Elder Carston Mark Calder

This week I made time to study the Old Testament. I have learned a lot in the last few days about the history of Judah and Israel, and how terrible their kings were after the death of Solomon. I've gotten all the way to the end of 1 Kings, 506 pages in. I've 677 pages more before I get to the beginning of the New Testament (the OT is 1184 pages total). The Book of Mormon is only 531 pages.  It has been quite enjoyable learning all of these Biblical stories I'd never heard before, and re-reading those that I'd only ever seen in my childhood illustrated kids' Bible. My new favorite Prophet is Elijah, who is quite possibly the biggest Gigachad to ever exist. I delight in his ruthlessness, unwavering faith, and absolute lack of fear in the face of ridiculous odds ("I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts"). I remembered hearing the story of how Elijah proposes a contest with the priests of Ba'al, where they each pray over their offerings on thei...

There were a lot of meetings this week due to having both General Conference and Zone Conference. As a result our missionary work suffered a little bit and I don't have much to report, but we had an enjoyable time and I wrote down a lot of notes.  Will I ever look at those notes? ...perhaps not.  But I have been making a conscious effort of trying to take better notes instead of just writing summaries of everything that is spoken about, focusing on what speaks to me the most during a talk. It not only saves me a lot of writing, but it also makes my notes much more enjoyable to look back over later. It's a principle our mission employs regularly during Zone Conferences and other meetings, the leadership make the summaries of everything that was talked about available later (the "Large Plates") and we are encouraged to make a smaller, condensed personal record about things the Holy Spirit teaches us (the "Small Plates"). This being after the manner of the plat...

Interestingly, right behind the Church building where the YSA meets is the site of the old Scottsdale Mission Office (it is tiny, I should have gotten a picture of it) They haven't taken down the sign yet, so I had the neat opportunity to see this relic of an earlier, storied, almost mythological past. It makes me feel a little sad that by the time I'm ready to come home from my mission, there will be no Scottsdale missionaries left.  Their cultural legacy continues in the Flagstaff Mission, but these younger generations of new missionaries will never know someone who personally served in Scottsdale under the legendary President Smith. As for me, I arrived in the mission three weeks after the change became official, so while my trainer and first district were all Scottsdale missionaries (except for one sister), and I consider myself *almost* a Scottsdale missionary, I never served there either.  Unlike everyone in the west side of the valley, where there wasn't much change ...