[Funny – as I was serenely, and leisurely, preparing
for our later-than-usual Sunday meeting (on account of our 1pm meeting would be
a delayed broadcast of General Conference’s Saturday afternoon session), and
also as I had the Mountain West on my mind more than usual, I was impressed to
turn on K-BYU FM. Fully expecting to tune into ‘Music for a Sunday
Morning with Eric Glissmeyer,’ I was quite surprised when I ended up instead with
the slow, peaceful strains of ‘Overnight Classics.’ Silly girl!]
This ended up being a day of
church meeting extravaganza for me.
As I mentioned previously, we turned up to church at 1pm (the Priesthood
session had been earlier at 10am) to listen to Saturday’s afternoon session of
conference. You did have the option of watching it at homenon the computer,
but our bishop had specifically encouraged us to join together with our brother
and sister saints at some point if we possibly could. (How about Elder Perry centering almost his entire remarks around me and my friends – honey bees! An interesting phrase, I thought, was that gathering nectar was their ‘magnificent obsession.’ Brother Gay’s thoughts about his father saying to him, ‘Would you sell your soul for a nickel?’ resonated with me – whether we are willing to give up our sins and weaknesses (i.e., doing things our own way) in order to gain eternal life. AM I? And then Elder Anderson’s statement that eventually every person will be backed up to the wall of faith – to face their own fiery trials - or Elder Oaks reminding us that an apostle has the responsibility to witness to the entire world.)
After this meeting the newer
elders in our ward had been invited to the Ward’s for an early dinner, before
needing to be returned back the church to attend the 5pm meeting (aka the
Sunday morning session of conference). First Martin drove the family home (a
ten minute ride), and then, taking the kids along with him – to save their
momma’s sanity – drove all the way back to church to collect our guests. Yes,
it was Elder David Archuleta in the flesh! Well, almost in the flesh, because
actually it was Elder Gorougi (pronounced pretty much the way you would
imagine, except be sure to roll the ‘R’ – and oh, yeah, the ‘G’ is kind of that
guttural way next to impossible to describe in words), that I mentioned seeing
for the first time a couple weeks ago. Be it sufficient to say that the best
way to describe Elder Gorougi is to say ‘he’s a cute kid.’ He reminded me a
lot of Andrew in the early days of his mission – wasn’t quite sure he was
willing to sacrifice his cool hair style to the safety of his bicycle helmet,
or the tightness of his trousers to what is considered proper mission attire.
His companion was Elder
Eckelt, Afro-Caribbean, except for the fact that he was born in Germany to a
black British mother married to a national, whose marriage ended a few months
later, at which time mom and baby moved back to be near family in London, where
he’d been ever since – the only remaining German thing about him is his
surname. He was a great guy, and a lot of fun, as well. It was quite gratifying
to see these hard-working, usually necessarily serious elders, be able to let
their hair down just a bit, in the sort of home where they could be themselves
for a little while before getting back to business as usual.
After a delicious fajita
repast – with homemade lemon cake to top it off – it was time to return the
elders back to church for the 5pm – your 10a – Sunday morning session of
conference (of course – makes perfect sense!). Martin dropped me off halfway along
the route in order for me to make a beeline the remaining blocks towards home to
finish out the day also with 5pm Sunday morning session, and later the 9pm afternoon
session – watched live right along with the rest of you! On my computer! In the
security of my own little habitat! (A statement that particularly caught my attention was President Eyring's admonition about being careful to not put up barriers against understanding God's will for us - rather Thy will be done and in Thy time table.) Oh, man, I
can tell you – by the time that spiritual feast ended, I was no longer
bushy-tailed and rarin’ to go, but bleary-eyed and ready for bed!
Got a text later that same
evening from Beate, German sister who has lived in this area for a while (why? because she was married to, and later divorced from, a British gent),
inviting me to join a group of single sisters from the ward for a ‘one-session' trip to the temple. Most often here when people make the time-and-expense
effort to get to the temple, they stay on and participate in several sessions while
they’re at it. Anyway, exciting! as I have not had the chance to attend the temple since I've been here. Why? because it's too far, and I don't drive.
Speaking of Beate, I’ve decided that there were a
lot of good German vibes going around today. First there were those two ‘German’
missionaries who joined us for dinner earlier, then Beate, and lastly an
exciting thing Andrew shared with me about the possibility of an internship for
him and Ashley to Germany in December – if it works out. And, lest I forget, there’s
also President Uchtdorf, as well - can’t forget him!! (Oh, yeah, one other –
see photo below.) The humorous thing is that Andrew’s potential internship is
more legitimately German than any of the others: I’m acquainted with Beate,
though German, because we both live in Birmingham - besides you think
‘Italiano’ when you hear her name (Bee ə’ tə); while Elder Eckelt was born
in Germany and has a German surname, but he has lived in London since he was
three and has no knowledge of his father; Elder Sobourgi, on the other hand,
though from Heidelburg, is of Iranian and Polish descent; and President Uchtdorf,
though of German lineage, began life in the Czech Republic. That leaves Andrew,
who has no German affiliation whatsoever – only a hope for one!
[Little known fact I learned
recently that I’ll bet you all didn’t know: that your very own cousin, Ray,
served in the Birmingham mission, and our Harborne Ward was one of his last
area. Crazy, huh! How ironic that Leah, and now me, have ended up here!]
Ollieism_ One wonderful moment when the Elders were there for dinner was when Oliver told them quite emphatically NOT to go out in the garden (like they were going to open the French door right up and go on out without being invited anyway!) as there was a dinosaur . . . and he didn't want them to disturb it. 'Oh, yeah?' they said, peering out. (Actually there WAS a dinosaur out there - the kind of toy you put in water and it grows and grows, you know the kind. He was worried they might take it out of its bath and ruin Christmas.)
Photos_
1- to go with today’s theme, saved from yesterday
at the park, ( . . . and that is NOT a small man: Leonberger, German cousin to
a St Bernard)
2- will the REAL David please stand up! (Elders Gorougi from Heideberg and Eckelt from Thames Mead)
