Wednesday, May 4, 2016 – Mission Training Meeting, Tulip beds pulled, Dirt

This morning we had our weekly mission-wide training meeting at 7:30am. This morning’s subject was on the “How can I Develop the Christ-like Attribute of Humility?” Wow, I need help with this one because it is so easy for me to be prideful. And being full of pride is just the opposite of being humble.

A point President Hall made during the training touched me very deeply. He said that this place we serve in (Nauvoo & Carthage) is full of the love, humility and tears of those faithful pioneers that came here before us. We honor their sacrifice and memory by showing humility in our service, recognizing that nothing we do here is of our own doing and that the Lords hand is in every aspect of our service here as missionaries. We can do nothing here if we are prideful, puffed up or arrogant. We can only work with the power of the Holy Ghost if we are contrite, obedient and submissive to the promptings of that Spirit. It was a very good training meeting.

After our training meeting we visited the “Women’s Garden” at the Visitor’s Center. The FM (Facilities Management) staff and Senior Missionaries were there tearing out all of the tulips and other flowers from the flower beds. This is only one of the 250 flower beds they have to do. It will take them a couple of weeks to finish the whole job. They will be out at Carthage with Sis. Johnson and I this Friday. 

One of the projects I needed to do at both the Visitor’s Center and at The Bushnell House is to level the lawns. There are several low spots that need filling in with dirt. While I was at FM this morning I asked my boss, Scott Higley, if I could get a load of dirt. He answered, “Dirt is what you get on your clothes, ‘Soil’ is what plants grow in.” So . . . I rephrased the question, “Can I get a load of soil?”  He was happy to fill our dump truck with a load of “Soil”.

 

Later in the morning Sis. Johnson and I spent the rest of our work day filling low spots and holes in the lawn at The Bushnell House. The visitor’s center only had one spot that needed a couple of shovels full.