NorthTemple

Things That Are Different

While serving in the Sweden Stockholm Mission, I noticed many things that were different than what I was used to. Customs, door handles, food, idiomatic expressions—the little things and big things that make a culture unique. For the most part I enjoyed the differences. The same is true working here at the Church; some things are very different, most of them enjoyable. Here’s a sampling, some of them spurred by our all-day off-site a few days ago.

Meetings often start with prayer. To some of you, that might seem plain weird. Pray for clean code? Well, maybe sometimes, but more usually prayer for harmony on the team, for the ability to put aside personal biases in favor of a great cause, for a clear understanding of the issues being solved, and for the welfare of the people using the system, be they apostles or missionaries or moms or dads.

Your manager sometimes indicates that the Spirit led him to make a certain decision. Sure, they studied it out in their own minds first, did their due diligence. But when it comes right down to it, Inspiration (capital I) is sometimes the chief reason for a given decision. In some organizations, I might be a little scared by that approach; here at the Church it seems both natural and inevitable.

You can start an all-day off-site with a two-hour temple session, doing nothing that directly relates to work but many things that help put you in the right frame of mind to unify as a team and gain a common vision.

I’m sure this list should be much longer, but that’s all I’ve got time to write today. Maybe my co-workers will flesh it out…