Back to "Normal"

Well, the Holidays are over and the slow weeks are a thing of the past. We jumped right in with both feet this week. 

On Monday we had a fairly relaxing day. It was the scheduled Holiday for the

Church so the offices were closed. Of course that didn't mean we didn't do any work. We took care of a few things on the computer in the morning. We had a few changes for the upcoming events for the week so we wanted to make sure we had everything set up right. We had one language that was supposed to be in country, but, last minute got changed to SLC. That meant we had to increase our meals. It wasn't too bad because the event was first thing Tuesday morning and we just give the cafeteria the names of the people coming and they just go through the cafeteria and get that they want so adding names wasn't a big deal. Later that afternoon I had an eye doctor appointment. I've been having some problems with blurriness, so we are working on finding the treatment that will work. Part of the problem is the very dry climate here. It seems to aggravate my very dry eyes.  After running a few errands we got ready for our weekly Family Home Evening. We were few that night, but we had a lot of fun.

On Tuesday we had four events. Three of them involved us and one was ASL in the Conference Center. The two took place in the morning and one in the evening. The Linfords took care of the morning events. And we took the evening event. That morning we did several languages all of which were overseas in the first session of the 2022 S&I Annual Training Broadcast with President Ballard. We only had the engineer and the supervisor so there was not much for us to do. We did put them on the list so they could eat. The other event that morning was the January 2022 S&I Area Director Council Meeting. It was for Spanish only. 

Later that day we had the second session of the meeting with President Ballard. We had four languages, including Spanish again. It was fun to be at an event again. When the event was over we were talking to Aaron, the supervisor. He was the supervisor that morning for the overseas languages. He lives over an hour away so he was planning on sleeping in the COB. We told him that we had a spare bedroom with a nice bed that he was welcome to use. After he thought about it for a minute he decided to take us up on the offer. We walked to our apartment, which I think is actually closer then if he would have walked to his car in the conference center parking lot.  hahaha. Once we got him settled and then visited for a while, we read our Come Follow Me together. We had a nice discussion before we all went to bed.  

Wednesday morning he headed back to the COB for the 3rd session of the Ballard event with several more languages overseas. We only had two events that day. The morning Ballard event and the Evening Ballard event. Since we had four languages we decided all four of us missionaries would do this event. As it turned out that was a good thing. We were there to help with the food, especially boxing everything up after we ate. Elder Wilcox and I had to leave early that evening as Elder Wilcox was asked to give a blessing to one of our neighbors who was scheduled for surgery the next day. We were glad we could do both the event and the blessing. We love the Linfords!!! I also had several meetings that day. One I hope will prove beneficial as I am trying to get some things done so I can do a mass update to one of the databases. I have one of the leaders of the group looking into an API solution for me. Please keep your fingers crossed. An API allows one program or source talk to another one and that is how I can do a mass update.

On Thursday we didn't think we had any events. Oh, there were two on the schedule, but one was a language coaching and the other was the monthly GA Wives meeting. 
I thought something was wrong with the GA Wives meeting when I entered it into the computer. Normally it says GA Wives Luncheon. We supply Interpreters for Spanish and French and they always go to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the event and they eat there so we don't do anything. Well, about 9:45 a brand new engineer came in looking for Curtis, who was the supervisor for that event. We met the new engineer on Tuesday when he was in training at our other event. I think this may have been his first solo event. Anyway, I told him Curtis wasn't here but would probably be at the JSMB soon if he was not already there. Sam (the engineer) then told us that the Interpreters were interpreting in the booths and that the meeting was in the COB and not the JSMB. I went back and looked at the original setup and sure enough it said the COB. So I scrambled down to the 27th floor to get ready for the Interpreters. I also contacted Curtis to see if he knew they were going to be in the booths. He said he just found out and was waiting to see if any interpreters showed up downstairs. Long story short -- everything turned out great. The change in the title was on purpose. It was a meeting and not a luncheon.

It was the first time we got to see one of these events and it was great. They had two speakers who were professors from BYU and then Elder Nash spoke. The second speaker spoke about women and the Priesthood. She was very intelligent (has to be because she is a professor.) She said some things that triggered the "professor" mode in Curtis. He is the supervisor who loves anything Joseph Smith. He listened intently and he shared with us several quotes and stories that Joseph said that related to the Priesthood. It was all very fascinating. When the event was over we went to lunch and Curtis joined us and shared even more information. There is no stopping him once he gets started. We loved it!

That evening we and the Linfords went to the Bountiful Temple. It was a very nice session. We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home for some ice cream. Very fun.

Friday was low key. We didn't have any events; however, we did get several new events to put in the system. January if filling up fast. It is nice to share the load with the Linfords so no one has to put in 12 and 15 hour days anymore. We all went home a little early.  

On Saturday we had three (well technically five) more events. One event (2 sessions) started at 7  and 8:30 AM. The next event (2 sessions) started at 9 and 10:30 AM. The last session for the second event started at 6 PM. Curtis had the first event and Aaron had the next one; however, since Aaron's morning events overlapped Curtis's event, he took it for Aaron so Aaron wouldn't have to be there all day long again. So we were with Curtis in the morning from 5:30 (we have to be there 1/2 hour before their call time which is 1 hour before the event starts) until after 1 PM. Curtis picked up where he left off on Thursday and proceeded to give us another wonderful lesson on the Priesthood. We have learned so much. The Linfords did the evening event.

After our event we went to Steve's brother, Roy and his wife Vicki's house. We had a wonderful visit with them for a couple of hours. We had planned on visiting over the holidays but between the bad weather, icy roads, and Steve hurting his knee, we just stayed home as much as we could. Saturday was perfect for a visit. The weather was beautiful and the company was great!

Next week is starting to look busy. We already have three events that we need to be involved in. The first is the Worldwide Missionary Devotional. I just love those.

Have a GREAT week!

Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad,

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox