If you try and find me on Tuesday nights, don't look for me at my computer, in front of the TV, reading romance novels, or other such trivial things. Instead, you will find me at the LDS Church History Museum in down town Salt Lake City, Utah. I've been hanging out there on Tuesday nights for over five years. My official title is "docent" but since no one really knows what that word means, one might consider me a tour guide, a volunteer, or in LDS terms . . . a service missionary (a person who gives service to the church on a part time basis). I know service missionaries who spend time in the Family History Library helping people do genealogy research, or stock shelves at the Bishop's storehouse, or help officiate in the LDS Temples.
When my daughter Lora was preparing to go on a full time mission to Italy in 2006, I felt impressed to do some service of my own and went to http://www.lds.org/ and looked under the list of service mission opportunities. When I saw the need for volunteers to give tours that would involve storytelling and involve first person pioneer profilers, I KNEW it was for me.
Has my service there been everything I hoped it would be? YES YES YES!!!
So I decided it was time to get into the blog of things and record my experiences.
That's where Eagle Boy comes in. You see, he was missing for months from the Native American Exhibit and when I saw that he was back last night, I couldn't contain my excitement to the two BYU graduates that were killing time at the museum and practically dragged them over to the bronze sculpture by Stan Johnson and began telling them the Hopi legend of Eagle Boy. In the middle of the story, two 19 or 20 year old missionaries came in and listened in on the story.
This is where it gets interesting. One of the young men (Elder Bryan) explained that he is a Hopi Indian from the Eagle clan. We talked about the legend I just told and he confirmed that it is authentic and gave me deeper meaning of the transformation of Eagle Boy at the end of story. As we looked at another case in the exhibit that holds a variety of Kochina Dolls, he pointed to one of them and said, "My ancestor made that one." He told me that the Hopi way of life was congruent with LDS teachings and that he could retain his Hopi culture while living the gospel. There was more that transpired and I walked out of the Museum knowing that I had just been given a great gift.
People understand each other when they know each other's stories, traditions, and beliefs. Making connections with people is important to me.
So . . . if you learn about me and I learn about you, we will be brothers and sisters or at least friends, even if its on a blog.
