Week 87 - "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

Hey, everyone!

So this week has been pretty awesome, to be honest. Well, it's sort of been a whirlwind of emotions and stuff, but it's been good. overall, it's been one of the best weeks of my mission.

OK, so the reason for the subject line is the main reason this week was awesome. We got to go to the temple. We'll be able to go this week, too, but for a different purpose.

To explain, like I said in my last email, we had been asked to help move some furniture in the temple, with the understanding that because of the dangers regarding COVID-19, the areas in which we receive ordinances in the temple needed to be re-staged. But what I didn't realize was that it wasn't just about moving furniture: The temple is being remodeled very soon, and it's only opening up for a short, three-week period so people can receive the initiatory ordinance and the endowment live for themselves (some of the people who will be doing that for the first time, by the way, are missionaries who are already in the field and have not yet received their endowment, which is awesome. I wonder what it feels like to be a missionary without that endowment of power, and what it will feel like after they receive it). Anyhow, because of the remodel, there were a lot of materials and items and so forth that needed to be removed from the temple, which is what we were there to help with the most. The temple engineer was the one who asked us to help him (Brother Shattuck was his name, and he's awesome). So instead of taking us into the front of the temple, he took us to the side and led us behind a little wall and past an A/C unit and into a door on the side of the temple (the door, by the way, was covered with a facade of the same exterior as the rest of the temple, so it was almost like a little secret door). We went in, and there was a black, metal spiral staircase that led up to the rafters above the hallways, and that's where we did most of our work. The area was filled with racks of things like wallpaper, carpet and other materials ready in case things in the temple were damaged and needed to be replaced. There were just rolls of that sort of stuff on the racks. So we gathered that stuff and sort of made an assembly line shuttling it out to the moving van that we had taken Brother Shattuck to get earlier. Elder Hoffman disassembled many of the racks, and we took those out in pieces as well. Meanwhile Brother Shattuck started staging areas inside and took the extra chairs and so forth that would not be needed and the other things for proxy ordinances that he could remove and put them in the hallway next to a door that led to the room with the spiral staircase. So we grabbed that stuff and took it out to the van as well. It felt weird. We were all in street clothes and stuff, so it felt a little odd, but at the same time, we were doing a work for the Lord, so it didn't feel that odd. I guess it felt kind of weird taking the wallpaper and the carpet and the chairs and stuff--the kinds of things that are really quality craftsmanship and that sort of connote the temple in my mind, out to a moving van. Above the rafters there was also a section you could climb up to be a ladder where there was another rack and more materials, so we had to take those down to the rafters and then down to the first floor and then out to the moving van. So it was a fair amount of work, but we had all three OSU companionships and the Greenfield elders there. There was also a server room up there that's cooled to 65 degrees that Brother Shattuck apparently sometimes comes to take a nap in when he needs to take a break from work (I guess church sleep is the best sleep. :)) But it was super cool. And then after that he took us out to Subway, and it was a good time. He also invited us to pray while we were there, and it was really special. It was a special experience to be in the temple, in a sacred place, and pray. You could feel that it was special. I had a lot of thoughts that helped me understand some things that are important to me, too. The temple is a sacred place, and the blessings it affords us area real. But anyway, BEFORE we did all that, when we first arrived, Brother Shattuck started showing us around, and we got to that upper floor above the rafters with the server room, and we saw some hatches, and I asked if they led to the roof, and he was like, "Yeah. Wanna see?" So he took us out to the roof, and we stood on the roof of the temple. We took a picture. I've attached it. It was pretty awesome. The next day we did the same kind of work, but we brought Madison Lake (Elder Jones and Elder Wallentine) and Hilliard 1 (Elder Schwebach and Elder Parkinson) instead of Greenfield (Elder Bond and Elder Peterson) that day. Then Brother Shattuck brought us Chik-fil-a. We had to take all kinds of stuff out of the building. In addition to those rolls of materials, there were boxes of construction materials, some very special curtains (which were a lot of fabric and pretty heavy), a couple of motors (replacements in case anything broke), and boxes of other construction materials. But we got it all done. And then Brother Shattuck took the elders to get lunch while Elder Timothy and I joined a mini-MLC to talk about... restrictions being lifted! So on Tuesday night we had a last-minute devotional in which President Horgesheimer told us that we were moving out of "Red phase" and into "Phase 1." In short, what that means is that we are no longer in social isolation (yay...). Everything is allowed again, but under certain conditions. We have to be wearing a mask when we are around people who do not live with us. We have to stay 6 feet apart from people we are teaching, AND we have to wear a mask. We have to wipe down any surfaces we touch at church buildings when we use them (which we are encouraged to do for teaching appointments and so forth), and we are discouraged from tracting, at least for now. Street contacting is a go, however, though we've had some mixed experiences with that. A fair amount of good, actually some really cool miracles, but also some weird. So we talked about that and how a missionary schedule should look now. President said he still wants us doing 2-3 hours of work on our devices like Facebook and Area Book every day, which is cool. We're also still doing service and all that, and we are killing it as far as service goes. We've put in over 200 man-hours (actually, it might be more than that) of service since it was announced about 2 or 3 weeks ago. And we're basically in a competition with other missions to see if we can serve the most hours--at least, that's what President says. So that's cool. Part of our service is going to be in the temple this week. We'll be cleaning and sanitizing. Basically, as I understand it, we'll be following those who are receiving their initiatory and endowment and so forth and just sanitizing the places they make contact with. So we may be able to participate in the endowment in a very loose sense. We won't be doing anything by proxy, probably, but we'll still be able to participate in the presentation, being in the room and so forth. It will be cool.

