Djeryd, Eva, and the Spoken Word!

We had a real treat this week in so many ways.  We started Monday off with an early morning Event at 6:30 am.  So much for our day off, hahaha.  Unfortunately for us the meeting was in Spanish and we didn't get the English interpretation in our room. So we got some work done while we watched. Before we went home we went to Dairy Queen for some Blizzards. Then we went home and continued to work. Once again we had a great FHE with our group. Our Zone leaders gave a great lesson on leading like the Savior. 

Tuesday evening we thoroughly enjoyed an MTC Devotional with Elder Bednar. It is the first one with a General Authority since COVID hit. We enjoyed it very much. He can be pretty funny sometimes. At the end of the event everyone wanted to stay and talk. Usually the Interpreters leave right away, but nearly everyone stated and visited. We had 7 different languages in the COB and I think they all enjoyed being together because that hasn't happened very often. I really enjoyed listening them them all talk to each other and kid around. Steve was right in the middle of it. They all like to joke around with him. He makes them laugh.

Wednesday was just a work day. We were able to leave a little early, like 4:45 instead of 5:30. lol

On Thursday we had two more Spanish sessions. They were both for the same event. The first one started at 1:00 PM with some sandwiches and light snacks. After that event we served a nice dinner and ended the night around 7:00 so that was early for an event night.

Friday was our very special day. We got a call Thursday night from Djeryd asking if we could help him out on Friday. He and Eva were flying to Texas from Salt Lake City and he wondered if we could babysit his car for 10 days so he wouldn't have to pay for airport parking. Of course we said we would be happy to. Steve checked with the apartment manager to see if it would be alright to park his car in our secure parking area and they not only said yes, but they gave him a key fob too so he could come and go as he pleased. Of course he won't be using it this week.  

We met them in Bountiful where Steve got in their car and drove them to the airport and I went to work. There wasn't room in there car for me to go too as they had a friend they were also taking to the airport so the car was full.

They are coming home on September 6 at 3:00. That happens to be a Monday so we SHOULD have it off. We are planning on picking them up and giving them a nice tour where we work and then take them out to dinner and show them our apartment. It should be fun!

Later that day we were in for our second treat. We learned a lot about what the engineers do and what a language coach does. We were interpreting 6 different languages for the 9/11 Music and the Spoken Word special broadcast. It involved several interpreters and a language coach for each language. They were recording them one person at a time so they could get the best quality and do as many retakes as needed to get it just right. 

Three of the languages were in country. We did those three in the Church Office Build (COB) on the 27th floor. Two of those languages used one SLC interpreter and the rest in country. We got to observe Sara do Italian here. Her language coach was in Italy. The engineer was amazing with what he could do. The timing has to be perfect. In this particular case apparently Italian uses a lot more words than English to say the same thing. There are a couple of options to make it fit. One, they have to talk faster. Two, they can cut out a few words or a sentence or two. Three, the engineer can do his magic and make it fit. Sometimes they may have to do all three; but, most of the time the engineer can work his magic. His magic involves moving the audio recording so it starts exactly when the speaker starts. Normally the Interpreter starts a second or two after the speaker. Sometimes that is all he needs to do. If it is still too long by a second or two he can simply shrink the audio stream down making the voice just a bit faster. Most of the time it is not noticeable at all and he can end the audio recording exactly when the speaker stops speaking. On rare occasions he may have to stretch it just a fraction. Sometimes they want to rerecord a single phrase and he can pick it up at exactly the right spot so you can't even tell it was patched. It is amazing.

After Italy recorded I helped Sara with a few things. She is one of our supervisors as well and a sometimes interpreter for Italian. I am working on Special Projects with her and Jeanpierre so I help them with computer stuff when they need it.

