Three is a Party

As a missionary coming to the end of his mission does, I'm doing a little thinking about the nature of time. I hear from the wise the importance of cherishing the small moments. I am told by so many, 'Time moves so fast.'

We are taught in the scriptures time according to our Heavenly Father. 1,000 years on Earth is equivalent to a single day in the Lord's time. The average human life is a mere forty-five minutes to our prior home. Many of us are blessed with the knowledge of the life before Earth. Perhaps we have existed there for thousands of millenia according to our mortal time. There would be little wonder then why it seems time in this earthly experience seems so short.

I celebrated my birthday this past week. Turning twenty-one is not as exciting when you can't have any alcohol! You know you're a Mormon when you say, "Hold my Coke and watch this', or perhaps when the punch at the party is spiked with Mountain Dew. Instead of drinking legally for the first time I decided to serve at a soup kitchen. I remember being thanked by a member of the volunteer crew that night. I said, "There isn't anything else I'd rather be doing right now." It struck me how truthful I felt my response was. The Spirit washed over me in that instant and I felt a particularly powerful happiness from an experience that occured in half a moment.

Posing in front of amazing Christmas lights in Pratt

Because it's tradition

Playing with the photoshoot gift

Around the middle of the week I have occasion to be on an exchange with Elder Herbine, one of our zone leaders. Elder Herbine and I have some interesting proselyting experiences in our time together. First, we knock the door of a woman that tells us she is not the least bit interested until she discovers we are not Jehovah's Witnesses. This woman is running a daycare inside her home. From inside we hear a young girl speaking strings of profanities. Elder Herbine and I get a real laugh from the woman's story about this toddler-age girl in her care who learns these terrible words from her parents but does not understood why they are bad. This young child inadvertently teaches her peers resulting in a daycare full of chaotic vocabulary. *In the sweetest little girl voice* "Can I sit in the d--n chair?" and a response to the barking hounds, "Shut the h--- up!" Oh the innocence of children. Second, we contact a potential investigator that happens to be working on their dragster engine. I've never experienced something so loud. The candid video does no justice to the crippling din.

In preparation for the baptism of Kim Brown, the three of us are configuring a baptismal program at the Valley Center Library. Something special about this library is they have a live mascot named Pages. Pages is a jet black tabby cat. This feline is packing more of a belly than my pet Yorkie.

Kim's baptism follows Saturday. We have a great turn out, the talks are wonderful, the Spirit is there. Poor Kim has to be baptized not once, not twice, but FIVE times! Elder Miller just couldn't quite get her all the way under the water. The crowd applauded when Kim came out of the water after being fully immersed. This deters Kim not at all. Though I've not known her long, I've never seen Kim so happy. She graced me with the privilage of confirming her the following day in sacrament meeting.

Monday night my companions and I are knocking some doors and we hear loud music and lots of lights. Like moths to a flame we flock to the commotion and stumble upon this scene.

We are the only white people there and nobody seems to speak any English. Watching the dance is real fun though!