2022 Seminar for New Mission Leaders

What a week! Monday started as a day off because it was a holiday. Around 10:00 AM we got a call from one of our favorite Portuguese interpreters asking if we would be willing to give a tour for their brother and sister-in-law from Brazil. We met them at 11 and had a GREAT time showing all four of them around the COB for about an hour. Later we picked up some Kentucky Fried Chicken for our Branch Picnic over that the Garden Apartments. We had a great turnout and a lot of fun.

Tuesday was a day filled with finishing up the rest of the Area Videos for the Mission Leaders Seminar. The Linfords covered the morning group and we took the evening shift. It was crazy but a lot of fun. We got home pretty late and went straight to bed.

Wednesday we packed and headed to the MTC in Provo for the 2022 Seminar for New Mission Leaders. It started with a wonderful welcome session for all the new Mission Leaders. We had 5 days with 42 sessions. We only got to listen to a few of them. Most of the time we were behind the scenes tracking interpreters, printing talks, visiting with them and helping in anyway we could. I think our favorite times were getting to eat all our meals with all the wonderful people we work with.

Our first night we had dinner in the main dining room with all the Mission Leaders. We met our new Mission President and his wife. They are just great. The food was delicious. It was funny because we felt like we needed to get "go boxes" and pack up the leftovers for our interpreters. It felt odd to be the ones being waited on. It also felt very nice.  Our Supervisor was Aaron. He put us up in a hotel since we were going to be there for the week. Our room was very nice.

Thursday started at 07:30. We were busy all day, but for the most part things ran very smoothly. We caught part of the opening session with President Ballard and President oaks. We would take turns letting support staff go to the overflow session room to watch on the big screen. At least one of us would man the tables where we were set up. That way we all got to see some of the seminar. I tracked attendance and adjusted times if we went over schedule. I managed to keep up with the never ending changes that seemed to occur every day. I had to adjust rush rates for those that were brought in last minute when someone couldn't make it. They fed us so well for all three meals, plus a ton of snacks between every session. We saw so many General Officers and General Authorities everyday. On a few occasions we even got to talk to a few. We were in line for dinner when Elder and Sister Uchtdorf arrived. We gave them plates and let them cut in line. I had a short little conversation with Sister Uchtdorf. I think we finished around 6 or 6:30. 

Friday, started off with one of our interpreters calling in sick after testing positive for Covid. He was scheduled for several sessions that day so we had to scramble to find people to cover for him. We discovered on Thursday that we actually had too many interpreters because the little booths they gave us only had two  headsets and it was too hard to pass it between all the interpreters for some of the sessions. We needed others for the breakout sessions so it was only a couple of sessions we had to cut a few interpreters. As it turned out our sick interpreter was doing a couple of sessions that had too many so we didn't have to get a replacement. It still took a while to figure everything out. After that everything else went fine for the day. We got to hear the opening session with President Eyring. We had a double set of breakout sessions. After dinner we had an MTC devotional with the young missionaries. Elder Bednar was our speaker. We didn't get to hear him, but I was able to read his talk. It was really good. His opening remarks talked about how he recently turned 70 and how the young missionaries must think he is ancient. He told several most jokes about his age before he finally got into his talk. It really was quite funny.

After the MTC devotional we started packing up to go home when Aaron wanted to review everything for Saturday. We discovered that we had two breakout sessions for Spanish that were NOT on our agenda. We needed two interpreters for each session. We also had a couple that couldn't make it so we needed to replace them as well. Emma, one of our Spanish Team Leads had interpreted for the MTC that night. So she and I reviewed who we had and who was available that could come. She first contacted people who were already going to be there; but, would have normally been done for the day to see if they could stay. Then she called on a couple of others who lived close by to see if they would be willing to come in and help. In the end we got all the interpreters we needed. Of course all of those were going to be paid the rush rate. Aaron also talked to some of the engineers about the breakout sessions and found out they had some new plans on how they wanted to handle it. They were going to be more of a question and answer style with our interpreters in the room doing side by side interpretations. There were a few little bumps along the way but overall it went very well.

After our very long day on Friday, Saturday seemed very short. We had no more last minute changes and everything ran smoothly. We were able to listen to the first session with President Oaks. I also snuck into the third session with Elder Gong. He had put together a cute little play with some of the MTC return missionaries helping out. It was a really good job showing how to use social media to contact and teach. Each of the opening sessions included a beautiful musical number by small choirs made up of missionaries. They all did a great job. We managed to run into our new Mission President and wife everyday and on Saturday they asked us to join them for lunch in the main dining room. That was a very nice visit with them. There was another new mission couple that joined us and we all had a very nice discussion. We were mistaken for new mission leaders multiple times and asked where we were assigned to. They were always surprised when we told them we were already serving and were there supporting the interpreters for the seminar.  All the breakout meetings after lunch went very well and we managed to get back to the hotel around 6:30.

Sunday morning we got to sleep in a little longer. We checked out of the hotel and got to the MTC a little before 10. We had an 11:00 AM Sacrament meeting with President Nelson. Thankfully they showed it in the overflow room so we got to be part of it. They stopped the broadcast when they passed the sacrament. We had missionaries in our room who also blessed and passed the sacrament. It was very nice. After the sacrament the broadcast started up again and President Nelson gave a wonderful talk about entering into our closet. Meaning we should all have a private place where we can go each morning to commune with Heavenly Father and plan our day and ask for the help we need. I feel that message was just for me. I struggle finding my "closet". Sometimes it is hard to find a private place to be alone in prayer. 

We thought we were done after the meeting, but were told lunch would be served before we left. So we headed out for one last time to eat. We sat with our two Korean interpreters and had a wonderful discussion with them about so many different things. I think it was probably one of the longest meals we had. Oh, maybe Saturday night was the longest one. They had a special dinner Saturday night with members of the Twelve and other General Authorities. They set this up in a different building than where we normally ate. We knew we wouldn't be included in that so we figured we were not going to get dinner that night. Then we found out we were being served dinner at that same building, just on a different floor. So we headed over, and again had a wonderful meal. We were the last ones to leave the room that night. So many of our other meals we had to hurry because we had to get ready for the next session. Those two meals were very relaxing.

After that we headed home. But WAIT, our weekend wasn't over yet. We had been planning for over a month to hold the 1st Annual Interpretation Fireside. Of course when we picked this date no one was thinking it would be the last day of the seminar. This was totally an optional fireside that we put out to all the interpreters. We wanted a nice social event that we could mingle and be spiritually instructed. So we asked Curtis, one of our Supervisors, to be our presenter. He is an avid Joseph Smith researcher. I shared with you months ago about how he did a very scientific research for 2 years to prove Joseph and Hyrum were buried where they were after someone came out and claimed they weren't. He has tons of information and stories about all things Joseph Smith. Well the Fireside was Sunday evening just a few hours after we got home. So, even though we were exhausted we went to support Curtis and the team. Aaron was there too. I think we were the only ones that had finished the Seminar that day. Curtis did a FANTASTIC job. We had a pretty good turn out. Most of the team brought cookies and other treats. We supplied water, plates, and napkins since there was no way I was going to bake or even buy cookies on Sunday. And we needed those things anyway.  We also streamed it online and had another 15 or 20 watch that.

So now I'm looking forward to a slower week. Our new Mission President starts on Tuesday. President Randall is done on Monday after our final Mission Conference. He and Sister Randall have been great and we will miss them. President and Sister Holmes will be awesome too. I know the transition will go smoothly. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Love Always,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa,

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox