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.