Live on the Radio

The day began the usual way, with me asking, "hey Matt, what are we doing today?"

The disadvantage of jumping into the Mobile Tour 1/2 way through, is I have no idea what's going on, but the advantage is the guys did all the prep work, so I'm not complaining, and also trying to keep my questions to a minimum.

Today Matt's response was unique, "we going to meet with Russ and be on the radio, talking to the Father for Salt Lake City."

I knew this mobile tour would be challenging, and that's good, but this was one challenge I'd rather avoid. I get nervous talking to the Father out loud, and public speaking is stretching too, so this was a little over the top...like super nerve-wracking. I know people think that we M-workers do this crazy stuff all the time and it's no big deal, but that's so not true for me.

We arrived at the "Blue House" and sat down with Russ. He was doing a fundraiser for the radio station which broadcasts to 80% of Utah.

We went live on the air and Russ introduced us. Then Matt and Sam talked to the Father for Salt Lake City and for the Radio station, or something like that. I wasn't really listening. I was busy thinking about what I was going to say.
Then Russ took over and switched it back to music. I was relieved, but surprisingly disappointed. When you get this nervous it's rather anti-climatic, and I really shouldn't run from the challenge.

Then Russ took a phone call and talked to the guy live, and then brought me into their conversation and it was my turn to talk to the Father.Then there were some technical difficulties with the music, so I "got" to stay on the air talking to Russ, and he asked me to share how I met the Father and ended up working with Y-organization. Then Matt and Sam got back on and shared their stories and talked more about Y-organization in Idaho.

It was pretty sweet...so glad I did it, even more glad that it's over.

Salt Lake

This morning over breakfast, Jamie (our host) and I were talking this area. Mormonism is based on good works, so there's this feeling of Spiritual pride and judgmentalism, therefore I tend to feel insecure and feel not good enough. I think most people probably feel one way or the other, even in the followers of the Father.

I had expected to find this at youth group too, but not so. Tuesday we had arrived in SLC and went straight to Sr High Youth Group.
"you 3 represent the 30% of people who have never even heard of the Father..."
After we had a great time talking to the teens. One girl in particiluar really wants to do m-work, so it was cool to add some fuel to that fire.
Wednesday night we worked with the Jr Hi group. Even though I've been volunteering at Cascade's youth group for a year now, I'm still intimidated by Jr Highers. During the Songs, I was amazed by the kids' passion and how uninhibited they were - raising their hands, kneeling down, genuinely in seeking the Father. I could sense His presence in a way I had not expected to experience at a Jr High Youth Group, and they were mostly new followers of the Father. One relatively new girl brought her friend, who meet the Father that evening...

On The Roof and On The Phone

I slept on the roof last night!!

This week the D-School is in Salt Lake City, learning about sharing the Word and putting it into practice, before going to India. The place we are staying has a flat roof, covered in small gravel...kind of odd, and not as un-comfortable as I thought it would be. A couple of our adventurous girls slept out there 2 nights ago and since there were going to do it again last night, I figured it must not be that bad.

It was lovely! Falling asleep staring at the clouds and trying to see stars (without my glasses on). Warm and cozy in a borrowed sleeping bag, with a cool, refreshing breeze on my face, lulled to sleep by the sounds of traffic on the road right next to the house. It beat being inside a stuffy room with deafening silence...

I woke up happy :) but now I get to call the British Embassy, Netherlands Embassy, Indian consulate and visa outsourcing places in the USA and in England and in the Netherlands. But of course the internet is not working, so I can't get any phone numbers for England...but I have numbers for the Netherlands if I can figure out how to call overseas...

The question we need answered is: If a European is in the USA and wants to get a visa to India, how do we do it?

Josiah figured out pretty much everything we can't do, leaving us with 3 potential options. Now I need to get the Embassy, consulates, ect to answer the phone and talk to me. We need option 1 to work, because option 2 is time-consuming (and we only have 4 weeks), and option 3 is ridiculous...

Week of Fred - Day 2

Monday morning we talked to the Father about where we were supposed to go today and how we were supposed to get there. We felt that we were not going all the way to Mexico today (we wouldn’t get to the boarder till midnight anyway). We felt that we were supposed to go to Salt Lake City, Utah. That’s only 4 hrs away, so that didn’t seem like we were going to be making much progress in our trip to Mexico. We felt that maybe once we got there the Father would tell us what to do next.

Someone felt we were supposed to take Highway 27. We found it on a map, and that is the way we went. At the end of that road we talked to the Father about going right or left. We felt He said to go towards Almo (left), even though GPS said to go right, but as it turned out going right would have taken us back to Twin Falls, and we had already been driving for 2 hrs. It turned out to be a dirt road for many, many miles.

Before we got to Almo we came to a fork in the road, so we picked it up and used it to eat…wait, it was not that type of fork, it was one of those places where the road split. So we asked the Father again – should we go to Almo, or Lynn. We heard a car coming and someone felt that we should go whichever direction the car went, and all the rest of us felt we should go to Lynn. The car was actually a big truck (Randy had seen a big truck earlier when we had talked to the Father about our road trip) The truck went toward to Lynn, so that is the way we went. That explained why the one person felt earlier that we should not go to Almo. We were only supposed to go that direction, but to keep listening for when He told us to turn.

A little while later we came to a place that one of the guys had seen in a picture during his quiet time, so we knew we were on the right road.

Along the road we came to a mountain top. We remembered something about the high places (from some other time that the Father talked to us). So we took the van off roading up the hill, until we could go no more. Then we hiked to the top of the mountain. This particular mountain was strange because it was all white rock, and all of the other mountains were brown with green bushes. From the top of the mountain we could see Salt Lake City, so we talked to the Father for the city etc. We felt that we were going to stay in Salt Lake City for the night.

Since we had taken a very scenic rout we did not arrive in Salt Lake City until 7pm. Josiah knew of a place we could stay and he called ahead. Of course they had room for us and had the beds ready. We were very excited about having bed again. As we entered the city there was a building that had graffiti on the side and it said “welcome Fred.” (we named this week Fred, so that was cool).

So far this trip has been wonderful. The Father keeps talking to us and telling us what to do next. I can’t wait to see what we will do tomorrow.