Two Funerals and a New Year

What an interesting week we've had. Last week two branch members passed away on the same day. One wasn't even a branch member, she was an investigator kept only from joining because of her nicotine addiction, but her regular church attendance and love of the Book of Mormon basically constituted her a member. The other was a member, who was once a counselor in the branch presidency. He started studying Hebrew, and thought he could get more out of staying home and studying than coming to church. (2 Nephi 9:28-29) So we had a very interesting situation this week with two funerals. Let me describe the two to you and see if you can guess whose is who.

Funeral A: Funeral held in LDS Church. Scripture on program was from of Book of Mormon (Ether 12:27 I believe). In casket there was a small box that contained some of these persons favorite things (not warm woolen mittens or brown paper packages tied up with string). One thing in the box was a worn marked-up Book of Mormon. Talks given, very LDS oriented, mostly on the Plan of Salvation

Funeral B: Funeral held in Nazarene Church. Music playing that reminded me of a other denomination televised program (actually it reminded me of 'The Electric Chapel' episode of Murder, She Wrote (I can't remember if that is the name of the episode but it's something like that)). During the funeral my companion leans over and says, "Great and spacious much?" The congregation was invited to come up and talk. It turned into blubbering basically.

I don't know if the results will surprise you, I feel like I foreshadowed the results a little. Funeral A was the funeral of the investigator, funeral B was the funeral of the member. It was a somewhat sad educational experience to me. Never think you are safe, any one of us can have a fall from any place.

The Senior Sister in Guymon said that it was funny that the nonmember's funeral was more Mormon than the member's funeral. I was thinking how amazing that was. I respect that investigator so much and I feel so much sympathy for her that she could never overcome her addiction. This kind of tied over into New Year's Resolutions to me. Something doesn't have to be against the Word of Wisdom to be an addiction. I think that a good New Year's resolution would be to think of something that is holding you back, keeping you from reaching your full potential.

I hope you all have a great New Year, with a great outlook on the amazing things that can happen in 2015.

Happy 2015

Sincerely,

Elder Connor Waldron

p.s. I was thinking about the Cass Elliot song 'New World Coming' it's a great song for a New Year.. "There's a new world coming, and it's just around the bend... coming in peace, coming in joy, coming in love!"

p.p.s I'm staying in Guymon for another transfer, but getting a new companion. His name is Elder Farnsworth, that's all I know about him.