We were invited to have lunch with our supervisor, the engineer, and the producer. The producer was buying. We had planned on going out to lunch, but retakes took longer for the morning languages so they got the food to go and we ate it in the Conference Center. Baptiste (the lead Supervisor) got our access badges altered so we would have authority in the Conference Center to go underneath the conference seating where the studios are. We did the three Salt Lake languages there. Steve was in charge of picking up the interpreters and taking them to the waiting room until it was there turn. I got to stay in the studio and watch the recordings. Steve got to watch the last language so he got to see what they did too.

The picture above shows the engineers room. The recording was right next door with a glass window so we could see them. The picture to the right shows Yvon, our final interpreter for the day as he was finishing up. We were supposed to end at 4:30 but each language took longer than expected and we actually finished after 6:30. 

I was so surprised at what all the Language coaches did. They have a special ear to help the Interpreter record it the best they can. To me it sounded perfect, but then the coach would say, "this is a solemn time, you sound too cheerful."  One of our French interpreter sisters is just a bubbly person and she had to be told several times to not sound so cheerful. She finally really got into character. I watched her FEEL what she was saying. Her whole countenance changed and I could tell it was different. It was amazing to watch. Sometimes it was the interpreter that would say, "let me do that over. It just didn't feel right." 

I literally watched this over and over again for hours and found it completely fascinating. I very much enjoyed visiting with the coaches and interpreters and getting to know them better. One of our coaches showed me pictures of her children on the movie studio set where the Bible and Book of Mormon Videos and The Chosen are filmed. Her children were in costume and had their picture taken with the character of Jesus. They also did a short video with him. It was very cool. I don't know if it is for a new film or not. She wasn't clear. She did say it was a great learning experience for her children and they could feel the Spirit as they were there.

On Saturday we had another long day with 4 different events. Three were in the morning and finished up the Mexico Area Conference that covered over a week of events. Elder Gong was the presiding Authority for the conference. It was fun to watch him and see how he interacted with leaders, missionaries, and others in the different sessions. Our only problem was much of the conference was in Spanish and we didn't get the English interpretation in our room. We did get to hear Elder Gong though so that was very cool.

That evening we had our final event for the week. It was a Caribbean Family Home Evening in Spanish with Elder Soares and his wife. It was pretty fun and thankfully they got the English in our room since once again, most of the people spoke in Spanish except for the Gongs and Elder and Sister Nielson (an Area Authority Seventy assigned to the Caribbean.) We supplied all three meals that day. We had Church Catering prepare a breakfast on Friday and kept it in the cooler for us. We provided a Microwave so they could warm up the croissant if they wanted warm. For Lunch and Dinner we went off sight to get our food. It was delicious but I can't eat that way everyday!

Until next week...farewell.

From 1820 to Present Day

This has been a very busy week. We are supposed to have Mondays off as our P-Day; but that seems to be when we get a lot of work so we decided to "work from home" at least for part of the day so we don't get so far behind. This past Monday Steve had his follow-up appointment with the Doctor after his visit to the Emergency room last week. He is doing a lot better and still the Doctors can't find anything wrong. That is good. They agreed that it was probably related to stress and has he is doing better on his own with his responsibilities, his stress is decreasing and he is feeling better. That week he ended up in the Emergency room was his first full week on his "own" since our trainers went home. He had several mistakes that he felt bad about, but were easily fixed so no harm done. I think those mistakes caused him a great deal of stress. Needless to say, he is doing much better on his own. This week proved he can do what he needs to do. 

So after working from home for most of the day on Monday, Steve finished his preparations for our Family Home Evening group. We have a group of several missionaries that usually come to our apartment every week for FHE. We take turns giving a lesson and having an activity. Since our trainers left and our group was not very big, we invited a few more missionaries to join us. We now have the perfect size to meet together each week. Steve did a great job with our lesson and activity. Everyone loved it and lingered long after the event ended. It was nice. Everyone decided we would have it at our place all the time. That is fine with us.

On Tuesday we had RAIN and lots of it. Actually, this whole week was rainy almost everyday. We need it so much. We had a wonderful Department Devotional before we had our weekly Team Meeting. We were busy most of the day even though we tried to leave early. It didn't work. Anyway, it wasn't raining when we went to work so we didn't take our umbrellas. We have a set of umbrellas at work too. Our trainers left them for us. When we were ready to leave work at 5:30 (not early) we checked the weather

and everything was dry, although it was overcast. We figured we would be fine walking home. By the time we got outside there were a few little drops but nothing we couldn't handle. By the time we got to the front of the Conference Center it was actually raining, but not too bad. We would be a little wet but that's OK. It wouldn't take much longer to get home. As we headed for the cover in front of the Conference Center it started raining harder. Glad we were under the cover.  We walked to the other side of the Conference Center so we could cross the street to go to our apartment we were in the middle of a monsoon. The wind was blowing and the rain was pouring down. Needless to say we waited a while before we finished heading home. As soon as it let up a bit, we ran for it. We were soaked to the bone!

Wednesday stayed busy; however we were able to leave early. Our Zone leader called us on Tuesday to see if we wanted to attend a play on Wednesday. A couple had bought tickets and was unable to go so they were donating the tickets to anyone who wanted to go. Our Zone leader thought of us. They were at our Family Home Evening group on Monday so that may have contributed to their choice. lol.  Later our Branch President called us and offered to car pool to the play and asked if we wanted to go to dinner beforehand. So we left early on Wednesday so we would be ready when our Branch President picked us up. We had a delightful time with them and when at the play. Our Zone had purchased about 40 tickets so we all sat as a group. It turned out that our tickets were right next to a sister who used to serve on my Tuesday Temple Shift. I knew she was in our mission, but we are not in the same department so we don't see each other very much. It was fun to sit next to her and get caught up. The play was fantastic. It was not at all what I expected. It was like a Broadway Musical. The music was very modern but the play setting was in the 1820s with Joseph Smith and Emma through his martyrdom. It was unique and very fun. They did a marvelous job of portraying snippets of their life together through song and dance.

Thursday was also fun. We were able to leave a little early that day as well as one of our Supervisors was having a dinner for some past missionaries as well as the whole team. Not everyone could make it of course, but it was fun to meet some of the previous missionaries who served in our department. There were several team members too, so it was good to mingle with them in a non-work setting. It was kind of funny because it was the first time some of the team members had actually met other members in person. Aaron was hired just a couple of months before us so with COVID he hadn't come to the office except for events. Prior to that he only saw his co-workers on our Team meetings. We met one of our Language coordinators for the first time as well. We had a very fun evening.

Friday is usually an easy day. We can use it to catch up on things and prepare for the weekend events if we have any. This Friday was different than from any we have had thus far. First of all, we had almost everyone in the office. We were only missing three people. That hasn't happened for at least a year and a half. Baptiste is the lead supervisor. He is the one who called us before we started and told us what we would be doing and got us excited about our call.  Like I said, Aaron just started a month or two before us. He used to be CIA. We found out on Friday that our manager, Daniel, used to be FBI.  Anyway, Friday was the first time Aaron and Baptiste actually worked in the office together. That was kind of fun when they realized their similar background. We were all set to go home after lunch since we were going to have to work over the weekend. Well right after lunch the Supervisors starting throwing more and more events at us. This week we went from 10 to 26 in just a few days with most of those coming in on Friday after lunch. And of the 10 we had, most of those were Language Coaching jobs which didn't involve us other than putting them in the computer. Of the 13 new events we received, not only were most of them events in our building requiring meals or snacks; but, most of there were scheduled for this next week!!! And just as we were getting ready to leave again, this time around 5PM, Aaron brought us the news that his producer for a very large event that takes place over multiple days was changing the venue of three sessions for Saturday. They were supposed to be on Zoom where the Interpreters could do it from the comfort of their home and we wouldn't need to provide a meal. The producer decided at 4:30 PM on a Friday that he wanted them to all come into the Church Office Building, and meals and/or snacks would be provided! One of our interpreters scheduled to do the zoom just had a baby 10 days ago so she wasn't going to come to the COB for the event. That meant our Language Coordinator, Sara, had to scramble and find a replacement last minute for two of the three events. Those replacements got paid RUSH rates because of the last minute change. Steve had to scramble with meals and snacks. Luckily we already had several events going on for Saturday and the times were pretty close. We wouldn't even have to adjust the food much for lunch and the afternoon snacks to accommodate the extra people. Breakfast; however, was a problem. It was too late to order from COB catering and we didn't really want to do McDonalds, so we decided to go to Costco and see what we could get. We found a frozen breakfast bowl, some yogurt, muffins, and Orange Juice we could get. We went in earlier to microwave all the meals and then provided a microwave so they could warm them just before they ate them. Everybody was happy and we pulled it off with all the extra people. We ended up at the office for a FULL day from 8:30 until 6:00. We had 6 different events that day involving Spanish for all but 2 events, plus French, Haitian, and Dutch for the two remaining events.

Sunday morning we were up at 5:30 AM for a Stake Conference in Puerto Rico. Our meal started at 7 and the conference started at 8. We have to be there early to set things up so we were there at 6:30.  We try not to buy restaurant food on Sunday if we can help it. Sometimes it can't be helped. So for this event we thought we would order a meal from COB Catering that they would prepare on Friday and leave in the cooler for us. We were going to warm it up in the microwave before serving. I still think it would have been fine; however, the Chef wanted it fresh so he came in this morning and made breakfast for us. They are all so wonderful. I made a card this morning and had everybody sign it so we can give it to him on Monday.

Speaking of Monday. Another one of those last minute additions late Friday afternoon was a Caribbean Area Missionary Devotional at 6:30 AM Monday morning with Breakfast!!! Again we were too late to order from COB catering. The Supervisor asked if we could do breakfast after the event and have them just go down to the cafeteria. The event goes from 6:30 to 8:30. The cafeteria closes at 8:30 so that wasn't going to work. Steve talked to Moroni, who is the COB Catering Supervisor about what we could do and they graciously offered to box up the number of breakfasts we are going to need tomorrow morning and we will pick them up for our people right around 8:30. Like I said, they are so good to us.

We are heading into a very busy time for us. We hope we are equal to the task. We are still praying for another missionary couple to join us, but at this point it doesn't look like it will be before General Conference. I think we will be OK, but we will be very busy. We have had events every weekend this entire month so we haven't really had a day off for a month. At this point it looks like next Sunday is open so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will remain so. 

We love serving and working for the Lord. We love all the wonderful people we work with and we love being involved in all the events we get to do.

We love each of you and hope you have a blessed week. 

Here are a few pictures of the cranes around the Temple and some construction.

Emergency, Temple, Dedication, and Ministering

 

After a wonderful finish to our Abundant Life Conference last Sunday we went into another exciting week.  Steve was feeling some pain during the last event and asked for a blessing before we went home. We had experienced a LOT of smoke from the Oregon and California fires being blown into our area and he was having trouble breathing without some pain in his lungs.

He woke up several times in the night with pain moving to his shoulder blades and I finally asked if he wanted to go to the emergency room. So we found ourselves in the Emergency Room at Utah University Hospital about 2:30 in the morning. They ran every test they could think of and ruled out any serious problems. His heart and lungs were both strong and no other obvious things showed up. He was very low on Potassium so they gave him a large dose of that as well as something else and he started to feel better. We finally left about 8:00 AM. We stayed home on Monday and I worked for part of the day. Every day since then he has been feeling better and better.  We have a follow-up visit with our doctor tomorrow.

Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly slow so we went home a little early both days. On Thursday we started into our weekend of events. Thursday and Friday was the Live Temple Leadership Seminar. This finished up the final of three different events we have had over the last couple of months to train the new Temple Presidents. Elder Bednar was the presiding authority for the event and it was wonderful. Mostly it was a question and answer session, but the leaders involved shared some personal stories to illustrate answers to some of the questions.  I'll share one example that Elder Bednar shared. One of the questions was along the lines of how can I serve as a Temple President if I have never even been an ordinance worker?  Elder Bednar said it may be their greatest asset. He then shared about when he was called to be the President of Ricks College. He said he knew NOTHING about Ricks other than it was a Church school. So he decided to ask those he met, students, faculty, etc. what they knew and thought about Ricks. Most told him they had never had anyone ask them that. They were eager to share their thoughts and feelings and he said it was a wonderful way to learn about Ricks. He reminded the new Temple Presidents that they were going in without any preconceived ideas about the Temple and so could be better taught by the Spirit. I think that is great advice for any calling...even if you have served in that same calling before. Go in without any preconceived ideas and let the Spirit teach you what is needed.

On Friday night we had another fantastic event. The New Mesa Temple Visitors Center was dedicated

by Elder Soares. The thing I loved most about this dedication event was how much they talked about the Visitor Center being for the community and not just the members of the Church. Here is a GREAT link to a 2 minutes video about the Visitor Center:  Mesa Temple Visitor's Center Opens  I was very impressed with everything they have done. It is like no other Visitor's Center I have ever seen.

Then on Saturday and Sunday we had the Utah Provo North Area Conference. Saturday was the Leadership portion and Sunday was the member Conference portion. We had a couple of miracles occur with both the last Temple Leadership Seminar and the Utah Provo North Area Conference. When I was trained I was told if a contract expired and they were in the renewal process we could go ahead and use them in the event and just add them to the Invoice program after the contract was renewed so they could get paid. Even in our short couple of months we have run into several expired contracts that we have added after they were renewed and after the event took place.

On Wednesday we were getting concerned because we still did not have our Mandarin populated for Saturday morning. Our Language coordinator said he couldn't find anyone. We didn't want to reach out to Taiwan because it would be midnight to 2:00 AM their time. Not cool. Finally the coordinator said he could do it and that he was trying to get his wife onboarded so she could help. She used to be an Interpreter so she knew what to do. The Supervisor (Aaron) reached out to me to see if I could see where we were at in the process. I got hold of the person in Finance who said she had just sent out the contract that morning. There were delays to get things approved because they thought she was a brand new interpreter instead of a renewal. But it looked like everything would be OK. All she had to do was send the hand signed contract back so they could finish the paperwork and get her in the system. I asked if I could pick up the contract on Saturday morning when they came and she said NO, they need it ASAP as they still had a lot of work to do to get her put into the system. That is when I told her she was already in the system and they found out it was a renewal instead of new. She still needed the signed contract. They couldn't come into the office before Saturday, but we found out they could scan it or take a picture on the phone and send it in. This was now Thursday and still no signed contract.

She then informed me that without signed contracts, either new or renewal, we could NOT use the interpreter, PERIOD. I had another brother we were waiting on that was going to Interpret on Friday night. It was now Friday and still no signed contracts from either Interpreter. I was just getting ready to inform the Supervisor for Friday night that we weren't going to be able to use the brother when I decided to check one more time before I hit send on the message. It was now after lunch on Friday. Low and behold BOTH the interpreters that we were waiting on were updated and active. We were able to use both Interpreters and all was good. I thanked the finance people who put rushes on both interpreters so when the contracts finally came in they were able to rush them through the process for us. Miracles do happen.

The event was very good. Saturday they focused on many aspects of Ministering and how it differs from the old Home Teaching program. It was very informative and I learned a lot. We also had wonderful visits with our Interpreters and Supervisors. I'm even getting to know the Engineers pretty good, too. They join us for our meals periodically. Everyone is so wonderful to work with. I feel like we are in the Celestial Kingdom everyday. This must be what it will feel like. Everyone feels like family and the love and Spirit just fill the very air around us. It is hard to describe, and I'm so glad we are here. The Spirit is so strong each and everyday.

