The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Dear Friends and Family,

I bet you were wondering if I was ever going to post again.  Not that it's a big deal, or that you are waiting with baited breath for my next epistle, but I really do need to do better.  This is a wonderful way to journal our experience and if I wait too long between posts, I forget.  Number 1, I'm old and my brain doesn't retain details, names or numbers like it used too.  And number 2, I'm blonde.

The past two weeks have been filled with exactly what my subject line says.  "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  I am sure every missionary goes through these experiences, but I was hoping to avoid the bad and the ugly.  The good I'm OK with.  (I know, I'm a coward)  It started out with the wonderful visit of Bruce's brother and his wife Sue.  They walked into the VC on Friday night, Feb 6. It was such a wonderful surprise.  We did not know they were in St. George. I took them back to see Bruce in the Annex who was in a very interesting conversation with a gentleman.  It was only Bruce, the gentleman, Ken, Sue and myself.  As we stood there listening, it became very clear that this dude was very anti-Mormon and also Atheist.  He was raised as a Mormon, but left the church when he was 19-20 years of age.  He attended Cal-Berkeley and believes himself to be the foremost authority and historian on Mormon history.  I have dealt with other guests that have been rude, confrontational and down right ornery, but this one takes the cake.  He mocked the Prophets, ridiculed the Book of Mormon and basically laughed in our faces.  But what I still can't figure out is, he told us he has visited every Visitor Center from Palmyra to LA.  Bruce asked him why and he says he is doing research for a book he's writing on "What People Believe The After-Life Will Be." By this time I'm totally confused. He doesn't believe in an After-Life, or God, but he spends his time traveling from Visitor Center to Visitor Center, asking people what they think will happen to them when they die.  Go Figure!!!!! Finally, I told him it was closing time and Security would be coming to lock the doors. Wish I had thought of this about 1 hour earlier, but I guess it goes back to the beginning of this post. #1. I'm old and #2. I'm blonde.  But if any of you are interested in corresponding with him he gave us his email address and wants us to write to him and let him know what we think will happen to us.  Let me know if your interested. 

The ugly-----Now this is rather misleading.  Its not a bad thing but it was ugly.  On Sunday, the 15th, we gave over 590 tours at the Brigham Young Home.  We were the mid-shift, in other words we over lapped the morning shift by 2 hours and the afternoon shift by 2 hours. We finished our shift at 3 and I looked at the front porch to see at least 40 people waiting.  Both Brother and Sister Kaona had groups of 20-30 and I couldn't find Bruce.  I went around the house and Bruce had another group of 40-50.  I looked at Bruce and told him we had to get organized or we were going to have Mutiny on the Brigham Young grounds.  We lined up Bruce's group at the front door and gave them all the History then told them to line up and we would take them through the house in groups of 10.  One "Old" man ( I can say that, because I'm old---remember) came up to Bruce and said his group was there first and what was he going to do about it.  Bruce explained that he had just come around the house to find this group waiting and he would do the best he could. "Old Man" was not satisfied, he got in Bruce's face and challenged him again as to what he was going to do about it.  Now you all know the Holy Ghost works in mysterious ways and I have to say, this is one of my favorites.  Bruce did not loose his cool.  He simply told the "Old Man" that he would be happy to give him a full refund.  "Old Man" was not impressed but was flustered enough to turn around and walk away.  We then lined them up, and I took 10 at a time through the house.  We got Bruce's group through, then did the same thing to the next group of 40.  After we finished up these two groups, I walked out the back door and Sister Kaona had 70-90 out under the tree in the back yard.  I told her to give the history then line them up and Bruce would stay downstairs and move them through, then send them to me upstairs..  It was UGLY!!! By The Way, Elder Kaona had another group of 20-30 in the office.  Needless to say, Bruce and I did not leave.  We did a double shift and by the time we got home, we just sat and looked at the wall.  We were so tired we couldn't take our clothes off.  We had both lost our voices and after ascending "Step Historic Steps" 20 times we hurt every where.  OK enough of the UGLY.

