Fruitcake (Photo credit: rayb777)
I was checking on some figures today, I think you should all check this out. This is the 217th day of the year. Today I reached my 499th Twitter follower. This is my 287th post. Is this all a coincidence? I’ll let you be the judge of that. You know what all of these add up to? 1003. You know what that means? Absolutely Nothing. I just wanted everyone to see how much of a fruit cake I can be. Does anyone else look at stuff like this? Wait a second. I have 74 “likes” on my Facebook page. That brings it to 1077. Divide that by three and you get 359. Ah, you know what that is……….nothing again!!
I like doing “number” post. But I guess I’m geek nerd smart like that. I’m not sure where this came from. It just showed up outta nowhere back in the eight grade. Halfway through the year the teacher introduced a “x” into our mathematics and everything just fell into place. It’s pretty fitting, seeing how my Faddah is a retired accountant, and my Muddah has been a buyer for much of her working life. I alluded in a comment the other day that I was basically raised by hippies. You know, peace, love, dope cat nip. This is about half-true. Half true in a sense that one will own that status and the other will be kind of embarrassed by it. I’m not going to tell you which is which. Anyway, this is the reason that I have many of the viewpoints on life, that I have. That’s about all I have to say about that, for now.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; ~ 2 Timothy 3: 14
I’ve just found out that BOTH Missionaries are going to be transferred out of here next week. And, no one is coming to take there place for another six weeks. On one hand I’m going to have a little bit of free time. On the other hand, what am I going to do? This is going to be weird. I’ve been in contact with Missionaries almost everyday for the last year. I hope this six weeks go by as quick as they need to.
If your ward can’t keep you busy, come to our ward. Boy oh boy, are there members, less active members, and not members (civilians?) who need visiting!
Ah, note to self. Next time you have a bit of free time don’t brag about it.
At least, don’t brag to another Latter-day Saint! I used to have spare time — then I joined the church…
How are things organized, Brother Jon, are missionaries assigned to wards for a certain amount of time only, and then they move on? Is your role as a liaison between the people of the ward and the visiting missionaries? Sorry if you’ve already written about this, I’m a relative newbie to your blog.
I’d be a relative newbie also, but my relatives aren’t here. Nonetheless, I shall answer your question so that it may be answered in a much more humorous manner than Jon would have. Probably.
Yup, the full-time missionaries (the ones who have left home and security and are spending their own money to go where the Lord calls them and pay their own expenses – which is why families volunteer to feed them) get transferred from ward to ward — sometimes from stake to stake, even. As long as they stay in the same mission area. Said area is based on how many active LDS are available to help out. An area with a low LDS population would cover a larger area per missionary. The entire state of Massachusetts might be one mission area, whereas a mission area in Utah might be a block or two. In Samoa, it might be someone’s back yard.
I once knew how long a missionary tended to stay in one ward’s area, but that seems to be random now or else I’m just not paying attention.
Jon, I’ve forgotten what your calling is, but I think it was ward missionary. Am I right? Madame Weebles (I love that name! I want an RPG character named “Madame Weebles!”) a ward missionary is a member in the local ward who is called to do actively do mission work, whether with or without the full-time missionaries. As with them, no pay, just glory.
Thanks, Grandpachet! I know very little about the LDS church so this is helpful. I didn’t know that full-time missionaries pay their own way. Wow. And I had no idea there was such a large LDS population in Samoa.
Won’t let me directly reply to Madame Weebles’s post about my post about her post. Just wanted to say that Large Samoan is a redundancy. Had a Samoan sergeant for my home teaching companion in Alaska, and he was typically Samoan HUGE. I let him knock on the doors, because I knew they’d hear HIS fist — even if they were away from home.
Oh, by the way. “Organized” might be too strong a word for us. To (slightly) paraphrase J. Golden Kimball, “the church must be true, or we’d have messed it up a long time ago.”
Thanks Gramps! Let me see if I can answer more more specifically about our Ward, and this particular “Mission” that the Missionaries are on. Like Gramps said I’ve been called as a Ward Missionary, and he explained round about what my duties are within that calling. When first called I was asked to check into doing Missionary work online, that is where this blog first came from. It’s grown to be so much more than that now, and I’m pleased with it. Some of the other things I do is help fellowship investigators, which basically means befriend them and help answer questions if necessary. One of the main things would be to accompany them to Church and sit with them, so they might feel more comfortable. If the Missionaries need a ride, and I’m available, I will help them out. If they are to teach a single sister (woman) they need to have a third person there (And I think this needs to be a male) so I come into the picture on these occasions also. (This is nice when they are being fed. I talked about free food before.) Sometimes if I have some spare time I’ll accompany them to a lesson they have. I did this the other day and it was really something else. You don’t know how much you really know until you’re put in those situations. It was great to help teach with them.
Alright, the Missionaries we see are part of the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. This covers North East Oklahoma, South East Kansas, South West Missouri, and North West Arkansas. Each “Transfer” last six weeks, so at the end of each six weeks they have a potential to move on to some place else. I don’t really know how many Missionaries there are serving in this mission, but the numbers have just so happened to drop this transfer, and that is why we will be without for at least one transfer. There are ten Missionaries that are coming off of there missions (two years worth) and only six are entering this specific Mission field. Each area has at least two Missionaries, and some have four, depending on the size of the area, I think. It was decided that our Ward would be one of the Wards that could maintain for the time being. (I happen to think we have a pretty strong membership). Let me see, one of the guys leaving has been here for around seven and a half months, which is a big chunk out of a two year mission.
There just happened to be some new “callings” today, so I’m anxious to see if some other things will get changed to help us with not having full-time Missionaries for the next (at least, maybe longer) six weeks. These callings were going to happen anyway, as we just found out about the Missionary thing last night. I hope there is an answer in there somewhere. Thanks for asking. Let me know if I need to clear anything up.
There are plenty of answers in there, so thank you very much. And now I’m thinking of buttered noodles again, too.
Mmmmm….even though I just finished a $1 pizza, now I can’t get buttered noodles out of my mind either!
Durn yer hide, Brer Jon!
Sorry about that. They are good though, aren’t they?
Fruit cake is gross…for the record.
Yes, I have to agree.
Then one should not eat fruitcake for the record. Or the CD or mp3. My wife loves fruitcake, and I can tolerate a slice if it has lotsa nuts in it.
I would have never thought to add all those numbers up! Bravo! 499 twitter followers? I would pay for that many! Good for you!
Thanks, now at 501….I’ll send some your way.