Fire, Power Outage and More, Oh My!

Monday was a fairly unusual day last week. It started with our monthly Mission Conference. I haven't decided what the difference is between a Mission Devotional and a Mission Conference except time. Devotionals are 1 hour and the Conference is longer...up to 2 hours.  Anyway, this time it was a Conference. Our Mission President and his wife spoke along with his President Randall's Executive Secretary. It was a really good conference. 

We went into the office for a couple of hours to get ready for the week and then headed out to get hair cuts and do some shopping. We have also got back to updating the procedure manual since I have made so many changes to make things more efficient and easier for Elder Wilcox to do his job. Our manager decided he wanted the original procedure manual updated and shortened if possible. He didn't think we needed every listed step such as "turn on the lights". (I'm not kidding. That was a step in one place.) So far we have cut it down from 70 some pages to 20 some pages and we are not done yet. Hopefully we will finish it this week.

At 4:30 we got a visit from a Doctor from our insurance group. We thought he was here for both of us but he was here just for Steve. A little after 5 another one showed up for me. Why they couldn't schedule both of us with the same doctor no one knows. Both doctors thought it was ridiculous and both had time in their schedule to cover the other person. Oh well. We both checked out just fine; although we both need to lose some weight. Of course eating all the delicious meals we have for the interpreters doesn't help. 

Family Home Evening was fun as Elder and Sister Burgoyne combined the lesson, game, and treat in a very fun activity. The end result was this beautiful puzzle. We combined our own version of scrabble, puzzle pieces and treats for being able to place your puzzle piece in the puzzle. We had lots of fun and good conversation along the way. And the treats were yummy too.

Tuesday, bright and early we had the next installment of the S&I Area Directors Convention. This particular event was not very engaging for us or the Interpreters. It was 4 hours to start with; but, the problem for us was that it was more interactive with the attendees on Zoom. There were LOTS of breakout sessions which meant our screens were black while they broke up into little groups to discuss the things they were learning. Then they would come back and share a little bit, give the next topic and instructions and have another break out session. This went on for the whole 4 hours. Needless to say our Interpreters went through a lot of snacks while they waited for them to come back together. I got a lot done and didn't feel guilty about not paying attention to the event. hahaha

On Tuesday Joey celebrated turning 15. We posted a Happy Birthday on Facebook. Don't you just love the new hair?

Our Tuesday evening Worldwide Missionary Devotional got cancelled due to Elder Rasband getting sick. We were all disappointed and have kept Elder Rasband in our prayers for a speedy recovery. Consequently we actually left close to 5:00.

Wednesday was event free and meeting free. No one was in the office except Steve and I so it was pretty quiet. Even the emails were pretty quiet so I was able to spend much of the day on some General Conference reports as well as starting on my comparisons to get all our databases in sync. I feel I accomplished a lot. We left at 5 and planned on a nice quiet evening at home. We had just started a movie a little after 7 when the power went out. Well, we thought the power went out and we noticed there were still lights on in the hall way. We could see them under our door. So, Steve got up to explore the apartment. As it turned out we only lost power in half our apartment. The plugs in the living room, hence no TV. The overhead lights in the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom. However, the appliances all worked in the kitchen. The bedroom lights and plugs all worked in both bedrooms. But with the plugs out in the living room we didn't have any Internet. It was weird.

After making some calls and not reaching anyone, Steve decided to go down the hall and talk to the Missionary over Mission housing to see if she had a different number we could call. He met nearly everyone from our floor out in the hall. Many had similar problems to ours, and had part of the apartment out. Others were all out and still others were all on. It was crazy. He also found out what caused the power failure. Apparently there was a fire on the 2nd floor roof of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building that somehow caused the power outage. It happened around 7:30 and they had it completely out in 30 minutes. There was not real damage other than some smoke and a little water damage. No one was hurt. It was caused by some construction debris on the roof that caught fire.

Thursday we had an event in the evening. It was a NASW Senior Missionary Devotional with Elder Alonso. It was pretty good but it talked mainly about encouraging seniors to go on a mission, either full time or Church Service Mission. They told all about the Church Service Mission opportunities available in the North America South West area. Several missionaries bore their testimony of how serving has blessed their lives as well as the lives of the people they serve. It was really good.

Friday morning, before sunrise we had another event. This one the Mexico Mission Meeting for Elder Gong. We had nearly the same Interpreters back as the previous night as this one was also Spanish only. The only problem with this event is it was mostly in Spanish and we didn't get the English interpretation so we didn't really understand a lot of what they were saying. We will have a similar meeting next week with Central America. I hope we get the English interpretation next time. We actually left after lunch on Friday. We spent the rest of the day working on the procedure manual. We are making progress. 

Saturday, NO events. Steve ran errands and I worked on a number of different projects. We enjoyed a nice relaxing evening.

Sunday we headed out bright (well it was pretty overcast) and early to Katie Sue's ward where her oldest daughter, McKayla Lofts gave her talk prior to her going on her mission to New Jersey, Spanish speaking. She gave a great talk. Afterward we went to the Lofts for an open house and to visit. We had a wonderful time and everyone said they are looking forward to us coming for Thanksgiving. It is nice to be near "family" when we are so far from our own family. They all said how seeing us made them feel at home too.

It was fun to visit with Brent and Helen, Annie, Justine, Martha, Carrie Anderson and her husband, and of course, Katie and Bryce Lofts. There were lots of grandkids too but I can't begin to remember all their names.  Oh, MyLiege, Annie says to say "Hi".

On our way home we got a text from MyLiege about the Primary Program today. So instead of going to our branch (since we had already told them we wouldn't be there) we came home and watched the Primary Program on TV. This was Alyx's last time. She had the job of being a narrator and helper for the little ones who didn't remember their parts. She did a great job. There was only ONE major problem. They turned the mic off for all the songs so we didn't hear any except for the little groups that sang a verse in the last song. It was so sad because I absolutely love all the primary songs and we didn't hear any. 😢

In spite of no music, we enjoyed the program and especially seeing our granddaughters share what they have learned in Primary this year. I love watching their testimonies grow.

Until next week. Love you!

Elder and Sister Wilcox