon. The luncheon was nice and all; the only problem is that our supervisor was not informed at all of this luncheon; therefore, he was not able to inform anyone else of this, or make our department unavailable, which caused some issues. Later in the day, I had left the library a bit early to grab mail for my district. I had heard my name called out when I left the library - my first name. I was a bit confused at first, but I then saw Maydie, my mom's friend from home. Apparently, my mom was in the city too - in fact, she had dropped Maydie off at the library and was driving around the block, meaning that she had just barely missed me. Maydie had with her a care package form home, as well as a case of Bear Lake raspberries; she gave these to me, and had some pix taken with and of me (one of which I have attached), then she advised me to leave as soon as possible lest I run into my mother. So, I went on with these and checked the mail (unfortunately, there was none for the district). When we had returned to zone that evening, we were surprised to see more people there than usual. We were informed that FamilySearch was experiencing major issues, and we were getting absolutely slammed with calls. We had all available hands on deck helping to answer the patrons contacting us all, including Elder Evans, who hasn't even been in the zone for over a year, but was visiting us with Elder Buers (I can't remember why). So, all in all, it was a hectic night, and a notable day.

Aside from this, the zone work has been going well for me. I do kind of wonder if I will be transferred out soon; I have been in the zone for a year now, which has been a while; then again, I think that the mission leadership still wants me to train other elders into the zone. I will happily stay here for as long as I am needed to be here, I am not yet desperate to leave the basement. I would not mind leaving the zone either though. But, while I am here, I will work the best I can, and see what I can improve for others any myself.

So, aside from this all, I had an interesting experience at Smith's today. I was waiting for the rest of my district, whom I had gone shopping with, in the check-out area of the store after I had done my own shopping. Another lady was there also. We had gotten to talking, and she had said that she had once been quite active in the church; she had since fallen away, but was working on coming back. She had said that she was reading a bit from her Bible each day, which she had previously not read from before. I had asked if she had a Book of Mormon; she replied that she did not. I then gave her the one which I carried with me in my suit pocket, for which she was very grateful. There are few opportunities which are quite as great as being able to help others come unto Christ like this, which is one of the reasons why missionary work is so rewarding in it's own sense. I cherish opportunities which I occasionally have to touch other peoples' lives like this, and I do believe that I will do this more often when I return home.

Anyway, such is my week. It was a bit of a special week due to some of the events which have gone on in its duration. I am glad to be able to share my weekly thoughts with you all, and I appreciate your support for me. Have a great week!

From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: For my recent district meeting last Monday, I had decided to choose the subject of humility for my district leader instruction. To me, humility is one of the most important Christlike attributes which one can develop. Why is this? Well, there are a few reasons for this. First and foremost, we must remember that the opposite of humility is pride; the Book of Mormon paints a crystal clear picture of the dangers of this grievous transgression, especially in the book of 4th Nephi - it was this sin which had made the Nephites eventually more wicked than the Lamanites. At this point, prophets had cried unto the people to repent, but they would not do so because of this pride - they all knew the Gospel, it had been taught to them from the beginning; however, they had convinced themselves that they did not need to change their ways, and that those who said otherwise were the ones actually at fault. Such is a phenomenon which I have noticed in this day and age. Though we do not exactly stone people who offend us in this day, we still sometimes convince ourselves that the commandments, proclaimed by God through prophets ancient and modern, somehow do not apply to us. This is why pride is described as a stumbling block in the scriptures (2nd Nephi 26:20) - President Nelson could proclaim all day long a detailed description of all that we need to improve on, but if we are not humble, then it will avail us nothing, for we cannot fix that which we do not believe to be broken. So, my challenge this week is to take a look at your life, and see what feel you need to improve on - and do it honestly, and with a humble heart. Identify what needs to change, and then humble yourselves to actually make the changes. If you will do this, then you will be able to make necessary changes to your life and receive the related blessings, and the Lord promises that He will lift you up (see James 4:10).

Consistently inconsistent

Hey everyone!


