Armies of Helaman
An early morning walk up the hill to the Temple was invigorating. It was 52 degrees when we left. The temple was beautiful, peaceful and inspiring. We put 4 miles on our watches today....good training!
Later, we walked down the hill to meet Lauren, our granddaughter. We sat outside with her, eating BYU Creamery ice cream. She has been in school here two weeks. She is all grown up, and has a mission call to Paraguay. With the magnificent mountains as a backdrop, it was fun to catch up with her. I think it would be wonderful to be a student here, but all of my experiences at BYU have been sheer joy, like women's conference, and BYU Education week - vacations one and all. I'm sure being a serious student here does have some drawbacks.
SK bagged up a load of whites and headed to the next building to do some washing. What a sweetheart! I stayed here with that beautiful view from the window, studied, read and sorted some of what we brought in our suitcases. (Every single one of the four big ones was overweight!) I actually lightened them up quite a bit.....more to leave at Lia's.
We went to the cafeteria for dinner, and were later than usual. We didn't see any senior missionaries to hang out with so we sat down at a long table. It wasn't long before 6 clean cut and handsome young men came and sat down with us. SK eyed their name tags and struck up a conversation. SK studied Arabic in high school and college. He remembers quite a bit about it.
Their name tags gave their names, and where ours say "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" theirs have Persian characters, and SK recognized that it said "Messiah" instead of "Jesus Christ." We asked where they were going. Two are going to Los Angeles - Persian Speaking, two to Washington D.C. - Persian Speaking, and two are going to Berlin, Germany - Persian Speaking. They told us that there are about 600,000 Persians in L.A. and I think 200,000 in Washington, D.C. They have been here learning the language for about a month and have about 5 weeks left.
They are a vanguard of sorts. The first missionaries to serve in Persian areas have not as yet arrived home. These six, plus five more who are being trained, are learning the language from books and missionaries who learned on the job - so to speak in other missions. They also have one other missionary who is learning with them who is from Iraq...speaking Arabic, but he is a help.
I looked at them with wonder. They are so cute, so eager, so happy to be serving. I know the Lord will look after them, but what a tremendous challenge ahead for them!...and what amazing experiences they will talk about when they get home.
 |
| I don't know if these were missionaries or BYU students we saw playing volleyball as we walked to the temple, but I think SK was pretty close to going over to see if he could play. |
Later, we walked down the hill to meet Lauren, our granddaughter. We sat outside with her, eating BYU Creamery ice cream. She has been in school here two weeks. She is all grown up, and has a mission call to Paraguay. With the magnificent mountains as a backdrop, it was fun to catch up with her. I think it would be wonderful to be a student here, but all of my experiences at BYU have been sheer joy, like women's conference, and BYU Education week - vacations one and all. I'm sure being a serious student here does have some drawbacks.
 |
| We may be a little weak on selfies, but we did get that beautiful Lauren! |
SK bagged up a load of whites and headed to the next building to do some washing. What a sweetheart! I stayed here with that beautiful view from the window, studied, read and sorted some of what we brought in our suitcases. (Every single one of the four big ones was overweight!) I actually lightened them up quite a bit.....more to leave at Lia's.
We went to the cafeteria for dinner, and were later than usual. We didn't see any senior missionaries to hang out with so we sat down at a long table. It wasn't long before 6 clean cut and handsome young men came and sat down with us. SK eyed their name tags and struck up a conversation. SK studied Arabic in high school and college. He remembers quite a bit about it.
Their name tags gave their names, and where ours say "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" theirs have Persian characters, and SK recognized that it said "Messiah" instead of "Jesus Christ." We asked where they were going. Two are going to Los Angeles - Persian Speaking, two to Washington D.C. - Persian Speaking, and two are going to Berlin, Germany - Persian Speaking. They told us that there are about 600,000 Persians in L.A. and I think 200,000 in Washington, D.C. They have been here learning the language for about a month and have about 5 weeks left.
They are a vanguard of sorts. The first missionaries to serve in Persian areas have not as yet arrived home. These six, plus five more who are being trained, are learning the language from books and missionaries who learned on the job - so to speak in other missions. They also have one other missionary who is learning with them who is from Iraq...speaking Arabic, but he is a help.
I looked at them with wonder. They are so cute, so eager, so happy to be serving. I know the Lord will look after them, but what a tremendous challenge ahead for them!...and what amazing experiences they will talk about when they get home.
Comments