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