Differences between there and here

It's time to think back and do a little comparing between there (Texas) and here (Pennsylvania.) Today, because it's Sunday, I am thinking about church.

The big challenge in missionary work in our ward (congregation) here in Pennsylvania is not in baptizing people! We have led the stake (a stake is composed of several congregations, in our case, eight), for the past two years. We even led the mission (a big part of Pennsylvania) two years ago. The bishop told us that the ward is right on schedule for the goal of having 25 baptisms this year. (If I remember aright, this would have been a good number for our whole stake in Texas.) Today our six missionaries were all sitting with investigators (people who are interested in learning more about our church) and we had new people there today who had never attended one of our meetings. So if we are getting new members to join, what is the challenge?

Getting them a ride to church. Many people in this area have no cars and rely on public transportation. Most of the people in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area live in the Susquehanna valley. But our church building is way up on Back Mountain, only one half mile from my house. Some of our members have a forty-five minute drive to get to church. The people who have cars and who can pick others up have just about maxed out their car capacity. When I first got here, I couldn't understand why everyone stayed after church for such a long time visiting. This is because a) there's not another congregation coming in right after ours to use the building, and b) this is the only time most people see their church friends all week. They also schedule all baptisms on Sunday right after the meetings are over. The only other time the building is full is on Wednesday night when they have the youth activities.

Today we had a visitor from the stake level (a high councilor) and he actually apologized for talking about doing missionary work. He said, "I'm preaching to the choir." The missionary zeal in this area is the first thing Michael noticed when he moved here.

If this area is strong in missionary work, what was special about my church home in Texas? More things than I can count. But I would have to say that the closeness, the love and the friendships were as intense there are any place I've ever attended church. And I do miss my friends more than I can say.

Michael and I have a new church job now. We are missionaries! Michael is excited. He wants to use Zach's old name tag. We will spend one night a week going out with the missionaries and will help them any way we can. What a pleasure to be a part of such a successful program!

And, of course, playing the organ is still so much fun. I get so many thanks for my not so perfect efforts.