...yes, I have had to yet again re-schedule my P-Day. We were having a young elder conference tomorrow, which throws in a three-hour block in which we would not be able to do our P-Day stuff, as much as I love conferences like this! So, my predicament was that we either scramble around that, trying to get done all of our P-Day errands, or we re-schedule P-Day so that we don't have to worry about all of that. So, here I am. I can almost guarantee, however, that we will be having our P-Day on Wednesday from here on out; however, checking the inbox for an E-mail every day would not be a bad idea either; I wouldn't advise checking it regularly as if it were P-Day though. (that last sentence was mostly for Mom)

So, now that that's out of the way... the week has been wonderful! I hope that you all enjoyed the 4th as much as I did! This day, the first thing we all did was go on a hike to the Utah state capitol. Now, I know that we have done this type of activity before; this time, however, we had entered into the building itself, and enjoyed the artwork and displays set up for everyone to enjoy! After having done this, we continued on with our hike to the Memory Grove park here in the city. I had been down here a couple of times, and it has been a nice nature escape each time. When this was done, we returned to the stake center next to the apartments for lunch, which was catered by an Orem barbecue place known as Bam-Bam's Barbecue. This was some great barbecue, akin to some barbecue I had in Texas once - that's how you know it is good! After an after-lunch break, we all watched a movie together, "Instrument of War", a production created by BYU (because BYU is seemingly the epicenter of Mormon culture) documenting a true story of soldiers held in a German prison camp in World War II. As you may know by now, I don't like giving entire synopses of movies, as I know some people to do; I prefer to let people experience such productions themselves without any spoilers. So, just know that though it is not a perfect movie, I do recommend it. Anyway, after the movie, the rest of the day was free, and it was a nice little break from the ordinary excitement of working hard all day at zone. So, all in all, I had enjoyed the holiday.

Things have been going well at zone too. There has recently been talk of certain happenings for mission support. I think that the mission department still wants us to get more full-time missionaries from the mission trained to do this type of work; however, they will also begin training young church service missionaries to do this work also. Though it currently seems that the Global Service Center will be doing most of the formal training, they also want to have these new missionaries shadow us young elders, and watch how we do the work. So, it seems that this big contemplation on what to do with the project has ended in a bit of a compromise; we still help with doing the work, and they have CSM's who are not affected by our monthly transfers, whom we also get to help train. So, things are looking up for all of us here, especially since we have gotten another elder, Elder Rasmussen, on doing mission support as well. I think that we will also get my companion, Elder Wright, on doing this as well. I think that all of this means that I may be staying in the zone for yet a while longer. Then again, I could probably be getting transferred any month now - I have already spent a year in the zone, which is longer than anyone else here. So, I will see how much longer I stay down here in the basement; until then, I have got work to do.

I have continued to serve at St. Josephs, and it was also quite good this week. Unfortunately, my companion was not feeling very well - he did not get very much sleep at all last night, and so he was not able to go. I still had to go myself, as I was assigned to be the driver of the group. So, I check with my district to see if I could authorize an exchange between myself and a district member; however, the other companionship in the district were already assigned to help at another branch. Finally, I was able to get an exchanged authorized with Elder McNeely, leaving my companion with his, Elder Stacey (yes, my companion from about a year ago). This inconvenience made it so that we arrived at St. Joseph's a bit late, and though the situation was beyond my control, I still felt that the coordinator blamed me a bit for it. No matter - it was still a good experience at the facility, helping out the residents. I feel that Elder McNeely also liked coming with me to do this. I do look forward to next time, where I hope that everything goes well.

I also got to take part in a musical performance which i may or may not have mentioned in previous E-mails. I think I did mention something about a quintet which performed a rendition of "Because I Have Been Given Much". Well, this performance had happened last Sunday - and it was nice to take part in, though I showed up a bit too late for practice due to my St. Joseph's obligations. But, it still sounded quite good for both performances of the number - I say both because we performed for both of the mission's branches. This was one of the few situations in which I was able to attend both of these meetings in a Sunday, which I believe only happens with these such performances. So, all in all, it was good to be able to share my musical talents in such a way with others!

