AHHHHHH! I love Temple Square. It is the best mission in the entire world hands down, end of conversation! I win. So it is awesome because I get to talk to people all day. Every 30 minutes or so we talk to new people, bear our testimonies, and ask if they have friends that need to hear the gospel or if they would like the missionaries to stop by. We make goals everyday for how many members to talk to and get potentials (potential referrals are when they give us names of friends) and goals of how many non-members we talk to/referrals we get. So many miracles happen everyday. Everyone we talk to is there for a reason. We also plan every night for each hour of the coming day, like at 9 a.m. we will be in the South Visitor Center and then we will take people on a tour to the Assembly Hall, then the Tabernacle, and then finish it off at the Christus. So we walk around the South Visitor Center for about 5-10 minutes and if no one wants a tour or no one is there then we will go to our back-up plan which is usually contacting people. We are on our feet 12 hours a day! First day I thought they fell off because they hurt sooo badly, but my companion, Sister Belleza from the Philippines (hence the Kumusta and Mabuhay above which means "hello"), said that I will get used to it. My companion is wonderful. Not that my last companion was bad but.... this companion is normal and HAPPY! We laugh all the time and everyone we give tours to says that we look really happy. So we tell them that if they listened to the missionaries they can be just as happy. My companion is so good at tying the most random stuff they say into gospel principles. At first I was really worried that we were being pushy but whenever she asked a second time or prodded them a little more they caved and asked for a referral card. So I am trying to be just as assertive. My biggest problem so far would be just getting the facts down. I also talk to people instead of tying in principles but once she told me to watch out for that I fixed it. Everything will still come with practice. I forget that I have only been here 3 days, and sometimes I get frustrated that I don't give tours as well as she does but then I remember oh yeah I have only been here one full day. But that doesn't mean anything to me; perfection will be attained I assure you.
But we mostly teach by the spirit. I have met so many different people already. We gave a tour to a retired Lutheran minister and a Baptist deacon and I held my own when it came to all the doctrines they were throwing out at me. I established that we all had the same basic beliefs (the minister was dead set on being saved by grace alone though so I figured I would talk about something else) but that we are unique because we have the restored gospel and with that restored truths that were lost and essential to return to God. Also that we have the authority. They weren't interested but while I was talking to them my companion was talking to the wives and re-inviting them to listen to the missionaries. They were more open but I think their husbands will ruin that. That's OK. They felt something and that is all that matters. A lot of times I was convinced that they were not interested but then they wanted a Book of Mormon!
The biggest issues we face here are that people hear about us and see that we don't practice polygamy; we don't eat children; we don't worship Joseph Smith and we believe in Jesus Christ. Then they say, "OK, you're just like us. So we don't need your religion" or "Every religion leads to good". So it's really important to tell them that they need the restored truths, that we have authority and the Book of Mormon. It's hard though. But if we teach by the spirit then he tells us what to say and hopefully the spirit will open their hearts. We just provide the opportunity for others to feel the spirit.
Yep, the gay community had a demonstration at Temple Square. I am not sure if it was just because it was my first day or because they didn't want us to get involved with anything but it seemed like a lot of Sisters came home early that night and we just unpacked and cooked dinner. The rest of my first day consisted with us meeting the mission president, getting filled in with our new credit cards, security cards and getting the awesome name tags. Oh, by the way every American here is from California so I am not special. And I see someone I know at least once a day. I saw Eric Taylor walking to school yesterday but he didn't see me. I met a couple from Pomona who knows Mom and Dad. They shop at Ensign Books all the time. The guy's first name is "South", true story.
Anyway, to answer all questions and rumors about Temple Square: We go on our outbound sometime in the middle of our mission. We find out if/where we go two days before we leave; same with companions. We all live in an apartment complex, each are equipped with our own kitchen, bathroom and washer/dryer. We eat breakfast at home and then pack lunch and dinner. We get up to work out at 6:30 a.m., have one hour to get ready (because we need to look good), and an hour of personal or companion study before we hit the Square. We work all day and have a half hour for lunch and dinner. At 9 p.m. we go home to plan our day. My companion is amazing. She is on the ball and I don't know what I am doing yet so she helps me out a ton.
Keep me updated with life. I am going to work hard I promise!
Sister Nelson
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