Beneath the Wraps

             Shortly after we had moved to Oregon I remember a Book of Mormon class having been offered on a Tuesday night of each week.  The missionaries would teach the class which seemed well attended. I became familiar with the class when I would go to the Relief Society activity meeting which was held once a month – also on a Tuesday. There were some sisters who chose to attend the Book of Mormon class rather than support the sisterhood of the Relief Society.  I remember being annoyed that they were on the same night usually at the same time.              It must have been in 2019 when the Book of Mormon class was changed to the Come Follow Me class.   In addition to Sunday school there were members of the ward who would meet once a week with the missionaries – but the time was changed to 4:00 on Wednesdays.   During nice weather we would meet outside.   It was a nic...

             As a former sister missionary I remember introducing non members to strong members to be fellowshipped. Finding strong priesthood members who would remain in the ward long after the missionaries had gone.   Wouldn’t it be more meaningful to be baptized by a fellow member and still have that connection down the road.   I remember one of my brothers making it a goal NOT to physically baptize those he taught but to pass the reign onto another.   Not that it’s a choice for just anybody to baptize.   One must have authority and has to be interviewed the same at the individual to be baptized.           Missionary baptisms are handled by the missionaries while primary baptisms arrangements are made by primary leaders and/or parents depending on the size of the ward or stake and the amount of children being baptized.   I remember making the arrangements for Jaime’s baptism bef...

             We always have opportunities to serve no matter where we live – there is community service, charity organizations, shelters, Red Cross . . . the list goes on.   When I lived in Salt Lake I would put in hours of service in various church projects such as the pasta plant, the dairy, the bishops storehouse, the cannery and Deseret Industries (2 nd hand thrift store) to name a few.   I lived within minutes of those buildings.   In Oregon we are located one and a half hours south of the nearest storehouse and one and a half hours north of the pear farm which I have mentioned in a few of my posts.           When I was attending church in my son’s ward in Utah there was an announcement made for volunteers to clean the Jordan River Temple which I have learned is the busiest temple in the world.   I felt impressed to volunteer if I could and offered my services.   I had assist...

            Jaime and I were up before 5:00.  We played Phrasel on the kindle as we waited for Richard to emerge from the bedroom – possibly 45 minutes later.  We opened two presents each before getting dressed.  A calendar from my grandchildren I had spent Thanksgiving with!  What a beautiful calendar it is!           We had invited the missionaries over to have breakfast with us and played some games with them before they had to leave.  We then opened the rest of our gifts and played more games.  Brand new games – two of which we had played with the Elders.           David invited us to have dinner with his family.   We played more games before returning home.   I am very tired and need to go to bed.   Perhaps I ’ ll include more detail and pictures in another post.

          It has been several months since the missionaries had been teaching the Gospel Essential Class.  I thought it would be cool if they had started that up again rather than have the new member interest attending the Gospel Doctrine class.  But that was just my opinion.  I obviously do not have the authority to change that.  I did however remind Richard that it had been a thing.  He is Sunday School president and brought it up in the leader ’ s meeting that takes place before church.         Last week Richard taught the gospel essentials and had invited those members who have recently been baptized and those who are seeking, the missionaries, and a few supporters – including candidates for teaching the class. It is a class that I had attended during my time as a counselor in the Relief Society.   Even though I continue to serve in the RS presidency, I am in a different position (secretary)...

               Before going to Church on Sunday, the Elders had asked if we could pick up a person that they are teaching.  They asked if they could teach this individual at our home.  They came over last night.           Richard had asked if they could eat with us but they had an appointment set up for dinner with another member.   However it cancelled and the elders let us know.   Richard decided to do a breakfast which somehow never turns out the way we plan as some of the food gets cold while whatever else is being made.   However there were no complaints.            Unsure about how many people would be eating – as we heard there might be two extra people and then Jai had also invited one of her friends – but it ended up with just six of us.   The three in our household and the three missionaries.   But before we sat down for our br...

             I was not the only one signed up to tour Nauvoo yesterday.   I thought we would see more of the city, but it was raining and thus we did not see much of the outside.   The tour covered only three houses. There was a set of missionaries for each house we saw. Those residing at the homes had names I was not even familiar with – nor did I have the correct spelling on the first and so had to look it up – though I still did not find many references for those residing in the first house. This first house belonged to William and Ester Gheens ( here ) The final pic shows the outside view.    They did not take us outside but did show a picture inside - just behind the yellow door (from above) standing in the kitchen of the Gheens home Behind the tree is the Nauvoo Temple. The second house we saw was that of William and Caroline Weeks ( here ).   The ceilings are quite low and everything looked so small - like we wer...

Last night I booked a tour to tour Winter Quarters this morning.  It wasn ’ t anything like what I had imagined.  Oh, but Elder Anderson shared his testimony through his passion of explaining historic moments through paintings and artifacts.  I think he was a little frustrated that I was not as live as he.  My laptop rarely gets turned on anymore, because it is always such an ordeal as though I am using AOL dialup (that is a reference to old school internet) and overall prefer my PC which does not include camera or microphone and so I have to use the chat box.  Of course my fingers don ’ t fly as quickly as my tongue. I ’ d been introduced to Zoom almost four years ago when I started taking classes online. But I have never used Google Meet until this morning and didn ’ t know where the chat was located.  As I was searching, I inadvertently chose the closed caption and it played as I took screenshots of various pics – none which I might choose to keep if ...