Before my loyal fans get too angry, I waited this long to write another entry in this blog on purpose. A lot of changes have taken place in the last month, and I wanted them to all be finished before I told anyone the whole story. That way I could be absolutely certain that I wouldn't spill the beans on anything. I've found that if I tell stories any sooner, I have a nasty tendency to forget which parts I could and couldn't talk about. Curse my old age!
To understand the whole story, you need to know that this mission has changed a great deal since I first got here. When I first got here, we didn't have curfews or rules about computers or anything like that. For the first month or two of my mission, I was allowed to be on Facebook on the computer that I brought with me on the internet connection that I had in my apartment without anyone thinking anything of it. While those changed over time, I was still allowed to have a computer and the internet because I used them both for my work in the zone and form my calling. Another thing you need to know about is my calling history. Within a month of my arrival here on the mission, I was called to be the secretary in the elders quorum. A few months later, I was called as 2nd Counselor, and in December I was called as president. I've had that calling ever since. We were beginning to get so many elders, though, that it was getting to be very difficult to actually get to know everyone in the quorum with the amazingly busy schedule that missionaries keep. I felt that to best serve the needs of the elders, we needed to split the quorum. I spoke to the branch president, and he agreed. That conversation took place the first week of October, and we had spent the better part of that month trying to get it done.
The first week of this month turned a lot of things upside down for me. The hectic weekend started with a knock on the door. It was the couple over the young missionaries here on this mission. They told me that the mission president was revoking my exemption to the computer rule and that I needed to send my laptop home. I, while slightly confused, simply told them, "Okay." When they had left, I shut the door and sat down. While the work I was doing for my mission assignment on the computer had for the most part dried up, I was still using it constantly for my calling. My confusion didn't last long, as thirty seconds later I got a phone call. It was the branch president telling me that they were finally going to be able to split the quorum and that they were looking at splitting it on the 22nd, but that after discussing it with the mission and stake presidents, it was time for me to be released. This came as a bit of a shock. I had been in that presidency since almost the moment I got here. I figured that there must have been a good reason for my dismissal if all the leaders agreed on it, so I decided to just take it in stride and just finish out working as hard as I was first put in.
The following Monday, I went to a devotional at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. After the devotional, the mission president, President Simmons, called me into his office for a quick interview. There he assigned me to be the new assistant to the president (AP). In a lot of missions, that means a lot. Here, however, it hasn't meant a great deal of anything. Up until now, it has basically turned you into an extra secretary. That is not the vision that President has, though. He is going to turn the AP position into something that it has never been before. While he wasn't sure what exactly he was going to have us be doing more than our predecessor Elder Bergmark, he simply knew that it would be more.
That was a few weeks ago. Yesterday they split the quorum. I am in the First Quorum of Elders with the presidency being made up of, in order, Elders Cowdell, Squire, and Shipton. The presidency of the second quorum consists of Elders McMurtry, Cox, and Uta'i. Today was my first day training with the other new AP (Elder Dean) over in the mission office. I figure that there isn't really much else to give away at this point!
One other exciting thing happened this weekend. Last Saturday was the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music Concert. Being the classical music lover that I am, this is probably my favorite concert of the year. I like it even more than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. For those of you who have never heard of the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music Concert, it is a performance put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Symphony, and almost always some guest performers. This time, it happened to be in the Tabernacle. The two guest soloists were a soprano and a mezzo-soprano that were very nice (and that of course about ten people have heard of). The guest of honor this time was really former Utah Symphony conductor Keith Lockhart. The man truly is a master artist. I was very lucky to get a ticket this time (I intercepted a senior missionary on her way to give it to someone else), and I am so glad that I went! They put on a performance of Mahler's 2nd Symphony "Resurrection" that was so good, it almost made me weep. I'd never heard the piece before, but it is now one of my all-time favorites. I recommend it to everyone. The title of this post comes from the lyrics of the fifth movement and means "Prepare yourself to live." After that performance, I think that I might have to do just that!
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