Farewell to Elders

 

I really don't get too attached to missionaries.  I always thought it was odd when people got too personal with a particular elder and they really became attached. Yet, over the years of living in Pennsylvania, there have sure been some missionaries whom I've come to respect and have been strengthened by.

Today, we said good-bye to one of them.  I really haven't spent a ton of time with him, but we've been bringing dinners to them for months and they've come over and taught us.  I also convinced these two to do a FB live for our stake FB page (which you can view here!) and they did a phenomenal job of bearing testimony of Christ.  They really blew me away.

They also really brought me hope in the future and the future generation.  All I see is my oldest son who is setting a terrible example for me of what this generation can do.  And while it makes me a wee bit sad to think I might have to wait 10 years until I send an Elder out into this world...I can wait if my little ones can turn out anything like these missionaries I have worked with recently.

I have hope.

While we sat through sacrament today, Coy Boone, my 3-year old kept pointing to the elder passing the sacrament, because he recognized him as the one who came over and played bubbles with us in the yard the other week!  I wanted to make sure they got a photo together so I can post it somewhere so that maybe he'll remember this time when he looked up to the elders too and aspired to be like them....although right now, my two little boys swear they're never leaving home! :)

Farewell, Elder Moody!  I know you'll continue to make your family and your Heavenly Father proud. Now get out there and catch some really big fish!

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Fed by the Missionaries

 

For the better part of the last year, we've taken to signing up to provide meals for the missionaries on a weekly basis.  Frankly, it's easier for me just to sign up for the same day each week than to have it sneak up on me irregularly.

But we normally have six elders to feed, and when Thursday rolls around it's a bit of an all-afternoon affair getting dinner ready for our elders AND my own family...and then transporting the dinner/dessert to them and at the time they need it!

It always gets done, but I'm usually breaking a bit of a sweat to do it, and today, my feet were killing me due to a three-mile walk I had gone on earlier in the day.

I decided to text the missionaries and ask them to meet me in the parking lot of the complex, so I wouldn't have to carry the food up the steps to their apartment as it would have taken me multiple trips.

When I pulled into their parking lot, I saw them all standing there, their faces beaming with bright, hopeful, happy-to-see-food smiles, and it just warmed my heart so much.

As I pulled away, I just felt so much love for them and gratitude for their sacrifice.  The worries that caused me to embark on my early morning walk, were momentarily washed away by the spirit that washed over me for that brief moment.

I might feed the missionaries, but doing so feeds me.

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The Fighting Preacher

I finally watched The Fighting Preacher, and I was absolutely touched. I knew the story which is amazing in and of itself, but they really knocked it out of the park. 

It's a fun, funny, light-hearted, and deeply moving story with a message for us all. I streamed it on Amazon. Actually, I bought a digital copy.

Here's a preview: https://youtu.be/8zbNxrkDUAw

Today, the Stake Presidency Member who works on the Communication Council with me and I are meeting with the government leaders of our town.  Similar to the subject of this movie, we're looking to build new relationships on behalf of the church in our area this year!  

No punches will be thrown (even if my "companion" for this meeting is a former NFL defensive lineman!)  Wish me luck!

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Accepting President Nelson's Invitation to Share

I was excited when President Nelson asked us in his recent Youth Broadcast to not only study the For The Strength of Youth pamphlet, but also to pray to find a friend with which to share it!

I have written and re-written a list of friends to share these truths with many times.

I have told myself during many a Sacrament meeting that I need to go home and order a bunch of the pamphlets off of the distribution center website.

But these tasks were just not coming to fruition...until last Friday.

I have been volunteering at school lately, and that day a friend and I were chatting while she walked me to my car. 

I had to clear a few things out of my trunk in order to put my stroller back in, and one of those things was a copy of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet.

I will admit it was sort of an odd thing to have in my trunk, and it must've looked out of place to her as she watched me remove it from a pile of life jackets left over from summer trips to the pool.

She was someone I wanted to share it with, but I just made the decision to do it in the moment.  

I turned to her and said, "I'm going to give this to you now.  I wasn't planning on it, but here it is.  This outlines the standards of behavior that we teach to our children.  Give it a read and maybe there will be some things that you like about it and want to teach to your own children."

She and I have had talks about what to teach our kids before and her children are not quite out of elementary school, so it's a good time to start talking about this stuff.

She thanked me and opened it up to the first photo, an artist's rendition of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  

She immediately asked me, "So, is this Jack Smith?"  

I had to laugh a bit, "No," I said, "This is Jesus Christ.  We worship Jesus Christ, so it is His picture that you will most often see in pamphlets like this."

Since I was headed to Palmyra that weekend, I made sure to pick up a Joseph Smith flier with his testimony in it, so she can hopefully tell the difference next time.

I haven't followed up with her just yet, but I do hope she reads it and feels that it's useful for her life and her responsibilities as a parent!

So, that's it.  Has anyone else been brave enough to share FTSOY with a friend yet?  I'd love to hear how it went!

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The Church that Sets Up Their Own Chairs

I really like introducing my friends to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  So I'm always looking for ways to include it in conversation when appropriate.

Recently, my girls started taking Tae Kwon Do classes.  Normally, when we come to class, we find that a few rows of folding chairs have been set up for parents to sit in to observe class.

One evening, when we arrived, the class instructor seemed rushed.  He explained that his assistant hadn't shown up and was apologizing profusely for the fact that the chairs were not yet in place.  "I'm sorry," he said, "You'll have to set up your own chairs tonight. I hope you don't mind..."

For some reason, the scene I saw before me of the instructor passing out folding chairs made me think of just about every time I go to church.  

So I said with a laugh, "Master Gavoli, you don't have to apologize. We're used to setting up our own chairs...We're Mormon!"

He kind of looked at me for a moment, surprised by my comment and probably even more so by the correlation I had made, and then he said, "Thank you!  I could probably win a bet with that information some day."  Which I think is his customary way of responding politely to completely useless, unsolicited information.  Ha!

I have thought a lot after the fact of how easy it was to draw a line back to the church.  As a long-time member missionary, I felt good about that.  However, I found myself wishing since then that I had followed my comment up with something like, "You know, the church that is lead by a prophet and 12 apostles," or "You know, the church that believes families can be together forever..." etc.

I have made a goal for myself to have three or four subjects that are my go-to, follow-up items to mention about the church, so that I can start by talking about folding chairs, but open up into something they can really ponder long after our conversation ends.  Something that might actually lead to questions of their own...

If you had to make a list, which three gospel principles would make your "go-to" gospel-sharing one-liners?

Let me know in the comments!

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THE Name of the Church

The church released a statement today reiterating that we are to use the full, revealed name of the Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and not to go by other common nicknames. 

Because I recently had a bit of a testimony-builder about this, this announcement made me really happy.

So here's the quick little story: 

A little while ago I noticed that I was avoiding saying the full name of our church, because it is so long, and honestly, I wasn't comfortable saying it all. It can be a mouthful! And I didn't want to stutter or stumble on my words in front of my friends!  That's lame.

I pondered what I could do to fix my problem, and I feel the Holy Ghost prompted me to do the following.

I challenged myself (and my kids) to practice saying the full name of the church aloud until I/we got to the point where I could say it with confidence...every time.

I find this has really helped me in my missionary work. 

Now when someone asks me "What church do you go to?" I smile-take a deep breath-and say the full name of the church. 

I feel good about making this change in my personal interactions with my friends. 

My next goal is to be able to follow that up with, "You know, the church that is lead by prophets and apostles" or a quick "You know the church that believes families are forever," etc! 

Here is a link to a talk by then-Elder Nelson that I really learned a lot from which dissects each part of the official/revealed name of the church as well as the updated style-guide from the church's website:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1990/04/thus-shall-my-church-be-called?lang=eng

And here is the updated style guide:  

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/style-guide

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A Little Child Shall Lead Them

I had a proud Mama moment last week when a friend of mine told me that my 5-year old daughter has been sharing gospel truths with her during their rides in the car to preschool each day.  

Our children attend a Christian preschool together, and it's fun to hear them retell the Bible stories they learn, so I figured my friend was going to tell me a cute story along these lines.  But instead, she told me that Honor often points to a cemetery that they pass and says, "Do you know that after we die, we will get to live in bodies again?"

My friend had a lot of questions for me about this.  She asked, "What does that mean?  Will we have a dog body or something?"

I assured her that because Christ was resurrected and lives in a body, (we know this because he ate and drank to demonstrate this) we will live in our own immortal bodies after this life too.  We will also get the opportunity to live forever with our families.

My friend thought this teaching about resurrection sounded familiar and affirmed that she believed she would live with her family forever some day.  I said that in my experience many people do believe this, but most churches don't actually teach this, however, ours does.

I am grateful for the faith of little children.  And I am grateful to Honor for reminding me how easy it can be to share gospel truths with others when we simply and unabashedly share what we know in our daily conversations.

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The Most Important Work You'll Ever Do

It's been a rough week, the kind that involves absolutely no sleep because of pregnancy-related discomforts, but all's well that ends well, and this week ended well.

Let me share with you one sweet moment that occurred Saturday afternoon.

You know I love any opportunity to share the gospel with a friend, and this one popped up in quite the unexpected way.

I was walking around the home store called Kirkland's, and passed by a sign that at quick glance seemed to have a very familiar phrase on it.

Sure enough, as I passed by again I read the words, "The most important work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home."  I took a closer look to be sure and yes it was attributed to Harold B. Lee, a former President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Now, this just isn't the kind of thing I see every day while shopping, and I thought I'd really like to have that in my house, but I wasn't sure the sign itself was our style (because of the shabby-chic look.)  My husband was apt to pass it by, but I decided in the end to get it.

So he left the store and I proceeded with my son to the checkout, and wouldn't you know, my daughter's good friend's mother was working the register.

I said, "I didn't know you worked here!"  Reading the quote on the sign, she remarked, "This is the PERFECT quote for you!"  I smiled, pleased that someone in my new town knows at least that much about me!

I was tempted to leave it at "Yes, thank you, I love it!" but I took the opportunity to tell her, "And you know what?  This quote is actually from one of the leaders of our church!  I was so surprised to see it in here and just had to get it."  She was intrigued and thought it was a neat coincidence as well and asked some follow-up questions:  "Is he a leader of your church now?  Have you met him?  Or is he from the past?"

It was just a quick interaction, but a completely natural one, and I was so happy to be able to introduce her a little more to what we believe.

This is probably one of my favorite side-effects of missionary work, the certain knowledge that God is aware of each of us and able to orchestrate and conduct this work.

Have a great Sabbath day!

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A Mission Call

This weekend just keeps getting better!  In addition to Scarlett's baptism and lots of time spent with grandparents who we only see about once a year, we got a phone call last night from my nephew saying that he just got his mission call to the Marshall Islands!!  I had him call us back in the morning when the kids were awake so they could hear the news from him and add his picture to our missionary map!  Big, fun, wonderful weekend!

I am so grateful for the wonderful examples in our family that they have all around us.

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"You will serve exactly where you can do the most good...You will serve exactly where the Savior wants you to serve."

Last night for FHE, we continued to learn about missionaries in our family through a mission letter written by my father, Robert Hatch.

We heard about my Dad's experience when he first realized that he had a testimony and decided he wanted to serve a mission in a previous FHE.  

At that time, he shared the following, "...after my third semester in college, I came home to either get drafted into the military, drift off into who knows what, or go on a mission.  I had a long tall mirror in my bedroom.  I purposefully, intently, piercingly, prayerfully, gazed into that mirror.  I looked long, hard, and deep into my eyes--into my soul--and asked myself at this pivotal moment in my life, which direction was I going to choose.  Who was I going to follow?  What kind of life was I going to lead?  The decision was made.  The rest is history."

As his daughter, I can attest to the fact that my Dad's mission, has always been an important part of his life.  He has a very French identity.  I remember him lifting weights in the basement while listening to French language records and most of his close friends lovingly call him "Robert" with a French accent when they say it!  This might also account for why I have a French name.  Although I don't remember my Dad telling a lot of "on my mission stories," a day hasn't passed when his love for the people of his mission and his mission experience wasn't evident in all that he says and does, and not just in his love for the culture but in his love for people in general and in his constant efforts to serve others.

In the letter that we read last night, we heard how he felt when he received his mission call to the Franco-Belge Mission and how much he still treasures the typed letter that he received containing his call and the signature of President David O. McKay.

My Dad started off by encouraging my little "Future Missionaries" to continue to do the things they are already doing to prepare to serve a mission such as "living the gospel in your own home, reading and memorizing scriptures, and helping and serving others."  He admonished them to take advantage of the many opportunities they will have to serve others through Scouting, Priesthood quorums, and Young Women's programs, and to "Keep [themselves] mentally, physically, and spiritually strong, because it takes a lot of strength to serve a mission."

He also assured them that they will "serve in exactly the best place where you can do the most good: exactly where the Savior wants you to serve."

My Dad then shared different aspects of his mission experience such as trying to speak only French to the people on the train on his way to his first area, being dropped off in the "middle of nowhere", walking with his heavy suitcase to the address of his first mission apartment and finding none of his companions at home!  He had to wait hours for them to return.  (No cell phones in the late 60's!)  Despite the challenges, the highlight of that first day as a missionary was participating in a first discussion which resulted in the baptism of the young lady being taught.

The best part of his letter, for me, were all the fantastic photos that my father provided.  The kids REALLY enjoyed seeing "Papa" so young, serving valiantly...and without his signature mustache!

If you'll remember, my Dad earned a nickname from his fellow-missionaries while on a mission.  They called him "Straight Arrow" because he was so obedient to the commandments and mission rules.

That's our Papa!  But what's funny is that my Dad has a really funny/silly side and a lot of his photos show that!  But he's never one to talk about himself much.  So I mentioned to the kids that one of the things that makes Papa a great missionary is that he is someone who makes others feel comfortable in conversation.  He's a good listener and puts people at ease. No matter who you are, you never feel judged by my Dad, only loved.  I have seen this time and again.  My Dad is not flashy or showy, but he is just the type of person who is so genuine and caring that people, especially children, gravitate to him.  I can only imagine that this special quality that he has displayed throughout his life was an asset to him on his mission as well.

So for our activity, I challenged the children to try to emulate their grandpa in some mock conversations with "strangers".  They were to listen attentively, speak kindly, and see to the needs of the person they were talking to.  To accomplish this, we presented the kids with hypothetical situations, in which they were to emulate Papa's gift for compassionate conversation and share a gospel message that would be appropriate for the person with whom they're speaking.

It was really neat to see how it unfolded.  Guy was asked to pretend he was riding a train on his first day as a missionary, sitting by someone he did not know.  He asked his new friend about the necklace she was wearing, which lead to her sharing that it was a gift from her Grandma who recently passed away.  Guy ended up sharing his love of family and his testimony about how families are forever and inviting her to find out more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Scarlett practicing listening to the needs of a friend at school and responded with love when her friend expressed a desire to cheat on a test instead of working hard and studying.  She set a good example and encouraged her friend to try harder and be honest, and that this would make her happier in the long-run.

Autumn pretended to be a grown-up Mommy chatting with another Mom friend while their children played.  She listened to her friend's problems raising her five children, and Autumn shared some things from the Word of Wisdom and that she's learned from the Apostles that helped her with raising her family. She also invited her friend to come to church with her.

The whole exercise was pretty much made up right there on the spot, but was really fun to role-play and think about how we might be better friends and better missionaries to those we see every day.

Once again, we are so grateful for the example of our righteous ancestors and relatives who are sharing their missionary experiences with us.  It is strengthening our little ones' resolve to share the gospel in love and service to others.

You can read more of our family mission letters here.

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Serving an ASL Mission #Embark

Everything is kinda weird over here with our house completely turned upside-down with our many construction projects and house repairs.  But we are happily moving along, spending lots of time in close quarters, and trying to do our best to continue the most important things that make us who we are as a family!

One of those things is family home evening...the other is singing loudly to the 2011 Muppet Movie, which we only recently discovered!  It's brought us some fun memories!

But I'm hear to talk about the family home evening that we had last night.  Scarlett stayed home sick from school, so in the afternoon, I asked if she'd like to help give our FHE lesson that night.  

We had recently received another mission letter from Aunt Emmalee who served an ASL mission in the Phoenix, AZ area!

Since sign language is another thing our family is way in to, I asked Scarlett if she would like to learn to sign her testimony and share it with our family during FHE tonight.  She was very excited to do this!  

First, she wrote out a brief testimony in her own words.  Then we tried signing it using the signs we already know.  (She knew a bunch of church words, because they're learning to sign "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" in Primary right now.)  The other words we looked up real quick googling ASL + the word.  One sign that was new to us was "the Articles of Faith," which you'll see is signed by making an "a" followed by an "f" on the palm of your hand.

Anyway, we here's Scarlett's testimony:

We really enjoyed learning about Emmalee's mission experience and her great faith was evident.  I liked that she told the kids that she had wanted to serve a mission from an early age and as a result she did a lot through out her life to prepare herself, by studying  the scriptures, attending Seminary and Institute, and, in her words, "paying the price" to know for herself that the church is true.

In college, she was excitedly anticipating serving a mission when a friend cautioned her to make sure serving a mission was the right thing to do.  Emmalee asked the Lord in prayer if she should serve a mission.  The answer came.  The Lord assured Emmalee that she should serve a mission, and that she would serve, not just for the sake of serving a mission, but she would serve THE LORD'S mission.

Emmalee served in ASL areas and was also sent to serve on a Navajo Reservation, where she taught in Navajo and served where President Kimball did on his mission.

I love how Emmalee said, "I never thought a little deaf girl would learn how to speak Navajo, but I did.  We would sing in Navajo to share our messages."

She closed by encouraging our children to study the core doctrines of the church, to know them, and to share them.  She said, "Wherever you go, ask the Lord to help you know why you were sent to that area.  He will show you."

I love having so many examples of missionaries in our family who set a great example for our children!  Emmalee's commitment to prepare to serve the Lord from a young age and then her faith to humbly follow where the Lord would lead is a great example to us!

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The Chocolate Law

As I've mentioned, our house is under some pretty major stress with multiple construction and repair projects going on simultaneously.

I'm learning just why God's house is a house of order...and ours should be too.  It's hard when things are not in order.  Among other things, I'm not able to spend as much time teaching and preparing special lessons for my family, because we are instead in a season of work right now, very temporal work.  And work has its own opportunities to teach and learn.

Anyway, I have wanted to do a mission map for our family for a while now, so last week, as I was cleaning up some atlases that Honor had been playing with, I decided to email our family and ask them to send a letter to our children talking about the missions they have served (both formal and informal)...where and when they served, what they did to prepare, and any lessons learned.

Last night, for FHE, we read the first letter, which came from my sister-in-law Renae.
We didn't tell the children who sent the letter at first.  We made it a mystery for them to solve.

Renae shared how she prepared in specific ways and some really memorable stories of faith.

She said that in Brazil, where she served, instead of knocking on doors, she would stand outside of the gate and clap loudly.  (The children enjoyed learning how to clap loudly!)

One fun detail that she shared was "Lei o Chokito" which was a rule she and her companions had for each other.  Whenever they were caught not using Portuguese or talking about home (when it was not P-day or they were not asked to do so by a Brazilian) then you had to buy your companion a candy bar called "Chokito"!  It's literally the Chokito Law!

I had hidden a Hershey's candy bar (which I had on hand) in the room earlier.  So the children had to find it first.  Then we played our own version of The Chocolate Law.  We sat in a circle and asked each other questions.  If anyone responded by using the words I or Me (or mentioned anyone's name) then we all called out "Chokito!!" and everyone ELSE in the circle got a piece of the candy bar.

The kids really enjoyed learning about Aunt Renae's missionary experience, marking where she served on our map, and playing the Chokito Law game.

I have to laugh, because I couldn't find the map that I had originally planned to use, and the one we ended up using has these words across the top, "We find out where conditions are the worst--the places where other are not going--and that's where we want to be."

I don't know whose slogan that is, but it can sure be said of the missionaries who go out across the world to places both desirable and suffering to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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