What else happened this week? I had a great training visit with an elder who has never done street contacting before and was really nervous about it. I basically told him everything I had learned over the past 18 months that has helped me, or almost everything--everything I could remember at that time. He seems a lot like me, so I felt it would help, and it seems like it did. I think I helped him understand some truths about street contacting that make it easier. A lot of those things are still things I'm learning myself. I have the theory, but not very much of the practice.

What else? We got to visit the office and schedule some service on their computer, so we got to see Elder Bower. That was cool. We got to create a cool video with Elder Carter and Elder Abney that they came up with. It'll probably appear on the page soon. We've had some good lessons with people. We got a lesson with Nohemi, and a member of the ward who we really like, Janvi, was there, so that was cool. She'll probably be joining us for some lessons in the future. Oh! Elder Timothy and Elder Wallentine (we were on training visits) also met a guy at the UDF near the institute who has met with missionaries before but lost his copy of The Book of Mormon, and he wanted another one! It was awesome! He's now a person being taught! They also had a cool miracle where they handed a card to a woman who was running by, and she just kind of took it and ran off, but then she ran back up to them and was like, "Why are you guys Mormon?" She has a friend who is a member, and had some questions. So now she's being taught, too!

Today we had some weirder experiences. We taught a woman who definitely had some mental issues. It was weird to see a real person acting the way I've only seen people act on TV. And there wasn't really anything explicit in her way of speaking that was a huge red flag, it was just the content of her speech. She said a lot of weird things. It was sad. I want to know how to help people like that, but I don't feel equipped to help them right now. And there are more and more homeless now, and I don't know how to help those who are homeless because of mental issues, nor those who are homeless simply because of the current circumstance. It's a little tough to pass by those who you want to help. I wish there were more ways that we could help. I sort of wish the church had a more universal program to help somehow. Maybe they do, and I just don't know about it. I don't know.

I'm going to be posting, "The Arts and the Spirit of the Lord" by Boyd K. Packer this week. Look it up and read it--it's a BYU devotional. It talks about the importance of our artistic talents and how we can use them. I think it's especially pertinent now.

I love you, and I hope you are all well!

Elder Davis

Us at the temple.