Hello
All,
It's
been a super exciting week! Hope you enjoy all the pictures!
We
took a trip to D.C this week, which is always an adventure. Going to the monuments, memorials, museums, government buildings, having members yell at us
"Hey, Elders!", having crazy people yell at us... other things. It's
always a blast! The highlights of this mall trip include the following:
Standing where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, learning
about some church history in the Smithsonian of American History, and finding a
relative on the Vietnam War Memorial!
It
is true! I found a Spurgeon on the Memorial! The memorial is a huge wall with
everyone's name on it that died during the Vietnam war. There are some books
nearby that put all the names in alphabetical order, so I looked through them
hoping to find a Spurgeon, and I found one! His name is Roy Stephen Spurgeon.
When we went home that night I found him on Family Tree, and we are related. I learned that he was 18 years old when he got shipped off to Vietnam, and it
was only 25 days later that he was killed in war by an enemy explosive. Really crazy!! The coolest part of that whole experience is that he needs his Temple
Work done! It is amazing how the Lord led me to Roy because there were actually
many things that made us question if we should go to the Monument that day or
not, but we decided to do it, and I'm glad I did!
Transfers
happened this week, and for my last transfer I will stay by the Chesapeake Bay
with my same companion, Elder Carver who goes home the same time I do. We got another companion and we are in a trio!! Trio life
is the best, no matter what anyone says.
We
had the privilege of serving at the 14th annual Washington D.C Interfaith Unity
Walk this week! Amazing, Amazing, Amazing! Our job at the beginning was to
control these huge puppets with these long poles attached to each limb and lead
the parade through D.C. We started at the Hebrew Congregation, and made our way
to Sikh Temple where we had lunch and then entered the Temple. In order to enter, we needed to cover our heads with something, and take off our shoes.
With help from the Sikh's, they tied us up real nice and gave us our own turbans. It's like we were celebrities or something, because in the Temple,
everyone wanted a picture with the 3 "Mormon" Elders with turbans on.
We kept our turbans on for the rest of the day, even as we walked through the
other Temples, Mosques, synagogues, and churches.
We
made our way to the Community of Christ church! The Community of Christ is the
rLDS Church, which means they once were originally once part of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but branched off at the death of Joseph
Smith. They believe in the Restoration, The Book of Mormon and everything until
the death of Joseph Smith. It was super fascinating. We didn't know it at the
time, but we talked to one of their 12 apostles at the church. I thought it was
also fascinating that they were listening to the Spirit of God as we walked
in.
Our
last stop for the day was at the Islamic Mosque. It just so happened that the time
that we got there was when they were saying one of their 5 daily prayers. We got
to sit in the back and watch them. The inside was absolutely beautiful and
ornate. I included the pictures of the Mosque both inside and outside. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the unity walk!
Love
you all!
Elder
Dallin Spurgeon
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