I love you all and wish you could be a part of this and enjoy the Spirit we feel so much.

Abundant Life

We had a pretty casual week. Things are beginning to pick up; but, we are still fairly slow. We've had a few people come into the office so that has been fun.  They officially will start back in the office next week. That plan is everyone is in the office on Tuesdays and they can each choose a second day to come in. It will be nice to have a few more people there. The other missionary that works with us leaves at noon so most of the week it was just Steve and I. Jeanpierre came in on Friday so that was fun.

Our Wednesday event got postponed to the end of the month so we only had our weekend event. It was a fun one with sessions on Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday late afternoon, and Sunday late afternoon. It was called Abundant Life and was a conference for Single Adults of all ages. It is only for the North America West Area. What surprised me most is we provided two languages for this event; Spanish and Mandarin. Since it was the North America West area they wanted to have the Salt Lake Mandarin team do the interpretation. For some reason we struggled getting people. Apparently it is the Taiwanese Fathers Day weekend. Anyway we managed to get a brother and sister for Friday night. Our Spanish team had 4 people to cover all the speakers. We had an enjoyable conversation with them during dinner that night. During the course of the conversation both Mandarin Interpreters told about when they lived in Taiwan and how they came to be in the Church. They both talked about the Taiwan Taichung Mission so we mentioned that our oldest son served there. They wanted to know who his mission president was so Steve called Douhet to ask. We shared who both of his Mission Presidents were and both Interpreters knew them. Steve then passed the phone to the Brother Interpreter so he could talk to Douhet. That was fun.

On Saturday morning we only needed one male Interpreter for each language. Again we enjoyed a wonderful conversation with them during breakfast. The Brethren talked about how sometimes we wonder if we have been called to the right mission. They shared a few stories how near the end of the mission they would meet someone who they were uniquely qualified to teach and they knew that was why they were called there. One brother shared a story about his son's mission call. His son was born and raised in the United States, but really wanted to serve in Taiwan since that is where his parents are from. He had visited there before. When he opened his Mission call he was disappointed to see he was called to Canada. As he continued to read his face brightened into a big smile when he read he would be speaking Mandarin. He knew he was called to the place the Lord wanted him to be.

On Saturday afternoon we needed one female Interpreter for each language; but, Mandarin couldn't get anyone in Salt Lake City. They reached out to our Tieline team in Taiwan and finally got a brother who could do it. We try to match Interpreters with the same gender but on occasion it simply can't be helped. This was one of those occasions. What made it even more appreciated was this event was for North America West. No one in his country would even be listening to the event. Such dedication we see in our Interpreters all the time. It is truly AMAZING.

Before the event started, our supervisor reached out to the Mandarin brother to see if he was ready. He commented on how nervous he was. Our supervisor encouraged him by telling him he would do great and to not worry. He said he wasn't nervous for himself, but he just worried because he wanted to be able to convey the words and spirit of Sister Susan Easton Black to those listening so they would feel the Spirit. He then said he hadn't even gone to bed yet because  he was so concerned about doing a good job. It was 7:30 AM for him. He had stayed up all night.

After a brief introduction, Sister Black began her presentation. In the first few minutes she expressed her appreciation for the many people responsible for putting together this wonderful three day conference. She then specifically mentioned all the people work work behind the scenes for this event including that Interpreter who speaks Mandarin.  She didn't know who was interpreting for her. She may not have even know how many languages it was being interpreted into. The Lord knew our Mandarin brother needed to know his efforts were recognized and known and appreciated by Him. Those words probably didn't mean anything to anyone but that wonderful brother who was interpreting and those of us in the room who knew about his concerns. I felt the Holy Ghost so strongly flow over me and tears came to my eyes. Heavenly Father knows each and everyone of us individually and He gives us Tender Mercies to let us know of His great love for us.

The Sunday afternoon event was the concluding session of this conference.  President and Sister Oaks were the featured speakers. Each of these events were LIVE and so there were not scripts for the Interpreters to study. They didn't have any idea what the conference was going to be about. They were all nervous about being able to keep up with the speakers. We prayed each time before the event that they would be able to Interpret the words and meanings of each speaker. After each event, they happily reported that it went well. Miracles happen all the time.

Our Mandarin sister for our last event is a walking Miracle. She actually has a brain tumor that is taking her life. She has decided to not do the treatments because she wants to enjoy the time she has and not be so sick from the treatments. The doctor told her she wouldn't be able to do her interpretation work because of the tumor. She normally has some adverse symptoms such as not being able to maintain good thought patterns. She decided to continue doing interpretation work. When she is interpreting her mind is clear and she is as strong has she every was. She has had no adverse symptoms when she interprets. When the event is over the symptoms come back. It is a testimony to her and to all of us who work with her that this is the work of the Lord.  

We had a nice treat today because of the event we had. Since it was this afternoon we had to miss our Sacrament meeting so we went to an earlier ward. Right after Sacrament we went to the Office to get set up for the event. It was just about that time that I realized Canby 3rd Ward Sacrament meeting was going to start. Sean had told us that MyLiege was going to be speaking so we jumped on the computer and joined the Zoom meeting. We were able to see the whole meeting. It was so fun to see Sean conduct and then here the three young men talk about the wonderful and spiritual experiences they had a Young Men's camp. I loved Isaac's analogy about binding ourselves to Jesus Christ through our covenants to get stronger and perfect just like we bind an injured finger to the perfect finger next to it to strengthen it and help it heal.

I especially loved hearing MyLiege's wonderful talk about Standing in Holy Places. Eunlan, our supervisor for today's event, watched with us and loved her talk too.

This has been a GREAT Sabbath day!

 Flying Solo

We didn't exactly go flying, but we are on our own now. Our trainers went home this week. They both gave wonderful talks in our weekly Zone devotional on Monday morning. They were supposed to speak two weeks ago, but just as it was their turn the power went out so they got bumped. There is construction going on all over, not just at the Temple. Sister Hansen gave Elder Wilcox last minute instructions to make sure she didn't forget anything she wanted to train him in.

On Tuesday we have a shorter zone devotional to begin our day. It is only on Zoom and usually lasts only 20 or so minutes. We do that every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We are scheduled to present on August 10th. We then had our Team meeting in person. That has been on Zoom most of the time, but we will be doing in person every week starting August 17th. We did it in person on July 27th because it was the last one the Hansens attended and we had a potluck luncheon following the Team Meeting. We were responsible for organizing everything and I think it turned out really well. During Covid we were able to hold things like Potluck luncheons on the 26th floor, but now that people are coming back that floor is getting booked a lot so we had to find a different venue. 

We chose a room we have on the 28th floor and it really turned out nice. We had previously purchased gifts for the Hansens and for Elder Sitake who also left us recently. He is a Church Service Missionary. His wife just retired so she wanted to serve as well. He was transferred to the Church History Library so he could work with her. We still get to see him and his wife as they are both Tongan Interpreters, plus we tend to see them in the cafeteria during lunch almost everyday. On a side note, we have this wonderful elder brother who plays the piano for us during lunch everyday. Now that COVID is virtually done he is back everyday. It is such a treat.

Elder Sitake shared with us on Tuesday what he and his wife were told when they started at the Church History Library. They were told they were prayed there. The library had recently received some historical documents from Tonga and no one could read them. Since Elder Sitake and his wife are from Tonga, they are the only ones who can read these documents. When he shared that, the Spirit witnessed to me the truthfulness of what he shared and I couldn't hold back the tears. His wife also shared a very special experience she had the first time she did interpretation for us just a few weeks ago. Needless to say our luncheon turned into a very special experience for everyone. The Hansens also shared their testimonies and some of their experiences during their year and a half with Interpretations.

