The beginning of the end

Hey, everyone!

Well, general conference has come and gone once more, and I was able to watch and enjoy it all! My only regret regarding it is that my nicer pen had run out of ink the very night before the first session; therefore, I had taken all of my notes for the conference in red ink. But such notes are still of value. The announcements were quite interesting, I would say! First off, I do hope that nobody takes the Church schedule rearrangement as simply one less hour to be spent at church; such would be a wasted opportunity to be able to teach and learn more of the gospel in the home. But, I mostly hope that I am ready for the change. It does seem that the Lord is giving to the members of His Church more responsibility, with this schedule change and with ministering. I feel that though not everyone will make the most of all these changes, those who will do will find their lives more fully blessed by it! As for the announcement regarding temples - twelve new temples is astounding! And only two were within the United States as well! Also, the Salt Lake temple will apparently be closing down for an update soon - that means I should attend a bit more often before this happens... I am aware that this is my final general conference on the mission. I guess that, for elders who measure their progress on the mission by how many general conferences they have attended, I have arrived at the beginning of the end. I will be returning home in a day coming soon. However, I do not plan on slowing down quite yet. Then again, I have talked about this quite a while. All I will say is, the end looms on the horizon; therefore, I better make the most of it.

Aside from this, not a ton has happened this week. I will mention, however, that I did have a chance to perform a service project at a rest home called Wentworth at Coventry again. Some of you may recognize the name "Coventry"; this is because this is the same place I had done a service project at back during the beginning of the year! For those of you who do not remember this, allow me to explain; Wentworth at Coventry, (aka just "Coventry") is a senior care facility down in the southern part of Salt Lake City. What we do here is a bit different than the sacrament assistance we provide at other facilities; each week, the mission sends a group of young elders down here to put on a family history workshop, assisting the residents with using FamilySearch, and doing family history. However, this time was a bit different. First off, due to the relatively few people at this place who actually show up to the workshop, we only sent up a group of six elders. Also, one of the mission office elders, Elder Coleman, wasn't feeling too well, they had assigned me to be in charge of the project. So, I drove everyone up there, and we were able to do some good in helping the people up there with family history. We got to help them out with all sorts of issues - from issues with registering to use FamilySearch (my specialty, due to my time of having provided support over the phone for this same issue for over a year now) to helping people download and print PDF files. All in all, I feel that everything went quite well over there! I probably will not have a chance to come down and do this again, but I will say that it was good to be able to go and do this just once more.

I can't say that everything in this week was completely great, though. I was trying to wash some dishes on Sunday to empty the sink, when I had gotten to a glass which apparently had some cracks in it which I did not mention. The glass soon broke, and all but took my pinkie with it. Without getting too graphic with the details, all I will say is that it took a while for the situation to get fully under control. Fortunately, though bloody, the problem did not require a trip to the hospital as my companion had worried; I do still have a bandage on my pinkie from it though, which is making it a little bit more awkward to type.

Things at zone have been going pretty well. There is a certain type of work which has all but halted though, because the last elder in the zone who did this type of work had recently finished his mission. Part of the reason we had no one else is because we thought that the staff here may take on the job themselves, but I guess that it is us doing the work. So, I had been assigned, along with our staff supervisor, to organize some sort of training for doing this type of work. We will require the assistance of someone who actually knows what he is doing, so getting him to help us out may take some time, but I hope that everything goes well. We have been able to get some work done on it, as we have had an elder in the zone organize some training on how to do a part of the work; some have been spending time on getting this part of the work out of the way, preparing the associated cases for the next step of the process. So, things are going well here. I intend to get things moving along the best that I can.

Speaking of zone, we did finally have our meeting with President Fenn. There were no major changes announced here, though he did mention that he has some high hopes for the type of work that we could be doing in the zone. However, he also informed of us of some things which we could improve on before we are ready to take on such work. I wouldn't say this was a firey rebuke - President Fenn has rarely ever done this anyway. He did let us know where we could improve, how we could work more efficiently and stay more productive - in short, what could be done to do a little better. I feel that the meeting has done some good. Of course, making into habit the things which he talked to us about will take time and conscious effort, but I believe that we can get to such a point if we consciously make an effort to do so.

Well, that is about what all has happened in this week in my missionary life. I am open to any questions which you may have about my life as a missionary serving here; I would be more than happy to answer what may come in. Anyway, have a good week, everyone. I thank you again for all the support!



--
From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: There were some pretty major changes announced at conference this weekend. I feel one of the most major changes was that we will be shifting some of the learning which we do on Sunday to a home setting. I am in favor of such a change - not simply because of the fact that there will be less time spent at church, and more freedom with what can be done with this extra hour at home. I am reminded of Elder Holland's comment in the April conference earlier this year, when he was explaining the new Ministering program: "...with these adjustments we want more care and concern, not less." (See this talk here.) I am dead positive that the Church feels the same way about teaching in the home. As I had mentioned earlier in this E-mail, if we simply see this extra hour at home as an extra hour to spend doing our will rather than the Lord's, we will have wasted a glorious opportunity. Why does the Church care so much that we teach in the home? Isn't the home less formal, and more full of distractions? Also back in the April 2018 conference, Devin G. Durrant, in the Sunday School General Presidency, reminded us that many of the Savior's teachings were in such less formal situations (there is much more to study from this talk in regards to teaching in the home - see more here). It is also notable that, as mentioned earlier in this E-mail, it does seem that the Church does seem to be giving us more responsibility, with this as well as with ministering. Teaching in the home gives us a chance to show our faith. Such teaching will also increase family unity, as the entire family all learns about the Gospel together. The lessons will be much more personalized to the needs of the family - if, for example, no one in the family has a substance abuse problem, perhaps they do not need as much counseling on the Word of Wisdom as another commandment which someone may be struggling more with. Finally, the scriptures teach clearly that it should be parents teaching their children "to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; [they should] teach them to love one another, and to serve one another" (Mosiah 4:14-15). Who better to learn the plan of salvation from than a mother and father? I could probably come up with more explanations of the value of teaching in the home, but I feel what is put forth shows clearly the value of this sacred responsibility. Please don't take the prophet's words for granted; make the most of this opportunity, and find ways to effectively teach in the home, utilizing fully the "Come Follow Me" booklet which will be released. This will eventually prove to be one of the greatest blessings which the Lord has seen fit to bless His Church with; obeying such a commandment will open the windows of heaven, pouring out great blessings as previously stated.