February 23, 2015 - Monday

News from Nauvoo!  

Elder and Sister Lasher have completed their orientation!  The training we had today was given by the mission president, President Larry Gibbons.  Let me tell you a little about this man and his wife.  They are both well versed in the Gospel.  He has served in the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy and has been throughout the world on Church assignments.  He is one of the kindest men I have ever met and his wife is equally kind and so supportive of her husband.  We spent nearly 3 hours in training and we had a marvelous time in learning about our mission focus and the interactions that are expected with missionaries and guests.

Now, we are so looking forward to beginning our site training..... tomorrow!  Both mom and I have our site clothing and I will post some pictures very soon.  Mom works tomorrow in the Brigham Young home and I work in the brick yard.  In both venues, there is a great message in following a Prophet and in building strong foundations.  

I appreciated the message that President Gibbons first gave us last Thursday;  In our preparation over the years to serve this mission, he noted that we had to be first "willing" to serve, second "worthy" to serve, and finally the third point was being "wise" in our service.  Doesn't this apply to all of our callings and purposes in being members of the true Church and embracing the restored Gospel?  I think it does!

Also, Sister Lasher and I gave our version of talent today in our meeting with the directors of the two main shows, Rendezvous, and Sunset.  Here is the song we sang:

Our Father has a family. It’s me!

It’s you, all others too: we are His children.

He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,

To live and learn here in fam’lies.

A father’s place is to preside, provide,

To love and teach the gospel to his children.

A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share

Their love for Father in Heaven.

A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,

To nurture and to strengthen all her children.

She teaches children to obey, to pray,

To love and serve in the fam’ly.

I’ll love and serve my family and be

A good example to each fam’ly member.

And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,

I’ll help my fam’ly remember:

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—

This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

Does anyone recognize that song?  We love this song and had a marvelous time in Primary last year learning that song with our CTR Class that included Bobby, Cody and Jack!  Since it was a song that did not have the music in the Hymn Book, we had to sing Capella!   That was a real treat for those of you who know our limitations in singing!!  

Well, fortunately no one gets fired here, so we will see where they put us.  We are supposed to be on-stage by around the middle of March.  Crazy......

Just a side note, this experience in Nauvoo has so far been everything we have heard it could be.  The missionaries do whatever it takes to see that we fulfill the purpose of the mission.  That purpose is to teach doctrine, invite those visiting the mission to come to Jesus Christ, and to follow-up with commitments that were made here to share the Gospel.  We have so much to learn and we have a great distance to travel "outside" of our comfort zone, but we can do this and we are grateful for the sweet opportunity.

My favorite saying; "The important thing is this; to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice who we are for who we can become".  That pretty much sums up the need to break out of comfort zone barriers and be the best we can be.

Combined kitchen, dining and computer space!