Post Conference and Elle's Baptism!

We survived General Conference. It was busy, but oh, so rewarding. However, Conference is not over for us yet. Now we have all the computer work to do. Elder Wilcox has lots of access badges and parking passes to order for people who didn't have them when they checked in. My job and the Linfords is to input all the hours everyone worked. We have to verify they actually worked the sessions the interpreters were assigned. We also had a couple of people show up that we didn't know about so we have to get all that straightened out. 

We had a wonderful Leadership Pattern Journey class on Monday night. Our discussion was exceptionally good. The Rohrbach's lead our discussion and did a great job. I love our group.

On Tuesday we finished up the General Conference Leadership Training meetings. This event finished up the last 4 meetings. We had an AOA tour. Next was the Assignment Meeting. The Linfords handled both of those so I'm not sure what that was all about. At 12:30 we started the AOA training meeting. We attended that one. They are the General Presidency members of the three women's organization, RS, YW, and Primary who do training and presentations.  Lastly, was the Seventies and Wives Social. We had another obligation, so the Linfords covered that for us.

Wednesday we had our team meeting. Several Supervisors were in the office, so that was nice. We tried not to talk about General Conference because we have our General Conference recap meeting next week. A few things crept into the meeting. I spent much of Wednesday trying to get some newer laptops for our missionaries and one Supervisor. Sara, the Supervisor, has been using her laptop for months with a very swollen battery. Her case is literally splitting apart. A couple of our missionary laptops are doing the same thing. 

Well, on Monday I went to the IT department to see if they accidently picked a couple of chargers that some Interpreters left behind in the computer area that we had set up for conference. They couldn't really tell which ones were the missing ones, but they said they would just give us two replacement chargers we needed. I had one sister on the phone so I just handed the phone to the IT guy so he could get the correct charger. The other one I knew what it was because he had borrowed my laptop charger at General Conference. I sent Elder Wilcox to grab the charger from another laptop we had upstairs that was the same kind. He brought up the laptop, too. This laptop was in a little better shape case wise than mine, but it wouldn't let us sign onto the network which is why we weren't using it. When the IT guy took one look at the case he said we should not be using that laptop. It is a safety hazard. So I told him about Sara's laptop and he said to tell her to turn it off and don't use it until it gets replaced.

It took two days to jump through all the hoops to finally get them requested and approved. We should have them early next week. I think we are getting 4. I'm just hoping Sara's computer doesn't blow up before next week, because there is NO WAY she is going to stop using her laptop. I also pled my case during this same time to get approval to get SQL on my work computer. I had to justify why I wanted it and if it was something that would just go away when our mission is over. I pointed out that I was thinking about when I leave and that I wanted to make it easier for new missionaries to be able to continue to run the reports I have created. In this particular case, since the reports are something we do regularly, it is easier to run SQL scripts rather than have to manipulate Excel spreadsheets all the time. The scripts have all the manipulation built into the script so all they have to do is run the script and it does everything. It is pretty slick. Anyway, I got approval for that too, so I should be getting that next week as well.

On Wednesday night we did laundry and packed for our trip to Oregon for Elle's Baptism. Thursday was a very long day of driving. One really cool thing is because everything on our Church SharePoint site is backed up to OneDrive and that syncs to my laptop, I had everything I needed to continue to work on my SQL scripts for after Conference reporting. So, I happily worked in the car while Steve did the driving. It worked out very well.

We arrived in Canby a little before 4 Thursday afternoon. It was so fun to see everyone. We stayed with MyLiege's family as it was less juggling than trying to move people around at Douhet's house. Djeryd and Eva were there too. Djeryd was Baptizing his little sister, so of course he had to be there.

We ran some errands on Friday. We went to our place and swapped out a TV. We had a very nice visit with Jayne while we were there. She is staying at our place while her house is getting remodeled, so the timing worked out perfectly. Tyus and Laila are staying with Douhet and Kylee in Laila's old room since Alyson is on her mission. After picking up a few things we headed over to Costco to pick up more things so we could avoid paying the sales taxes we pay in Utah. So we stocked up on several things that I hope we can now fit in our apartment. Several cases of paper towels and toilet paper are pretty big items to fit into a small apartment. Hahaha Friday night we were on food prep for Elle's baptism party. By the time we finished we were all so tired we just went to bed.

Saturday was the big day. We started the morning having breakfast with Erik at IHOP. Djeryd and Erik haven't seen each other for over 4 years. It was sweet to see the bothers embrace each other. We, of course, haven't seen him in 10 months. It was so good to see him and how well he is doing. We all had a lot of fun together. After breakfast we spent the afternoon doing final preparations for the big party after the Baptism. Then we all changed and left.

Elle's Baptism was awesome. Douhet is on the High Council and over the Stake Youth Baptisms. Elle shared her day with another 8 year-old named Eric Gray. We have known both sides of Eric's family for years so it was fun to see other old friends we haven't seen in a while. Grandpa Wilcox gave the sweetest talk on Baptism. He went up to the front of the Chapel and had the two young 8 year-olds come sit on the front bench. He then sat down next to them and faced them. He told everyone that this talk was for them. He proceeded to ask them some questions and just have a nice little visit with them about baptism and why they want to be baptized. He talked softly and tenderly. The rest of us could hardly hear the talk. It was so sweet and tender.

After his talk we went to the baptismal font where Djeryd performed Elle's baptism. Eric's family stayed in the Chapel for a few minutes. Anna and Alyx got to be the witnesses. The room was packed with friends and family. It was so nice to see so many people show their love to, and for Elle.

After the baptism we went to the Relief Society Room to finish the program. While we waited for Elle to change into the beautiful dress that MyLiege made for her baptism day, I passed out cute notecards and pens for people to write a message to Elle on her special day. When MyLiege and Elle returned, Alyx gave her talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She did a FANTASTIC job. She had a bag with several objects that represented different things the Holy Ghost does for us such as: comfort us, protect us, guide and direct us, and several other blessings. She let Elle pull something out of the bag and then she would talk briefly how that applies to us. She gave several examples from her own life. It was a great talk. We closed with the song, "I Am A Child Of God" with Anna at the Piano and a good friend, Isaac, on the Cello. It was beautiful.  

After brief visits and pictures we all headed to Elle's home for a big party. We had good food and wonderful company. We probably had thirty people there. It was so much fun to see and visit with so many friends we haven't seen in quite a while. The party ended around 8:30, we finished cleaning up about 10 and everyone headed to bed. 

Sunday morning bright and early we were heading to Church. Once again, it was great to meet and greet people from our Ward that we haven't seen in a long while. We had fun telling them about what we do on our mission, why we were home, and when we were leaving again. We told them we would be leaving early Monday morning; however, we got a storm warning weather report that said snow up to 16" inches expected in some areas on our way home be begin at 3:00 AM. We debated about what we should do and finally decided to go home Sunday afternoon, rather than Monday morning. We could overnight someplace and perhaps beat the worst of the storm. So, once again I am writing this from the car, this time on the way back to Utah!

I hope you have a FANTASTIC week. We love ALL of you!!!

All our Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox