Family Heritage

Zempter Grandparents

I started out the new year visiting with family in St. George, Utah.  As I look back on the year just completed, I remember the summer trip we took to San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, western Nevada, and northern California.  With mountain passes, an alpine lake, vineyards, a magic show, the Golden Gate bridge, Chinatown and Star Trek locations, that was one of my favorite activities of the year.

For our New Year activities, we played lots of board games with the Zempters and watched some videos.  My family likes to celebrate low key, and we like to do all kinds of things together.

I began 2017 by attending church with my Hill grandparents.  The speakers were two sister missionaries, one from England who was in her thirties and had joined the church fairly recently.  She talked about how challenging experiences in her life brought her to where she was.  The other sister was from South Carolina, and she was very bubbly and talkative.  She was younger and very anxious to serve others.  They both were close to ending their missions and going home, and I think both were grateful for the chance they've had to serve.

Hill Grandparents

Also on the first day of the year, I watched some of "The District" episodes that are available on the Mormon Channel.  They give a lot of insight into the lives of missionaries and the people they teach and serve.  They are helping me be prepared for the adventure to come.

My goals for the new year (as you would probably expect) are to better learn the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be successful as a missionary, to draw closer to God through the Holy Ghost, and to love and serve others.

This week I'm planning to go to the temple and receive my "endowment".  If you are not already aware, the endowment ordinance is much like baptism or the sacrament in that it uses symbolism, wherein the participant demonstrates that they are making a covenant with God to keep His commandments and receive blessings associated with obedience to their principles.  (Baptism symbolizes death, cleansing, and rebirth.  The sacrament uses symbols of bread and water that we receive as reminders of the bodily sacrifice of Jesus Christ.)