Human Rights Day, 2010

It’s Monday morning and we are at home. The mission and church offices are closed today for Martin Luther King Jr. Day except for the Family History Library which is open Monday –Saturday every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Last week we had a CMS Devotional on Wednesday and a temple devotional with the mission presidency as speakers on Wednesday evening.
At Go Forth Day on Friday our students received their assignments. John’s student, a fine genealogist directly from England who reads five languages was assigned to the Family Reconstitution Zone formerly known as the Medieval Zone where they do research on pre-1500 families as well as Polynesian families that are identified through chants, etc. My student was assigned to the Church History Library where she will be an asset with her friendly, outgoing personality. After the temple session we returned to the JSMB where John worked with a former student for 2 ½ hours. The man came reluctantly to the mission but he requested the additional training from John because he is enjoying genealogy more. I spent the time working on a list of those who have sung in the Elijah Choirs over the last 6 months for the mission memories book which is published twice a year along with other choir things.
Saturday I deep cleaned the kitchen and John continues to put our large collection of talk tapes on his Ipod. It is wonderful to be able to preserve and listen to these tapes. Getting ready for Sunday takes time and now with our block at 1-4 PM there is some time Sunday morning. Both John and I gave lessons. He used a couple of video clips about the Creation from the new “Old Testatment Visual Resource DVDS” available at the Distribution Center. It is an excellent resource. There was also choir, home teaching, and a baptism in the evening.
This week we are doing call backs at the Training Zone then Friday is our Temple and Research Day. We would like to go to an endowment session at the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Our life is very much the same every week, just with different people and different problems, but it is pleasant in the mission because the people are trying very hard to do the right thing. We enjoy working with the Spanish Branch because we live in the reality of people who either don’t know what they are supposed to do, people don’t know how to do what they are asked to do, or people who lack commitment and desire. Church is always an adventure.
Lillis called on Sunday to bring our attention to the Church News article about the new Mandarin Chinese branch in the Irvine and Newport Beach California Stakes. Frank Byers’ nephew, Greg Byers, who served in the Taiwan Tiachung Mission about the same time Katrina served in the Taiwan Taipei Mission, is the new branch president. What wonderful news.
Hopefully the inversion/smog will soon lift. It is especially dense in downtown Salt Lake City and difficult to be outside for more than a few minutes. We’re looking for some good storms this week to clean out the air. Our thoughts have been on the tragic earthquake in Haiti this past week. Life is fragile—treat it with prayer.