Jenna's Endowment

Last Friday night, Jenna received her endowment—an important ordinance for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—in the Bountiful temple. Her getting ready to leave soon to go on a Church mission  to Texas is finally starting to feel real! Mom and a large number of Jenna's aunts, uncles, and a few cousins, along with her other grandma, were also there to support her.

On a personal note, I ran into an old friend in the men's dressing room I hadn't seen in 15 years or so. He is someone my sister and I used to perform improv with at ComedySportz back when there was a now-nonexistent Salt Lake club in Sugar House. When I last saw him, he wasn't exactly what you'd call active in the Church. I knew that he had been a returned missionary, but in the time I first knew him, he had picked up a smoking habit and metaphorically was in a place somewhere far from, oh, the temple.

Fast forward to Friday night. When I saw my old friend again, this time with a somewhat changed countenance and a light that wasn't there before. He ended up being part of the same session JB and I attended with the Plowmans and in-laws. It was all a bit surreal, but it was wonderful. The Atonement can and does work wonders with ordinary people every day and with anyone.

That's just a taste of the kind of joy Jenna will get to experience in the mission field.