From The Long White Cloud: WHICH, CHURCH SHALL I JOIN?

Some Pictures first:

These are just a few of the different denominations up here. We felt rather conspicuous driving around taking these pictures. But when I say just a few, I really mean it. Per capita, there are probably more Christians up here than the bible belt of the south and a lot more denominations. It seems as though anyone who has an OPINION about the gospel sets up his own church and gathers others around him or her. There are people standing on street corners with " Jesus Saves " cardboard signs all over the place. It has been so remindful to us of the religious fever Joseph Smith was faced with, when he found out from Heavenly Father not to join any of them and that through him the restoration was ushered in. I can't even begin to write all of my thoughts, impressions, and feelings on that subject. May it suffice for us to bare our testimonies on the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That through the charge of His Father, he established the only true church on the face of this planet. That through the power of direct revelation from God Himself to a chosen, called, and authorized prophet , even Joseph Smith, he has revealed the fullness of the gospel and ALL the saving ordinances therein. It is our profound testimony that dirct revelation exists to this day through the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator Thomas S. Monson. And through him and the quorum of the 12 all the keys of authority are held by mankind on this earth today.

OK, Alecia said I got a "little" preachy on that. You should have seen the next paragraph that she counseled me to drop. Lucky you, the readers, I do listen to her wise council . It was such a great sermon though.

This last week was transfer week. Dang, that was hard on us. We had to say goodbye to some we had grown to love like our own. BUT 4 more came in and we are getting to know them too. Hopefully we won't have to go through that again in this hemisphere! We taught our first lesson this week too. It was on the word of wisdom. They had picked a baptism date for the 8th, but had not been told by the ward missionaries that they had to have lived it for at least a week. It wasn't fun being the bearers of that news. After 2 1/2 hours we had them calmed down, gave them a P.H. blessing and gave it over to the Zone leaders. They had some weird docturnal beliefs we tried to work through, but that is going to take some time. Really anxious to see how that goes.

We also partially taught the plan of salvation to another investigator we are working with. This guy is a real character from NJ, was a truck driver for 30 years, has had three kinds of cancer, his wife of 37 years left him, his son has cancer, and he is trying to live on S.S. He is one of the most interesting men we have ever met, and has a gift of gab that is out of this world. He has been fighting depression really hard--REALLY. Love this man. Haven't told you half of his challenges. It is so amazing to feel Father's love for him.

Here we all are at the Stake President's home for transfers and instruction. The lesson was on service and a really moving church video was shown for reference for the missionaries to show in member homes and then turn into helping the family put together THEIR OWN mission plan. Alecia was so moved that she nudged me in the ribs in the back of the room and said, " Go with me on this." I had no idea were she was going and was suprised to hear her ask each missionary to bring any trousers, shirts, coats, that needed mending, AND all shoes that needed polishing and that we would take care of it at Wed's district training.

12 pairs of shoes