Sam's Farewell

I forgot to note yesterday that my family and I took a small road trip up to my old hometown of Richmond to attend my cousin's Missionary Farewell.

I have been in and out of sickness that last couple of weeks and unfortunately I woke up Sunday morning feeling really clogged up and sick. I barely went to my Church meetings before coming home to medicate and rest up before we all headed out to go up to Richmond. Luckily, I felt a little better on the drive up and was feeling the effects of the medication by the time I went and picked my mom up.

It was strange walking into that old church building. This is the same church building that I gave my own Missionary Farewell and Homecoming talks in. What was sad is that I hardly recognized anyone from the old neighborhood. But I still felt a little like I was home again. We sat with mom at the back of the church and waited for the meeting to start.

I will say this, and it has nothing to do with church, Sam or anything like that, but I love watching kids and their parents. Back in the day, before I had kids, I might have been annoyed a couple of times with kids and how they act. Now that I have a kid myself, I am a lot more sympathetic to those that have kids. And now I am not nearly as annoyed by kids. I could tell that the mom that was sitting in front of me was having a devil of a time trying to keep her kids quiet and behaved. I appreciate that she was trying to control her kids but they were not bugging me at all. Actually, I was a bit entertained by them.

Sorry for the brief detour. Sam gave an excellent talk and shared some great scriptures. It made me reflect on my own mission farewell and how inadequate and how unprepared I was. The only similarity with Sam and I was how enthused we were about going on a mission. He was already above and beyond me. Kids these days are certainly more prepared, there is no fence sitting here. They are either for it or they are against it. It was great to hear his testimony. The people of Germany are going to be very lucky to have Elder Anhder serve them.

Deep down I am a bit jealous of Sam. He is going to the place I wanted to go and he gets to live a different life. One away from the worries of the world. Now don't get me wrong, I loved my mission and I have no regrets. I am proud that I was sent to New York and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I had a great time seeing my extended family at the little get-together after. My uncle Kurt and his family have been a great support to me. I remember that Aunt Lisa would send me Christmas packages while I was serving in New York. Kurt would pay me and my friends very well for odd jobs, he would also escort me to the Temple and was a special witness when I got married. I feel a little bad that I am not closer to my cousins since they are so much younger than I am but I am glad that they are my cousins. And I will support them in all that they do. It was good to see my uncle Mark and his family and I look forward to seeing them at the end of next week for Kelli's wedding. I am blessed with a great extended family on all sides.

I look forward to hearing Sam's experiences and I am happy that my family and I can share in it. I appreciate the Anhder family for inviting us to spend some special time with them.

Going Back to Brooklyn

Okay, I really didn't go back to Brooklyn but it sure felt like it yesterday.

Warning: Normally I don't get preachy-churchy on the blog but it looks like this one will be!

A few weeks ago I signed up to go on splits with the missionaries and I admit that I did it under less than spiritual circumstances. I signed up for Sunday (yesterday) for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is that I didn't have to feed them. I am not a huge fan of being assigned to feed the missionaries, I didn't have that sort of luxury on my mission. I had to beg and scrape by to get dinner appointments. I also only had to go with them from 7-9 and that didn't seem so long and I knew that I wouldn't have to split with the missionaries the next time.

But when the time rolled around I was not in the mood. And then they called me and asked if I could go out an hour earlier! They came over at 6:00 and I spilt with Elder Mockey (I think that is how you spell his name) and we headed out. Elder Mockey is from South Africa and has a very cool English/Swedish/Austrailian accent and was a newbie. This was his first area and the end of his first month in the mission field. It was a lot of fun getting to know him and hearing how he speaks English. And we quickly bonded on how strange Americans are with their hard stance against the superior Metric system.

My bad attitude of going out with the missionaries changed quickly when we went to our first appointment. We taught a young mother named Misty and her friend Mason was there. Mason had just joined the Church and he was preparing to go on a mission and his conversion story was awesome. He had went through a lot in life and hit rock bottom and then one day he wanted something better in life. He was a tremendous example to Misty. I was able to share a few things with her and she committed to try out living the Gospel this week and see how she feels. After we left I was invigorated. It took me back to when I served my LDS mission in New York.

Then we went and visited and taught a kid named Diego. His aunt and uncle were members but he wasn't but he was highly interested in the Church. Elder Mockey was very excited to teach him since Diego had a huge State swimming competition and Elder Mockey wanted to share with him his experiences of playing nationally in rugby and he mixed in some scriptures with it. I was left speechless, I have been on a mission before and I felt like I knew what I should say but Elder Mockey just took and ran with the ball. I was impressed by his stories. I was also very impressed with Diego and his cousin who is the same age. They said that they would study the scriptures right before the big meet. The young folks today...  ...they are so much stronger than I am. The youth in my ward are inspirations and I look up to them and I wish I was like them. Some people are afraid of what the world will look like when the youth grow up and lead but I am not afraid. I think we will be in good shape.

After we visited them we went to our last appointment of the night. We visited a man named Rule (not sure how to spell his name either). Elder Mockey told me that this was the first time he had visited this man and that we should teach him about Joseph Smith and the restored Church. Rule was a neat man. He said that he had a lot of faith in God and he felt that he was always led around and protected by God even through the rough times. Five minutes into the our discussion he said "I think I have been baptized by the Spirit but I have not been baptized by water, like Jesus was." I turned to Elder Mockey and smiled. We continued to talk and teach with him and committed him to be baptized on the 19th. We were all very excited and happy.

This is what I have forgotten. I had forgotten what it was like to share the gospel with those that are looking and searching deep for guidance and for someone to show the way. I came home at 10 that night, I was with the missionaries for 4 hours and it seemed like it was only an hour. I had forgotten how rewarding missionary work is and I look forward to seeing these people again and going out with the missionaries.

So it did feel like I was in my last area in Brooklyn on my mission. I am so glad and thankful that I went out with the missionaries.

Last Night I Died and Went to Heaven

Day 326

I have been debating whether I should blog last night's activities or not. Last night I had a very personal and religious experience. Rarely do I blog about such things and I do not want to come off preachy or churchy. On the other hand, I want to remember this experience and look back on it and this blog would be the perfect way to chronicle it.

So I offer this disclaimer. It basically comes down to this:

It's my blog and I will blog what I want to.

So if you are uncomfortable about religious things, just stop reading. I will do my best to make sure this does not come off as preachy. And I will do my best to explain things for those that are not in the LDS faith. Everyone is invited to read on and comment if they feel like it. I will be happy to answer any questions and if you would rather e-mail me personally with your comments, you certainly can by e-mailing mplatis28 (at) hotmail.com

I also apologize in advance for being a little sappy.

Last Sunday while attending choir practice I was asked if I would participate in a special musical number for the combined Young Men/Young Women's activity for Tuesday. I accepted, I enjoy being around the Young Women since one of Kristy's callings (jobs) is to teach the Young Women. In our Church, all members are asked voluntarily to assist in teaching and providing service to other members (and non-members alike in our neighborhood). Kristy's "job" is to help teach the Young Women (ages 12-17). Most of the activities are fun activities and are usually aimed at helping the youth build good relationships with each other. In that way the youth will bond together and help each other live the Church's principles. But every once in awhile we use this opportunity to teach the youth the Church's principles. And this is what was done for this occasion.

Last Sunday each member of the Youth were given plane tickets to Hawaii and they needed to meet at the Church Tuesday night to leave. The leaders (those in charge of the Young Mens/Young Women) had set up some chairs on the stage and we had some Church members play the roles of pilot and flight attendants. The youth were all dressed up like they were going to Hawaii. They all boarded the plane and were excited about the trip. They were served some refreshments (Kristy was one of the flight attendants) and they were off ready to have a good time.

Then the plane went through some turbulence and suddenly lost an engine. And then they crashed and died.

Were they flying Oceanic 815?

This is what the lesson was all about. What happens to us when we die? Well, the Youth were going to find out rather quickly. The lights were out in the gym when suddenly a spotlight shined on one of the leaders who was dressed all in white. And he informed the Youth that they have all perished in the crash and now were on there way to heaven. He took them through each kingdom and taught them about who would be there and what type of afterlife this would be. (I know I am breezing through this, if you have more questions about this type of stuff go here.)

I didn't get to go through everything that the Youth did so I don't know what they went through. My part was to be in the Celestrial Kingdom (the highest degree of glory in heaven) and to welcome the Youth and to sing in a heavenly choir. All of the leaders and all of the choir members were dressed all in white. Each Youth was called in individually and welcomed into heaven.

.

It was cooler than that neat old Battlestar Galactica episode where they got into that "Ship of Lights" and discovered they were all in white.

The look on their faces was priceless. One of the girl's when she entered the chapel and saw all of us in white she burst into tears. Her mom and dad were Youth leaders and she made a bee-line to them and cried in their arms. The leaders ushered each youth to their seat where they were greeted by our Bishop (the Bishop is the one who leads the local Church). After a small talk given by Amber (the Bishop's wife) we sung for the Youth.

We sang "I am a Child of God" and I have to admit that it was difficult getting through the hymn.

This is exactly how I picture heaven being when I die. I imagine that we are escorted by loved ones into a room to meet with God and that room is filled with other loved ones that have passed on before.

Being in the audience and watching the Youth enter heaven was unbelievable. I don't know many of these youth personally but I cannot describe how I felt watching them come in.

I know that this was fake. I know we were just acting. But the feelings were genuine and real.

I was excited to see the kids. I was excited that they were with me in "heaven". I am positive that the joy I felt is just a fraction of the joy I will feel when I die and see my friends and loved ones again. I can only imagine who will be there to meet me. I can totally see my grandparents ushering me in, I can totally picture my family members sitting up on the stage, smiling warmly as they see me. That joy will only be matched when I get to greet my friends and family when they pass away. When Logan and his family come in, how happy will I be?

After we sang, the Bishop shared with us a couple of scripture from the Bible and then he left about fifteen minutes for anyone else to say what they felt. Kara, (the girl that ran to her parents) came up and spoke to us. And I am in awe. She is only 13 years of age and she has it more together than I do. She spoke about how we can all make it together if we all help each other. She didn't just speak of her family, she spoke to all of us. And I felt like she was talking to me. Here is this 13-year old girl, speaking with words way beyond her years, telling me that I can make it to heaven and that she'll help me because we are all in this together. What a beautiful example she is to me so full of charity.

A few more of the youth spoke and then we concluded the activity and had some refreshments. No one wanted to leave their seats. I didn't want to be on the stand anymore, I wanted to be with Kristy and I wanted to be with the kids. I came down and met with Kristy and we spoke to some of the girls. It was like being at a family reunion, it was like we were seeing each other for the first time in ages. I cannot express how it felt, all I know is that I was tremendously happy to be with them and to share that love and happiness. I am so impressed with them, they won me over when I attended Girl's Camp a couple of months ago but this activity sealed the deal. They are tremendous examples to me. They go through adversity, more than I ever did at their age, and yet they came out shining. I wish I had half their strength and conviction.

Aside from family, these are the people I want to hang out with in heaven. And if I had died in that plane crash I couldn't ask for a finer set of people to die with. I am so thankful that I was able to take part in such a beautiful activity. I am so thankful for where I live and who my neighbors are. I am so thankful that Kristy serves with these awesome Young Women so I keep the privilege of hanging out with them. And I am thankful that families are forever and that I can be in such a peaceful loving place with my family and with my neighborhood family here when we pass on.