First Week

The last two days were filled with very good or what I would call spiritual experiences. At Brigham Youngs' house I had a couple from Vancouver Washington come for a tour. When greeting them the lady told me that a year ago her son was killed in Afghanistan. For a year she has hardly been out of her house being very depressed. They spent the winter in Arizona and were heading back to Washington. She was very solemn, she knew she would see her boy again. Elder Cannon and I taught them about our beliefs of the plan of  salvation. They were very interested  and wanted to know more and took a Book of Mormon. When they left she looked at us and said We will meet again. Meaning in the spirit world. We also met with an older couple from Rochester NewYork. They lived only 30 miles from Palmyra and never heard the Joseph Smith story. So we told them about it. The next day April 25th  we were working the temple visitor center  when 4 people from Amsterdam came in. They could speak English. They were touring the National Parks. They were interested in what the temple was all about. They were Christians but did not go to church. Elder Cannon led out and gave and excellent intro to our church and the Book of Mormon. They were not only willing but excited about receiving copies of the Book of Mormon. We gave them 2 books written in the Dutch language. Oh yesterday we got up at 5 am and went to the temple to do sealings. One of the Sealers was Wayne Shute a professor at BYU of mine when I was getting my Doctorate.
Darolyne had a great experience at Brigham Youngs' House. She met with a  couple from Chicago. They have been to the Tabernacle they were very impressed and had taken a Book of Mormon. They were going to all of the sites. They were Catholics but were disallusioned in the way their church was going. They were so excited to find another religion that had answers to questions they did not have answered before. They were great fans of Mitt Romney.

Arrived

We are now in St. George. Our first day we met with Elder and Sister Watkins from San Diego, they are our mission leaders. We were given an intro and our schedule. The first 8 days we will be with our trainers. They are Elder and Sister Narramore of Evanston, Wyoming and Elder and Sister Cannon of Salt Lake City, Utah. Friday afternoon we were at the Temple Visitor Center from 3pm to 9pm.. I with my trainer met about 160 visitors. Several were non members. There were two couples one from Tennessee and the other from LA they were quite interested in what goes on at the temple. I was able to talked to them about temple marriage aided by a wedding party on the grounds going on at the same time. Elder Narramore helped out. We had 3 folks from Peru come through they were  looking for where Lorenzo Snow gave his tithing speech. Might I interject that missionary work is WORK. Today we went to the St,George tabernacle. We only gave one tour. It was a couple from Springville, Utah he was a descendent  of Lorenzo Snow. Then at noon a Sister Terry gave a organ recital to about 40 people..Tomorrow we go to Jacob Hamblin home. One story our mission leader told us was about 2 weeks ago Glen Beck came to the sites. He showed Elder Watkins a gold pocket watch he had. He turned it over and revealed the initials JSJ. It was Joseph Smiths watch that he gave up to his jailers to get out of jail. Glen got it from a man who said he could get it from him if he would show it to people and tell Josephs story.

End of the week at the MTC

This ended a real spiritual week at the MTC I learned so much that I can use on my mission. The biggest thing I learned is to teach by the spirit. To do this I need to humble myself and be obedient.If I do this I know the Lord will guide and direct my thoughts and actions. I had the opportunity along with my companion to teach to investigators who were in the role. I met most often with  my District. Brother and Sister Eastman from Arkansas going to Martin Willley Center in Wyoming. Elder and sister Billie from Josep

h,Arizona going to Fresno, California, and Elder and Sister Nuttall from Cheyene, Wyoming going to Nauvoo, Illinois. Thise are wonderful Saints and we really learned in one week to really love them. We also worked with the Chyneouffs from St. George going to Nauvoo. Every person we met had a great story. The best though was the Nuttalls who sold there house  and every thing they had to go to Nauvoo. They had very little money eleven children and had only one set of clothes yet they were the happiest.

MTC Experience

Today, our second day at the MTC we met in our District. There are three other couples in our  District.   One of the couples is Elder and  Sister Billy A Navajo couple from Joseph Arizona. As we introduced ourselves today Sister Billy bore her testimony. She told how appreciative she was of Father Lehi and Nephi. And first thing she wants to do when she passes on is to thank them personally for preserving the records for her. A very solemn and tearful testimony. This night we went to the devotional and Gerald Lund was the speaker. This brought so many memories back when I served in the MTC by the way when I was a Branch President so was Gerald Lund. By the way my great grandmother was a Lund.

Elder and Sister Childs

Tonight April 6, 2013 Darolyne and I were set apart by our Stake President Ron Stoddard. Set aside and commissioned to do Missionary work. President Stoddard gave Darolyne and I great blessings for me he gave me a blessing of health on my mission  a blessing to teach by the spirit to pay attention to the spirit as I teach. That I would be apart of Miracles. He blessed Darolyne to have her health and her mind would be able to remember the things she has learned to teach and she will be able to teach by the spirit. It was a special night because Jamie came with Hailee, Daryk, Brodie, and Carson and Joey came with Luke and Harley. They all got to say why they liked their parents and grandparents. It was special and you could feel the spirit really strong. This is a special experience. We were promised that our family will be blessed while we are on our mission. KC had to work and could not make it. Ryan did not want to come. May the Lord bless all our family while we are gone. We love them all.

Timpanogas Temple at night

My grandson Daryk got a really nice camera for his birthday and he went to he temple late at night and got this snap. Earlier that day Daryk Brodie, Jamie and I went golfing at the Hobble Creek golf course. It is a great joy for me to be out on a golf course with the ones I love. Wonderful day highlighted by this beautiful picture.

The Meeting They Used To Call FAREWELL

Today the last day of March Darolyne and I were the speakers at our wards Sacrament Meeting. This was also Easter Sunday. Darolyne talked about our mission. She told the story of my great grandfather, Peter Hansen, and his travails in his call to serve in St.George with the Indians. My talk centered on the Savior and my testimony of him. After our meeting we had our family and friends over to our house. We now have a week until we enter the MTC. I called Elder Watkins of the visitor centers in St. George and told him we were coming. Everyone says we will do good, however, only with the help of our father in heaven. KC was not there because he was on his spring break trip to the Oregon Coast with Tess.