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