Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Day 2- "Preach My Gospel"

What an exciting day. Today was a culmination of learning how to teach, challenge and share. First things first.

There are about 40 or so senior missionary couples go through at this time. There mission assignments range from proselyting missions, Church Education System, Facility Management, Medical, and Humanitarian. All are here this week to participate in the Preach My Gospel experience before they go on to additional training specifically for their assignments. This morning we were broken up into study groups based on our district that we had been assigned to. Our district leader is Elder Wallace. He and Sister Wallace are serving a medical mission, Sister Wallace is a RN and Elder Wallace is going to be her assistant, to somewhere in the South Pacific. This is their third mission having previously served in Pakistan and one other area that escapes my memory at this time. He is the 6th great-grandson (or so) of Heber C Kimball, an early leader in our church. Another couple, Elder and Sister Moon, are similarly serving their third mission. They are serving a humanitarian mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This being their third mission, with a busy life, they thought that they might not have to spend the week in training with the other senior missionaries. They called a general authority, who's name escapes me (it is becoming a habit), who informed him it was "all or nothing." They didn't understand initially and Elder Moon asked for some clarification as to what that meant. The person explained to him that if he wanted to go on the mission he needed to be in it all the way, including attending the MTC again. Elder and Sister Moon are sitting in our class and are actively participating it the discussions.

Tomorrow we will be teaching an investigator(s) in the TRC (Teaching Resource Center). Marcia and I have studied Preach My Gospel and they are now throwing us in to teaching right away. Although this isn't the focus of our mission being the Area Mental Health Advisers, we still will have opportunity to share the Gospel so we are being prepared to do so. I will write more of our experience tomorrow.

In the category- It's a small Mormon world after all- Marcia and I sat next to a Senior Couple who are from Maryland. When they found out that we were from Indianapolis they remembered way back 30 or so years ago that they were in school about that time with a Steve and Mary somebody who moved to the Indianapolis area. They said Steve was working on his doctorate. I gave them the last name of Larsen and I hit the jackpot. I told them that the Larsens are now serving a church service mission at the Bishop's Storehouse. Since I still have my phone I was able to give them their email and home address.

The day ended with a devotional where the speaker was Elder Vaughn Featherstone, emeritus member of the Quorum of the 70. I was amazed at his memory as he recited from memory poems, quotes and stories. It was a very uplifting experience.

jsf

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