Computer Frustrations and Katie Sue Relief

I think this has been the most frustrating week we have had on our mission. Just when I think things are going smoothly and it looks like some needed improvements are in the works we get stopped dead in the water. 

SQL update. We managed to get my SQL Enterprise working on my Church Computer; however, we have been stuck trying to get it up and running for the Linfords. If I can't get other missionaries able to use it, then it kind of defeats the purpose of doing what I'm trying to do. I'm looking into other ways they can access running the reports, but that still does not make it sustainable after our mission is over.

Second frustration. I tried to get SQL Enterprise working on the Church Laptop that I've been given. SQL Enterprise requires a secure VPN to work, meaning I can't run it from my home computer. I have to have a Church computer with the secure VPN installed so I can work on it from home. After spending several frustrating hours with my tech guy we finally discovered that the default LDS domain was not setup on my laptop. So I headed to the 20th floor where IT support is and they worked their magic and changed my default domain to LDS. After a little setup I was able to get SQL Enterprise working just fine. However, in the process of switching it I lost my Admin privileges and caused some other issues on the computer, so I headed back to IT support the next day to get that fixed. 

In the meantime, Sister Linford said she could no longer get into CFIS which is the Church Finance system. We use that system to verify our PRJ numbers for all our events. We also do research when we get emails from Interpreters saying they haven't been paid yet. We have to check to see if they actually downloaded the invoice and emailed it to Church Finance. (That is the step they usually forget.) If it has not made it to CFIS, then we have to send it for them because once they click the "Submit for Approval" they can no longer download and email the invoice. (a long term frustration I have been working on for months.) Anyway, I tried signing into CFIS and I was unable to get in. Elder Linford tried and he got the same results. I called Global Tech Support (IT) and spent a couple of hours trying to get our access back. They finally said I was locked out and we both assumed it was because I had tried signing in too many times. They told me to wait a little while and try again later.

They gave us all new temporary sign ins and passwords and told us to try again. Still could not get in. They gave us new passwords again and still could not get in. We finally went to lunch and took a break from it all. Sometime after lunch, Sister Linford tried again and still could not get in so she called Global Tech Support. After a while they told her that she was blocked. They said they would try and get us unblocked and to try again the next day.

This was all on Monday. That evening we had our last Leadership Pattern Journey class at our apartment. It was a really good discussion. I will miss that group. However, the good news is we get to start our Family Home Evening group up again. Next Monday we have a Mission Devotional with a Guest Speaker so we will start the following week.

Tuesday morning I was again back on the 20th floor. First to get my Admin privileges back and second, to see if I could get back into CFIS. I was there nearly 2 hours. It was finally escalated to a solutions engineer who told me that we were all blocked based on a report that indicated we no longer needed access for our job. They said with the data breach we experienced a few weeks before they were really tightening down on security. He promised to see what he could do to restore our access and promised to have some news by the end of the day. In the meantime we still could not check PRJs for upcoming events. We have to have valid PRJs (project numbers) so the project can get billed. Technically they are supposed to be valid BEFORE we ever do the event, but things have been a little crazy lately with lots of invalid PRJs at the time of the event. We can't approve jobs until they are valid. So finally the Supervisors are pushing back and saying they won't even set up the event until the PRJ is valid.

By noon we got word that it wasn't a report that blocked us, but the PSD finance guy. I sent an explanation to Daniel (our manager) so he could present the need to get us access again. Finance did come up with a daily report of valid PRJs that we can check so we don't have to go into CFIS. I said that would be fine; however, that did not resolve the need to check if invoices were in the system. He said we were to send those request to Lisa. That will slow things down a lot, because Lisa is a very busy person and I think that is the reason they gave the missionaries access in the first place. We will see how that goes. The final reason we need access is once a month we run a report to see all invoices that have been created and then we check to see how many are NOT in CFIS so we can submit them. I don't think Lisa is going to want to check that list every month. If we don't check it, they the only way they will get paid if they forgot to submit the invoice is if they email us and say, "hey, I still haven't been paid yet." There are a lot that never email us and so they will never get paid. I'm not sure how this is going to work out yet.

We had a wonderful Tuesday afternoon. The Beeches and the Wilcoxes got to have lunch and an afternoon tour with Katie Sue and Bryce. It was so much fun and I really needed a break from all the Tech issues. Katie was running a bit late because of parking so we were rushing a bit to make it to the cafeteria before they closed at 1:30. Just as we walked into the COB near the cafeteria I spotted someone I knew entering the health clinic right by the main door. I hollered out to Jodi (Bean) to say hi as I headed over to give her a hug. She spotted us and then realized that the Beeches and Katie Sue were there. She was so excited to see them. We spent just a few minutes talking before we had to run to the cafeteria. The Tender Mercy is this.  Jodi would have already gone home, but decided to work out before going home. She was just dropping by the clinic to pick up her things before heading out. Perfect timing. Second Tender Mercy. Jodi ONLY works at the clinic ONE day a month. What are the Odds?  It was a wonderful blessing. Our tour went longer than we usually give. I think we probably spent about three hours with Katie Sue and Bryce. The Beeches left after about an hour as they had a Temple appointment. We had a wonderful time with them.

