Sad and Insane people

Very unusual week, President Monson has canceled all Sunday Meetings in the valley this Sunday so that members can go to there Stake Centers to Participate in the new Temple dedication. We will be attending at 9:oo PM.

We have a really strange man who has been standing on North Temple street by the Temple for the last couple of weeks. He is dressed in Temple Clothes with white makeup on his face and white gloves on his hands. He has a statue of the Christ on a small step ladder and a large white cross around his neck. When asked what he is doing he said that he is the "Holy Ghost". The lady who has been using that location for begging for the last couple of years has relocated across the street as no one pays any attention to her when she is by the Nut.

A young woman came in to the North Visitors center last week and talked to Sister Glad about her situation. She has been doing very bad things the last few years, as she said. She is not welcome at her parents home and has been living where ever she can. She is now devastated because She found out that She has terminal Colon Cancer. The Doctor told Her that She has only a couple of months to live. She only knows the name of her Bishop and it not confertable talking to him. Sister Glad and her shed quite a few tears and then sent to her to Welfare Square where they can arrange for her to interface with LDS Social Services.

A Man came in to the Square with who also has months to live because of Cancer. He is a nonmember whose member wife, who has passed away, has been working on him to become a member, now that he is facing death he is ready to accept the gospel. He wants to be sealed to his family but knows that that will not be possible in this life as death is so close. He will be baptised this Sunday. Several of the Sister Missionaries will be speaking and Elder Sontag will be baptising him. His Temple work will be done a soon a possible.

Death faces all of at some time. We need to be prepared to meet God now!

Great week

We just got back from working at the Assembly Hall. We are there Sunday from 1:00-5:00 PM.

We had a very productive day with three groups of people who wanted to know more about the church, a couple from Italy, a Hispanic Couple from LA and a man who had been inactive in the Church for more than 10 years and wants his non-member wife and child taught.

We were at Welfare Square Friday and had a woman who had been receiving assistance come in and wanted to have the missionaries come and teach her so she could join the Church. We also had a person refer his friend that lived in Russia.

Saturday we moved some more of our stuff back to Sandy. We have to be there before the end of this month. So we are moving some things each "P" Day. We also went to visit the Cemetery where Brigham Young and family are buried, a very special place.

Bruce and Tara are now in their new apartment. She is doing much better in eating and looks really good. They are to get the ultrasound next week. live is good.

Christmas

It is Christmas on Temple Square again, or maybe getting ready for Christmas. They are putting lights on the trees now. It seems strange to start so early but if you think about it, would you feel better about climbing very large trees to put lights on them in August or In December with all of the ice and Snow.

We are getting ready to move back to our home in Sandy as our lease for our downtown apartment is up the end of August. We don't have much to move, just clothing and minor stuff but we are staring to take some thing home each "P" day. We will have only three months left of mission living at home in Sandy.

Bruce and Tara have moved to a New apartment just above 20th east. She is still having problems with morning sickness. She spent a couple of days in the hospital as she could not keep any food down. She seem to be able to keep food down now but is still quite sick.

We had a zone conference last week. President Holmes is really creative about the location for us to have our meeting. We had the Meeting in the Church Office Building in the room where the General Authorities meet. We have a Zone Conference each transfer, every six weeks. They are good. We have a combined meeting with the Sister Missionaries.

life is good. It feels like fall as the temperature has dropped in to the 70s

first week of August.

Some other things on our experiences last week. I was given the opportunity to teach Relief Society to the Sister Missionaries last week. It was a neat time teaching them. I feel the reason it felt successful was the Sisters have such sweet spirits and testimonies. The subject was Receiving the Ordinances and Blessings of the Temple. I was able to tell some of my experiences of serving the temples, Jordan River and Nauvoo. I was on a 6 months temple mission in 2005.

I feel bad that my youngest son's wife become so ill from her first pregnancy that she has to hospitalized for a few days. I hate to see her not enjoy this event in her life. I pray for her. They are moving to Sandy and he is going to school while looking for a new job. I know they will come out all right. Pray for them.

We had some neat times talking to people on the square last week. One tour we had was late at night .. The temperature was so cool, the night was so pretty on the square and we were answering questions to some people that were leaving the next morning. That is just one of the blessings of being here on this mission.

