A New Beginning

Thursday, May 15, 2014

We had a wonderful time in SLC at the temple missionary seminar in the SL temple. Our trainers were President and Sister Walker. They have been assigned to be over the training of the senior missionary couples going on temple missions. They used to be the SL temple president and matron.

Sister Walker is one of President Hinckley's daughters. She is so effervescent and has a real fun sense of humour, just like her dad. They were such a fun couple to watch interact with each other!

There were 16 couples going to various places around the world. There was a couple going to Mexico, two going to Guatemala, one to Atlanta, two to Boston, one to Manhattan, two to Washington DC, two to London, two to Hong, Kong, one to Freiberg, one to Paraguay, and us to Panama.

Sister Willis is from Paraguay and I knew her family while I served there in 1976. In fact, one Christmas, while I was at BYU, I brought a friend from Paraguay home with me. Sister Willis is her sister. It's a small world!

A couple more stories to illustrate how small the world truly is. First, we met a Temple Square missionary who is from Taiwan. In talking with her I mentioned that we had the most wonderful elder from Taiwan who had helped to open the Mandarin work in Calgary and how much we all loved Elder Lin. She asked me if Lin was his first name and I replied that I thought so, but that I knew he owned a restaurant. She squealed and said that he was her friend from her YSA Ward. Incredible, eh?

Another experience happened yesterday just as we were leaving Temple Square. I saw a sister's flag and asked if it was Finnish or Swedish. She responded that it was Swedish. I mentioned that I had had a roommate at BYU who was Finnish, but from Sweden. I mentioned her name and the sister missionary said it was her aunt. I gave her my name and email so that perhaps we can get reacquainted.

After our training on the Monday we went to Cotton Creek Mall to do some shopping and to eat supper. While we were walking around a young man approached us to ask a question. He was from Italy and had come to Salt Lake from another part of the US and loved the spiritual feeling of the city, so decided he wanted to stay. He said he had been told that he could get help to find a job by going to the Church Office Building. He didn't know the name of the building, but just pointed towards it. We told him that that wouldn't be where he would go and helped him find the phone number and address for LDS Employment Services. He had been a lawyer in Sicily and felt there was too much corruption. He had already obtained a green card for the US, so I hope he's able to find a job and the gospel.

We offered to take a woman's picture yesterday and got to talking with her. She's from Florida and is going on a medical mission for her church to Peru. After a fairly lengthy conversation she gave us her business card and we're going to stay in touch.

We are now in the plane flying to Atlanta, Georgia where we'll be catching our flight to Panama. There is another missionary couple on the plane too. They're going to Peru as the Executive Secretary for that area.

May 25, 2014

We arrived in Panama at around 8:55 pm on May 15, 2014. It was fairly easy entering Panama. We were photographed and fingerprinted electronically, and then we went and picked up our bags. We thought we'd have to go through customs, but they just took our declaration form and waved us through.

We were met at the airport by President and Hermana Boren. The ride to the temple took around 40 minutes. The temple and it's compound is beautiful!

Our apartment is lovely! The stairway leading to the second floor is made of granite. It feels as though they used the same materials in the apartment complex as in the temple. Our apartment has a desk, a dinette suite with four chairs, a love seat and sofa, a beautiful coffee table and end table, and a queen sized sleigh bed. There are a couple of extra chairs in the bedroom too. They've provided us with a TV, DVD player, a CD player, a phone with a modem and 2 cordless phones. The kitchen has all the necessary appliances. Our apartment is at the back of the complex so our windows overlook the cemetery. It's a nice view and there's nobody around so we're able to keep our curtains open. It's a very comfortable apartment!

We went shopping for groceries our first morning so we could get a few things to tide us over until Monday. We met the Bjornasons. They are another couple who started their mission a month ago. They live across the hallway from us. There are three other couples too. One is from Argentina and the other two are Panamanian.

The President set us apart the first afternoon but told us we wouldn't start working a shift until the coming Tuesday. We studied the sacred cards on Friday and Saturday. I am now able to do anything that is required for a session. Jim has helped out in the baptistery, and been a patron for sealings, initiatory, and several sessions. He understands more than he can communicate.

My first assignment happened to be teaching a group of children, ages 3 to 11, who came with their families and were staying at the Patron apartments. President Boren asked if I would do a short presentation... between 15 to 30 minutes. I took some pictures from the internet and took one of the temple to go along with what I wanted to highlight. We sang a couple of songs from the Children's Sing. One called 'I Have a Family Here On Earth' and the other 'I Love to See the Temple'. The children were quite active until I gave them a pencil and paper to draw their eternal families. They settled down and worked vert hard. Everyone was keen to share their pictures with us. There was even one little boy that insisted I keep his picture. There were two very sweet sisters, one 7 and one 9. The seven year old worked so hard and put in a lot of detail. She even had her own pencil bag and coloured the picture and glued it to the temple pamphlet and temple schedule card I had given her. Afterwards President Boren told me the two girls had come to the temple to find their dad and he talked to them. They shared their pictures and told him what they had learned. I think, all in all, it was a success.

One day I was asked to sit in the Celestial Room and the first two people to enter were a mother and her son. It was beautiful to see the love and joy they both felt as they hugged each other! The boy was quite emotional throughout the entire time he was in the Celestial Room. He was quite overcome by the spirit. It was an honour to witness this!

I've already learned some of the ordinances in Spanish! Jim has participated in several sessions at the temple.

May 26, 2014

It seems that the usual thing to do on P Day is to go shopping for groceries first thing in the morning. Today we went to Price Smart, which is similar to Costco. We bought a few things there, and then went to Riba Smith, another grocery store to finish getting whatever else we needed. There were four couples groceries and only the back of the temple president's van. It was packed!

Later that evening we had a temple missionary FHE. My assignment was to bring dessert. I made peanut butter squares and Cora's brown sugar fudge. There are six temple missionary couples counting the president and his wife. There's a woman who seems to be living in the patron apartments. I'm not sure why. There's also a couple who are in charge of the apartments. Any patrons that show up for the temple on Tuesday are also invited.

Apparently we get together twice a month. The first Monday to have a spiritual get together and the fourth for fun.

June 1, 2014

This past week the coordinators have made more use of me, and on Friday and Saturday they began using Jim as an ordinance worker, not just a patron. He did really good! He had to read in Spanish and he did a good job! I've also learned how to do temple laundry. People who live here are supposed to bring their own clothing, but many are just coming and borrowing. They've started contacting the Stake Presidents to request they speak to the offenders. It takes the sister ordinance workers away from doing ordinances because we have more laundry.