Elder Carston Mark Calder

  This last week we were privileged to go with our roommates to the Mission Office, for what will probably be my last time there. I felt like a tourist because I took a whole bunch of pictures.  The office secretary wasn't there and so Sister Lichlyter allowed me to fill in as the secretary while we were there (which was quite a while since we were stuck waiting for some other missionaries to turn in their car and then our roommate's TIWI driving system stopped working). I learned how to check in packages, use the label maker, restock the shelves, and order missionary tags. I was THIS CLOSE to ordering myself some American Sign Language tags, since of course I used to be ASL-assigned. But I decided that I probably shouldn't immediately begin to abuse my delegated powers so I managed to forbear. I got to sit at the desk when the Fire Marshall came in asking if he could talk to someone about beginning his inspection. You should have heard how official I sounded as I told him ...

  On Saturday we held our long-awaited community Easter Celebration. 3 of the 4 wards that meet in our building got together to put on an open house where visitors started out in the chapel and listened to different instrumental and choral numbers, and then were guided through the different rooms which depicted different scenes from Holy Week with a narrator talking about the scene and what Jesus did. My favorite was probably Jesus overturning the tables of the money-changers in the temple.  The last room had a paper-maché empty tomb with the stone rolled away, you could sit in one of the chairs provided and quietly feel the spirit of the room. After that they were sent into the cultural hall where there was a "Passover meal" (Naan bread, hummus, olives, nuts and dried figs) and a big wall of Jesus portraits. My favorite touch was how in baskets next to the water coolers were signs saying "everyone needs a little Jesus in their lives" and then a bunch of those littl...

 I  begin this email with some momentous news.  Many of you know the circumstances surrounding my mission call but I'll recount them briefly. When I was working on my mission papers everyone would ask me, as they do, "where do you want to go?"  During my time at BYU-Idaho, I noticed that most of the time when a prospective missionary would say that they wanted to go to such-and-such place or learn such-and-such language, or they DIDN'T want to go to one particular place or speak a language, they would usually get the *opposite* of what they wanted.  You maybe be aware of my passion for foreign cultures, geography, nations, history etc. I decided that if I was to get what I truly wanted- to go to a far-off country and learn a foreign language- I would need to be smarter than all the other missionaries. I would need to game the system. So, when asked, I would tell people "Oh, I don't know. I don't have any particular preference." Which was partially tr...

  I've been continuing in my study of the Book of Mormon. I got to Mosiah 18 today, which is one of the most well-known and frequently used chapters in the Book of Mormon by missionaries because it talks about the covenant of baptism and why somebody would want to be baptized.  It was neat to read this chapter that I have read many times before under a new lens, trying to relate it to myself. Alma names a number of things that we might want, that we can obtain by being baptized. To enter into the fold of God and become His people, to be redeemed, to arise in the first resurrection, to have eternal life. I want all of those things for myself, and the conditions of the covenant that Alma stipulates are not grievous either. Being willing to look outside yourself and serve God and other people, keep His commandments, and always stand as a witness of Him.  I came to the conclusion that, even if I hadn't been baptized at this point of my life, I would want to be now because tha...

I n personal study yesterday I felt a little more deeply why we would need a Savior. Before one even considers whether Jesus would be that Savior, it's a simple fact that everyone everywhere will eventually die. Nobody has been or (I believe) will ever be able to cure death, so we are helpless to stop it. We need something or someone to Save us from death.  Also, all of us feel miserable and alone at least sometimes. We are taught that God is the ultimate (and only) source of light and joy in the universe (evidenced by how unhappy we feel when we try to find happiness in other things). We cannot feel happy unless we approach His presence. Since we are not now presently in the presence of God-  which we know by the fact that we don't see Him face to face- and have no way of changing that on our own, it would naturally follow that we need something or someone else to fix that for us.  Of course you can just choose to believe that there is no solution to death or unhappiness...