We got the Hansens a beautiful picture of the Salt Lake Temple and a door hanging plaque that says "Welcome" in a bunch of different languages. They really like it. They left shortly after the luncheon to visit their son and grandchildren who live in the area. They only came in briefly on Wednesday afternoon so they could attend one last event and not at all on Thursday.  They left on Friday.

Tuesday after work we finally got to go to the Temple. We have been unable to schedule appointments because our records are still in Oregon and you can only schedule within your Temple District. However, our Mission President has been working with some of the Temples around us and the Jordan River Temple has agreed to schedule several sessions a month just for our Mission. Our Zone gets one of those sessions so we can now go monthly. It also sounds like they are allowing us to start scheduling sealings and sessions in some of the other Temples. I'm very excited to schedule some sealings.

On Wednesday we had a treat when I got a text from Shirleen Bland. They were in town and wanted to come by for a visit. They were also visiting some friends of theirs from when they lived in Dayton who were just called to the Family Search Mission. So we got to give them all the grand tour of our mission and had a very nice visit with them. 

That evening we had an event for the Single Adults. It was a Concert pre-recording. Since it was already pre-recorded the engineers skipped through all the songs and just went straight to the interviews with the artists. The first one was with Alex Boyé. He had a fascinating story to share. They also interviewed Jenny Oaks Baker. The only comment the Interpreters made after the recording as how fast they talked and how hard it was to capture everything. Anyway, because they skipped all the songs it was an hour shorter then originally expected.

Thursday and Friday we were completely solo. We had the Caribbean Youth Conference event Friday evening. We ate dinner with a couple from Holland.  The wife's brother is in Holland and Interprets for us as well. He actually did a Dutch only session on Thursday and Sunday for the same event. On Friday we had Dutch, Mandarin, French, and Spanish all in our building. It was a concert followed by a devotion. The music was great. The speakers were good too, but they were all in Spanish and we didn't get the English interpretation so just took our Interpreters word for it.

Saturday we visited Erin Mildenhall Atkin. She was one of my favorite Seminary students from many years ago. She is married now and has the cutest little 1-year-old boy. We had a wonderful visit. I realized after we left that I didn't get any pictures. I am so bad about that. I'll try to remember to take pictures the next time we go for a visit.

We had the sweetest experience in our Sacrament meeting today. During the summer we have lots of visitors in our meetings. Today the extended family of one our missionary couples came not only to visit, but so their 8-year-old daughter could be baptized and Grandma and Grandpa could be there.  Grandma stood up to bare testimony and pretty much talked to her granddaughter and grandson. She shared how a bowl of fruit that was part of their dinner after the baptism had fallen off the table and the blackberries got smooshed in the carpet. It was a mess. She then talked about receiving promptings before that happened to not put the bowl of fruit in that place. She talked back to the promptings and said it would be OK as she was going to take care of it. She got a prompting again and again said it was Ok. One more time the prompting came. Then her son picked up the bowl and it fell on the floor and the big mess followed. She talked about listening and obeying promptings when we hear them. And if we do that we will continue to receive promptings in our life to guide us and help us. She also talked about how she got on her hands and knees and scrubbed the carpet until it was clean again. She compared that to getting on our knees and praying and repenting when we sometimes make a mess of things in our life.

A little later the Mission President got up and asked the young girl and her brother to come up to the pulpit and stand by him. He then told them that where they were standing is exactly where President Nelson stands when he gives a talk in his own ward. He said President Ballard and President Oaks stand there too. He then asked them to look out one of the windows on the east side of the Chapel that we were sitting on and told them that is where President Nelson's office is. He then told them to look out the other window on that side and said that is where President Oak's office is. And finally he told the little girl that he wanted her to remember that when she was 8 years old she stood there at that pulpit and looked out those windows and saw where the President of the Church worked and stood. He wanted her to remember that and think about that when she was 80. It was a very sweet experience.

We love being here and all the wonderful experience we get to have every single day. We love serving the Lord every single day too!