Ana's Literary Journal Exercise

September 22, 2019

Journal Entry: This morning I did my communion report for English 385—so I went to the Provo Community Congregational United Church of Christ. I came a little early, and it turns out, the first person I met was from Hawaii, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was visiting there for his niece’s baby baptism—we talked until church stated. Everyone was friendly. There were three baptisms that day. The only song they sang that I knew was “I Need Thee Every Hour,” but at least I knew one!

Variation 1:

--Hawaiian LDS member: friend to me at the Provo Community Congregational United Church of Christ (met when I came early)

            --Reverend Cupples: talked about sacrament of baptism, had three baptisms

Variation 2:

 I went to a church I had never went to before, and even though it was unfamiliar to me, I ended up learning a lot, and got to witness three baptisms. I even got to meet new people. It turned out to be a great Sunday despite my nervousness.

Variation 3:

“Help me figure out how to write this assignment.” It’s what was going through my head. Reverend Cupples and several members of the congregation helped my visit be an enjoyable experience. There was even a part when Reverend Cupples was talking about being children of God (with the baptisms taking place), which was great, as that was a theme I kept hearing throughout the week.

Variation 4:

The first person I happened to meet wore a plain red tie with a white shirt—matching with his son. At first I thought I blended in well when I also observed the wife and aunt (who were dressed up in floral dresses, similar to me), but then the father started to talking, and when he started to ask me about BYU—he told me he was a member of The Church. So the cat was out of the bag, and he explained to me he was only there for a baptism taking place.   

Variation 5:

How is it that the first person I meet turned out to be of the same religion as me when I did my communion assignment? Why do they do infant baptism vs. our child baptism? Why do they only participate in baptism in so often? How was I so fortunate to be able to have them sing at least one song I knew (“I Need Thee Every Hour”)?

When I use different approaches, I am able to focus on different details of the same story—details I may have overlooked in the writing process or didn’t think were that important at the time I was writing. For the variation of the asking questions, in specifically, it gets me thinking more about the event or about my ideals, which I can either answer on the spot, or come back to later, or never answer and have them there to open up to and reflect on. The list, for example, can be more as a way to get my thoughts down on paper without going too much in detail (the only reason why I have never liked this approach when it comes to journal writing—I love it for research paper outlines, creative writing drafts, etc.—is it’s more of a beginning stage for me, not a final product.