Monday, March 21, 2016

Episode 25: The One with the HUGE Service Project

Hello everyone! It has been a great week here in American Lake. Lots of great things happening.

On Friday we went on exchanges with our sister Training leaders, which was fun because one of them is Sister Ireland's previous companion and my fellow Cambodian sister, Sister Johansen. We went with them to a service project that morning. Here is the story:

So, there is a family in some close by area who is moving to Wyoming. They apparently at some point before they knew they were moving chopped down about a million trees and chopped into usable firewood pieces. As you can imagine, they put a considerable amount of work into all that chopping. well, now that they are moving, they don't want to waste all their hard work by leaving the wood behind, so they rented a semi truck to haul it all to Wyoming. They then realized that the semi would not fit down at the bottom of their yard where the wood was, so the process to move the wood into the semi includes the following:

1. Move the wood out of the storage tents into a pick up truck.
2. Drive the truck up the hill backwards, so that the tailgates of the pickup and the semi touch.
3. Take the wood out of the pick up and into the mouth of the semi trailer.
4. Move the wood to the back of the semi and stack it neatly about 8 feet high.

Let's just say we had been asked to help for about an hour, but 3 hours times 12 missionaries later, we were about half way through the copious amounts of wood, when we politely excused ourselves to go take care of our appointments. But it was sunny and warm (It's getting to be Summer here!), so I actually quite enjoyed it.

Also, we had a baptism yesterday!


This is KC. He was taught the gospel when he was in basic training in Georgia, and long story short, we called him and he basically asked when he could get baptized. He's really awesome. The day before his baptism, he woke up at 5 in the morning to do PT, went to work at 9, and had staff duty (which is a 24 hour shift! awake the whole time!), got off at 9 the next morning, and then came to his baptism at 10. So this is KC on about 30 hours of no sleep. But he said baptism was just that important to him.

Another cool thing that happened this weekend was the Lamb of God performance. It is a musical for choir, orchestra and soloists that tells the story of the last days of Christ's life, His death, and His resurrection. It was live at our stake center, and was amazing! The composer felt that no vocalist could ever feel comfortable or sufficient enough to play Christ, so His lines and solos are actually played by a solo cello, with narration when needed. It was beautiful, and the lyrics are so touching. Here is an example.

After the death of Christ, while still on Calvary, but before anyone has seen Him resurrected, Mary (as in His mother) sings a solo with these words:

“Here despair cries boldly, claiming this its victory. Sweeter peace enfolds me: Hope did not die here, but here was given. Here is Hope.”

And then later, after having seen Christ resurrected, Mary Magdalene sings:

“Morning has dawned and will stretch forth her wing. No more the night holds thee his captive, Jesus is risen, my Savior and King. I’ll sing Gloria, glory to the Lord! Gloria, glory for the life he doth give! Gloria for my Savior lives!”

And I don't think those lyrics can get any clearer or more beautiful through my explanations, so I will just say that I feel the same way.

I love you all, and I will talk to you next week!

Love,

Sister Lemon

No comments:

Post a Comment