Sister Marlene Glad

hot summer day

We have been involved in trying a new program in the mission this week. In the past the senior couples were to make sure that the venues were working properly and direct any interested guests to take a tour with the Sister Missionaries. We are trying a pilot program where we are to take short tours when the guests are unable to go with the Sisters or the Sisters are unavailable to take the guests on tours.

So we have had some great times being more free to discuss the gospel. Monday we came across a family that said they did not have time to go on a tour, so we told them that we would walk them around and answer some of their questions. The sort, non tour lasted longer and longer as they had many questions. They were excited to have the missionaries bring they a Book of Mormon and teach them. We found upon further discussion that he had been raised in Snowville, Utah, a small "Mormon town on the Utah Idaho border.

We had a woman met us on the Square asking if we could give her a Book of Mormon. She had been to the Distribution Center where they told her that it would be better to obtain one on the square from a Missionary so we her fill out a card to have the Missionaries bring one to her home and teach her.

We were able to obtain nine self referral's last week. It was great.

this and that

The last week has passed, with some very good things going on in the Temple Square Mission. We were working in the Legacy Theater Tuesday, when I saw Sister Glad talking on the phone with tears in Her eyes. We call people who come to the Square and do not leave a referral but fill out a comment card. We call to thank them for coming to the square, a thank you call, normally very little comes from these calls. She got to talk to two families who wanted to have the missionaries come to visit them.

One man asked if he could get a better Book of Mormon as he found a very small print one as he was helping a friend move. It must have been from the set that are given to LDS men before they go in to the military service. He had been reading it and would like to know more about the Church.

Second was from a man who had his brother come come Temple Square and obtain a DVD about the Church. The two of them had been watching it and he would like to more about the Church.

A couple of days before that, She had been calling a family who had a daughter, 16 years old, who had come to the Square with some friends. The young ladies mother answered the phone. Mom had a good conversation with her that ended with the mother giving permission for missionaries to come and give her daughter the lessons.

Sister Glad has a great ability to talk to any one on the phone with great success. I think it is due to all of the practice she has has had on talking on the phone for most of her life.

summer heat

Summer has hit here with a vengeance, it was 101 F today. The only hope is that there is a lot of shady spots on the square and/or all of the buildings are air conditioned. Everything is a mess due to construction work to replace most of the pavement. The work is to be completed before October Conference.

The enemies of the Church are still trying every thing they can to stir up unknowing and unthinking people to react against the Church. Security asked two inebriated gay men who where sitting on a bench on the plaza late at night passionately kissing and groping each other to leave. The result was a confrontation when the men reacted angrily refusing to leave and using abusive language. The Police were called and they were arrested for trespass. The false story was given out to the press that they were harassed by church security because of a simple kiss on the cheek and that the security men roughed them up. The arrest record indicated that they were drunk and they was no evidence of any physical abuse. We have had a demonstration last Sunday, called a kiss in. where people wearing pink hearts came here to protest the Church's right to control inappropriate behavior here. They attempted to come on the Plaza and were informed by the City authorities that they would be arrested for trespass if they came onto Church property. Some removed their pink hearts and came on to the plaza, the others left.

The same people have been trying to stir up more controversy. I was a Tabernacle last Thursday when a man wearing a pink heart walked by waving inappropriate magazines for all to see. Security asked him to leave Temple Square. Two more Protesters were escorted off the Square earlier the same day. There is another demonstration planned for this Sunday. The sad part is that some families and other unthinking liberal types are involved in this mess. They think that the right of the Church to control improper behavior on its own private property is some how in violation of civil rights. This is an other attempt by the Rocky Anderson and group to cause trouble for the Church.

I found out the other day that four of our Sister Missionaries are first cousins, kind of neat to have such a large group from one family to be here. We had two sisters that were here serving here last winter, they ended up as companions.

We are starting to reap some good stuff from our garden at home. I had to remove some of the green tomatoes because they were becoming too thick and heavy for the plants. We picked some cucumbers and zucchini today.

We have been assigned to be the North Visitors Center Coordinators. We are in charge of the building making sure that everything is proper from insuring that all of of the pamphlets are in place to insuring that the proper procedures are used in the tours and displays in that building, most of the work there has to be done after our assignment time so we are becoming even more busy.