Busy Sunday

What a busy Sunday I've had. Started out with my first Welfare Meeting in the Pioneer 25th Ward. As we discussed families of concern, I am amazed at the love this bishopric, its leaders and the service missionaries have for them. I'm glad I can make a contribution. My companion ROCKS! She is so funny and quite the mover and shaker! I wish we had some assignments in common. I'm sure that time will come when the appropriate family is in need of us.

Sister Van Tielen and I gave talks in church. Funny how we each interpret the same assignment so differently. She gave a talk and sang about keeping the Sabbath day holy. I introduced myself and shared my experience of becoming a service missionary in the SL Inner City Project. Bishop Angilau's son, Willey, gave his missionary farewell talk. I think he'll be a fine missionary. He cried when his dad gave some closing remarks. I think he'll miss his family a lot, but that's all part of the missionary experience.

I came prepared to teach a lesson in the YA Sunday School class, but it was decided that for the next few weeks, we will be joining the Temple Preparation class instead. Brother Machon did a great job in getting people to participate. I look forward to great lessons which will serve as reminders of the great blessings available in the temples.

Ward Enrichment Night

I walked into Enrichment tonight thinking that they had not finished setting up the seats, so I offered to help. The Enrichment Counselor, Sister Betsy Young, told me that setting up a dozen chairs is a sign of optimism. Wow! When I was an Enrichment Counselor, we usually planned enough refreshment for about 50 each month. I remember a particular meeting when we exceeded our goal and got over 80 people there and my committee and I had to run out and get more food. I'm sure the low attendance can be attributed to mothers having to feed their families and get them situated for the evening before they can be at the Enrichment Meeting at 6:30. I'm sure it's even worse for the single moms or if husbands are not home by that time, who's going to watch the kids? Singles take so much for granted ...

Anya Pasi and I went out for some dim sum at the Hong Kong Tea House after Enrichment. What a fun place! Must remember to dim sum there again ...

Young Adult Sunday School Class

Well, I taught my very first Sunday School class yesterday. We had five people come ... that's better than none. I don't think I gave a very good lesson. I was sweating bullets -- don't know if it was because I was so nervous or if the AC wasn't working ... I think a bit of both. The participation was minimal. I need to get these kids to talk. I'll have to ask more questions, I guess ...

The young adults are pretty cool. One of them, Ricky, just graduated from high school. He's working as a telemarketer right now. He wants to go to culinary school because he likes "good eats" and maybe even more schooling to study mathematics. Big and tough looking, but really a nice guy.

Marlene is the Bishop's daughter. She is very pretty. Quiet and a beautiful smile. Very supportive of her dad and has a great love for her family.

Willy, the Bishop's son, will leave for the MTC in a couple of weeks. Already took his endowments out and looking forward to Seattle. I asked if he's got a good raincoat yet ... just said, "yup". He was the last one in the class and first one out of my class room.

Anya was there with her only nephew, Tevita (cute 1-year-old boy). She is so sweet and always have a smile on her face. I was grateful for the comments she offered on the lesson.

Dinah is new to the ward and is the oldest in the class. She is Filipino, served her mission on Temple Square about four years ago, working at some Australian health supplement place at some really weird hours (4:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.) and is living with an elderly woman in the ward, Sister Smith.

I hope as we get to know each other better, the young adults in the class will feel more at ease and will participate more. I'll have to better prepare next week's lesson and be sure to incorporate more opportunities for them to participate in.

SL Pioneer Stake Conference

We had Stake Conference this past weekend. There were a couple of talks that really impressed me. The first one was a testimony by a Latino brother at the Adult Session on Saturday. He spoke in broken English, but the Spirit was strong and I understood him perfectly and WOW! He spoke of how his father taught him as a young man to accept callings (no matter how big of challenge you think it might be), of the need to implement the principles you've learned and to share that knowledge with others. Watching and listening to this brother's talk and how nerveous he was reminded me a lot of my very first talk in English. I was about ten-years-old and I read Psalm 23 in a sacrament meeting. Mom and dad helped me write the whole chapter phonetically in Indonesian. I was so nerveous, but I remember people coming up to me afterwards and told me what a great job I did. Of course, I had to do the same with this brother, I think he appreciated the support and encouragement.

The Sunday Session of conference was a good one too. The talk that hit home with me was one on reverence for our church buildings. The speaker quoted Leviticus 19:30:

Ye shall keep my sabbaths,

and reverence my sanctuary:

I am the LORD.

I like that ... we've been taught to revere our temples, but I think that was the first time I've ever heard how we need to treat our church building with reverence. I had to pass the scripture along to Kent Hepworth who is in charge of getting my home ward chapel cleaned up.