"December the 25th is Christmas. We celebrate the birth of Christ. We should be saying, 'Merry Christmas,' not 'Happy Holiday.'"
Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Sunday, December 17, 2006
I feel like it has been a while since I last updated this but it has only been five days. I guess that is longer than I should let it go. There has been a lot of stuff going on this week. Well lets see...
I don't know how many of you know but I auditioned for a performing mission in Nauvoo. There is a group of twenty young missionaries who go to Nauvoo during the summer and put on a myriad of shows and act as tour guides during the summer. On Wednesday I think it was, I got a letter back telling me that I had made call backs!! I couldn't believe it. Out of hundreds of people who auditioned they wanted to see me again. I figured it would be fun to audition but when I learned how many people auditioned and how accomplished some of them are I pretty much counted myself out. Getting called back was really awesome. Callbacks are on January 6th so we shall see how it goes.
I had an interesting thing happen to me the other day. Elder Harwell and I were waiting to cross the street to get into the Conference Center when a Hispanic couple offered us some money. I had heard that missionaries run into people who give them money but I never expected it to happen to me. We tried to tell them that we were service missionaries and we still live at home therefore, we didn't need the money. We couldn't just walk away because we had TV's in our hands and that would be kind of rude. After refusing it a few times we finally accepted because they would not give up and were holding up traffic. (they were in there car) After they had went we counted the money and it came out to be six dollars for each of us. I felt really bad accepting it and decided I should probably give it to fast offerings. It was kind of interesting.
There has been quite a bit going on this week for me. My bishop asked me to speak in church this week and only gave me four days notice; then he doesn't even tell me the subject until Friday. Needless to say, I got a little antsy. I planned on writing it Saturday night but then I had to babysit and Malia (the baby) was having troubles. I ended up throwing something together an hour before church started. I guess it went alright though because I got some positive feedback. I just hope my ineptitude didn't impede the spirit from touching others in sacrament meeting. Also, I got to sing in Relief Society today. I had a voice recital this Saturday night too. I guess that was not a whole ton but combined with preparations and my other daily things it got a little crazy. I am glad to have all of it done with though. It does feel good to be so busy and productive though.
I know I will think of more to say latter but for now this will suffice. I hope that as Christmas draws near we try to find room for our Savior. Do something conscientiously that brings you or some one else closer to him. Merry Christmas!
I don't know how many of you know but I auditioned for a performing mission in Nauvoo. There is a group of twenty young missionaries who go to Nauvoo during the summer and put on a myriad of shows and act as tour guides during the summer. On Wednesday I think it was, I got a letter back telling me that I had made call backs!! I couldn't believe it. Out of hundreds of people who auditioned they wanted to see me again. I figured it would be fun to audition but when I learned how many people auditioned and how accomplished some of them are I pretty much counted myself out. Getting called back was really awesome. Callbacks are on January 6th so we shall see how it goes.
I had an interesting thing happen to me the other day. Elder Harwell and I were waiting to cross the street to get into the Conference Center when a Hispanic couple offered us some money. I had heard that missionaries run into people who give them money but I never expected it to happen to me. We tried to tell them that we were service missionaries and we still live at home therefore, we didn't need the money. We couldn't just walk away because we had TV's in our hands and that would be kind of rude. After refusing it a few times we finally accepted because they would not give up and were holding up traffic. (they were in there car) After they had went we counted the money and it came out to be six dollars for each of us. I felt really bad accepting it and decided I should probably give it to fast offerings. It was kind of interesting.
There has been quite a bit going on this week for me. My bishop asked me to speak in church this week and only gave me four days notice; then he doesn't even tell me the subject until Friday. Needless to say, I got a little antsy. I planned on writing it Saturday night but then I had to babysit and Malia (the baby) was having troubles. I ended up throwing something together an hour before church started. I guess it went alright though because I got some positive feedback. I just hope my ineptitude didn't impede the spirit from touching others in sacrament meeting. Also, I got to sing in Relief Society today. I had a voice recital this Saturday night too. I guess that was not a whole ton but combined with preparations and my other daily things it got a little crazy. I am glad to have all of it done with though. It does feel good to be so busy and productive though.
I know I will think of more to say latter but for now this will suffice. I hope that as Christmas draws near we try to find room for our Savior. Do something conscientiously that brings you or some one else closer to him. Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
So I guess Britton fell through with his Eagle project for now. We wont be doing that service project but I would still love to be able to something. If any of you who read this have any ideas then let me know. Ask anyone you can think if they have something and keep your eyes open. I will be doing the same. Thanks to all of you.
Saturday, December 9, 2006
I have a couple really cool experiences with Savior of the World that I have to share. If I don't do it now I will probably not do it or just forget.
Last night we heard that Elder Nelson was there and that seemed to make everyone want to do their best. I know why it made people feel that way but it is kind of sad that some of us just don't get that drive to our best by ourselves. But I digress. Because everyone had that extra push you could feel the spirit and the strength of everyone's testimony of our Savior. At the end of the show Elder Nelson came and spoke to us with his wife. Since I was on the tech crew I was in a position where I got to walk beside him for a bit. (I get excited about these kinds of things) When he spoke it made me realise that what we do is important. Yes it is fun and is just a play but has the ability to touch the people who come to watch and those who are involved. There is a feeling of empathy with the characters and the Spirit is able to testify of the things which are depicted. Needless to say, I love being a part of it.
Today was the hearing impaired version of SotW. We had ASL translators and TV's with the words on it. Only those who were hearing impaired or those who were related or involved with them in some way. Before the show started we had a man come backstage who was both deaf and blind. His wife was helping him around and using Helen Keller technique to communicate with him. (Signing into the hand) We were letting him feel all the props, the costumes, and walk around to get the feel for the set. It was really fun to watch him and the joy in his face. But that was not the best part. When the little tour was done we were talking with him and his wife and said something that really struck me. He "said" that he really felt like he was walking in the days of Christ. First of all it was really awesome that he was able to feel that way just by walking around and feeling things. Most importantly I realized something that might be totally wrong but it felt good to me. Since he was blind and deaf he didn't have all the distractions that come with it and was able to really feel. He was able to feel that connection with his Savior. Something I wish I could do better; take all the distractions away and connect with my Savior. I would like to say I would give up my sight and hearing for it but I am not sure if I could do that. I can however take the distractions I give myself and set them aside.
During this whole discussion you could tell his wife was really affected as well. I couldn't help but just smiling and the assistant stage manager was in tears. There was such an outpouring of love and a feeling of unity through our brother Jesus Christ. It really struck me deep.
Last night we heard that Elder Nelson was there and that seemed to make everyone want to do their best. I know why it made people feel that way but it is kind of sad that some of us just don't get that drive to our best by ourselves. But I digress. Because everyone had that extra push you could feel the spirit and the strength of everyone's testimony of our Savior. At the end of the show Elder Nelson came and spoke to us with his wife. Since I was on the tech crew I was in a position where I got to walk beside him for a bit. (I get excited about these kinds of things) When he spoke it made me realise that what we do is important. Yes it is fun and is just a play but has the ability to touch the people who come to watch and those who are involved. There is a feeling of empathy with the characters and the Spirit is able to testify of the things which are depicted. Needless to say, I love being a part of it.
Today was the hearing impaired version of SotW. We had ASL translators and TV's with the words on it. Only those who were hearing impaired or those who were related or involved with them in some way. Before the show started we had a man come backstage who was both deaf and blind. His wife was helping him around and using Helen Keller technique to communicate with him. (Signing into the hand) We were letting him feel all the props, the costumes, and walk around to get the feel for the set. It was really fun to watch him and the joy in his face. But that was not the best part. When the little tour was done we were talking with him and his wife and said something that really struck me. He "said" that he really felt like he was walking in the days of Christ. First of all it was really awesome that he was able to feel that way just by walking around and feeling things. Most importantly I realized something that might be totally wrong but it felt good to me. Since he was blind and deaf he didn't have all the distractions that come with it and was able to really feel. He was able to feel that connection with his Savior. Something I wish I could do better; take all the distractions away and connect with my Savior. I would like to say I would give up my sight and hearing for it but I am not sure if I could do that. I can however take the distractions I give myself and set them aside.
During this whole discussion you could tell his wife was really affected as well. I couldn't help but just smiling and the assistant stage manager was in tears. There was such an outpouring of love and a feeling of unity through our brother Jesus Christ. It really struck me deep.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Hey everyone. Thanks for all your comments I love checking the blog and reading what people have to say. I have to say sorry for the format of these posts. I cant figure out how to get paragraphs or any kind of indentiation to show. I swear I am not that ignorant on the proper way to write.
I have been keeping really busy during the day and during the nights so I am finally starting to feel like I am accomplishing something. Of course it wears me out also. It is a little embarrasing to see how often I want to just sleep or lie down. This is a good sign though. It means that I am hard at work.
I just had a meeting with a lady that I work for from the casting agency. She has a new project in mind that she wanted a few people to work on and she wanted the missionaries that have already been doing stuff like it. Her project is to clean out the whole database of people who have auditioned throught (how do you spell that?) the years. A lot of the info that is in there is either oudated or has been entered innacurately. Since I have been working with the database she wants me to add this to my duties. I was glad to do it because now it means I will have contact with people and not be sitting behind the computer all day. I never thought I would say this but I am actually glad to be able call people and talk on the phone. OH, ther ar three missionaries assigned to this and one employee. The employee is one of my friends Mandi Mendenhall! Out of all the people in provo and all the people that work for the Motion Picture Studio Mandi is the one I will be coordinating with. We will see how much contact we really have though. I might be excited for nothing.
Another really exciting thing happened to me recently. We had a christmas devotional for the whole audiovisual department in the Curch Office Building. Every department has an Apostle assigned to oversee it and the Apostle over Audiovisual is Elder L. Tom Perry. He spoke at the devotional and afterwards I got to shake his hand and speak with him for a couple of minutes. Mostly he just welcomed me and said how great it was that I was willing to come serve the church in this capacity. It was really neat. I had no idea how big he is! He is at least as tall as me and is pretty broad. He used to be in the Marine Corp so I think that is where he gets the broadness.
Within our little "eldership" we are supposed to have gospel discussions everyday. I just found this out. We havent ever really done them so I was surprised to find we were supposed to. From now on I am going to try and get us to do it everyday. Of course I got really into the idea of doing it more often so Elder Andrus decided to have me give the "lesson" that day. I only had two minutes to prepare so I whipped out Preach my Gospel and decided to teach the Christlike attribute of Hope. I was a little nervous but it seemed to go okay. I guess that is what missionary work is about, using the spirit and teaching on the spur of the moment. Of course full time misionaries get to go to the MTC and focus on learning and how to teach and then they get to prepare what they want to teach everyday. I just got thrown into it. (I know, I know, I am whining. I will learn.)
I am excited to get to learn knew things and I can definitely see where I can grow and what I can improve on. One thing I am learning is that there are multiple ways to serve the lord and all of them are important. We may have our hopes set on a certain thing but the lord has a different plan. The trick is to not get angry, frustrated, or downhearted. Just take what is given you and decide to fill the calling the best you can.
I have been keeping really busy during the day and during the nights so I am finally starting to feel like I am accomplishing something. Of course it wears me out also. It is a little embarrasing to see how often I want to just sleep or lie down. This is a good sign though. It means that I am hard at work.
I just had a meeting with a lady that I work for from the casting agency. She has a new project in mind that she wanted a few people to work on and she wanted the missionaries that have already been doing stuff like it. Her project is to clean out the whole database of people who have auditioned throught (how do you spell that?) the years. A lot of the info that is in there is either oudated or has been entered innacurately. Since I have been working with the database she wants me to add this to my duties. I was glad to do it because now it means I will have contact with people and not be sitting behind the computer all day. I never thought I would say this but I am actually glad to be able call people and talk on the phone. OH, ther ar three missionaries assigned to this and one employee. The employee is one of my friends Mandi Mendenhall! Out of all the people in provo and all the people that work for the Motion Picture Studio Mandi is the one I will be coordinating with. We will see how much contact we really have though. I might be excited for nothing.
Another really exciting thing happened to me recently. We had a christmas devotional for the whole audiovisual department in the Curch Office Building. Every department has an Apostle assigned to oversee it and the Apostle over Audiovisual is Elder L. Tom Perry. He spoke at the devotional and afterwards I got to shake his hand and speak with him for a couple of minutes. Mostly he just welcomed me and said how great it was that I was willing to come serve the church in this capacity. It was really neat. I had no idea how big he is! He is at least as tall as me and is pretty broad. He used to be in the Marine Corp so I think that is where he gets the broadness.
Within our little "eldership" we are supposed to have gospel discussions everyday. I just found this out. We havent ever really done them so I was surprised to find we were supposed to. From now on I am going to try and get us to do it everyday. Of course I got really into the idea of doing it more often so Elder Andrus decided to have me give the "lesson" that day. I only had two minutes to prepare so I whipped out Preach my Gospel and decided to teach the Christlike attribute of Hope. I was a little nervous but it seemed to go okay. I guess that is what missionary work is about, using the spirit and teaching on the spur of the moment. Of course full time misionaries get to go to the MTC and focus on learning and how to teach and then they get to prepare what they want to teach everyday. I just got thrown into it. (I know, I know, I am whining. I will learn.)
I am excited to get to learn knew things and I can definitely see where I can grow and what I can improve on. One thing I am learning is that there are multiple ways to serve the lord and all of them are important. We may have our hopes set on a certain thing but the lord has a different plan. The trick is to not get angry, frustrated, or downhearted. Just take what is given you and decide to fill the calling the best you can.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Ooops, I forgot to say a couple things. First thank you so much to Jonessa Smith. She set this all up for me and was so willing to help. Second, I have an idea to keep social contact. I want to set up a "club" of sorts. It will focus around service and be a way to have a support network. I want to call it "Army of Helaman" ( Actually that credit should go to Gloria Bowden's genious). My brother is going to do an Eagle project and might need help so I thought we could help him out and to kind of get this whole thing started. I will let people know about this through the blog. If you want to be a part of this please let me know and if you have any suggestions or questions go ahead and tell\ask me.
Well here I go again. This one probably wont be as long as the last...I hope. I have been pretty busy lately. It does wear on me but it feels good to be busy and doing things so I am okay with it. Some day I will stop yawning.
I finally have started doing more in my mission. They finally trained me on how to do the task they originally planned on me doing. What I do is scan in pictures and resume's for all the people who audition for the Motion Picture Studio in Provo. It is kind of cool to see all these people and what there experience's have been. I have also seen some pretty cool people. I had to do the resume for the guy who is the dad in the Testaments and the main character in Brigham city. I also did Hyrum in the Joseph Smith movie, the black guy on murder she wrote and matlock and some others that were fun to see. I know I am probably being a little childish but I thought it was fun. Of course it can get pretty tedious but if this is where the lord wants me then I will push on.
I found a new perk to this mission though. Every time there is a meeting that has food with it then when we go to take down all the equipment we get any extras that there are. The other elders have told me that at conference time they get a feast almost every day! YUUUMMMMYYY. Beleive me, to a guy food is a very important thing; it make a job so much easier.
