David Nelson Post

The Gilbert, Arizona temple will be dedicated on March 2, 2014.  A public open house is being held prior to the temple dedication. I invited my sister-in-law and her two daughters, not church member, to join me for a tour of the temple. One of my nieces lives about a quarter mile from the temple and has been watching the temple construction. They were all very excited to attend the open house. The Gilbert Temple is the largest temple the Church has constructed in 17 years. The five-level temple is 82½ feet tall with a spire reaching 195 feet, making it the tallest building in Gilbert. The grounds, exterior and interior of the temple are beautiful and I had a feeling of great pride and happiness in being with my in-laws, answer their many questions and sharing gospel principles about Heavenly Father's great plan of happiness for his children. 

On February 9th Melissa Brower posted for Audrey:

Two weeks ago our family home evening focused on making a family mission plan.   I thought this would be a great opportunity to teach Audrey about what our prophets have recently asked us to do (every member a missionary) and to teach Audrey about her Great-Grandpa (Z. George Nelson) and his love for the Lord and missionary work, as well as our combined family goal to reach 100 missionary moments in 2014 to celebrate his life and love of the Savior.  After we set a missionary goal as a family we talked about different ways we could be missionaries, including ways that Audrey (at six) could be a missionary too.  A few days later, Audrey had a play date with her friend who isn't a member of the church.  At the end of the play date, she asked me if she could invite her friend, Dani, to sleepover on Saturday night so she could invite her to come to church with us the next morning.  How could I say no?!  So last week, the girls had their sleepover and Dani came to church with us.  

During primary, we always ask the kids to raise their hands if they remembered to bring their scriptures with them to church. They know if they forget they can go up under the podium and get a pair of scriptures before we ask and it still counts.  So as I was helping some teachers, Audrey came up and asked where her scriptures were.  When I walked to the front of the primary room, I noticed that she had not only gotten her scriptures, but also a Book of Mormon from under the pulpit for her friend.  After church ended, Dani came into the primary room and asked me if I had an extra set of scriptures she could have.  She had noticed that everyone in Audrey's class had a Book of Mormon and she wanted to have one too.  I said, "Of course!"  We found the missionaries and got her a Book of Mormon.  I asked her if she wanted to keep the book at our house in case she came to church with us again.  She said, "No, I want to take it home and write my name in it".  When we took her home, I explained to her mom why she had the book.  Dani got it out and said, "Look mom, I got a Book of Mormon!"  Her mom was surprised to see how big the book was and said she would have Dani return it to us after she looked at it.  I told her that it was fine for Dani to keep.  Dani then started showing her mom the book and said, "Look mom, it even has pictures in it".  I was surprised at the excitement that she had for the scriptures and she continued to tell her mom how she had read the scriptures at church and with Audrey the night before and she liked some of the stories.  This was a house we would have never gotten a Book of Mormon into; yet, somehow, a six year old found a way to do it.  I was amazed.

As we continued to talk, Dani's mom noticed Dani was wearing a cute little bracelet.  She asked if Audrey had given it to her.  I said "No, our bishop gave it to her".  I explained who the bishop was.  I also explained that in our church, before children are baptized, they have to have an interview with the bishop, so our ward has our bishop pass small things out to the children every week so they can get to know him and feel comfortable around him.  I explained that normally, the bishop passes out a small piece of candy, but today was Fast Sunday, so he passed out small toys instead.  Of course, this led to her asking me, "What's Fast Sunday?"  I was then able to talk to her about how on the first Sunday of every month, members of the church all over the world go without food for 2 consecutive meals and give the money they would have spent on the meals to the poor and those in need.  She had a lot of questions about this and we were able to talk for another 5-10 minutes about the church and how Fast Sunday works.  I explained that it is a special day for us, and although the children don't fast until they are older, we try to teach them early on the importance of that day and show that it is a "different" day.  The mom seemed really impressed that we would sacrifice food and money every month for people in need and thought that was a great practice we engage in.

I am so proud of Audrey for her courage to be a missionary!!  She did an amazing job!!  All because of a six year old and her missionary efforts....a non member came to church and learned about God's Plan in Sharing Time, learned gospel songs during Singing Time, read scriptures stories at church and at our house, and received her very own Book of Mormon.  This missionary moment directly lead to my missionary moment where I was able to talk to this girl's mom about Bishops, Fast Sunday, and a little bit more about our church.  This was a great missionary experience for our family and a confirmation that if you pray for missionary moments, they will come!