Lots of EVENTS!!! AND New Missionaries!!! 

Our little reprieve is over...at least until the middle of December. We went from 13 events on the schedule to 43 in a matter of a couple of days. Thankfully most of them are Language Coaching events; however, we do have meal events nearly everyday until November 20th. We have an occasional day off here and there, but then we make up for that by having multiple events on the same day. Here is our schedule since November third (NOTE this isn't including any of the offsite events):

This is our schedule for the next two weeks.
Each color represents an Event and each line 
of the same color represents a session in that 
event. The Yellow is the Central America 
Area Review Event. It has 10 sessions.

• Nov 3 - Mexico Missions with Elder Holland - Breakfast
• Nov 4 - General Officers Multiple Trainings - NAC Idaho - Dinner
• Nov 5 - Central America Area Review - Virtual Dinner - Dinner
• Nov 6 - Central America Area Review - Missionary Meeting - Breakfast Snacks
• Nov 6 - Central America Area Review - Retalhuleu 1 - Lunch
• Nov 6 - Central America Area Review - Retalhuleu 2 - Snacks

That was last week. This is what is coming THIS week:

• Nov 9 - Temple Recorders Seminary - 6 AM Breakfast
• Nov 9 - Central America Area Review - Area Review - Lunch
• Nov 10
  - Temple Recorders Seminary - 6 AM Breakfast
• Nov 10 - Luz de las Naciones (Prerecording) - Dinner (when this is released on Nov 20 you will want to watch it. The first solo singer in the video is one of our Interpreters. He is AWESOME.)
• Nov 11 - Temple Recorders Seminary - Lunch
• Nov 11 - Central America Area Review - Area Council/Mission Leadership - Lunch
• Nov 11 - Central America Area Review - Area Devotional - Dinner
• Nov 13 - Central America Area Review - San Salvador East PLC - Breakfast 
• Nov 13 - Central America Area Review - San Salvador East CLC - Snacks
• Nov 13 - Central America Area Review - Missionary Meeting (9 missions) - Lunch
• Nov 13 - Screening New Interpreters - Snacks
• Nov 14 - Asia Area Tour - Expanded Area Council Meeting with Elder Uchtdorf - 3:30 AM Breakfast after event at 6:30 AM

I'll stop there, but the week after that is also completely filled. Fun Times!!!

The view from the window at one of our Events.

On Thursday Morning President Parker (one of the counselors in our Mission Presidency) came to see us. The new missionaries had just finished their training and they were in the process of assigning them to their respective "missions". They have been ever mindful of us and felt they had a few potentials. They didn't want to risk another incorrect assignment like the last one. So, President Parker presented us with 4 potential couples that they felt might work in our department. We reviewed each couple and he was very good about pointing out their strengths and potential red flags that were discovered in training. For example one couple sounded great when listing the strengths. The Elder had great computer skills and the Sister had good office skills and was fair with computers. The red flags were the Elder tended to take over the world. Apparently he caused some stress in the trainings. The Sister uses a cane to get around and they were concerned if she could keep up with all the physical stuff we do. 

President Parker went over each couple and all probably would be able to work in our department; however, we wanted to find the best fit possible. Two of the couples were well suited to this mission; however, President Parker was hoping we wouldn't choose them because they felt that some of their strengths would be better utilized in two different departments. We were fine with that. The third couple we looked at we felt strongly about the whole time. They both have basic computer skills and will be capable of doing what we both do. Above all they have desire! They said they were here to work hard and didn't mind working evenings and weekends. This is their third mission so they know what they are getting into. They like being behind the scenes but also don't mind meeting people. They were the ones President Parker and President Randall were also leaning towards so we felt good that the Spirit confirmed the same couple to all of us.

Elder and Sister Linford 
Our New Missionaries

On Friday morning we attending the meeting where the missionaries received their assignments. When they announced Elder and Sister Linford they told them they would be serving "on top of the world" and that it was more literal then they realized. We were introduced along with Elder and Sister Drasso, our Zone Leaders. We attended a little reception after the sorting hat where we could visit and have some refreshments. Then we took them to the Church Office Building and gave them a tour. We told them we had an event that evening and we would even feed them if they wanted to jump right in. They said they would love to but needed to pick up something at the store first. They came back and we started with an overview of what we both do so they could decide who wanted to do what. They surprised me by saying they both wanted to learn what both of us do so they will both know all the ins and outs. They are anxious to serve and eager to learn. We hit it off immediately and I know we will become fast friends. They will be here for 2 years so that will be AWESOME. We have our full team now. 

I have mentioned our invoicing software before and some of the problems we have. I have been bugging the people who can change and fix things with all the things I would like changed and fixed. Tim Richards is one of the brothers I talk to a lot. He is very nice and always willing to help me. For sometime now he has said that he wanted to get me more authority to be able to do some of my own changes. He feels I know enough about computers and such that I could handle it. (I think it is because I have asked questions no one has ever thought of before. ;-)) So a few weeks ago they put me on a Plunet Governance Group where we meet every two weeks, soon to move to every week, and talk about Plunet issues. We will also probably be the group that is looking into replacing Plunet. Again, they can't seem to answer some of my questions and several others on the

group said I should get more power. So, one of the leaders in the group put in a request for me to get "Phenomenal Cosmic Power, itty-bitty living space." It has been awesome. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday evening creating a new Master Template in PLUNET that contains ALL our languages and the coordinators associated with each language. Then I can use a Request feature to create a new order and specify what languages are on the order and say to use my ALL Languages template as the base and it will bring in just those languages with the coordinators already listed in the order, along with a lot of others things that are set in the template. It makes making orders much, much faster. There are lots of other things I want to explore and now that we have new missionaries to help with the everyday load I will have time to explore and research and continue to improve processes. If you can't tell, I am very excited!!!

We hope you have a FANTASTIC week! Oh, and Happy Birthday to Sierra!!!

Love All of You!!!

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Steve and Leslee

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa