The Doctrine of Belonging

 From Elder D. Todd Christopherson's last General Conference talk: 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its early beginnings was made up largely of white North American and northern European Saints with a relative handful of Native Americans, African Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Now, eight years away from the 200th anniversary of its founding, the Church has greatly increased in numbers and diversity in North America and even more so in the rest of the world.

As the long-prophesied latter-day gathering of the Lord’s covenant people gains momentum, the Church will truly be composed of members from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.¹ This is not a calculated or forced diversity but a naturally occurring phenomenon that we would expect, recognizing that the gospel net gathers from every nation and every people.

This was certainly obvious on Sunday when we were invited to speak in Sacrament Meeting and Ward Council in the Jamaica 1st Ward.

The Relief Society meeting Olivia attended honored
the women who had birthdays in January.

The Relief Society studied Elder Christopherson's talk and as they did so, Olivia looked around the room and found that she was the only white person there. When she raised her and and pointed that out, the women thought it was hilarious, and so did she. Nobody seemed to notice prior to that; and nobody really thought anything of it.

Jamaica is in the southeast corner of Queens. Queens is known for having approximately 130 languages and, according to the most recent census, 47.2% of it residents were born outside the US. The ward membership is representative of the borough's population. The ward has a large number of Haitian Creole speaking members. A new convert who was sustained to receive the Aaronic priesthood last week was not able to attend, so he was ordained in Priesthood Meeting yesterday. He is from India. His son was ordained a deacon and helped with the sacrament on Sunday. The bishop noted that next Sunday, father and son will pass the sacrament together. There is a separate Jamaica ward that is Spanish speaking. It is at least as large as the ward we attended.

We were also asked to give a 20 minute presentation to the ward council. I might have exceeded the 20 minutes allotted, but no one left, so I think it turned out OK. I took most of the time, because I used the PowerPoint and Olivia is nervous about using it. She did contribute along the way, which is always appreciated by me and the audience. We both pointed out that if a unit of the Church is serious about retention, it has to be serious about Self Reliance. I think it was well received.

We had an opportunity to have brother Chris George, our Area Manager, come into the City, insead of meeting on Zoom, for our meeting this week. He needed to review the newly reopened Employment Center in Union Square, so he met with us and with Elder and Sister Packer together. The Packers have a different manager, but the areas crossover enough that it was good to meet with us together.

We met for lunch at Max Brenner's Chocolate Restaurant at Union Square. Yes, chocolate restaurant. We only had their excellent lunches and a little taste of the Irish Hot Chocolate (not like Irish coffee, which is alcoholic). Our waiter told us it was his favorite and that he drank it so much that when he works out, he smells like chocolate. Brother George bought chocolate syringes for his family. The Packers have eaten there so much that they have tried all the cookies and pastries, as well. We'll be back.

A great lunch. The women needed carry-out boxes.
I carry a natural box to store food (unfortunately).

On our way to the Employment Center. A very
wet day.

 

We got to spend another day with the Packers this week. On Saturday, we were supposed to join our grandson, Dallin, for a tour of the One World Observatory. The One World Trade Center is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in lower Manhattan. It rises above the museum and reflecting ponds of the destroyed buildings and is the tallest building in the United States; the 7th tallest in the world. The Observatory is at the top. Olivia was not fond of the idea of being up that high, but was quite comfortable once we arrived. Dallin was not able to get off work, so his sister, Abby, who purchased a ticket for him sent it to us and Sister Packer was able to use it. Elder Packer bought another.

The shore with all its lights and the
Statue of Liberty in the foreground.

Brooklyn Bridge with the Woolworth building. The
Manhattan Bridge is further back.

We got to have an electronic tablet that identified
some of the landmarks we were looking at.

We had hoped to get there about sunset
but didn't quite make it. Still plenty
of light, but dark enough to see the tail
lights of the cars in Manhattan.

Goldman Sachs and other buildings right on the
banks of the Hudson River.

A couple of ball fields right downtown.

Finally, we got an assignment to inspect the missionaries' apartments. We inspected those in our small district on Friday and Saturday. We have appointments to check four more this week. We felt like it was Old Home Week as we did so many of these inspections in our prior mission. It is fun to go into their apartments and help with advice and repairs. Here the apartments have superintendents who are responsible for major repairs. We saw very little of that in Sweden. We did most of the repairs there.

Elders Harris and Truman decided not
to put the Christmas tree away, because
they use it to store candy canes.

A former elder's wall decorations that
will go to recycle, now. Accumulated
in less than a transfer period (6 weeks).

They were pretty proud of the chairs 
they picked up off the street. There
are few thrift stores, and furniture is
a hassle to transport, so people just put
it out on the street for the garbage
truck to haul away.

Sometimes you live with things
that you probably ought to just toss;
like this old area rug that catches the
wheels on the study chairs every day.

Well, we are off to another week of adventures. Today, we will start working with people needing employment on our own. We still have a couple of classes or observations to participate in, but the Packers think we are ready, so we see two candidates this afternoon. Thanks to everyone for your faithful attention. We do love what we are doing and are anxious to get going with the calls today. We wish you all the best. We appreciate your prayers on behalf of the missionaries - they are needed.