Downtown Salt Lake City is a buzz as a conference nears. Preparations of every kind are being made to make sure that everything will go smoothly, allowing the spirit to be felt.
This week were my first days as a tour guide at the Conference Center. I haven’t led a tour yet as most of both evenings were spent doing safety training and other various orientation things. I was able to shadow a few times on Wednesday. My official title is Host, so for three hours of my shifts I spend as tour guide and one hour standing or sitting guard in several places throughout the lobbies of the building. I might start giving tours next week.
Everything is going smoothly at the Global Service Center. I’m still on the same schedule in the various departments and everything is going great. It’s absolutely phenomenal what it takes to run the church the way it’s ran.
I’ve stumbled upon various things throughout my lifetime that attempt to bring the Church down by saying it’s a large corporation seeking to get gain. It needs to be ran like a corporation or else it would end up like other churches where they are constantly deprived of money and we simply don’t have that in the Church. The only people that “gain” anything are the members who are able to benefit from the peace of mind that comes when we don’t need to worry if the Church will be able to survive a financial crisis or leadership crisis, etc. All of this simply testify to the divinity of the Church, the gospel, and the Savior’s work.
This week we started taking calls for the Phoenix Arizona Temple open house. It was busy this week with calls, however, most of the calls were about Conference even though there is absolutely nothing we can do for them unless it’s a Stake President calling.
This week I gave one of the devotionals at the Global Service Center. I gave it Tuesday afternoon, the last devotional for the month of September. September’s topic was “Trust in God.” The scripture was from the book of Job. I also used an example from the March 2014 Ensign. A couple’s daughter fell into a canal and within a few weeks died. When they realized she wouldn’t make it, the couple were disappointed but their trust in God soon shined through and they were happy about the outcome knowing their daughter was in a better place. The same is with Job as he lost all his children to death but remained faithful in the Lord.
I attended Choir rehearsal Thursday night even though I wasn’t there to serve as I had room in my schedule. I wrote a thank you note to Ron Jarrett, president of the Tabernacle Choir for the tickets to Conference. That was my main purpose of attending the rehearsal. I also met another person at rehearsal whom I met through YouTube. I loved the music, I think it really gave me some inspiration as to what to write about this week.
Also on Thursday, at the GSC we had an orientation to the building. I realize I’ve been there for a month and a half now, but it was a pilot program so I was invited to it to see if it will work in the future. We then walked to the COB for lunch. At lunch we saw Elder Scott D. Whiting (he accompanied Elder David A. Bednar to our stake conference in June of 2011) and only a few minutes later in walked Brother Tad R. Callister of the Sunday School General Presidency (formerly a member of the Presidency of the Seventy).
My talk in Sacrament meeting was cut extremely short due to an extra musical number because of a miscommunication. I don’t think I’ve ever had too much material for a talk, I’ve always not had enough. It went well though. Karl had agreed to pick me up immediately after the broadcast, but my Elder’s Quorum president who happens to be one of four tuba players in the Orchestra at Temple Square was playing on the broadcast and gave me a ride so I could speak.
Today I’m at the Square on my p-day. Today’s recital is by my ward’s organist, Richard Elliott. He played some Bach and ended the program with his improvisation on “Hymn to Joy.”
I’ll take a BMO shirt. 2x, please. Please send me one of my thinner jackets, I don’t need or want to use a winter jacket when the high is in the 50s and 60s.
I would assume you’ve been busy this week, and that’s okay. However, you haven’t posted last weeks letter to my blog. I’m just a little concerned about that.
