Halloween gumbo!

Hey, everyone!

Well, another month has gone by and another transfer has happened. As I had guessed, I was not affected by the transfer at all, and neither was Elder Cole - the only change which happened was that Elder Rasmussen has left the companionship, which is kind of what we had expected would happen anyway. He is still in the district, as a companion with Elder Bassett, who is also relatively new to the mission (he came at the same time as Elder Bastian). Aside from that, nothing has changed for me - I am still in the same zone (unsurprising, I know), on the same P-Day, and with the same companion. So, no excitement there.

Interesting happenings are now beginning to go down at zone this month, however. There is a lot of talk about getting us young elders moved back in to the JSMB, and we believe this will be sometime this month, if not sometime within the next couple of weeks. This will be quite nice - we had spent an entire year doing our work from the basement floors of the family history library; it will be refreshing to be able to see the sun during our zone work again. it also will be nice to see the salt lake temple right outside the window where we work! So, in anticipation of this move, we have all been packing some of the things at our desks up, as well as cleaning up our workstations in preparation for the big move. If we are lucky, it will be staff who will be doing all the heavy lifting with the computers. I also hope that what happens last time this happened will not happen this time as well, where things are still not quite ready for us when we move, and so we have some period of inactivity before we can move in. But, then again, the JSMB is better-equipped for this type of work than the family history library is; after all, it is where we used to work. Therefore, I am not overly worried about problems coming from the move.

As you can imagine, the mission did have a special event when Halloween came around, because the rest of Church campus closed down early that day for obvious reasons. Specifically, the mission was called in together to enjoy the movie "Coco" together! There was, however, one complication which came with this; my companion was ill when Halloween arrived, and so we were not able to watch the movie together with the rest of the mission; instead, we had stayed at the apartment so that he could rest up. This was alright with me - I had already watched the movie with the mission at another time. Besides, I had already purchased the ingredients required for a gumbo recipe in a recipe book of mine, and so I figured that this would be one of the only days of the week where I would have time to make such a dish, so I did try that with the time we had spent at home. Of course, cooking a soup recipe such as this did leave some relatively idle time where I could study the Gospel, which was great. Such is one of the reasons why I like such recipes - though they take quite a bit of time to prepare, much of the time is hands-off, requiring only occasional attention, giving me open windows to do other things that I enjoy. Still, this recipe did take much more time and than I had previously anticipated, and it ended up going almost into the evening. However, the end result was well worth the effort!

Now, for some reason, there have not been a whole ton of events for the mission announced in the upcoming weeks. The only such event was a fireside which took place yesterday, presented by President Fenn. Essentially, he taught us the doctrine of repentance. He mentioned that, if we were teaching missionaries, we would be teaching that doctrine every day, and we were a bit disadvantaged as we did not have such intimate daily experience with it. And so, he gave a great message about it, in the which much was learned. There is one interesting thing which I will mention about such a meeting: I don't know if President Fenn uses notes in giving such a presentation, but he surely never writes out what he is going to say when giving such a presentation. The difference was made apparent when he had brought with him a written version of a certain story relating to this topic. Now, the story was well-written and well-presented, but such a presentation simply did not feel quite as natural - at least with him - as one given from at least just notes. I guess that goes to show the importance of having a balanced amount of structure to any sort of plan, whether it be a daily schedule or a fireside. Neither too little nor too much is appropriate in any such situation. Of course, there are opportunities in which such structured planning is helpful, and in some cases even necessary. I guess that is part of the reason why it is important to know the time and place for such happenings.

So, as for anything else, not much is happening at the moment. But, it was a good week, I feel, though there are many area in which I could improve. But, I will keep trying my best. Thanks again for all the support. I will message you all again next week. Have a good one!


From,

Elder Bryce Petersen


Challenge: We all have many goals in life. We all want to see ourselves make something out of our lives, and go on to do great things. These goals may range from the relatively simple, such as going to school and getting a job; others are more elaborate, such as becoming a millionaire. Now, such goals may be achieved in life, and others may not be. However, in reviewing a list of goals, what would your number-one goal in life be? Now, aside from righteous gospel living (to which this goal is not unrelated), I feel that the most important goal in life would have to be to raise a righteous family in a home filled with love; though "salvation [may be] an individual matter," President Nelson has taught that "exaltation is a family matter" (Salvation and Exaltation, April 2008). Such is the reason behind the issuing of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." In this world, however, God's ordained pattern for the family is under greater attack than any ever before issued. Why is this? There is no greater foundation for the life of any member of society, young or old, than that of a loving, righteous family; when children are brought into the world by a father and a mother who will love them and teach them righteous principles, then they will start life with a proper knowledge of good and evil. When the Gospel is taught in the home (which, with last conference's announcement on home study and learning, has been reemphasized), a child can learn the commandments of God, including instructions regarding certain subjects which, when taught by the world, often bring with them an unrighteous bias (for example, it is better for a child to learn about alcohol from parents living the Word of Wisdom than from a flashy Super Bowl commercial trying to sell it). Of course, the responsibility of maintaining a righteous, peaceful family does not fall into the hands of the parents alone, for they can only influence their children as much as the children will allow them to. Children must also make sure that they learn to get along with their siblings, as this will be a much easier lesson to learn than in the future, with coworkers, roommates, missionary companions, and most especially a future spouse. So, my challenge this week is to make steps to do what you can to improve your family situation. If gospel learning is not happening, please begin as soon as possible. If relationships need to be mended, please stop procrastinating, and take the first step. The family is how we will gain exaltation, for it is the best way to learn the doctrines of eternity; a strong family built upon Christ, the Son of God, will not fall (see Helaman 5:12).