Monday, October 14, 2013

          Yesterday after Church the stake choir director asked me if I would play for the choir for Stake Conference in November.  She is a great director and I knew it would be fun, so of course, I said yes.  It was a delightful practice for an hour and a half.  She doesn’t speak English and you all know what my Spanish is like, but music is a language of its own and we communicated beautifully.  She is a feisty little lady and really draws the music from the singers.  It felt really good to have something productive to do and have a way to contribute.  I am an accompanist at heart and felt right at home.  It was the best Sunday for me since we have been here. 

          In FHE tonight, the couple giving the lesson talked about testimony.  I don’t know exactly what Brother Cruz said; but after his presentation his wife passed around a roll of yarn and a pair of scissors and asked each of us to cut off a length of our choice.  Then each one was to wrap the yarn around a single finger while sharing his/her testimony until all the yarn was on the finger.  And then you were to end it.  It was just a little distracting to “bear as you wrap,” but it certainly was an easy way to control the length of time it took for 15 people (we had one visitor) to bear their testimonies.  We could have been there for a couple of hours.  Glade said it made us think about what the most important elements of our testimony really were.  He was funny—having not finished his testimony when his yarn was all wrapped around his finger, he just started unwrapping and rewrapping until he was finished.  It brought smiles and a little laughter.

          Maintenance is such a huge issue here and is so evident both in the temple, in the residence building, and on the grounds.  Today, the downstairs reception area was getting a coat of paint and several apartments received a “deep clean” again.  The cleaning team seems to be cleaning something all week long, especially after each overnight group. 

          In the parking lot, the cement is actually scrubbed with brushes and a solvent of some kind to remove the oil and grease drops left under the buses, in particular, and the other vehicles.  The scrubbing is followed up with a hose on its heels.  They do it every week!  Others work on their hands and knees with buckets and brushes cleaning the “mortar” (or whatever it is called) between the sidewalk sections so they are nearly perfectly clean.  Every blade of cut grass is swept and removed, the spent flower blossoms plucked and discarded, the stray bark chips recovered, lifeless worms and slugs removed from the sidewalks etc. etc. etc.

          Our visitor for FHE was a man from Utah who is in charge of redoing the tile floor in the temple over the break next week.  There are several tiles that have broken corners and others have become loose.  It’s surprising since the temple has only been open for seven months.  Everything will be cleaned and restored.

          Since our FHE lesson was on testimonies, I recognized a parallel here about how important it is to “maintain” or to preserve the precious testimonies that burn in our souls.  They need to be nourished, perfected, and preserved in pristine condition.  Small cracks or lack of nurture can lead to deterioration and loss.  May you each cherish your testimony and keep it strong enough to be the driving force in your life, to preserve your faith, and to determine your decisions in the future.

          Buenas Noches!