Christmas Time

The Christmas season is very special in the mission field.   It's particularly true if you have a beautiful Temple decorated for Christmas with a nativity and wonderful music.   As you can imagine the Temple and  Visitor Center have huge numbers of people coming and enjoying the spirit.   I suggested to the Director that we move one of the Sr. couples from the Brigham Young home to the Visitor Center to give additional help in the 5PM to 9PM rush.   He liked the idea and asked if we could start that day.   Dawna and I were scheduled at Brigham's and I knew the only way it would work was if we switched our own schedule.  We did and once again I was shown that the Lord really is in charge and is making things happen to accomplish his purposes.  By making this change we could have 1 couple outside mingling rather than staying inside the building. 

I was mingling with dozens of folks at the Nativity and introduced myself to a man and his daughter.   I told them that as special as the Nativity is that within the Visitors' Center were other very special things to see at Christmas:  The Christus Statue,  50 nativities from around the world,  a "He is The Gift" display and 7 beautifully decorated 12 ft. trees with themes.   They accepted the invitation to come in and the magic began.    It turned out that he was the CEO of an Aerospace company doing work for a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer.   One of his important clients is Sky West headquartered in St. George.   He and his daughter indicated they were Christian and active in their church but knew they needed to see our beautiful temple.   My background working in Aersopace for IBM for the past 25 years matched perfectly.   We knew many of the same people.   He loved Elder Uchtdorf's  testimony and was dumbfounded to learn that a man would leave Lufthansa as their Chief Pilot to serve his Church.  An hour down the road they had listened to the Christus, visited the beautiful paintings in the Savior of the World room, seen the Christmas decorations, listened carefully as I taught about the Godhead and our final stop was the Book of Mormon display.   As I explained what the Book of Mormon is they both readily accepted a book and I knew for certain the schedule change we had made that morning was so I could meet and teach them that night. 

In most cases because of the huge numbers at Christmas we don't get this type of teaching opportunity  especially since we start outdoors at the Nativity.   We had over 400 people that night and only specifically identified 4 as non-members;  2 being the couple I met.    Needless to say I almost didn't need a car to get home last night because I was flying so high.   We are so grateful and happy to be serving the Lord on this Mission.   For our Sr. friends  if you can't think of a thing to give a spouse because you have all you need,  give the gift of a mission application. 

Love  ---- Elder Borchert 

I've Been Bad

Dear Family and Friends,

I own it, I've been very bad on keeping up on our blog and now two weeks have passed and things are happening so fast that every minute I procrastinate puts me farther behind.  So here goes.

The Monday before Thanksgiving started our decorating marathon.  We started at 7:00 am at the Visitor Center.  We have 9 Christmas trees, a nativity display with over 60-70 nativities from around the world.  We have beautiful art work by Julie Rogers of Mary and the Christ Child and a beautiful enormous painting of the Shepard's looking up at the Star.  It is truly magnificent.  All the Senior Missionaries worked for over 2 hours but we finished and it looks beautiful.

Tuesday morning we met at 7:00 am at the Tabernacle and hung garlands all around the balcony, hung wreathes, put up two 12' trees plus a few other touches to prepare the building for all the events that will be held during the season.  On November 29th we started with the Temple Lighting Ceremony and will have events every night, except Mondays, through the first of the year.

Wednesday morning we met at 7:00 am at Brigham Young's to dazzle the visitors with garlands and bows.  Lots of wreathes and candles in windows and Poinsettias on the piano.  And last but not least was Jacob Hamblin's home.  I decided that I would decorate it between tours.  It took me about 3 days, but another couple, the Ercanbracks put up the two trees and decorated them.  However, Sister Ercanbrack caught her toe on a loose thread on a rug and fell.  She received several nasty bruises and the jolt was so hard, her diamond came out of her ring.  I felt so bad, she was so nice to help us with the house.  There is lots of burlap and muslin garlands, red bandanna bows and sleigh bells.  

All in All the sites are very festive and the visitors keep coming.  Bruce is in charge of the statics for all the sites and we are on track for over 300,000 visitors this year.  Over 2,500 came to the lighting ceremony and we have between 300-700 come to the events at the Tabernacle each night. Busy, busy, busy.  Now, all the stockings are hung and we begin to "Share The Gift" with all those who come.  

Our Thanksgiving was filled with good friends, wonderful family, and fantastic food.  We started the day by gathering all the Sister Missionaries, plus other Sr. Missionaries who are serving in the Temple, or Family History Center, along with a few homeless men and women who come to the Visitor Center and served them dinner.  We fed over 70 people turkey, ham, dressing etc. etc. etc.  We ended with pie and a talent show.  So glad Bruce and I don't have any talents.  Elder Watkins showed us his mad yo-yo skills and dry jokes.  Sister Nicholas and Sister West made us smile with a version of Part of That World, from Little Mermaid with the words changed to what they are looking forward too when they go back to" That World",after their mission. ( So Cute). Those who  speak French, entertained us with "I Am a Child of God" in French.  They did a wonderful job.  Then Sisters' Hansen and Martin played a Viola, Bassoon duet. We ended with Sister Kaona doing the Hula. (Why won't my hips move like that?)

Part Two--We met all my family at a church for Thanksgiving Dinner. (Here We go Again)  There were 50 of us with only Krisit, Dave, Jake, Tiffany and Kade missing.  My mother was in heaven and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at the church, eating, playing Chicken Feet (dominoes) and a wicked game of soccer in the gym.  Not sure that was kosher but they were having such a wonderful time, I decided I would ask for forgiveness if the soccer ball went a-wry and broke something like a nose or arm or leg.  We have some competitive family members but no worries, all is good.  

We were able to spend Friday with family as well, since it was our P-day.  Hung out at the pool, took my mom on a tour of all the sites, played Pickle Ball, Volleyball, then ended the day with left overs in our club house.  The kids were in the theater room watching a movie while the adults enjoyed the relative quite of the great room.  We love our family.

This week has been filled with our shifts at the sites, along with attending the events at the Tabernacle.  Since we sponsor three of the 6 nights, we are asked to attend as many as possible.  They are all very good, but, night after night is exhausting.  That's why my Diet Coke habit comes in handy.  Right now I could use and IV in my arm with Diet Coke running 24-7.  But again, not complaining.  Keeping busy is a blessing that I love.  We are so busy that I loose track of what day it is.  It really doesn't matter because each day is filled with work that we enjoy.

I've rattled on long enough, but hope I haven't left anything out.  If I have you won't know, so doesn't matter. We send our love to all and pray your Holiday Season is filled with Peace, Love and Joy.

 Bruce and Dawna

Elder and Sister

PS  Happy Birthday to our beautiful, kind, funny grand daughter, Rubie.  We got to celebrate while she was here.