Anyway, these are the interesting happenings from this week - it was surely an interesting one. Thanks for the continued support that you all give me! I hope that you all have a good one!

Taffy made from Bear Lake raspberries!

Hey everyone!


First off, things are definitely different having a P-Day aside from Saturday in the week. I remember that, at the beginning of my mission, up to the end of my 7th month, I had P-Days from all over the week. During that whole time, I had hoped for a P-Day on Saturday - I guessed that I was hoping for an entire day off, rather than having to go in to night zone for the evening on my P-Day (as the whole mission generally gets Saturday evenings off). However, I have learned from that experience that it is not quite what I had hoped it would be - the majority of people on the mission have P-Day that day - therefore, it is next to impossible to get laundry done in the morning due to all the machines being in use, and it is also difficult to get a shopping van at a convenient time. Therefore, I am content with having a weekday P-Day.

Anyway, as for the week itself, it has gone well. My mom likely already knows about an I assignment I have for the month; I had been asked to help at a senior care facility known as St. Joseph's Villa. Now, missionaries being asked to serve at senior care facilities is nothing new - I have reported having done this a few times before in these E-mails home. However, this situation is a bit different - I have been assigned to help out for the entire month, rather than a single weekend. So, I will be doing that until next transfers (which will be at the end of the month, in case I forget to warn you). I am also assigned to help by driving to and from the facility. So, I had gone there last Sunday, but I had arrived a bit late due to the lateness of others in showing up at the vans we were taking down there; as a result, I did not get the scheduled orientation to help me get started with my service. This meant that I was kind of thrown in to the party a bit unprepared; nevertheless, I feel I have done a good service, and I had done quite a bit of good there. I should also note that I'm pretty sure, as implied by the name, that the place is managed by, or at least closely associated with, the Catholic church; therefore, though it did have its own chapel in which we had our Sacrament meeting (as opposed to a re-purposed activity room as in other places), it was a Catholic chapel, which was interestingly similar but different from an LDS meetinghouse. The reason I say that my mom may already know about this is because the stake president over the branch whom we were helping out offered to take a picture of my companion and me and send them home to our mothers. All in all, it was a great experience to help out there, and I look forward to my future opportunities to do so!

The work at zone is still about the same. I am getting my companion Elder Wright trained to do the work which we do in zone, which training is nothing I am completely new to. He seems like a pretty hard worker - when he is taking a break from training, he does his own family history! The work itself has been a bit much for those of us doing mission support, as we are now down to the same two Elders - myself and Elder Harris. We are still waiting for the Elders we plan on training (so far, only Elder Rasmussen) to be given access to the tools needed to do the job. They have been a bit sluggish with doing that, which is part of the reason why Mission Support may or may not continue to go on. Our current plan is to not train anyone else on doing the work until we have a definitive conclusion as to what happens (they will likely not get access to the required tools anyway); if me and Elder Harris get transferred out of the zone before this happens, and Elder Rasmussen does not have the tools/training he would need to do the job, then I guess Mission Support is a goner for us. I personally would like to keep doing Mission Support, which I believe will happen; however, if it phases out as I described that it might, then that won't surprise me either. At least it seems that I will be able to stick to it until it's gone for good. However, I have also been assigned to help out with FamilySearch support more, and I have been taking calls for that again.

Now, I had recently learned that Harmon's the (more expensive) grocery store within walking distance of the mission, actually sells taffy made from Bear Lake raspberries! I had learned this when last week, I had gone down there to buy some things which I felt could not simply wait until P-Day. Of course, this cost a bit more money than a normal bag of taffy; nevertheless, I had picked up a package for myself and for the others in the zone. I have the bag with me at my work computer, and I am even snacking on them as I type this E-mail. It's a nice little connection to home, which I did not expect to find down here in the middle of the big city. Probably not a purchase I will make every day, though it is nice to have tried it out. (maybe I could afford it if I simply cut soda from the budget)

Well, this has been my week. I am not sure how many messages I will get form home due to the earliness of this P-Day; however, next week's P-Day should fall on Wednesday as expected - there are no holidays then that I am aware of! So, I will catch you all next week. Have a good one!