MTC Devotional and Washington Temple Rededication

Washington DC Temple

Monday morning started off with our weekly Mission Devotional. We had several speakers talk about how they have seen the Hand of the Lord in their lives. A couple of them mentioned seeing His hand in their Mission Call. I can relate to that. I spent most of the day working on cleaning up Event Central. I have had a good response from all the areas. I worked on it all week as they trickled in. I still have 30 more languages to go. Most of those are from just a few language coordinators who each have 5 or 6 languages a piece.

Enrique conducting our
Section Meeting

Monday evening we had a very fun Family Home Evening. The Durrants led our discussion. We played a fun game to start it off. We haven't played games in a long time. I can't remember ever laughing so hard. We had a huge turn out with several new couples joining our group. We used to cross apartment buildings, but have been asked to keep our groups within our own apartment complex. So I sent out invitations to everyone on our floor.  Almost everyone came. It was AWESOME.

Tuesday morning started with our Zone Devotional. The Bentleys gave a great devotional about Joy. They played one of my favorite songs entitled "Joy in the Morning". Later that morning I had the second meeting with the big bosses for the new invoice processing system. We got the go ahead to move forward. FINALLY. We immediately went into scramble mode as we had to prepare a new document of instruction. Caleb, our tech guy, also created a video showing the process. It is all so very simple now. There are two exceptions that I was unaware of that won't use the new process, but they already know how to continue using the old process so no big deal. 

Tuesday evening we had two events at the same time. The first one was Eunlan's event called "2022-WSR:Family Services Core Services". It was just the Spanish team doing some self reliant videos. We expected it to go to 9:30 but they were great and didn't have any retakes. They were  done by 8:30. The other event was Aaron's. It was the "MTC Devotional with Elder Gerrit W. Gong". That is the one we got to watch. I love Elder Gong. He is so personable. One thing that has become his signature is asking questions and having the participants raise their hands. For example he may ask if they like their instructors at the MTC then raise their hand. If they think they are doing a good job then raise both hands. And if they really love their instructors then raise both hands and shake them in the air. It is always good for a chuckle. He will ask questions like those at nearly every devotional that he gives. He is also very conscientious of the interpreters and speaks slowly and deliberately so they have no problem interpreting him. His messages are always  very sweet too. On Tuesday he took the time to show a scripture study technique that was very good for the new missionaries, but also for us old timers too.

The rest of the events we had for the week were either Language Coaching or ASL that didn't require support on our part. 

Fennec Fox

Wednesday was spent in meetings almost all day. We started with a PSD Operations All Hands meeting. One fun thing happened in that meeting. They were spotlighting one of the members in our PSD Department. To describe this particular individual he talked about the unique qualities of a Fennec Fox. They are so adorable. He talked about how they have adapted to their environment. He then called up Amanda, who just happens to be part of our new section, and presented her with a cute little stuffed Fennec Fox, at which point Amanda blurted out that the Fennec Fox is her absolute favorite animal. She had been sitting near to us and whispered to the person next to her that the Fennec Fox was her favorite animal and was totally surprised when they presented that to her. I think she was probably the only person in the auditorium who even heard of the Fennec Fox. The presenter thought she was just saying it was her favorite animal, and was surprised to learn it truly was her favorite.

Our Section Meeting

Shortly after that meeting I had another meeting to learn how to use a query program called Tableau. Unfortunately, I can only use it to access already created queries. I am not allowed to create my own reports. The second problem is I am not able to access the invoicing system, meaning, I can't get a list of invoices in the system to be able to see if our interpreters actually submitted their invoices or not. It has been a pain since they took our access away so we can't check. Not long after that meeting I had another meeting with Caleb and Silvia on what documentation is needed to roll out the new Invoicing Process.  And finally after that we had our normal Team meeting. That meeting is supposed to be 1 hour long; however, we always go long. Wednesday was no different; but, this time we went a whole hour longer. Consequently I missed the PLUNET meeting that I'm supposed to be in every other week. I haven't been able to attend in months because I take the minutes of our Team meeting. On Wednesday I needed to bring something up in the meeting so I posted a question in the group chat. I was so happy they addressed my question and posted an answer in the chat. I was able to report the answer in our meeting because we went over so long.

Quote by President Monson

I had to give the Spiritual Thought for our Team Meeting. Elder Wilcox asked that I post it in the Blog.  So here it is:  Quote by President Monson, “God left us the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged, and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.”  

I learned a valuable lesson in my youth that has served me well my whole life. As the only girl in my family with 4 brothers, I was very spoiled. My Dad pretty much gave me everything I wanted. I worked for my Dad in the donut shop he owned. He didn’t give me a paycheck, but instead just gave me whatever I asked for. I even got a brand-new car for my birthday. My older brothers had to work and buy their own car. Pretty sweet, huh.  

