Don't worry be happy, now...
Church was really good today...and interesting at the same time. The schedule is 3-2-1 here, so we start with Relief Society. The sister missionaries in the area talked about how to prepare for missionary opportunities and how to share the gospel. They did a great job and I was really inspired to be a better missionary. On June 17th and 18th, Gladys Knight and the One Voice choir are putting on a fireside at 5pm & 8pm each night. Today I got 4 tickets for the Sat. 5pm performance. It's a missionary opportunity and we've been asked to bring non-members and guests. Holly Glazebrook will also be in town then. A guy that she and I grew up with (Mike Martin), happens to live here in New York now, so I'm going to ask him to go with us. There's also a guy who works at the I-House named Ton (like "wonton") who has met all of the BYU interns by now. Everytime we go to the cafeteria he is in there meeting someone new, learning something new from someone. He shows genuine interest in everyone and has a notebook full of things that he has learned from each individual person. He's a really cool guy and has taken the time to learn each person's name. I'm sure by now he knows all of the interns because I have yet to find someone who doesn't know him. So, I'm going to ask him when I see him next.
In Sunday School a guy named Bill gave a great lesson about Samuel and Eli. He taught about preparing ourselves to hear the voice of the Lord when he calls and then acting upon the promptings. It was really good. Testimony meeting was great today, too. Although, there were some interesting comments shared, particularly one girl who stood up and told everyone that she was a "cutter" and that's why she always wore long sleeves, to hide her scars. That was interesting. But apparently she's on her way to loving herself. There was also a Tongan visiting NYC for the first time who came to our ward. He's the father of 6 and now lives in Provo, but was so excited to share his testimony in New York. I didn't even realize the time, but the meeting had gone over by 15 minutes. The Bishop was gone and the counselors had stopped paying attention and were getting restless. The whole situation was handled very, very poorly as one of the counselors began rolling his eyes and laughing because the man kept going on. It was so distracting! This man was pouring out his heart with a sincere testimony and the counselors were becoming impatient with him, when there was no other ward that met after us. As the man was closing his testimony...literally saying "I share these things with you, in the..." one of the counselors stood up, and said he needed to close up. I'm fairly certain the man was offended and in all honesty it made the counselor look stupid. He obviously wasn't listening or else he would have known that he was closing at that very moment. Both of the counselors are young, like their mid 20's so I'll just have to give that as their excuse. I was sure to thank the brother afterwards for his testimony to let him know it was appreciated. I was just sad to see the counselors handle the situation so poorly and then stay afterwards just talking to the members when the meeting was done. The lessons people learn.
The trains have been running really weird all weekend so we waited for quite a while before catching a train home. We got back around 5:30pm and then I began to check some email. I got one from an old roommate that made me really sad...for her. She's struggled allowing people to love her and to be happy and this email was her way of telling me she never wanted to see me, hear from me or know of me again. And while it probably should have hurt me and I'm fairly certain that was its intent, it didn't. It made me sad for her. Sad that she was once again running away from anything that caused her a little discomfort or that required effort. It's a long story and one I don't want to go in to, but I spent 45 minutes writing what I hope was literally the most sincere, prayerful and thoughtful response I've ever sent anyone in my life. I hope that when she reads it, she reads it with as much heart as I intended it to be with. I guess we'll see.
Dinner was great tonight and they served mashed potatoes. I've been wanting mashed potatoes for like 3 weeks, so it was definitely heaven sent! On the way down to dinner tonight, Laurel met a guy named Mike who is studying pre-med at Columbia. He sat down to dinner with us and then we were joined by Sally, an older woman who has seriously traveled the world. Shortly there after, we were joined by another girl, but I can't remember her name. She was from a state near Russia and her voice reminded me of the movie Anastasia. It was a fun accent. Anyway, we had a great time talking to them and ended up spending almost 2 hours at dinner! Mike got Laurel's number and then we parted ways. She and I came back to my room for Oreos and games. Mike called her later tonight to ask her out to a Stomp concert on Wednesday night. She's really excited about it.
Lyndsey, Angela and Taylor got back from D.C. tonight. They had a great time and really enjoyed the city. I visited there in like 1994 and LOOOOOOVED it so I'm glad they had the opportunity to go down.
Well, I'm off to bed.
G'night.
-mk
In Sunday School a guy named Bill gave a great lesson about Samuel and Eli. He taught about preparing ourselves to hear the voice of the Lord when he calls and then acting upon the promptings. It was really good. Testimony meeting was great today, too. Although, there were some interesting comments shared, particularly one girl who stood up and told everyone that she was a "cutter" and that's why she always wore long sleeves, to hide her scars. That was interesting. But apparently she's on her way to loving herself. There was also a Tongan visiting NYC for the first time who came to our ward. He's the father of 6 and now lives in Provo, but was so excited to share his testimony in New York. I didn't even realize the time, but the meeting had gone over by 15 minutes. The Bishop was gone and the counselors had stopped paying attention and were getting restless. The whole situation was handled very, very poorly as one of the counselors began rolling his eyes and laughing because the man kept going on. It was so distracting! This man was pouring out his heart with a sincere testimony and the counselors were becoming impatient with him, when there was no other ward that met after us. As the man was closing his testimony...literally saying "I share these things with you, in the..." one of the counselors stood up, and said he needed to close up. I'm fairly certain the man was offended and in all honesty it made the counselor look stupid. He obviously wasn't listening or else he would have known that he was closing at that very moment. Both of the counselors are young, like their mid 20's so I'll just have to give that as their excuse. I was sure to thank the brother afterwards for his testimony to let him know it was appreciated. I was just sad to see the counselors handle the situation so poorly and then stay afterwards just talking to the members when the meeting was done. The lessons people learn.
The trains have been running really weird all weekend so we waited for quite a while before catching a train home. We got back around 5:30pm and then I began to check some email. I got one from an old roommate that made me really sad...for her. She's struggled allowing people to love her and to be happy and this email was her way of telling me she never wanted to see me, hear from me or know of me again. And while it probably should have hurt me and I'm fairly certain that was its intent, it didn't. It made me sad for her. Sad that she was once again running away from anything that caused her a little discomfort or that required effort. It's a long story and one I don't want to go in to, but I spent 45 minutes writing what I hope was literally the most sincere, prayerful and thoughtful response I've ever sent anyone in my life. I hope that when she reads it, she reads it with as much heart as I intended it to be with. I guess we'll see.
Dinner was great tonight and they served mashed potatoes. I've been wanting mashed potatoes for like 3 weeks, so it was definitely heaven sent! On the way down to dinner tonight, Laurel met a guy named Mike who is studying pre-med at Columbia. He sat down to dinner with us and then we were joined by Sally, an older woman who has seriously traveled the world. Shortly there after, we were joined by another girl, but I can't remember her name. She was from a state near Russia and her voice reminded me of the movie Anastasia. It was a fun accent. Anyway, we had a great time talking to them and ended up spending almost 2 hours at dinner! Mike got Laurel's number and then we parted ways. She and I came back to my room for Oreos and games. Mike called her later tonight to ask her out to a Stomp concert on Wednesday night. She's really excited about it.
Lyndsey, Angela and Taylor got back from D.C. tonight. They had a great time and really enjoyed the city. I visited there in like 1994 and LOOOOOOVED it so I'm glad they had the opportunity to go down.
Well, I'm off to bed.
G'night.
-mk
posted by Mauren at
10:22 PM
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