Sister Kyle: Boy Scouts Get What Boy Scouts Want

Well, it's been 5 years since I've had a pday and I'm beat. Beet? No, beat.

We had transfers last week so now pday is Monday again. I am still serving as zone leader with Sister Vach. Hooray! Our specific assignment is to organize the exchanges every Saturday when new sisters from the mtc come to experience a visitor center for a day. Everyone who is called to a VC gets to come here and so Sister Vach and I get to be in charge of that. I love it. Those sisters are so bright eyed and scared so I love scaring them more and breaking them in a bit.

In the last week and a half, Sister Vach and I got to take 3 VIP tours. All 3 were very different. Our first VIP tour was with some fancy Europeans. I still don't really know who they were but I know that I was intimidated by them. We had a photogropher stalk us the whole tour so I've attached a few pics. The next VIP tour we took was with the Macedonian Embassador and they were hosted by Elder Hinckley (Gordon B's son) and Sister Hinkley. We aren't sure if Elder Hinckley trusted us as missionaries at first so he kind of stole the show while Sister Vach and I got in the way until he gave us some air time, 15 minutes into the tour. He apologized for stealing our show and so then the 3 of us worked pretty well together after that. Sister Hinkley just kind of twiddled behind. VIP tours are very strict so we aren't suppose to ask the guests personal questions like we would on any other tour. We also can't bear testimony (unless of course I decide that rule doesn't apply) and we can't invite them to learn more. The Macedonian couple was super friendly so it was fun for me to be their friend on the tour while Elder Hinckley took the reigns. We got to accompany them into the tunnels under the conference center after our tour and I was so badly wishing that we would be stopped by an apostle but that didn't happen. Side note, Elder Hinckey's ringtone is still a Christmas pop song. Who knew? Our last tour was with a group of boy scout executives. I prayed that they would show up in cargo shorts and matching hats but I was very disappointed. Most of them were actually from Utah and we knew that a few of the men scouts were members of the Church. At first the tour felt weird to me because all we could do was teach the history. I knew they already knew the Utah history and I also knew that the Utah history makes me want to nap but Sister Vach is a whiz at teaching the details. We figured out pretty early on that only one of the scouts wasn't a member of the Church and he asked a lot of good questions about the Temple and about what we do for regular worship services. We took them inside the Tabernacle, did a little accoustic demo with the pin drop and then they asked if they could go and see the organ close up. They neglected to pay attention to the velvet red barrier but boy scouts get what boy scouts want so we showed them the organ. Richard Elliott, the main organist so happened to be there to help tune the pipes so we had a fun Q and A with him. We ended our tour at the statue of Christ and we so badly wanted to invite the one non-member scout to learn more about the Church/gospel but we knew we weren't suppose to. Being the rebel that I am, I decided to get out a referral card and just hold it in an obvious way so that it would be like dangling it in front of the guest so that he would ask for it and sign for up for a missionary visit. My plan seemed flawless until the host who brought the scouts whipped out a folder with all kinds of Church articles in it. He didn't give him a Book of Mormon but he gave him the book, "Our search for happiness." Well, I felt like a secret fool and tucked my referral card away but Sister Vach and I were so happy because the man seemed so interested to learn. He's been surrounded by very successful/happy people in his line of knot tying work so it's about time he learned where all the happiness and drive come from. Yay!

Last Sunday we had an amazing tour with 2 young man and 1 regular man: Jon, Scott, and Mark. The two young ones came together and had been working in Utah for a few weeks. Scott said right away that he was very interested to learn so we took that as a good thing. The tour went really well. We had a lot of fun, joking around with the three of them and we taught them about temples and about the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith. Mark, the older one was in town for skii gliding or something like that. He taught us about how he's involved in the snow version of paragliding so I've added that to my after mission bucket list. Mark asked good questions but declined our offer to teach him more. Jon and Scott stuck around longer to ask us more questions. We gave Scott a Book of Mormon and we sat down with the two of them and talked and answered questions mostly about the purpose of life and what happends to us when we die. Scott was so fun to teach because he studies theology and he's just looking for truth. We were excited to give him truth in the form of the Book of Mormon. We taught him a few days later while he was on his way home to California and he's already started reading the Book of Mormon. Most religiously educated people seem hard-hearted and un-tecahable to me but Scott is so great. We've already sent him local missionaries to meet up with and he's planning on attending Church on Sunday. Wooohoooo! Prepared people really do wander to Temple Square.

Here's a short story about a very un-prepared for the gospel, man. Friends call him Larry. Larry requested a tour so that is what we gave him. He's a very socially awkward, above middle aged man. We took our time diving into gospel teachings with him because he seemed so uncomfortable. Finally, we felt like we had a decent relationship with him and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. We stopped at a display of how the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together to answer people's questions. He picked a good one that seemed to fit our theme about how we can know if someone is a true prophet. I felt like the Spirit was with us and that our friend Larry was being touched by the Spirit. I asked him what he thaught about the answer that the display gave and he paused before finally stating that Mormon women can wear makeup now. WHAT THE HECK, LARRY! I swear I wasn't wearing a noticeable amount of makeup. I told him that we never couldn't and he argued that maybe that was true dince I've been alive. I love it when people not of my faith teach me about the things I believe. He asked him if he'd like a BoM and he told us that he didn't want to waste our time. Lame.

Yesterday Sister Vach and I went with my child, Sister Savelio and her Latvian companion to speak in a random Salt Lake ward. I talked about pray always. It was a good time. Our musical number was sub par but they still smiled. I've been sitting in this chair for too long so it looks like Imma end this thing soon.

Last story: Sister Vach answered an inbound call yesterday and quickly added me to the line to listen in. She was talking to a woman who asked all kinds of anti-Mormon, deep doctrinal things. She told Sister Vach that she wanted all these questions answered because her friend who has been on a "gay conversion" was interested in coming back to Church. She said that her friend was there with her so she'd put her on the line. Sister Vach said "Wait, is your friend a man or a woman?" "-kind of both." What the? So then Sister Vach had a nice chat with a very nervous trans-genered man or woman about his/her gospel related concerns. We're still confused.

The end.

LOVE SISTER KATIE KYLE