The Air is Thin Up Here!

About one and half years ago we received our mission call to the Auckland New Zealand Mission. Pretty Cool! A couple of months before we were to report COVID hit and we were postponed...twice. The second time was indefinitely. To make a long story a little shorter, we were notified a couple of months ago that it didn't look like New Zealand was going to open their borders until 2022 at the earliest at which time our mission call would expire. Sooooooo, we decided to ask for a reassignment. We found out it would be stateside. We thought some Church historical site would be nice. One thing we were sure we knew we didn't want to go to Utah or serve an office mission.

Heavenly Father knows just what we need even when we don't. We have been reassigned to the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission. (You couldn't get more office than that!) We work in the Publishing Services Department in Interpretations as Interpretation Coordinators. We had NO idea what that even meant. About a day or two after our call we received a phone call from one of the supervisors named Baptiste. He is from France but has lived in the states for many years now. He explained that our job is to coordinate all the interpreters when we have an event that needs interpretations into other languages. Since we are a worldwide Church that means nearly everything the Church does needs interpreters. We learned that there is a different between Interpretation and Translation. Translation has to with the written word and Interpretations has to do with the spoken word. Did you know that?

Anyway, we were told that we were prayed here! They have been swamped ever since COVID hit since the Brethren have not been traveling. That means all the events such as Area Conferences, Face 2 Face, Training Meetings, Youth and Primary Meetings, Mission Presidents Training Meetings, Temple Presidents Meetings, and so much more are now all on Zoom and are interpreted to many different languages so it can be broadcast all around the world. Some are live events and some are pre-recorded. That means that sometimes we work very early in the morning or much later in the evening. It also means that we may work both Saturdays and Sundays. It is busy and also very exciting. We get to hear General Authorities and Church Leaders all the time as they teach and train the members around the world. Those are the blessings we receive for all the extra hours we may work. June is the busiest month of the year so we are working nearly every weekend besides during the week right now. Should slow down in July.

Here is a picture of our office team. We are replacing the couple right in front of us. They go home next week.