Singing Missionaries, Senior Bonfire, Book Signing, Childhood Chapel - Full Week
Something that I love about being around these young missionaries is that any time we sing a hymn they sing strongly with joy. It gives me goosebumps every time and I love to pause and cherish the moments. They all love their Savior and want to praise him with song. I got our zone's permission this week to record their singing for your enjoyment. Can you feel the spirit as they sing?
This week went by so fast because we were very busy. Besides our usual activities and member visits we also fit in this week a senior missionary bonfire at Corona Del Mar Beach in Newport. We love these get togethers with the other senior missionaries, it is a good bonding time. This time the beach was super crowded fortunately for us, Elder and Sister Weidmann got to the beach early in the day and saved a fire pit and spot for all of us. We enjoyed a potluck dinner and a beautiful sunset.
One of our visits this week was with a member that because of health issues has needed to isolate himself away from crowds and so hasn't been able to attend church since he moved into our ward a year ago. He does watch sacrament meeting on Zoom but misses the classroom discussions. We have visited him in the past but this time we asked him to pick out a talk he enjoys and we will read it before our visit so we can discuss it together. He choose Elder Bednar's talk that he gave at the MTC- Quit Worrying About It- . This talk focuses on the Holy Ghost. So many people wonder if thought is their own or if it comes from the spirit. Elder Bednar say "Quit worrying about it. Quit fussing with it. Quit analyzing it. You be a good boy, you be a good girl, you honor your covenants, you keep the commandments; and I promise you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that as you press forward with faith in Christ, your footsteps will be guided." We spent a wonderful afternoon discussing this talk and sharing our our experiences with the spirit.
For our P-day this week we attended a book signing in at Deseret Book in Costa Mesa. Interesting enough the book was called You Are Receiving Revelation, Now Act on It. We seems to be going with a theme on following the spirit this week. The Author of the book is my nephew, Kevin Johnson's wife's uncle- Loren G. Dalton. Bro. Dalton had served as a mission president and had many discussions with his missionaries with them wondering if they were receiving personal revelations and so has many good insights and stories. Besides us sharing a niece, Bro. Dalton and I both grew up in Glendora, with him moving to Utah right before High School. Through we didn't remember each other, he does recall coming to our big yearly Fourth of July parties my parents threw. Also our good friends, Elder and Sister Quirk are serving a mission in Detroit, Michigan under the direction of Bro. Dalton's sister and her husband who are serving as Mission Leaders. It is a small world.
Elder Prater and I with Loren Dalton.
As I mentioned before Loren Dalton and I share a niece, so happily Kevin and Camille showed up for the book signing and we were able to visit. I probably hadn't seen them since my dad's funeral! A very nice bonus for the day.
My nephew, Kevin Johnson and I.
We also took this opportunity while we were close to Newport Beach to stop at the church building that we attended whenever we stayed over the weekend at our beach house as a child. I remembered that there was a courtyard and my brother had mentioned a mural on the wall. Interesting enough while we were doing apartment inspections during the week, I saw a painting of a church building that a young sister had painted. I asked her about it and she proceeded to show me a picture she had taken of another church building she thought was cool. The picture was of the building that I attended as a child! So I asked her where it was located and therefore was able to visit it on Saturday when we were close by at the book signing. I love that God loves us so much he gives us this little tender mercies.
Another fun meeting this week happened during a baptism that we attended in our zone. We sat behind Pres. Scott Ferrell who is in our mission presidency. Scott and I grew up on the same street in Glendora. It was so fun quickly catch up on our family and remember our past. At the same baptism we ran into a ward member who knew our son, Mike Prater who has lived in the area. Once again, it is a small world. We enjoyed making new memories this week as we thought about past memories.
Comments
Post a Comment