Now the Good, and there was soooooo much good.  You already know Ken and Sue, Bruce's brother and his wife, visited.  The first night was rough, but we got together with them again on Saturday night and had a wonderful visit with them and Sue's brother Brent and his wife Ellen. We are so blessed with wonderful extended family, and love visits from them.  Then the next weekend, Valentines Day/President's Day weekend, the Phantoms gathered for their annual V-Day, Parade of Homes, Hiking and Biking weekend.  We had dinner on Friday night, the 13th and their were 18 of us.  Richard and Dana Christensen, and Steve and Joan Burke joined us for the first time. Richard and Dana were leaving on Monday for Bulgaria.  They are serving an 18 month CES mission.  They have been working very hard with the MTC learning Bulgarian for the past 6 months, and Dana was able to give her testimony in Bulgarian.  I was impressed, since I took 3 years of Spanish in High School and can count to 20 and ask where the bathroom is.  I think they are very brave and can't wait to hear how things are going.  Steve and Joan Burke have moved to St. George so now we can visit with them all the time.  This was the first time we had seen Richard and Dana in over 30 years.  It was such a wonderful weekend.  I know laughter is the best medicine and all my aliments are cured for a few months. Then last but not least both my sisters and my mother were here for the weekend.  Julie and her husband, stayed with their son Brett and attended about 6 soccer games, a couple of cheer leading competitions and a few other events.  Linda, my mom and my niece went and  scoured all the garage sales,then went to the Parade of Homes.  (The Parade of Homes brings in 30,000 visitors each year) 

Both of us had wonderful teaching moments with visitors from all over the country.  Bruce had a couple from England who could not get enough.  They just wanted more and more and more. They kept asking him," why haven't we heard of this doctrine before". " It just makes sense".   These moments make all the BAD experiences disappear.

Last but not least, we had our Hi-Bye Party for the Leishmans who are leaving and the Burts, the Fullers and the Cleverlys who have just arrived.  We had a wonderful night getting to know them and you can see by the pictures that we had a carnival.  Foot-long hot dogs, coleslaw, chocolate fountain, caramel popcorn, lemonade etc.  What a wonderful group of people we love 'em all.

Well its time to close.  We survived "The Good", "The Bad" and "The Ugly".  We are sure we will have all of the above again, but hope we have learned something to turn it all GOOD!  We send love to all.  Please be safe.

Love, Bruce and Dawna

(Elder and Sister)

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, talented, pregnant daughter, Jodi.  We hope your day was filled with all your favorite things. 

It's that time again???

Dear Family and Friends,  

How can it be time for me to write again?  It seems like I just did this yesterday.  But a lot has happened since last week, so I better get it down in writing before I forget.  I have probably forgot more than I remember as it is.

Today was transfers.  This is always a happy, sad day.  Those who are going home are excited, scared and sad.  They have loved their missions and truly want to stay and continue sharing the gospel with others.  But it is time for them to start a new chapter in their journals.  We lost some stellar Sister's today and I keep wondering how we will replace them.  They were fearless, dedicated and totally committed to inviting others to come unto to Christ.  But then tomorrow a new bunch will arrive and my mouth will drop in amazement at their mad skills.  You have to love it!!!  So we said a teary goodbye to Sister Shoemaker, Schaffer, Phagwah and Liu.

The other hard thing is the transfers.  Even though some of the Sisters aren't going home, they are moved out-bound.  Again, a couple of our best are leaving the Visitor Center.  I am really going to miss Sister Nicholls.  She and I would work on her memorization of 1 Corinthians 13. She is memorizing the entire chapter and when things were a little slow in the center she would have me help her.  We also had scripture chases.  I would give the Sister's a word, like "endure" and the first Sister to find a scripture with the word in it, without using the topical guide, would get a point.  This would get pretty heated.  The Sisters are very competitive but have a great knowledge of the scriptures which also helps me.  

We attended the lecture by Susan Easton Black Durrant. (she tells us if she gets any more last names, they won't be able to fit on her headstone)  She spoke on Lorenzo Snow.  It was fascinating as usual, but unfortunately she burst a few bubbles or Mormon myths about the "Windows of Heaven" or tithing talk.  We were taught in Seminary and Sunday School, that Lorenzo Snow received the revelation on tithing while giving his talk in the Tabernacle in St. George.  The true part of the story is, The Church was in deep debt.  The Lord did impress upon him to go to St. George and there was a drought in Southern Utah.  But, for a passing remark about tithing during his sermon, he did not stop mid-talk and look heavenward and receive the revelation then open his bible and read Malachi 3:8-10 .  That night after the meeting, he met with the General and Local Authorities and told them the Lord had reveled to him the importance of tithing and it was time for the Saints to pay a full tithing.  At this time, only slightly over 17% of the members were paying tithing.  On his way home he did not stop at every settlement to give the same message.  He stopped at 16 communities and and told them, not only were they to rededicate themselves to the paying of a full tithe, but that it would now be a requirement to receive a Temple Recommend.  Also, his journey and sermon did not end the drought.  The drought cycle continued until 1902.  Southern Utah did receive some rain after President Snow left, about 2 months later, which was enough for them to harvest a few crops but not the bumper crops we were told.  So there were a few in the audience who were surprised.  Our generation was raised on "The Windows Of Heaven Movie"  which was filmed by the Church in 1963.  I remember seeing this several times at seminary and other church meetings.  I guess the writers and directors took literary license with the story.  Just goes to show that we should not use embellishments to share a story.  Its gets passed down as truth generation after generation. After the lecture, Sister Durrant gave the Sr. Missionaries the paper showing the research on this subject and it is fascinating. 

We are starting to get busy again at the sites.  It slowed down a little after Christmas, but is getting busy again.  On Sunday, we went to Church at 9:00, opened Brigham Young's at 10:00, gave tours to 75 guests, met with our cute family and taught Mosiah chapter 4, then did a second shift at the Visitor Center til 8:00 pm.  Needless to say we were pooped!  12-13 hour days are hard on old bodies, but we seem to be able to keep up.  (knock on wood)  We are starting to implement a new program at the Visitor Center, titled, "A Day at the Center."  We will be reaching out to the Stakes and Wards to invite them to bring any group to the VC for lectures, tours, "Meet The Mormon's, etc."  They will be able to request, lectures or presentations from the VC Director, Temple President, Mission President, Durrant's or the Sister or Sr. Missionaries.  We hope this will encourage the Wards to bring their less active, non member friends or just their ward members to the VC to see what a wonderful resource it is.  We will keep you posted as to our success.  We have 3 reservations from Wards since we introduced it last Thursday, so we will see.  

P-Day today!!!  We decided to head out to the "Glitter Pit".  This is where the early settlers went to get Gypsum to grind up and put in the plaster used on the Temple.  As its name states, it glitters.  This was what gave this Temple its brilliant glow. Its out in the middle of no-where.  We got lost and ended up on the wrong road.  However, it took us to Fort Pearce, an outpost Erastus Snow had built in 1866, to protect the cowboys who were grazing cattle. Again in the middle of no-where, but fascinating.  He instructed it to be built with one gun-port on each wall and one door.  He was certain it could be protected with two well armed cowboys.  There is a stream available for water, but so remote.  I cannot fathom how these early pioneers did this. We owe them so much, not sure we will ever be able to match up.  We ran into some other travelers out in the boonies who told us there were dinosaur tracks just a few miles down the road, so off we went.  Sure enough we found the tracks.  Actually the surroundings do look like dinosaurs would roam there.  Finally, we turned around and retraced our path to find the correct road for the "PIT".  Yup, its a pit, not a very big one, but it does glitter.  Sadly it is not being protected and 4-wheelers have climbed the sides and are destroying the site.  But to imagine the pioneers traveling 20-30 miles south of St. George in a wagon and gathering these rocks to grind up to beautify the Temple is amazing.  Now we would just go on the Internet and have it delivered the next day.

I've rambled enough, so I'll just send love to all of you.  We think of you often and miss being with you, but we are loving our mission.  Hugs and Kisses, since it will be Valentines Day next Friday.  Eat chocolate and guys give a great piece of jewelry to your best gal.

Love to All and Stay Safe,

Bruce and Dawna

Elder and Sister

PS---Happy Birthday on the 6th to our great son-in-law Dave.  Make sure and do something fun and eat cake.  Also, congratulations to our daughter Jodi and her husband Eldon for the upcoming birth of their new little daughter.  YEA---we will have grand daughter number 4 for a total of 11 fantastic, wonderful, intelligent and cute grandchildren.