The Blacks' Mission Report

The talk that I gave in Sacrament Meeting today was the condensed version of the following: Good afternoon, brothers and sisters.   I am truly grateful to stand at this pulpit today.   I am thankful for your interest in hearing me speak.   Some of my friends are here today as are some of my family.   Each has been a benefit to me and each has taught me much.     Today I can announce that there has been some new scripture discovered.   I'd like to read a passage from it. The book of Zelpha 11..    And it came to pass there was a young lady whose name was Zelpha, the daughter of Maxine.   She married a young man whose name was James, the son of Rey and together they raised 4 sons and 3 daughters. 22.    Behold, the things which she desired above all others was to be a loving wife and a nurturing mother to her children, which things she knew to be the things the Lord her God desired of her. 33.   ...

Merry Christmas! I think this is one of the greatest times to be alive when the prophecies of the 2nd coming are becoming more and more evident.  It seems to me that there are some similarities between the advent of the birth of Jesus and the advent of His 2nd Coming. The individuals who were familiar with ancient prophecies (and not just those found in the Old Testament) were anxiously awaiting the coming of the Messiah.  These people were not all Jewish or even of the House of Israel.  Some of them were Persian.  Prophets had been preaching of this great event for generations in both the old world and also on the American Continent. Even though prophets of told of the coming of Christ, they were ridiculed, cursed, tortured, and even put to death for their prophecies. And yet, even through all this persecution, the plan of our Heavenly Father could not be thwarted.  Jesus was born.  That event could not be stopped.  Who, in those da...

Our time is getting close.  We are only 15 days out from entering the MTC.  However a few things that have happened over the past week are worth mentioning. Today, after the Christmas program at Church, my beautiful Princess Bride and I were set apart as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving in the Texas Houston East Mission.  President Emerson Carnavale set us apart today because he will be out of town for the next two weeks and he will be heading to Washington City while we are heading to Salt Lake City. Most of our stuff has been placed into storage. Yesterday I made a rack to put over our couch so we could have a little more room in our storage container. We'll take our couch out to storage tomorrow and install the rack over it.  We'll take our dresser and chest of drawers at some point this week and then we'll be living out of suitcases until we pack the car.  We will empty out our kitchen by Saturday and get it into s...

The time is flying by way too quickly.  We are down to just 21 days until we report to the MTC.  AND only 14 days before we need to be out of our house.  And then we'll be homeless for a week before we report.  (We'll be staying with my sister for a week until our report date.) Over the past week we have been engaged in taking care of our pain management issues.  We'll complete all of that this week. Today we were privileged to work with the Temple Choir as it sang in the Stone Cliff Ward in St. George and in the Hurricane 14th Ward in Hurricane.  I feel so blessed to be able to wave a baton while these amazing singers sing songs of Praise to our Lord and Savior.  Sister Black was again the organist for these two events.  During the first event in the Stone Cliff Ward, Sister Black didn't have the right music for one of our pieces and I left the glasses that I generally need to read the music at home.  It didn't matter.  She remember...

We have 28 days until we report to the MTC.  We have been studying hard, reading much and learning Spanish (or at least Sister Black is learning Spanish). Since I last posted a blog entry we have done several things.  We have taken much of our belongings to storage.  The room that used to be my study is now a vacant room.  The garage, that used to be my tool and work room is pretty much empty now.  We have donated most of our food storage to families that can use it.  We have organized a place for our Piano to be and a person to use our bed, so we have not much big stuff left to store. Today we enjoyed a Temple Workers Christmas Devotional.  I was privileged to conduct the St. George Temple Choir and Sister Black was the organist for the choir and for the devotional.  The choir was perfect in the delivery of the music it has learned.  We had approximately 75 voices in the choir.  Many, many people congratulated me for the music, and ...