October 2, 2010
I do not spend my time on the treadmill looking at the tenths of a mile I have walked or the calories I have burned, instead I take the conference issue of the Ensign and read three talks; that usually means I have walked 1.5 miles and burned 200 calories and the minutes pass faster. I often use a few moments for personal prayer either at the beginning or the end. I hope Heavenly Father doesn’t mind me walking and talking at the same time. This morning I was asking for forgiveness for resentful feelings I had yesterday in the temple. We had a ward baptism at 12:30 with relief society sisters and some priesthood from the Carcar Ward. We were not finished at 2:00 when our shift ends, but I felt we should finish this group since they had just a few sisters left who had not been baptized, but our replacements came, took over what we were doing and said “It’s time for you to go”. I am not easily offended, but for some reason I was then and did not want to leave. As I analyzed the situation later, I decided it was a pride thing for me, that our fellow missionary couple was just trying to relieve us and give us time off. The Carcar Ward was not “my” group, and I could not do the directing any better than someone else could… Pride can be a real tool of Satan. And negative feelings can break physical health as well as spiritual well-being. I harbored those feeling for several hours. I have successfully avoided “catching” Larry’s bad cold, but last night I felt like I might be starting with cold symptoms and I’m sure it was because of my prideful, negative feelings. Repentance is a precious gift.
The Relief Society Conference broadcast was delayed one week (as General Conference will be) and was shown by satellite in the stake centers here today. Because of that, all the sister ordinance workers except the temple missionary sisters were sent home from the temple at noon so they could attend the 1 pm broadcast. That meant ten of us were running the sisters’ part of the temple, including clothing issue, initiatory, the endowment session, and two sealing sessions. I was assigned as the back follower in the 1pm endowment session. We had only three sister patrons so I suggested that it might be more beneficial if I went of the session as a patron rather than a follower. Our shift coordinator agreed and sent Sister Jorgensen, another missionary sister, as a patron with me. WE had no sooner sat down than the tape started—in Cebuano! We had forgotten that the 1 o clock Saturday session is a Cebuano session and it was too late to ask for headphones! What an interesting experience. I know about 10 Cebuano words and I recognized them occasionally. I concentrated extra hard to know what to do when. About half way through I realized the name I was proxy for was a Filipino sister, and that she was probably enjoying this session so very much, listening to it in her own language . I also felt real empathy for the Filipino sisters whose English is not secure and listen to the session in English rather than their native tongue.
As soon as I finished the session, Sister Ganir said, “You’ve got to get down to the baptistry, you’ve got a surprise baptism group there”. A youth group from Arlington Ward was waiting; they had come a month ago when the heating element in the font was broken and the water was ice cold for them. They were excited that the font was filled with warm water this time. Not all the bugs are out of the water system, however. The sisters’ shower had only cold water, and then quit entirely for about 10 minutes. But all’s well that ends well—the group told us they would be back again next month. We cleaned up, restocked the towels, took the wet clothes to the laundry, turned off the lights, and then went back upstairs to resume our scheduled duties. I had only been in initiatory for 15 minutes when Sister Ganir pulled me out and said, “You need to go back to the baptistry; you’ve got more baptisms”
A lovely older couple followed me to the baptistry clothing issue and told me they had come from Thailand to do the temple work for his fourth generation forebearers. And then a Filipino sister came in with family names and asked if she could be a proxy for her mother and grandmother and have someone else do her father and grandfather. Brother Khanakham, the Thai brother, readily agreed to do her male proxy work so I got clothing for Sister Davis. As Brother Khanakham baptized and confirmed his wife for his greatgrandmothers, tears rolled down his cheeks and he had a hard time finding a voice for the ordinances. Then Brother Enriquez baptized him for his greatgrandfathers. The names were difficult to pronounce, but Brother Enriquez had gone over them carefully beforehand to make sure he got them right. The spirit was so strong with all of the baptisms. I know those individuals were there and that they were rejoicing over the work that was being done for them. What a special day!
WE love you
Mom and Dad/ Grandma and Grandpa/ Larry and Mary
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