Week of October 23, 2016

Sunday in Stake Conference we had a couple speak that had been serving in Belgium when the airport was bombed recently. The man had been at the airport with three young missionaries and was severely injured. He spoke of his complete faith and trust in the Lord throughout his healing. It was touching.

Monday at our morning devotional they had all the missionaries that were going home stand while we sang “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again”. There were a large number leaving—about half of our group plus several others who had been out longer than one year. It was very sad to say goodbye to so many friends, most of whom I will probably never see again. It was a teary occasion. I spent time reviewing for my classes on Saturday. Our stake is having a family history fair and I’m teaching two classes. I usually take two hours to teach one of the classes, so it will be challenging to do it in 50 minutes. I figured out a way to do it differently that will take less time and be easier to do. I also worked on two new classes I’ll be teaching. One is not coming together so it is causing some concern.

Elder and Sister Roeth at LDS Motion Picture Studio

Tuesday our zone went to lunch and then toured the LDS Motion Picture Studios in Provo. It was fascinating. Our guide was Pete Czerny whose name I’ve heard. We also met the director of the Meet the Mormons productions. He was a really sweet and humble man. It was really an interesting experience, not only to see what goes into making the movies, but to see how contrived everything is. Even the buildings are not really buildings—they are made of plastic. He showed us how they make some of the sounds. He had a bag of corn starch—when he walked on it, it sounded just like walking in snow. It was fascinating. He showed us the models of the Book of Mormon plates—amazing detail.

Model of Gold Plates based on description by Mary Whitmer

Wednesday we had some inservice meetings followed by our staff meeting. In the afternoon I worked on upcoming classes. I am still struggling with a couple of classes, but I was able to find a Power Point presentation for one of the classes that I hadn’t thought I had.

Fireplace used in nearly every LDS movie

Thursday we had inservice again then I worked on my classes. With the Lord’s help I was able to get all the handouts ready for the upcoming classes. One may need some tweaking, but at least it is in a format that I can use for a first run. I’m doing a class on Descendancy Research and have been struggling with how to explain what I am doing in writing. I’m comfortable with the verbal presentation, but I was finally able to put into writing something that may work. I’ll let it gel for a few days then give it another review. I was also able to put together my notes for the Correcting Relationships class. 

Friday we met my sister and her husband to go to the Vernal Temple. Roger drove and we had a good trip. The temple is beautiful. I had asked a couple of ladies what the flower was for the temple. Usually temples have a flower that forms a theme throughout the temple. Neither one thought there was any special flower. A bit later a lady came up to me that had been visiting with one of the ladies I asked. She said she had asked the assistant matron and she thought it was the Sego Lily because they were all along the hallway. I thought that was very sweet of her. She visited with me a few minutes. I also visited with another lady and told her how much we enjoyed being there and what a beautiful temple it is. Everyone was very sweet and friendly.

Vernal Temple

Saturday we had the stake family history fair. I went early to the library so I could load files onto the computers in the classroom where I would teach. I discovered the library doesn’t open until 9 am on Saturday. After I went in the back way I started copying the files to the computers and found the room was to be used for a prayer meeting for the British Zone. I went to make copies and did a couple of other things then finished copying the files to the computers. I think my classes went well. I was concerned about keeping the students together, but I mostly did it as a demonstration and told them they could follow along. Most did and it went OK. I was able to cover all the material I planned to. In the evening we went to the stake center for a stake “family reunion”, a talent show from the wards in the stake. It was fun and relaxing and I enjoyed it.