Sunday, December 29, 2013

          The bishop in our ward presented certificates of achievement to several Primary children in Sacrament Meeting who had memorized the Articles of Faith—or at least some of them.  A few of the little ones had learned five or six of them and the older children had learned them all.  They were so adorable as they scurried to the stand when their names were called.  There were some very little kids up there who looked to be about four years old.  After their certificates were given out, they took turns at the pulpit reciting each Article of Faith in turn.  The Spanish just rolled off from their tongues and was so delightful!   They spoke right up and gave excellent recitations.   A few older girls repeated the last one as a group.  Then they all sang “I Am a Child of God” together.  It was so heart-warming!

          Last week I was asked to play for a 30-voice missionary choir at a Christmas event created by the mission in this area for missionaries and investigators.  I had no idea what to expect from this meeting and was pleasantly surprised at its magnitude!  The chapel started filling up 30 minutes before start time and eventually six large buses brought people from all over the mission.   By 4:00 o’clock, the chapel and overflow were filled to capacity, and several minutes into the meeting—which started right on time!—the Mission President came to the pulpit and asked the missionaries to assist the newest arrivals in finding seats.  Close to 25-30 missionaries in the audience rose to help out and about 20 of them remained standing against the back wall during the rest of the meeting.    

          There were video clips depicting stories from the Savior’s life, music from the missionary choir, testimonials from four recently baptized couples (one of which was from our ward baptized on November 30) and messages from the Mission President.  It lasted only an hour and was a great meeting.  People milled around outside everywhere and weren’t anxious to leave.  Glade said it would be so exciting to be a missionary and have your investigators come to an event like this one.  He would love to do his mission all over again and share the Good News of the Gospel.