Snow Storm, No Sleep, SQL, and Happy Easter!

Our effort to beat the big snow storm last Sunday was long but somewhat eventful. We definitely made the right decision to leave when we did. The roads were clear for us most of the way. We did run into a few snow flurries which caused some slowdowns, but overall it was a good and safe trip. It did take about two hours longer than normal. We ended up not overnighting someplace, but decided to drive straight through and got home about 4:00 AM.

After a few hours sleep we woke up and decided to work from home. I had much to catch up on as we needed to finish up adding hours to our General Conference event. Monday evening we went to our Mission Easter Concert Devotional. It was really very good, however, we did have a little trouble staying awake. By the time the concert was over, the snow storm was rapidly approaching. The temperature had dropped significantly and it started with some slow flurries. The next several days we experienced several days of winter like conditions again.

Brother John Doughty, Sister
Linford, & Elder Linford

On Tuesday we were back in the office. The Linfords came in early for the Temple Recorder Seminar. They had a really cool experience happen. The Linfords served two missions before this one, both of them were Temple missions. Elder Linford served as an assistant Recorder to one of the presenters in the Seminar. His name is Brother John Doughty. They found out that the seminar participants were on the 2nd floor of the COB. So they went down there and sure enough, Brother Doughty from their mission came around the corner. They hadn't seen each other in several years. Sister Linford said it was a real treat to see him.

Later, I followed up on a few things we had started the week before. For example, we had several laptops that had expanding batteries. I put in a request for new(er) laptops before we left for Oregon. Out of the 4 laptops we requested one was ready. I called about Sara's computer as hers was in the worst shape. That was the one they managed to rush for me. Sara picked it up on Wednesday. We got the other three on Thursday.

I think the two black squiggly things are Sister Petty
and Joelma who could not make it to the luncheon.

Later Tuesday, we had our post General Conference meeting. It was fun and enlightening. We talked about what went well and what we want to change before next conference. It was a lively meeting and at the end we all decided we need to talk more. Daniel, our manager decided we needed to have a Post General Conference lunch..."tomorrow". So he asked Elder Wilcox to set it all up. He put out a list of a few restaurants for a vote and then made some reservations for a little hole in the wall place near the Church Office Building.

So, Wednesday morning we had another event called Mission Leader Webinar - Missionary Medical. Elder Wilcox and I were on that event. It was very interesting about all the the different things Mission President's need to do to take care of all their missionaries. After the event, we had our team luncheon. The food was great and we had a lot of fun. We discussed more about General Conference as well as other things. 

Later that afternoon I called tech support to get SQL installed on my Church computer. After a frustrating time we managed to get it installed but it still wasn't working. So on Thursday I called again and the guy actually came to help he. I made me an ADMIN on my computer which else some but still not enough. He escalated my ticket higher up.  Later that day, I was told our other laptops were ready so I picked them up and got everything set up. 

So on Friday, I decided to reinstall SQL since I was now an admin on my computer. And Low and Behold it WORKED. I know have a working copy of SQL on my computer. I also set up SQL on the laptops because I was also an admin on my laptop and the Linfords were admins on their laptops. By the end of Friday everything was working correctly.

I spent the end of Friday working with Curtis to get our ITI program to work with SharePoint. We are excited for this "fix" as it will eliminate a mapping problem we usually have to do several times a week. 

Friday night, the Linfords did another event called Michigan Member Easter devotional with Elder Anderson. We were able to go home and have a relaxing evening.

Saturday were no events so we were also home. It was nice to have a day to do nothing.  Steve went shopping and I did some work on HawkSoft and my blog. 

The Beeches and the Wilcoxs

Sunday was Easter Sunday! We tried to spend time all week thinking about and even studying about Easter Week. It was the last time we would see some of our favorite missionaries as they are leaving this week. Sister Checketts will be leaving on Tuesday. She was one of the sweet sisters who befriended us immediately. She was instrumental in starting our Family Home Evening Group. We are going to miss her a lot. The McNaughts are also leaving this week. They live on our floor and we have gotten to know them a little bit.

Katie Sue invited us and the Beeches to Easter Dinner. It was fun to be around their whole family. They welcome us in as if we were part of the family. The Beeches had Bryce in their Ward for years. Sister Beech taught Bryce in Seminary. They had fun reconnecting. We are all invited back for the Fourth of July!

I hope you have had a wonderful Easter and remember, it is all "Because He Lives!"

Leslee and Helen Call

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad,

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox