1 Week and Counting

We have been experiencing the calm before the storm. We only had one event this week that we got to actually attend.

Monday morning was our Mission Conference. The entire Mission Presidency spoke to us. President Randall shared with us part of an hour long meeting he had with Elder Christofferson. One of the things he said was the instruction Elder Christofferson gave to all the Mission Presidents to go home and have a one hour interview with the Lord. President Randall said that was a very long hour and very sobering. He proceed to share with us some of the impressions he had. One of the main things he wanted us to know is that the Lord is pleased with us and all the efforts we put forth to do His work. He also wanted those whose missions are almost done that it is OK to go home. It doesn't make them any less if they don't extend. During COVID missionaries were sometimes asked to extend because there weren't as many applying for missions. For the most part, that is no longer needed. There are certain critical positions where they may be asked to extend, but the majority will not.

We had a really good discussion in our Monday evening Leadership Pattern Class. It is nice for Elder Wilcox and I to take the class again just a few weeks after taking it on Tuesday afternoon. It is helping us to evaluate how well we are keeping our commitments and really applying what we are learning.

Tuesday was busy with our General Conference prep meeting. We only have one more meeting before conference. We are on target to complete everything that needs to be done. We are getting down to crunch time. I have spent a lot of time this week working our the master schedule for everyone who is there to help. We didn't use a schedule last time because we have a lot fewer people so we all just did what had to be done. This time we not only have more interpreters, but we also have more helpers. Curtis resurrected the scheduling workbook he used before COVID. It is quite comprehensive. I have been scheduling all the missionaries. We will have a total of 9 missionaries including us for each session. I have also occasionally scheduled some of the support employees. There are about 3 or 4 supervisors that can only do certain things so I don't schedule those. Curtis will do that. We have several others who can do a bigger variety of things. I have scheduled them in a few places to fill in the gaps. Curtis may change those.

NOTE: This is only a fraction of the schedule for Saturday. There are many
more columns to the right and lots more lines below what I am showing.

After our General Conference meeting we had our Tuesday Leadership Pattern Journey class. We only have one more class to complete that course. It has been a very good experience and we have both learned a lot. I'm glad we signed up for it. Personally, I think everyone should have the opportunity to take the course. It is just as much for personal growth as much as it is for leaders.

Tuesday evening we had the "MTC Devotional with Elder Renlund". Please note the name of this event changed again. It used to be MTC Devotional and then just before the end of last year they changed it to the Worldwide Missionary Devotional. I think that is because it was being broadcast to missionaries all around the world. I'm not exactly sure what has changed but with COVID opening up more they have changed it back to MTC Devotional. We have also dropped at least 6 languages. We are only doing it in French, Portuguese, and Spanish again. And the General Authorities are traveling to Provo to do the devotional in person. Anyway, Elder and Sister Renlund both gave great talks. Sister Renlund talked about a safari that her and her husband went on with their children several years ago. They were strongly warned to stay in the vehicle, not draw attention to themselves, not stand up in the vehicle, keep quite, and several other things. As they were going along they came across a pride of about 5 or 6 lions lying in the tall grass under a tree. Sister Renlund wanted a picture. She couldn't get a very good angle from where she was sitting. She remembered what the guide had said but thought, "surely that doesn't apply in this circumstance. I'll just stand up and take a quick picture. I need a picture of this. It will be OK. Nothing will happen." Well she stood up to take the picture and immediately all the lions became very aggressive looking. Prior to her movement they paid them no mind, but as soon as she stood up, she became FOOD. She realized by not obeying the rules she not only put her own life in danger, but her family as well. The rest of her talk was about why it is so important that we obey the commandments. It truly is for our own protection from the power of Satan.

Wednesday was our Team Meeting. Curtis shared the scheduling workbook with us. (He and I had already talked about it and I had already started working on it.) We tabled several topics until after conference, which is good. We need to all be focused on conference at this time. We reviewed all the events we have on the calendar for the next two weeks. Even though we only got to attend one event, didn't mean we didn't have any other events. Curtis has been very busy with General Authority pre-recordings. There are several General Authorities that can speak multiple languages. They like to pre-record their own talk in one or more other languages to be played during General Conference when they will speak. I think it is very cool. We supply a language coach to help them. Curtis is over all those talks and has had anywhere from 1 to 4 different talks near the end of the week and next week. That means he comes to the COB. The recordings are actually done in the Conference Center, but he comes over to the COB either before or after the talks to check in and answer questions. I suspect next week we will have other supervisors in the office more often.

Thursday and Friday were about the same. Curtis dropped in and discovered that the "conference" computers we have are getting way too old and are possibly not going to work. We couldn't even sign into one of them. The other two are splitting apart in the case. NOT GOOD. Anyway, Curtis sent an email off to IT to see if we can get 5 more laptops to use for conference. Hopefully we will get to keep them because the one I am currently using at home is one of the ones falling apart. I'm hoping to get them early this coming week because there are several things I need to do to set them up for General Conference and I want to make sure I have time to do that. We were also asked to take more pictures of the booth the Ukrainians will be using during conference so Natalia can do more training with them. We are still in the process of onboarding the newly recruited Ukrainians before conference. Natalia is our Russian Interpreter Coordinator and she is the one who went out and found and recruited 8 new interpreters. She is also the one training them.

On Friday morning we had a wonderful treat. Baptiste dropped in for a short visit. It was so fun to see him again. He said he is excited to be able to Interpret for General Conference. He was all excited to see everyone again. I then reminded him that French is doing a SLC Tieline and they won't be in the COB. He was very disappointed. So was I. He is doing some shared interpreting with the Paris team and those will be in the COB. I need to tell him that. That will make him happy. It is just Saturday evening he will be doing the SLC Tieline.

We didn't have any events this weekend. Elder Wilcox took a walk around Temple Square to look at all the construction up close and personal. The weather was beautiful. I had the window open so I could hear children playing and feel the gentle breeze. My intention to join him on the walk never panned out. For some reason the Church decided it was time to change passwords. Not good the week before General Conference. I got locked out on Friday night. I was hoping Saturday morning I would be unlocked and able to proceed. Not so. Apparently I was not the ONLY one who got locked out. I was on hold for over 2 hours to get unlocked. I had successfully changed my password, but for whatever reason I was locked out. Anyway, thankfully I kept trying periodically to get back in and finally, after nearly two hours of still being on hold, I was actually able to get back in. I hung up, never talking to anyone. So that put me way behind on the things I needed to do before I could go for a walk. Once I got connected again, I had a slew of chats and emails wanting things so that set me back even further. Needless to say, I never got my walk and didn't finish with everything until after 7 pm. It does put me in a pretty good position to start the week, instead of starting way behind and trying to play catchup all week. 

Well, we are down to the wire on General Conference. We still have lots of things that need to be done, that can't be done until we get closer so this is going to be a very busy week. I'm very excited and look forward to next weekend very much. 

I hope you are preparing for General Conference. Make sure you have questions in mind that you want answered. Pray about them leading up to conference. And then listen to each talk with your questions in mind. You will receive answers.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

World Report, International Easter Concert, and Sunday School!

We have had lots of events this past week, however, most of them have been on Zoom, In Studio, or Language coaching. We did each get to do two events in the COB. 

On Monday we had a very nice Mission Devotional in the morning. We heard from several missionaries in the Family Search Department. They shared some incredible stories of helping people connect to their families. Some people wander into the center not knowing why or what goes on in there. They say they just felt compelled to go in. Once there a missionary shares a bit about what goes on and asks them if they would like to know more about their family. They start inputting some names into the computer of deceased relatives. Sometimes they get so excited they start calling living relatives to get some names to enter. Then the magic happens. All of a sudden they don't just see a couple of names they have entered, but it goes back many generations. They can explore where their ancestors are from and where their decedents may be living now. It is very exciting. We love hearing about their stories.

Our events for Monday were all in studio or on Zoom. One I really wanted to watch was the "International Easter Concert 2022", but I guess we will have to wait until it is broadcast like everyone else. I also wanted to see the "World Report April 2022 - Spanish & Portuguese." Spanish was the first day and Portuguese the next day. This one was done in studio so we didn't get to see anything again. And another session of the "DRC Leadership Conference with Elder Cook, March 2022" was all done on Zoom.

Sister Checketts teaching Sunday School.

Tuesday the Portuguese portion of the "World Report April 2022 - Spanish & Portuguese" was done, however, instead of doing it in studio with our SLC team it was change to Tieline last minute so we really didn't see anything. I spent most of the day helping people and in meetings. I did to work a little on my General Conference spreadsheet. I found this week that I had to do most of "my" work after I got home at night where there were no other interruptions or distractions. It made for some late nights.

Sunday School class - small because
it decided to snow again today.

Wednesday was rather busy. Elder Wilcox and I started the morning around 6:30. We had back to back events for French. We had another session of the "DRC Leadership Conference with Elder Cook, March 2022" which was normally on Zoom. DRC is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, because the French were also doing part of the morning Tieline for the "World Report April 2022 - Europe & Asia" they had to come into the COB. We were told they would do the Zoom from the COB. So we arranged breakfast and we showed up along with the Engineer. The French did not. They did it on Zoom from their homes after all. Only one French interpreter was doing both events and apparently she lives about 15 minutes away so she finished one and arrived just in time to do the second one. We had a different engineer for the second one. I'm not sure who ate breakfast. We gave a bunch of names to the cafeteria so they could just get whatever breakfast they wanted. We didn't get to see either event broadcast to us. I was able to work on some General Conference stuff. I also had a couple of conference calls too. The event was suppose to go to noon but ended a little before 11. However, we stayed because we had a noon event to do as well. This was another "HRD Development @ Work - Quality Control." Again, it was not broadcast to us. It ended just in time for me to run upstairs for our team meeting. I take the minutes. After that meeting was my PLUNET meeting and then we planned on going home. hahahaha

The Linfords were doing the second half of the "World Report April 2022 - Europe & Asia" which included all the Asia areas. Those languages were coming into the COB so they had a dinner AND it was broadcast for them so they could watch. 😢  Around 5:00 we were ready to leave I got a call from Curtis who was supervising the World Report. He wanted us to stop by downstairs on our way home because he had a story to tell us. Curtis's stories are ALWAYS entertaining and usually very educational so we stopped by. He was just getting ready to tell the Linfords how he came to be where he is at now. We had never heard the story before so he wanted to share it with us too. It was an amazing story and very fun to hear. One thing to know about Curtis. If he is the Supervisor over an event, don't count on being able to watch the event because Curtis LOVES to talk. He always has some fascinating stories to share. (I shared the death masks of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith some time ago). He has opportunities to meet many amazing people and to become part of some incredible projects. He was helping a professor with his research for the Joseph Smith Papers and shared a very cool discovery about how they were able to finally read an original journal page from Joseph Smith that had never been read before through spectral imaging. Very cool!!! Just at that point in his story there was a segment in the World Report that talked about the Joseph Smith papers project so we got to watch that. There are NO coincidences, only tender mercies from God.

On Thursday night we got to do the "EnglishConnect Webinar". We did have a dinner for French, Portuguese, and Spanish; but, once again, they did NOT broadcast the event for us. It was a short event so we got home fairly early. There were lots of left overs so we got to take home some Chicken Pot Pies....yummy! This was another late night for me as I was finally able to work on the spreadsheets for General Conference. 

Friday was the morning session of the "EnglishConnect Webinar". The Linfords covered that one. The rest of the events for the day were all zoom, in studio, or language coaching. I finally finished the spreadsheet and gave Elder Linford the next list of interpreters to add to our General Conference PLUNET order. I did a little more tweaking on it so it should work very smoothly for the next two weeks. We are in so much better shape this conference than last. Almost everyone is onboarded into PLUNET. The few that aren't yet, are very close so we should be in good shape. We have had so many areas submit names to PLUNET too. Our finance team is overwhelmed with all the work they are trying to get done. Unfortunately we have some Interpreters who struggle to get everything filled out and submitted quite the way finance wants them too. I've been working with a few interpreters for several weeks now and they are still having problems. We tried having them print it out and fill it in and take a picture and send that in; but, of course that got rejected. Some just are not tech savvy and it is very hard for them to understand the instructions. They are frustrated and I am frustrated because finance won't send me the forms so I can help them. I've tried to get them on a zoom call so I can see what they see but sometimes that is too difficult for them to do as well. All we can do is the best we can.

We didn't have any events this weekend so that was nice. I had some HawkSoft work to do and, of course, more General Conference to follow-up on. Eunlan sent a text first thing in the morning that ended up taking about 2 hours. Then Curtis asked for something too, but that was only a few minutes. He asked why I was working on a Saturday and and then said, "You should be in a hockey rink slamming opponents or skydiving or alligator wrestling or something else missionary-like." He cracks me up all the time.

Sunday was very laid back. Niiiiccccceeeee!

One very special thing that happened this week has brought tears to my eyes every time I think about it. Our SLC Ukrainian team has been inactive for I don't know how long. We have NO one in our team roster. With all that is going on in the Ukraine we realized that they will probably not be able to do General Conference in country. We, of course, wanted to give them the chance if they wanted it, but we told them we could take care of it here to help them out. They were very appreciative of the offer. Eunlan, who is the Supervisor in charge of General Conference, reached out to our Russian SLC Interpreter Coordinator (IC) and asked her if she could help find some Ukrainian interpreters for General Conference. She agreed to help and has spent several hours and days reaching out to people all over the SLC area as well as in other parts of the country and even Canada to find people to make up a team. She found 8 and we are in the process of RUSH onboarding them into PLUNET so they can do General Conference. She is managing that team and is training them with all they need to know. It only reinforces what I have believed all along. The people in both countries are not at war with one another. It is only leaders who are out of control that make it bad for so many people and is destroying so many lives. My heart breaks, but I am so touched by the love and support our Russian IC is showing the Ukrainians. Please pray for them!

One last thing. We talked about Genesis 37 to 50 today in Sunday School. It is the story of Joseph being sold into Egypt and how he rose to become the second only to Pharaoh. Joseph came to realize that all those bad things that happened in his life were turned to good in the Hands of the Lord. Heavenly Father didn't cause the bad things to happen, but He used them to help Joseph rise above his afflictions and become the second more powerful man in Egypt and put him in charge to be able to literally save the Israelites. We were then asked how the Lord has used trials in our lives for good. We shared with one another some of those times. 

The biggest thing I have recognized in my life has become evidently more clear how the Hand of the Lord was there all along. For years I struggled with being a working mom. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom so I could be there for our children. Circumstances were such that I had to work through most of their growing up years. There were a LOT of 2 income households then. I couldn't understand why the Lord wouldn't grant what I considered to be a righteous desire. I also prayed that all I wanted to do was be an instrument in the Hands of the Lord to do His will. It wasn't until we started working in this particular mission that I realized the Lord used my "trial" for my good and for His higher purpose. He has granted me the more righteous desire of my heart which is to be an instrument in His Hands to do His Will. I now know that everything I have ever learned in my entire working career has come to be of great value in this very mission at this very time. The Lord does have a plan for me and for you. He never forces; but, He will use our choices (good or bad) to further His work along in His own due time. We can either learn from our trials and trust in the Lord that they are indeed for our good, or we can fight Him all the way and be miserable. In the end Heavenly Father's plan will still turn out the way it is supposed to turn out. I choose to trust in the Lord with all my heart and let Him direct my paths.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Worldwide Missionary Devotional & Volleyball

I had another eye doctor appointment on Monday. The results weren't as good as expected. My eyes are regressing again. the doctor put me back on my prescription drops. Hopefully I will see some improvement again soon.

I spent the bulk of the day helping people. That is what I love to do the most. I helped Elder Linford with the General Conference PLUNET order. He said it was a lot of work, but he thanked me for letting him do it. He is learning a lot and in the long run it will make things easier for him. I guess I'll have Sister Linford do the next big event we have. I also helped several other area and SLC team coordinators getting their people sorted out and helping them get active. I expect these things will slow way down after General Conference.

We got approval to have a lot more interpreters for General Conference. That means we get to have extra missionaries come and help. Sister Linford and I split the number in half and each found about 10 people to help. We get 4 missionaries for each session. It was so fun when I asked if they wanted to help. All of them were "Yeah, count me in." Especially when I told them there would be a meal included. lol

Monday evening we had a wonderful Mission Devotional with Sister Oscarson and her husband. They both gave really good talks. I was amazed they were called as Mission President and Companion in their 20's. Very special people. Sister Oscarson reminded us of lessons we have learned from President Nelson since he became the Prophet in 2018. He implemented so many "new" things shortly after his call. At the time we thought, 'these are cool' or 'that's interesting' or even 'why are we doing that?' Well, little did we know that everything he implemented put us as a Church and more important as families in a much better position to ride out this global pandemic. We were prepared for Church at home for nearly a year because we started the "Come Follow Me" program. We were better prepared to help our ward members and our neighbors because of the new mistering program. We were in a position to continue Seminary and other group "gatherings" because we had been doing online Seminary for several years so it was easy to move everyone to an online class. Our youth and primary groups started "meeting together" via Zoom meetings. Even Missionary work exploded because of new tools and techniques in using social media that were being implemented before the pandemic hit. The talk was wonderful.

Tuesday was fun. We had our semi-annual trip to Costco to buy snacks for the next 6 months. Do you know how fun it is to take two big flatbed carts and put chips, and candy, and cookies, and more candy, and protein bars, and anything else that looks yummy on the cart. We also got containers so we can pack up leftovers and send them home with the interpreters. What surprised me even more was Sister Linford and I were able to pack everything in our storage room with nothing left on the counter tops. We did an awesome job. We do still have to get a few more things that weren't at Costco, or they were out of, but that won't be too much.

The rest of Tuesday was normal helping, our weekly General Conference meeting, and our Tuesday Leadership Pattern Journey meeting. Aaron came in as he had the "Worldwide Missionary Devotional with Elder Anderson" event. He was the one who was in charge of Roots Tech. He asked me to help him put together a report to show how much the changes, and the rushes, and the add ons took them over budget. So, I worked on that during the devotional. Elder and Sister Anderson spoke and gave great talks. Elder Anderson introduced 5 of his grandchildren that were in the audience. Then he mentioned that he had met a President Anderson (no relation) whose son what at the MTC so he asked him to stand and be his reader for a while. A little later he asked for a volunteer to recite one of the scriptures he had on the screen from memory. A Sister Missionary stood up and he asked her name. She responded with "Sister Anderson".  He then asked if everyone was named Anderson, which brought a lot of chuckles. 

The open atrium from the underground
parking garage to the temple.

Wednesday brought another HDR event. The last of the three events we started last week. The Linfords covered the afternoon, which was good, because I take the minutes for our Team meeting on Wednesdays at 2. And I followed that meeting with the PLUNET meeting. Right in the middle of the PLUNET meeting Daniel called me with a special request for a report for Marshall. My goal was to have that finished on Thursday.  Earlier in the day, Sister Linford checked the Bountiful Temple schedule and found 4 slots for the 6:00 pm session. She asked if we wanted to go and we said yes. So we all jumped on the computer and grabbed those slots. The Temple was beautiful...especially with all the snow around. I love the underground parking so we didn't have to be in the weather at all. It was very nice.

Actually, I just want one Database to rule them all!

I went in early on Thursday because I had a meeting with Marshall. He is our manager's boss. Ten minutes before the meeting he asked if he could postpone it to after lunch. That was probably for the best because during the morning I had several meetings with Curtis and we ended up talking about what I was going to share with Marshall. Curtis asked if he could join the meeting. At 1:00 we had our meeting with Marshall to discuss the "one database to rule them all" plan. Marshall said they were already working in that direction; however, Curtis and I both brought up some of concerns which he took notes on. Hopefully that means it will actually make it into the bigger picture. I feel better but I'm still concerned. Both Curtis and I asked to be involved before the final decision is made.  

Aaron preparing to venture into the snow.
He doesn't like snow!

We spent much of Thursday trying to sort out another large project that is taking place over 9 days with 9 different sessions. Some days have 2 sessions and some don't have any, but the total period covers 9 days. The first three sessions take place this Saturday and Sunday and still they hadn't decided who was going to do what. The event is the "DRC Leadership Conference with Elder Cook, March 2022 - French".  DRC stands for Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is only French. With so many sessions, Curtis wanted Paris and SLC to share. So Antoinette in Paris and Alexis in SLC talked for two days deciding who was going to do what. We finally got people for Saturday and Sunday on Friday. By that time it was a RUSH rate. It ended up with SLC doing all but one of the nine sessions. The next decision was HOW were they going to do it. Originally SLC was supposed to come into the COB. Then Paris asked if they could do Zoom. Next SLC wanted to think about doing Zoom, too. We were trying to decide if we needed to arrange breakfast for two days or not. Finally we got notification about noon on Friday that they are going to do Zoom for all the sessions. Kind of a BUMMER because we don't get to see any of the events that way. However, it is a blessing with NO early morning breakfasts. hahahaha

Later, Thursday evening we had an event that doesn't happen everyday. It was the "BYU Pathway President's Inauguration Broadcast". It was one of the few events we have actually been able to see in weeks. We only had three languages; French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Elder Wilcox ordered Prime Rib and everyone loved it. We also got huge slices of Cheesecake with Whipped Cream and Raspberry Sauce. Delicious.  The event was supposed to be 2 hours long; 7 to 9; however, it ended in an hour. It was in person, I think at the Conference Center, but they were also on Zoom. The choir numbers were on Zoom. People from all over the world watched, which made me wonder why we only did three languages. Anyway we heard from Elder Christopherson, President Brian K. Ashton the new Pathway President, Elder Holland, and very, very, briefly from President Oaks. The main gist of the talks was how BYU Pathway had really become a worldwide organization meeting the educational needs for people all over the world. They had a video presentation that shared several stories of how BYU Pathway has changed lives. It was all very good.

After the event we headed for the Salt Lake Airport to pick up Sara and Brooklyn for a volleyball tournament that was being held in the Salt Palace. Another team player was with them. It was so fun to see them. We dropped Brooklyn and her friend off at their hotel and then headed to our place because Sara was staying with us.

Brooklyn's games didn't start until 3:00pm on Friday so we had the morning to show them around. We gave the grand tour of the 26th, 27th, and 28th floors where all the Interpretation things go on. They met the Linfords, too. Then we headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for a brief tour. We took them to the Mission office on the 3rd floor. President Randall was in the reception area so they got to meet him and, of course, get some treats. We also took them to the 10th floor for another spectacular view of Temple Square. Then it was time to head to the cafeteria for lunch. Our piano guy showed up just as we were finishing so we hung around a while to listen. By then it was time to take Brooklyn back to the hotel so she could get ready for her games. Sara borrowed the car to take several girls to the Salt Palace as their hotel was not in walking distance. When she got back we all walked to the Salt Palace which is not too far from our place. We watched Brooklyn play a bunch of games both Friday and Saturday. We couldn't make the Sunday games because of Church. She is really good. It was so fun to watch. 

Brooklyn finished her games on Sunday. They did very well. We didn't see them because of Church. We have had a very nice visit, mostly with Sara because Brooklyn was with her team most of the time. We love having family come and visit, hint, hint!

Love and Prayer to All!

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Times of the Signs

Elder Wilcox did NOT make this sign

We are beginning to ramp up for General Conference. We are approaching the "blackout" period when we won't get any "new" events until after General Conference; however, this is a "lie". We will have tons of new events, but they are all "related" to GC. For example we are beginning to see the different AOA trainings pop up. There will also be Seventies' trainings and I'm sure other trainings from our leaders that will soon be dotting our Events Calendar. The official "blackout" period starts mid March and goes to about Mid April. There will be a few not GC related events that will sneak in, but for the most part the majority will be related to GC.

Monday started with a nice Mission devotional. The last Monday of the month we hear from a different Zone in our mission. They tell us all about the things they do. It is always so interesting to hear about all the many, many, things that go behind the scenes that no one ever knows about. This time we learned about the DQA section. No, they don't serve delicious Ice Cream. They are Data Quality Assurance. They work in conjunction another group that is nicknamed Syrup. I can't remember the acronym or the section name, but it was cute. They are the DQ and Syrup groups. It is amazing some of the ways they work to preserve and even restore the quality of some very old records. Monday evening we had another Leadership Pattern Journey class at our apartment. We are really enjoying this and how much it is impacting our personal study and growth.

Tuesday started a week of morning events. Besides our normal Language coaching events that we don't get involved in, we had an "HRD Development @Work Conference Broadcast Pre-recordings" event (yes that really is a single title). It started at 8:00AM for breakfast and went until 1:00 PM. Since the Linfords supported this event, we were able to watch our Zone Devotional at 8. Unfortunately for the Linfords, they didn't broadcast anything of the event so they didn't get to see anything. The Interpreters kept saying how great the conference was and how much they were learning about working for the Church. Tuesday, we also had our other Leadership Pattern Journey class. It is a little harder to stay focused in that class because I am at my desk and easily get distracted with emails and chat that continually come him vying for my attention. I try to ignore them until after the class. hahaha 

Before the Tuesday event, the Translation department held their first Area General Conference training. They gave a few minutes to the Interpretation group and Eunlan prepared a presentation. For some reason, I was also invited to attend the training. Eunlan had me answer questions that came in about PLUNET or Onboarding. We found out that day that we have two new languages added to GC this year. AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language) and Peruvian Sign Language. AUSLAN is official as they did their pilot program last October and got approved to be official. Peru is doing the pilot program this conference. Anyway, it is pretty exciting. Part of that required me to add AUSLAN to our All Languages Template for PLUNET orders. Long story short, there were problems with modifying the template that necessitated deleting it and starting all over again. Needless to say, I was scrambling like crazy to get it finished so we could get our GC Plunet order created by the end of the week. It took two days to create the template.

Wednesday Elder Wilcox and I supported the second day of the "HRD Development @Work Conference Broadcast Pre-recordings" event. It was another breakfast followed by 5 more hours of training. Again we did not get to see anything. In the middle of that event, I had an "Onboarding Process - New HR Policy and Exceptions to the Rule" meeting. Basically it said we now have a brand NEW layer of hoops we have to jump through to be able to use Church Employees as interpreters. Immediately after that event we had a short "2022 AgReserves CEO Safety Training Remarks - Portuguese/ Script change" event. One of the interpreters from the HRD event just stayed to do the AgReserves event. We got him lunch. After that was over we went immediately to our Team meeting and that was followed by my PLUNET meeting. We stayed until about 6:30 that night just to catch up on all the stuff that didn't get done because of the events and meetings. I finished up the All Languages template too.

Thursday morning was BUSY. At 8:00 AM I had another Area General Conference Training meeting for the Asian Pacific areas. Again, I was invited to attend and answer questions. It was fun to see many of the same people who were at our meeting we held last month. We also had another morning event. The call time for this one was 9:00 AM (My meeting was almost over). Since it was later there was no breakfast involved. Just snacks. This time it was a little funny. It was the last (fingers crossed) Roots Tech event we were doing. It was a RUSH Live from Dubai. We needed 1 sister for each language. When I was setting it up, I thought Aaron made a mistake. He had the Start time at 10:00 and the End time at 10:01. I laughed. Well, he was wrong, of course. The event was actually less than 1 minute. It think it was a total of 45 seconds. It was just the opening remarks to start the conference. 

The Linfords were gone on Thursday. They had a family funeral to attend. So, I took care of the rush events that came in that day. If it was a normal event I left it for them to do on Friday. We had one event that involved some Ethiopian visitors for three days. We had actually been dealing with it for several days as it didn't come in through the normal process. We managed to finally get it all taken care of. The interpreter was going to put in nearly 30 hours for three days work. 10 hours each day. I look forward to hearing all about it. He should be here for General Conference so hopefully I'll get to ask him about it. 

Friday we had the last of our morning events for the week. This was another breakfast and the Linfords supported it. This was a "Mission Leader Webinar - President's Companions" and they DID broadcast it so the Linfords could watch. Nice!!! I spent most of the day putting out fires and working with Elder Linford to set up the General Conference PLUNET order. He still has dates to add, but other than that I think it is about done. We want it ready to send out notifications to the Areas on Monday.

Saturday was as busy as ever.  I had several hours of HawkSoft work.  I also got a call from Eunlan, who is over General Conference. She received official word that we can more than double the Interpreters we can have in the COB. So we spent the next two hours working on the language plan deciding who we could have come.  It was awesome to be part of the planning that goes into General Conference. 

I also spent an hour finishing up my Leadership Pattern Journey lesson.  Through the last several weeks these lessons have helped me realize how much the Lord loves me and how I have been prepared my whole life for this particular mission. I have set up a meeting with Marshall,  head of our PSD department, to talk about some issues we currently have with our programs that don't talk to each other.  I am aware that the various sections are currently evaluating new software to replace our existing systems. We all share the same list of people, languages,  and even events,  yet we all have separate lists of that same data. The problem is when someone is deactivated in one system no one knows about it to change in all the others systems.  Not good.  So after discussing my thoughts and concerns with Elder Wilcox,  I put together a short presentation to share with Marshall next week about the need to make sure whatever systems they choose that they all share the same database of information so that inactive status will be seen by everyone.  Without this,  the massive work I have been doing to get everyone in sync will disappear after we end our mission. 

Jamie Beech

We had a snow storm Saturday night. It was absolutely gorgeous walking to Church Sunday morning. It reminded me of a Winter Wonderland. After Church we had our monthly Break the Fast! We always have so much fun visiting with our missionary family. Elder Wilcox has been busy making MORE signs for our hallway because everyone was jealous. After the "Welcome to the Oregon Territory" sign, he made a "St. George Portal to the Great Basin". Below that he had a smaller one that said Woodstock with an arrow pointing to the Woodstock's apartment. They loved it. So then our Idaho friends at the other end of the hallway were whining so he made an "Idaho Falls, Self Proclaimed Center of the Universe" sign for them. There are about 4 couples in the same area that rolled over laughing with that one. Right in the middle of that group is a sweet couple from Kaysville so he made them a "Kaysville, Utah Salt of the Earth National Monument". They rewarded us with York Peppermint Patties. Now the rest of the floor want signs too!  After Break the Fast we had our normal Monday Leadership Pattern Journey class on Sunday evening. Monday evening we have a Mission Devotional with Bonnie Oscarson and her husband. Should be great.

I hope you have a GREAT week. We are excited because Sara and Brooklyn will be coming for the weekend. Brooklyn has some tournament volleyball games at the Salt Palace. She will be staying with her team. Sara will be staying with us. It is a little bit of a walk to the Salt Palace from our place so it won't be too bad for her. We should be able to see games on Friday afternoon/evening and some on Saturday. We are very excited.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox