Sunday, November 4, 2007

Being a Mormon on an island

Some of you know that Kevan and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon, LDS). We have the privilege of having two other members of the Church here on Tinian with whom we hold Sabbath meetings. When the meetings were attended by just Kevan and I, it was rather awkward. We speak of doctrinal subjects one to the other often, so to do so in an organized setting just seemed redundant. Singing hymns just caused both of us to break out in laughter! So we are thrilled that we are now a congregation of four.

With our burgeoning numbers, we decided to embellish our worship service with hymn singing. We do have internet access in our apartment, so I went to the Church website at www.lds.org. I didn't find what I was looking for but by googling LDS hymns, I found the subsection for all things Church music and it is magnificent! You can print the hymns in multitudes of different keys, play the hymns with the piano accompaniment only or play it with orchestral arrangement and voice. Find all this at www.lds.org/churchmusic

We had a wonderful sacrament meeting today (our singing wasn't half bad!) with each of us expressing our knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel, Christ's atonement, and the blessing of the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley and his leadership.

I found myself reflecting on the goodness of the gospel and the comfort of the knowledge that each of my family members are worshipping in the same manner wherever they reside in the world. So, should you find yourself alone, or in a small congregation, know that the Church has taken thought of you and has provided tools for your continuing worship.

1 comment:

Bonnie said...

Terri,

I was looking for a picture of the conference center and happened upon your blog. I am living in Hong Kong. You can see our pages about our recent women's conference at asiaconference.googlepages.com. Since you're halfway between the U.S. and Asia, maybe you'd like to come to the conference next March.

Life looks very adventurous on Tinian!

Bonnie