Actually, it was not in my best interest. I didn’t learn money management or responsibility. Later when I got a different job and a paycheck of my own, I had to start paying for things like car insurance, gas, clothes, and anything else I wanted. I became responsible and independent. I also learned the value of doing things for myself. I LOVE the glories of creation. I am glad things are no longer just handed to me and that I have to work for them. It makes me appreciate my life even more. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who left us the world unfinished and the canvas of our lives unpainted.  

Our Section Meeting

Thursday was filled with more meetings. I continued working on cleaning up Event Central. We had our normal Thursday Morning Zone Devotional. Our afternoon was very fun. We had our monthly Section meeting. This time it was a potluck lunch and "getting to know you" games. Since we have so many from different countries, they were encouraged to bring dishes from their home countries. Normally I am NOT a very adventurous eater; however, I tried almost everything that was brought. I even liked almost everything I tried. We had dishes from Korea, Mexico, Hungary, Taiwan, Italy, Japan, and of course the United States. One of the games was a list of 7 questions that we were to choose one and answer and then ask someone else to go next. This was designed to get to know a little about each other and spark some discussion. The next game was entitled "I am...". We would say something like, "I am a grandma." and those that are grandparents would take a step toward that person. Or "I am a Missionary Mom." and everyone with a missionary (or past missionary or is a current missionary) could take a step toward that person. I took about 5 or 6 steps because I had children, grandchildren, a brother, nephews, and am currently serving. Everyone got a good laugh about that one. The last game was like Speed "Dating". We had an inner circle of chairs and an outer circle of chairs. We had two people who joined us remotely and they got to participate in the games, too. for the "I am..." game we had pictures of them and attached them to a music stand or chair that we could move closer or further away from the people declaring their "I am..." statement. They even got to say their own statement. For the Speed "Dating" we put a laptop on one inner chair and a phone with a Teams call on another inner chair. We asked each other questions to get to each other. At three minutes the outer circle rotated to the next chair to the left until we had all visited everyone in the inner circle. It was a very fun "meeting". Next month we have to be more serious. hahaha.

Those who could not attend our
Section Meeting

Friday we intended to make it a short day because we didn't have very much to do. We had one meeting in the afternoon and hoped to go home right after that meeting. This meeting was with our third team from our new section. We enjoyed learning what they did and they learned what we do. When the meeting was over, the Linfords went home. However, after that meeting, I had another meeting with the new invoicing process team. They insisted on doing a live test with a couple of contractors, just to verify everything will work as expected. I told them if we had contractors process an invoice, it would turn the system on for everyone, not just them. The new system worked perfectly; HOWEVER, PLUNET is having a problem sending some emails. I reported that issue several weeks ago, hoping it would be fixed before we went live. The email did not get sent for the first person we had test the system. However, someone from the outside processed an invoice in the old way and we were able to see the new process work perfectly. Their email went through. The other test contractor also went through. BUT, since the first person didn't go through everyone is hesitant to go live until the email problem is resolved. I totally understand. The problem is it is a hit and miss so it is very hard to identify and fix. So we are on hold until it can be resolved. We were supposed to go live on August 15th.  After that meeting we were ready to go home, when Daniel called and gave me an assignment that needed to be done right away. So I jumped in and took care of that. We left 5 minutes before 5 so I guess we did get to leave early!

Saturday we did NOTHING! Steve went shopping, because he likes shopping. I stayed home because I like staying home. We listened to a book on tape and after dinner we watched a couple of movies. It was a great day.

Washington DC Temple

Sunday started very early. We were at the COB by 6:00 am for the Washington DC Temple Rededication. We had three sessions throughout the day. The first one started at 8:00 am. The second started at 11:30 am and the third started at 3:00 pm. President Nelson was present for the first session. That was so cool. We currently have 51 Temples under construction. He talked about ancient Temples as well as current Temples. It is so AWESOME to hear the dedicatory prayer and then participate in the Hosanna Shout. We got to do that three times. President Oaks and President Eyring presided and said the dedicatory prayer for the other two sessions. It was an AWESOME Sabbath day.

And lastly I have to take a moment to "publicly" wish Happy Birthday to so many of our loved ones. Happy Birthday to my daughter-in-law Kylee (12th), sister-in-law Debbie (13th),  granddaughter Laila (15th), grandson Garren (18th), daughter-in-law Sara (18th), and grandson Erik (20th).  Also a Happy Anniversary to son-in-law Sean and daughter MyLiege (22nd) and brother Keith and sister-in-law Debbie (28th). 

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC week. 

Love Always,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox