General Conference and Mission Life

General Conference morning, so I have plenty of time to do the blog.  The first session doesn’t start here until noon.  (And last night’s priesthood session ended at almost 10PM!) We get so used to the time where we live that we don’t think of the times it must be on all around the world!  It reminds me of the time that I decided to go to church in Nagoya Japan on a business trip, only to find (after a $50 taxi ride) that no one was at that church. After I sat there for an hour or so waiting for someone to show up, I got looking closer at the church bulletin (in Japanese) taped in the window, and figured out that everyone was at another building watching general conference!  It was the week after conference, but Japan is a day ahead of the US, so they show it the next week. 

We watched the general sessions yesterday in our apartment, then I went to the church next door to watch the priesthood session. In between sessions I changed the oil in the car and got it washed (pretty exciting stuff!).  I may have mentioned this before, but car washes are everywhere here!  Few people have access to hoses or places to wash cars, and the car washes do a great job for $12-20.  The place I go is $14, which includes vacuum of the inside, then hand wash with soft brushes, run it through the automatic car wash, then window wash, dust interior, wipe down all the door edges, apply shiny stuff to the tires and hand dry the car.  They do a better job than I do!  (And the lines sometime stretch around the block on prime days, which I avoid. But that’s NYC.)

I love watching general conference and feeling the spirit of the brethren and sisters!  I always have a few talks that strike me watching live, but I must admit that I miss much of the doctrine until I read the talks later and/or listen to the talks while working out.  I do not believe that any honestly seeking person can listen to the words of the prophets without knowing they speak the truth!  I know these men are prophets!!  Conversely, when I see televangelists on TV, the words that come to me are, “they are as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1).  As I watched yesterday I realized that we will have been home for several months when the next general conference comes—Hard to believe!

Our main activities this past week have been finishing up the emergency kits and getting them out to 100 sets of missionaries (Diane), and getting new cars delivered and out into service (me).  Toyota of Manhattan (the bane of my life the last few months!) will only deliver three vehicles each Wednesday, so it’s taking forever to get them (this after sitting in their storage lots in NJ for 4-6 months)!  We made another trip in last week and picked up 3 more, and this Wednesday we should pick up the last 4 (an exception so I won’t have to make a trip back for one car).  By comparison, we picked up a Nissan Altima this week, and it took one call and one voice mail and one week to get the car! (Compared to nagging ToM since May.)  Don’t ever buy a car at ToM!  This next week will be mostly consumed with transfers, monthly reports, and getting things reorganized after all the changes. 

Toyota of Manhattan. 7 floors, service department on floor 2, 

parking on top. 

Elder Lammi and Elder Afoa on subway. (Elder Smith, 

Elder Cunningham & me in the reflection.)

Waiting for some new cars. Elder Cunningham, Elder Lammi,

 Elder Smith, Elder Afoa. After lunch at the Halal cart outside.

In Alma 36 (3) Alma tells Helaman that God will support us in our trials, troubles and afflictions if we put our trust in Him.  An instructor at education week used other scriptures in Alma to equate ‘trials’ to issues caused by our own misuse of our agency, ‘troubles’ to issues caused by others misuse of their agency, and ‘afflictions’ to issues caused by plain old mortality.  I loved that concept, and I found myself often using it in counseling when I was a bishop. 

I’ve been thinking lately of the blessings you receive when serving a mission, and in our case, the trials and troubles have been mostly eliminated, leaving only the afflictions to deal with.  We still have the health issues we’ve always had, but somehow we are strengthened every time to be able to do what the Lord needs us to do!  Often at the end of a long busy day, Diane will say, “How did I do that?!”  I’ve always thought it’s pretty miraculous what Diane can accomplish in spite of various afflictions!  (While I just float along feeling fine…)  I did fall down this week while jogging and scraped my knee and banged my hip, but that’s about the extent of it.  (You have to pay attention to the uneven concrete, and I was in the exciting part of a Sue Grafton novel, so I didn’t.  My pride was injured the most, since I always imagine myself floating along like a world-class runner, and there were several people around to say, “Are you OK (old man)?”)  Anyway, I love my mission and I love my companion!!!!  I’d recommend a mission to anyone!