April 12th Week 27 - Melodies and Meadows Layton Utah Week 17 (T5)
(Another side note! I'll be performing again this Sunday - twice!
Orchards Ward - 9:00am MST/ 8:00am PST - In Humility, Our Savior [arranged and performed by my companions and I, including two verses we wrote ourselves!]
Canyon View Ward - 11:00am MST / 10:00am PST - Missionary Medley, self-arranged
You can access the broadcasts through the Farmington North stake broadcast landing - http://mywebcast.
Holy cow, it's been busy. Like, ridiculously busy. So much has happened in such a short time, it's felt like a month has passed in seven days. One of those kinds of weeks.
But I guess I'll start with the biggest news.
This week was emergency transfers! One of our zone leaders received their call back to Peru about a month ago, and has been gearing up to go for a while. This past Thursday, it finally happened. And as such, a little bit of a zone leader vacancy was created...
...and who better to get that than Elder Cope?
Seriously, he deserves it. The amount of work and effort the puts into every single district council, every single lesson - it's amazing. And it's all because he has such an immense love for the people he serves and the people he's over. And so, as such, when we learned that our zone leader was going to be transferring over back to Peru, I immediately knew who it was going to be.
He denied it every single time I joked about it.
But now that Elder Cope has transferred areas, there's not a vacancy within my are,a now! So what ended up happening is the e time has come that the Farmington Noth stake was to be combined!
There have previously been two Elders - or rather, two sets of Elders - that were serving in the Stake. Now that there's a vacancy, they're recombining the stake to one set of elders, and I've joined the other companionship in a trio of Elders. It's really exciting - and they're both amazing! Elder Thompson and Elder Caryotakis and I spent the past couple of days adjusting to the doubling of size of our areas, and have really worked on making sure we're able to help as many people as we can in the meantime. We've set up an insubordinate amount of lessons and service opportunities (including six hours of service on Saturday because of the Farmington spring cleanup-pickup!) and a ton of inspired walks. It's exciting to see what'll happen in the future!
Already, the unity that we have is consecrated by the Lord - I know that .We're making the same references and jokes, and even walking in step most of the time. It's... kind of creepy, to be honest. But what's even more interesting is that we're sort of quickly becoming known as the musical elders... and the stake is taking full advantage of that, apparently.
No complaints here - it's fun to get these things ready and to perform them!
As such, like I mentioned at the beginning of the letter, there'll be two opportunities to hear us next Sunday:
In OIrchards, we'll be singing performing "In Humility, Our Savior" (including an added two verses we wrote together!), and in Canyon View, I'll be performing a Medley of missionary songs for one of the missionary departures. It's... really busy. But that was fun!
Speaking of music, one of the first teaching opportunities we had was to teach a baptism lesson to one of the children turning eight. Within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, baptism does not occur until the child is old enough and chooses to be baptized. As such, we typically wait until they are old enough to make that decision - about eight years old. We had the privilege of teaching a young girl named Hannah about baptism - she had just recently turned eight, and was excited to be baptized! We taught her a little more than what she already knew (her parents did a really gootd job of teaching her what everything meant!) including how we can continue to remember the covenants - or promises - we make at baptism, and what we receive in return. She soaked it in like a sponge - and answered all of our questions and found herself learning a ton! That's one of the coolest things about teaching someone willing to learn - through asking questions, you can help them come to a conclusion themselves, and really help them to see why it's important!
After the lesson, I noticed a piano that they had in their living room - and they asked if I played at all. I quietly admitted that I did, and that the other elders had amazing voices, too! So we sang "When I Am Baptized" - one of the children's songs in our church - and it was a lot of fun!
We got a call later that evening, and apparently Hannah had asked if we could sing that again at her baptism. We were honored.
And what an amazing baptism that was! To see the amount of love her father had for her as he administered the ordinance, the loving and tender care her mother showed to her, her siblings supporting her... it was wonderful to see. So much joy was exhibited there at that moment - it was an honor to be able to perform there!
...The next Sunday, we got a text. Apparently, Hannah's family had mentioned to their bishop that they were really thankful we were able to be there - and that it meant a lot to themm. We should be the ones saying that, first of all! But Bishop texted us... and asked if we could perform this following sunday. So that's the performance on In Humility, Our Savior in the Orchards Ward.
We then got a request from the Canyon View Ward's bishop to perform in their ward, as well... so we're pretty packed now. We'll find time to practice somehow... but finding people to share the Gospel with is our main priority!
We're continuing to serve and teach wherever we can - and we're trying to become the missionaries the Savior wants for us With music in our hearts and the winds of spring in our souls, we're continuing to move forward and helping all those that we can around us.
To hear that we had been able to touch others' hearts through our music... brings me a joy I can't quite explain. Especially because during that baptism in particular, everything I played was dedicated to her, of course - it's her special day! And to hear that she enjoyed it - and for her to come up and say, "Thank you for playing!" It's inexcplicable. There's nothing quite like touching someone's life through that - after all, music has the power to heal wounds deeper than the eye can see, and fill hearts sometimes even better than words alone can!
I feel as Ammon after his brothers had returned from the land of the Lamanites, where he exclaimed, "Therefore, let us glory! Yea, we will glory in the Lord - yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full. Yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of His great power, and of His mercy, and of His long-suffering towards the children of when? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel!" (Alma 26:16) Being able to help people to find peace, comfort, and joy - through music, through service, through teaching them - it brings such joy that I can't quite explain. It's wonderful - and I'm so excited to be able to continue to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!
Here's to the future - song in our hearts, wind at our backs, and the love the Lord within our spirits!
Take care, everyone - you all are amazing! Cheers!
Elder Decker
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