Missionary Moments Mis-Mash

In between all of the social activities we were involved in last week, we also were still involved in the daily work of our mission.

Last Sunday, Jena attended Church with us as her ward had Stake Conference and we weren't sure how to make that work.  The Christmas tree was just in the beginning stages of being put up in the JSMB.  Since we all work navy and black, we decided to get a picture taken (with a stranger's help)

Masks- included!

Gary thought this was a humorous sign in the entry of our apartment complex-- "Happy Fall!"--Think about it!

We had some debris tracked through the second floor of the Church History Library and a quick thinking archivist thought to use archive folders to cover the spots until the carpet could be cleaned.....you never know what you might see at the Church History Library.

More cookies when we came home one night!

And this is a picture of Elder Daniel Rona giving a devotional message about Joseph Smith...from Jerusalem!!!  How cool is that!  It was about 5:30 pm for him.  He was born in Germany with Jewish parents, they emigrated to Israel after World War 2, and then he and his dad emigrated to the US when Elder Rona was six or so.  At some point his dad accepted the gospel and they moved to Salt Lake.  He said that one of the things that drew his dad to the Church was the concept of prophets.  He said that his father knew that the true Church had to have prophets like Moses and Abraham.  Elder Rona lives in Salt Lake but still runs a tourist company in Israel.  We hope someday to go on one of his tours ourselves.

And then we met Elder Larry Faria and his wife on Zoom on Friday.  They had served in the Church History Library Zone years ago as full-time missionaries and Elder Faria has continued in an assignment as a service missionary from their home in Monet, MO.  This is close by Springfield, MO where we lived when we were first married and it was fun to talk about that part of the country with people who know.  They moved there in 1980 so 18 months after we moved to Utah.  Again, we are struck by the amazing men and women who serve with us in the Church History Library.  They are all remarkable and the Farias are no exception.  He has a very aggressive form of cancer which he has been fighting for a couple of years, but he continues to use his talents to serve the Lord.  Somehow their records got them placed in the wrong zone and he was "lost" for a bit, but now he is part of our zone and we can benefit from their strong spirits.

Friday, I also finally had a minute or two to hang my new maps--to represent Archives and Area Support--a world map and a US/Canada one for our team.

I love looking at maps!

Missionary Moments are magnificent!