Wednesday was filled with our usual meetings. Our team meeting went over so I missed my PLUNET meeting. We left as soon as the Team Meeting was over to go to the Temple with the Linfords. It wasn't as frustrating a day, but still we didn't get things resolved that we need to.

Thursday I spent much of the day in one-off meetings. I was assigned an SQL Solutions Manager. (Honestly, I don't know exactly what he does.) We talked for an hour and I went over my whole process from start to finish explaining the three different systems we use and how they don't talk to each other and how I'm just trying to get all the information in one place so we can make things easier. He listened and wrote lots of notes. All I really wanted was help with getting the Bulk Import to work on the new server. I brought it up many times, but that was not one of his solutions.

Later that afternoon I had another meeting with Baptiste and a few people from the Translation group. We are trying to figure out why some of their translators were renewed in the system as only interpreters. NOT GOOD. I told them we didn't do anything different then we usually do. We are trying to implement a practice to check before Sister Petty puts in a renewal request to see of Translation has already submitted the request to avoid duplicates but that is about it. Oh, Lisa's group did add three new check boxes in the request that says Translation, Interpretation, and Sacred Material. After the call I thought about it and think perhaps the missionaries that are doing the actual renewals we just looking at the box and not at the fact that they were already in the system as translators and simply put them in as interpreters. Anyway, it was just one more frustration for the week.  Later that evening the Linfords did another NANE Broadcast Videos for Primary and Youth event. I think there is at least one more in this series next week. It is kind of like Roots Tech. The event that never ends. hahaha

On Friday I created some thank you letters and certificates for some language coordinators who have moved on. Daniel came in and so he was able to sign them so we could get them in the mail. We also got some things set up for two new people that are starting next week. We have two others that may start the week after. There was more communication back and forth between Daniel and finance, but so far no resolution. I also got some percentage reports done for Daniel that he has decided he wants run regularly, some twice a year, some quarterly, and some monthly. I got the script written to make it very easy to do. He was very happy with that. I also got a call from my SQL solutions guy asking why I don't just do everything in Excel rather than going to SQL. He said it would be easier for missionaries to use a program they are more familiar with. I told him I started in Excel, but the work it took to get the reports out was a lot more complicated then what I can do in SQL. I can teach a missionary how to save the needed data into a csv file. I can teach them to run a script that will import all the data and then run another script for whatever report they want. No manipulating data or sorting, or selecting, or anything else that would need to be done in Excel. And, yes, I could probably figure out a way to automate all that manipulation in Excel, but at this point it is much, much easier for me to do that in SQL. I can manually do it in Excel, but I don't know how to automate it. So now I'm not sure they will let me keep SQL.

On Saturday we did a cool event. We supported the Farmington NM Temple Groundbreaking event. They only reason we didn't get to watch the whole thing is because we were watching the memorial services for the daughter of two of our wonderful Portuguese interpreters. Last week their daughter was flying in a 4 seater small aircraft just outside Cedar City. She was with her fiancé, his brother, and his sister-in-law. The brother was the pilot. They had just finished eating dinner in Cedar City and were headed to Zion National Park. We don't know what happened, but the plane went down and all four were killed. We have all be devastated and feel so much love and sympathy for the parents. Henrique and Ana de Agostini are always so fun to be around. They are both GREAT people. The service was beautiful. We were surprised that both Henrique and Ana spoke. Also a sister and brother spoke as well. The daughter sounded like a wonderful young woman. She was to graduate next week and was planning on getting married in the near future. When the service was over we turned the sound up on the groundbreaking event. We had missed most of the talks, but we did get to catch the shovel ceremony. I think it was very cool that in each of the shovel ceremonies they had several Primary children with a shovel too, so they could participate. That will be something they remember for the rest of their lives. 

After the event we did some shopping. Luckily I did my HawkSoft work on Friday night. We had a fairly relaxing day. On Sunday we had a special women's choir to prepare for Father's Day. We are also going to sing on the 15th. It was nice to be part of a choir again. We sounded pretty good. 😁🎶 It was also our Break the Fast meal. As usual, a fun time was had by all!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the beautiful Spring Weather!

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox