No Unclean Thing

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

    Well, the weather continues to be perfect here in Long Beach – I try not to mention it too often but now that it has finally stopped SNOWING in Utah I have to brag a little bit.  The temperature here continues to be perfect – not too hot – not too cold. We have a nice gentle sea breeze most days and very little rain.  No wonder so many MILLIONS of people like to live here in Southern California.

Some of the highlights of the past week were:  Ben’s first football game at Los Alamitos High School.  It was a scrimmage and a lot of fun.  Ben got to go in for at least six plays (not bad when you are a Freshman).  We discovered Café Rio about 20 minutes from the Mission Home.  Ben, Mari and I went and checked it out after school on Friday, it was delicious! We had a new Elder arrive from El Salvador.  He had been serving in Honduras for 16 months but because of a Visa situation he needed to be reassigned to a State-side mission.  We are blessed to have him serve here in Long Beach.  Friday we had Zone Leader Council in the morning and a “tune-up” with our newest missionaries (those who have arrived in the last few months) in the afternoon.  We had lunch in between the two meetings and served about 55 missionaries.  Our missionaries are very tired when they arrive from the MTC, most wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport. It’s hard for them to get much out of training when they are so sleepy so we just give them the basics and send them out to work.  They are much more ready to learn after they have been out for awhile, thus the “tune-up” is a chance to train them on some of the fundamentals from Preach My Gospel.  They also love to catch up with their MTC companions and to meet some of the other missionaries.

     This weekend was our Stake Conference.  Elder Kevin Duncan and Elder Allen Haynie (Area Seventy from Escondido), were the visiting General Authorities.  They were great!  Saturday night Ted and I spoke then we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the meetings. We have a lot of Stake Conferences coming up in the next two months – at least I thought so until I asked Sister Brimhall, the temple Matron of the Los Angeles Temple, how many Stakes they cover.  We have seven Stakes in our Mission, the Brimhalls cover 41!  They are a wonderful couple and it will be sad when we no longer see them, they complete their three year assignment in a few months.

     All of the talks were great but Elder Haynie may be one of our new favorite General Authorities.  He has a great way of telling stories and applying them to Gospel principles.  It was fun to be on the stand to watch the faces in the audience, he had their full attention.  Saturday he told the story of the most world’s most amazing tree house, built of course by him and his two brothers.  He related it to how we should build a sacred home.  Today he told the following parable:

    When Elder Haynie was about ten years old his Grandma came to live with them for a few months.  She was so loving and would often come to his defense if she thought his Dad was being too harsh with him.  It seemed she would do anything for him.  One day Elder Haynie and a few of his friends decided to dig a hole on an empty lot.  There didn’t really seem to be any purpose in digging the hole but they all worked hard at making it deep and big. They became pretty dirty as they dug but didn’t mind. After awhile the digging became harder so one of the “brilliant” young boys decided to bring over the hose so they could soften up the dirt. Now the dirt was soft and the digging easier but they were really getting dirty and even a little muddy.  They decided their hole looked a lot like a swimming pool so they brought the hose back and filled it with water.  Soon they were all playing in the water which was pretty clear at first but before long their swimming pool turned into a mud bath.  The boys were covered in mud by the time the sun was starting to go down.  They were cold – it was time to go home.  Elder Haynie was greeted at the front door by his normally loving Grandma who told him there was no way he was coming in the house she had just finished cleaning, so Elder Haynie did what any other 10 year old would do, he tried the back door.  He was surprised that his Grandma was fast enough to beat him to the back door where she again refused to let him enter the clean house.  She eventually came out to the back yard where she hosed him down and only when he was clean from head to toe did she let him enter the immaculate home.  Elder Haynie remembers the embarrassment of standing in the back yard in his underwear , being sprayed down by his Grandma.  He also remembers finally entering the warm, cozy house and how good it felt to put on his clean pajamas.

     The meaning of the parable was clear especially when Elder Haynie read, 3 Nephi 27:19 “No unclean thing can enter into his kingdom”.  He then gave a fervent testimony of our Savior’s Atonement,which makes it possible for each of us, no matter how dirty and muddy we might get, to be made clean and worthy to enter in our Father’s Kingdom.

     That is our missionary purpose, to invite all we meet to come unto Christ and accept the great gift of his Atonement through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.


We love and appreciate each of you!

The Long Beach Buberts