Nights are going to get really empty after December. Savior of the World will be done and my performances will be done. It has really been crazy trying to get all of my songs ready. I auditioned for a Nauvoo performing mission, I have a christmas recital for voice coming up, a singing group I am in is performing this month, and I am singing in my wards relief society. Ahhh! I know there are a lot of amazing people out there that would say that would be easy but to me that's crazy!
On a more serious note I got the final okay to go to the temple. It took a while but it is finally happening. I actually think that having to wait to go to the temple was a good thing. It is not in the middle of everything and it has given me time to think about it and realize how important the temple is. I dont know exactly when I will go but it will be soon.
Thank you all for your friendship and support. I know that part of the reason I was able to hold up so well going through this whole mission process was because of you guys. All of your comments of encouragement meant a lot to me. Sometimes I was worried that people would think worse of me and rumors would go around because of the nature of all of this. Anyway, thank you all.
I finally have started doing more in my mission. They finally trained me on how to do the task they originally planned on me doing. What I do is scan in pictures and resume's for all the people who audition for the Motion Picture Studio in Provo. It is kind of cool to see all these people and what there experience's have been. I have also seen some pretty cool people. I had to do the resume for the guy who is the dad in the Testaments and the main character in Brigham city. I also did Hyrum in the Joseph Smith movie, the black guy on murder she wrote and matlock and some others that were fun to see. I know I am probably being a little childish but I thought it was fun. Of course it can get pretty tedious but if this is where the lord wants me then I will push on.
I found a new perk to this mission though. Every time there is a meeting that has food with it then when we go to take down all the equipment we get any extras that there are. The other elders have told me that at conference time they get a feast almost every day! YUUUMMMMYYY. Beleive me, to a guy food is a very important thing; it make a job so much easier.
Nights are going to get really empty after December. Savior of the World will be done and my performances will be done. It has really been crazy trying to get all of my songs ready. I auditioned for a Nauvoo performing mission, I have a christmas recital for voice coming up, a singing group I am in is performing this month, and I am singing in my wards relief society. Ahhh! I know there are a lot of amazing people out there that would say that would be easy but to me that's crazy!
On a more serious note I got the final okay to go to the temple. It took a while but it is finally happening. I actually think that having to wait to go to the temple was a good thing. It is not in the middle of everything and it has given me time to think about it and realize how important the temple is. I dont know exactly when I will go but it will be soon.
Thank you all for your friendship and support. I know that part of the reason I was able to hold up so well going through this whole mission process was because of you guys. All of your comments of encouragement meant a lot to me. Sometimes I was worried that people would think worse of me and rumors would go around because of the nature of all of this. Anyway, thank you all.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
First Update
OH boy. I feel like I have a lot of learning to do. There is so much to know and get used to. I think one of my biggest problems is knowing what I need to do. I have a couple specific duties but those only take up part of the day. I have been told that I can do and learn almost whatever I want but it will be hard for me to see things that I can do and have enough initiative to ask someone to help me. I have been a little disappointed with the amount of time we have to do nothing. I was expecting to come and work, work, work until five of six but alas it is not so. All of the other elders are out of here usually by two o'clock and I feel like I am cheating the lord and myself if I quit that early. Oh well, I guess I will have to make myself go out and find things to.
Speaking of the other elders, I will give a description of them all.
First is Elder Andrus. He is our "District Leader" and he really does well at it. The leadership qualities in him are phenomonal. I have a lot I can learn from him. When he is done with his mission he wants to pursue becoming a professional pitcher. He has been in madrigals twice at Granger High and is decent at the piano. I was really taken aback when he told me that because he doesnt strike me as the type to like doing that kind of stuff.
Second is Elder Gonzalas. The passion in his life is Football (soccer) and Ferraris. It's crazy how into it he gets but it is really fun to see him talk about them. His mom is from Peru and his dad is from mexico but he speaks perfect english; only his looks tell you his heritage is different. Elder Gonzalas is really good at making people feel accepted. He jsut loves to have fun.
