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Posts Tagged ‘mission’

This weekend my nephew will be giving a talk in church in his local ward in Portland Oregon.  I know that we aren’t supposed to label the talk as his “Mission Farewall” talk, but that is what it is.  It is the last talk he will give before leaving on his mission.

My nephew (who’s name I won’t state on this website without his permission), will be serving in the Moscow Russia mission.  He will need to learn Russian so he will have to spend 2 months in the MTC (mission training center) in Provo.  I don’t imagine that learning Russian will be any easy thing.  I guess it would be easier than learning Korean or Japanese.  At least Russian is within the realms of English.  Like a 2nd cousin once removed or something.

I have a pretty good idea of what he will be going through because I did it myself.  I spent 2 months in the MTC learning Spanish.  Now, I must state that I took 2 years of spanish in High School so I was probably a little more prepared to learn my language than my nephew who hasn’t had any Russian classes. (at least that I know about)

I wish my nephew well in his efforts to learn the Russian language and I know he will be a stong influence for good on his mission.  He is a confident and strong young man and I know he will do his best to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Russia.

Our prayers are with you and your family.

Last night our Council, the Snake River Council, had a Venturing Training meeting. All of the Venturing leaders and those associated with Venturing were invited to attend. We had people travel from all over the valley for this event. From Burley/Rupert area and from the Woodriver valley.

The key note speaker for the evening was Brad Harris. He was one of the main authors of the Venturing program so he really knows his stuff. He has also authored a book called, Trails to Testimony: Bringing Young Men to Christ Through Scouting .

He was an excellent speaker and really brought Venturing down to a level that everyone could understand. What is very interesting is that after he was released from the LDS Church’s Young Mens General Board last April, he was called to be the Young Mens President in his LDS home ward. Therefore, he was now tasked with the challenge of practicing what he has been preaching for so many years. It was very satisfying to hear that he was having the same issues and challenges at getting Venturing going in his Priest’s Quorum that I had when I was in that position. He has only had that calling for about 4 weeks now so I would be very interested to hear from him again in about a year so see how his little local program is doing.

I’ll be writing up my notes from this meeting this Sunday. I’ll take some of the highlights and share them with you on my blog. One of the best comments of the night was that Venturing was built and molded to help young men to prepare for LDS missions. If the program is run correctly, these young men will know how to plan, delegate and teach. All of which are key to a successful mission.

When I was young, my mother gave each of the kids an orange box. (Not a box that was the color orange but a box that usually came with oranges in it, you know, the ones with handles on the sides?). This box was then labeled “Treasure Box”. The box was used to hold all of your important documents and personal items. For example, after each school year, our report cards would be stored in our Treasure Box. Other items in our treasure boxes would be our baptismal certificate when we were baptized, our pictures taking during the year and any other important award we had won.

I loved my treasure box. I probably put more stuff in there than I needed to. I think I had some old post cards in there from some trip I went on. I have pictures of when we went to universal studios and was scared by the Incredible Hulk that ran into the audience. I really should go through my treasure box and pull out the stuff that doesn’t really mean anything to me. Now that I think about it, there is probably a Japanese or Chinese newspaper in there that my Grandpa gave me. I don’t know why he gave it to me, I just remember that it had really funny writing on it. It doesn’t mean much to me except that my Grandpa gave it to me.

Over the years, my treasure box has multiplied. I now have three treasure boxes. When I was over at my Mom’s house the other night, my mom gave me some pictures of me when I was little. She asked me, “Do you still have a Treasure Box?” “Of course I do”, I replied. When I got home, I ran downstairs and plopped my pictures into my box. The box has now matured and grown into a nice tupperware box with a sealed top. My two other boxes are simple boxes with mission stuff from when I served an LDS mission in Cali Colombia and Quito Ecuador. Another box has stuff from when I attended BYU and Utah State. It is always hard to get in and clean it out because all sorts of memories come flooding back to my mind and I end up wasting hours just looking through old pictures.

I guess in the mormon church we talk about keeping a journal, but I think it is also nice to have a box full of your favorite memories and pictures. Maybe I should take out the stuff in my treasure box every once in a while and show it to my kids. Maybe they will learn something from it. Maybe I’ll do it in a Family Home Evening.