ReTuRn oF ThAt gLoRiOuS fEeLiNg

No standing under my umbrella; dancing only. As a new recruit missionary on Temple Square, there are three things you're issued: a pager, a pin and an umbrella. These three items follow you throughout your mission, from move to move, and can even return home with you (minus the pager, which if it's like mine, you wouldn't want anyway) if you're lucky enough to have space.

These three items may seem like odd requirements, but they came in handy more than you'd think. For example, I never thought a Mongolian or Thai person would randomly stop at some place in the middle of America for a tour but yup, they did--sometimes even whole motor coaches full. And it just so happened that when they did, you could easily page a sister that spoke those (or thirty other languages) to give them a tour. The pin was actually your national flag, which hung underneath your name badge and identified your country of origin. It helped guests feel a sense of comfort and comradery upon meeting someone form their same country while half way around the world--it's all about opening doors! The umbrella, well that was just pure common sense.

In Utah it's either blazing hot, snowing or raining. Since the job of a Temple Square sister is to be outside contacting guests, giving tours or managing posts 95 percent of the time, huge umbrellas come in handy all year round. It was during my lucky two fall/winters in Utah that I learned some great tricks with my handy umbrella, most of which involved some aspect from the musical Singin' in the Rain (with only minor mishaps.) It is for this reason that the latest GLEE episode made my day. Apparently I've got some new skills to learn... If only I could figure out what I did with my umbrella-ella-ella.

* as for the photo, don't ask. It was Christmas Eve and I was obviously doing something dumb. ;)