Next is Elder Felice. He has been there the longest, about seventeen months. I have to say he is kinda interesting. He has this thing with telling "stories". We all cant wait to here his next excuse for being late and stories of his life. He has such an incredible imagination! He cant really read past the fourth grade and his mental capacities are not the greatest but he is actually really bright. One of his passions is Astrology I guess. Its really cool.
Then there is Elder Harwell. This guy is off the wall! He can never stop moving. It is really fun to hang out with him but can be a little tiresome trying to get him to stay focused. Skating is about all I know of his interests right now. He is the one who first showed me the ropes and I was grateful for his accepting and friendly attitude.
Last is Elder Smith. Probably the gentlest of them all. He is really kind and caring. He is pretty accomplished at the piano also. I was kind of suprised to hear that because he is one of those that is a little slower. I am really impressed with him though.
I am excited to get to know them better.
During the nights I am still trying to figure out what to do so I am not just sitting around. Until the end of December I am in the crew for "Savior of the World" so I am busy with that about half the week at night. It is a really neat experience. You can really feel the Spirit when you watch the production but especially when you participate in it. It is too late now but I strongly recommend going to see it next year or anytime in your life. So I still have stuff to say but this is going on forever so I will have to post something new soon. Feel free to keep in touch. Until next time...
Speaking of the other elders, I will give a description of them all.
First is Elder Andrus. He is our "District Leader" and he really does well at it. The leadership qualities in him are phenomonal. I have a lot I can learn from him. When he is done with his mission he wants to pursue becoming a professional pitcher. He has been in madrigals twice at Granger High and is decent at the piano. I was really taken aback when he told me that because he doesnt strike me as the type to like doing that kind of stuff.
Second is Elder Gonzalas. The passion in his life is Football (soccer) and Ferraris. It's crazy how into it he gets but it is really fun to see him talk about them. His mom is from Peru and his dad is from mexico but he speaks perfect english; only his looks tell you his heritage is different. Elder Gonzalas is really good at making people feel accepted. He jsut loves to have fun.
Next is Elder Felice. He has been there the longest, about seventeen months. I have to say he is kinda interesting. He has this thing with telling "stories". We all cant wait to here his next excuse for being late and stories of his life. He has such an incredible imagination! He cant really read past the fourth grade and his mental capacities are not the greatest but he is actually really bright. One of his passions is Astrology I guess. Its really cool.
Then there is Elder Harwell. This guy is off the wall! He can never stop moving. It is really fun to hang out with him but can be a little tiresome trying to get him to stay focused. Skating is about all I know of his interests right now. He is the one who first showed me the ropes and I was grateful for his accepting and friendly attitude.
Last is Elder Smith. Probably the gentlest of them all. He is really kind and caring. He is pretty accomplished at the piano also. I was kind of suprised to hear that because he is one of those that is a little slower. I am really impressed with him though.
I am excited to get to know them better.
During the nights I am still trying to figure out what to do so I am not just sitting around. Until the end of December I am in the crew for "Savior of the World" so I am busy with that about half the week at night. It is a really neat experience. You can really feel the Spirit when you watch the production but especially when you participate in it. It is too late now but I strongly recommend going to see it next year or anytime in your life. So I still have stuff to say but this is going on forever so I will have to post something new soon. Feel free to keep in touch. Until next time...
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Elder Walker
Isn't it exciting everyone! Our friend known as Tyler Walker is now addressed to as Elder Walker as he is currently serving a mission for the Lord. I am so excited for him and I know that you all are also. It makes me happy to see my friends wanting to serve a mission for the Lord. I'm happy for Elder Walker and can't wait to hear updates.
Signed,
His Official Blog Maker
hee hee :)
a.k.a. Jonessa
Signed,
His Official Blog Maker
hee hee :)
a.k.a. Jonessa
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