Senior Missionary Devotional, the Haynies, and Progress with my List

Monday morning started with our weekly Mission Devotional. We heard from missionaries in our Training Zone and the Office Zone. Each month, on the 4th Monday of the month we hear from one of our Zones. We have 13 different Zones in our mission. So, one month we get to hear from 2 Zones. I think our Zone will be reporting either December or January.

Monday evening we had a very special Family Home Evening at the home of President and Sister Holmes. They have a gorgeous home in Farmington. Since the weather has cooled down, we met inside. It was so much fun. We had a light supper of good food and great company. Then we all went to their beautiful basement for our discussion. We started by learning some things about some of our new missionaries in our Zone. I am always so very impressed with the people we get to work with. We laughed a lot and were amazed a lot. President Holmes finally turned to the topic at hand. He read from 3 Nephi 19. This is the day after the Nephites had just spent with the Savior. They all gathered back together to await the return of the Savior and the twelve disciples divided the people into twelve bodies so they could teach again what the Savior had taught the day before as many more people had joined the group throughout the night. 

After they taught the multitude they caused them to kneel down and pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus. In verse 9 it says: "And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them." President Holmes asked why they most desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them. Why didn't they desire that Jesus should come to them? We discussed this for quite sometime and realized the importance of having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to be with us individually ALWAYS. The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead and the only member who can be with us always. We pray for that each week when we partake of the Sacrament. That is the promised blessing we have been given if we keep His commandments. This gift of the Holy Ghost, President Wilford Woodruff taught, “is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon man” (Deseret Weekly, Apr. 6, 1889, 451). It was a wonderful discussion and has caused me to pray more that I may seek and recognize what I need to do to truly receive this great gift into my life. I now ask, "what lack I yet" to determine what I must do to change into the person Heavenly Father has in store for me. I know He loves me for who I am right now, no matter what. But, I also know I can be so much more and He wants that for me. So, I need to know what I must do to obtain that great life He has in store for me.

We didn't have any events that we needed to support this week. We had 7 different events during the week, but all were either Language Coaching, on Zoom, or in the office of a General Authority. We did have one event on Sunday evening that I'll talk about later. Consequently, we were able to leave on time or even early nearly everyday. 😊

I made quite a bit of progress on my Microsoft List for our Interpreter Resources. With the help of Jeff, one of the tech guys I work with from time to time, we automated changing the status from Active to Inactive when the contract expiration date is reached. We also automated changing it from Inactive to Active when a new contract expiration date is entered.

The next thing I wanted to automate was changing the color of the contract expiration date. I wanted it to turn kind of a pinkish color highlight when it expired. I wanted it to turn a lavender highlight when it will expire within the next 30 days, and a bluish highlight when it will expire within the next 60 days. There are some automatic rules you can set that will change the color so setting it to the pink highlight was super easy. However, when I tried to set a rule for 30 days in the future I ran into a problem. I could set the date to BETWEEN today and a FIXED date. That fixed date did not move automatically. There was nothing that let me choose 30 days or 60 days. It had to be an actual date. Of course that meant when that date passed, the rule was no longer in effect. This, of course, was not acceptable. Jeff was going to help me with it; but, we couldn't seem to meet again after we did the other two problem.

So, I did some research on my own and almost got it right. I found a simple formula in Google to do one of the things I wanted. I then decided to try a nested IF statement to see if I could add the other two conditions. My first couple of attempts didn't work because I didn't know the syntax of JSON very well. So, after sleeping on it, praying about it, and looking at my formula in the "advanced" format window, I finally figured out how to fix it. Now, it works like a charm. I am so happy that with the help of the Holy Ghost I was able figure it out. 

I have several more important things I need to do to make it fully functional for what we need. We are trying to get away from having to keep track of several databases. If I can link PLUNET with my list and Event Central with my list and ITI with my list, then all we have to do is maintain my list! It won't be easy, but I do hope it will be doable.

Tuesday morning we had our Zone Devotional. It was really good. We left early so we could go to the Temple with the Linfords. We stopped for ice cream cones on our way home. It is always nice to leave the world behind when we enter the doors of the Temple and look into the eternities. I love the Temple and am so grateful we have so many Temples close to us.

Wednesday we had a weekly team meeting. Daniel and Curtis were out on vacation, but we had a great meeting anyway. We did end on time for a change. Hahaha. I think we got out by 5 that night.

Thursday started with another great Zone Devotional. Love seeing members of our zone twice a week. Other zones in the mission have In-Person Zone Devotionals because they are all in the same place. Because our Zone is so scattered all over the mission we have to do Zoom meetings for our devotionals. We have people in at least 4 different buildings and on multiple floors in each of those buildings. We have several groups in the Church Office Building. We have the Prison Ministry in the Relief Society Building, We have some several blocks away at Ensign College. There may be some other places as well, but I can't think of them right now. I'm glad we have so many from our zone in our apartment building. We get to see them all the time.

We left work about 2:15 on Thursday to go to Steve's orthopedic appointment. It had been postponed twice because his doctor was sick. Anyway, he had a good appointment. He has arthritis in both knees which is why they hurt. They also checked his ankles and he has some arthritis there as well. They sent him to physical therapy where they gave him some exercises to do everyday and will check back in two weeks to see how he is doing. He has a follow up appointment in January with the doctor to see if the physical therapy is working or if they will need to try shots. Since I do therapy for my hip we can encourage each other to do it together. It will help both of us. lol  After the doctor appointment we took the car in for an oil change and then did some shopping on the way home. 

Friday, Steve had his first physical therapy appointment. I finished up all but one of the projects I was working on. I still hadn't figured out the color coding for the dates at that point. So, when 4 o'clock rolled around we all left for the day.

Saturday I worked for about an hour on HawkSoft stuff. I also worked for a little while on the color coding for the dates. I got pretty far, but had an error in my formula. We went to visit Vicki and Holly. Vicki is doing pretty good. She has got out a bit more and that is good. She went to lunch with her sister, niece, and daughter for her sister's birthday. She said that was fun and something she has not done in a very long time. She is concentrating on getting her health better so she can go out even more. She lives with Holly so that is really good. She is not alone and has family near all the time. Holly has been busy again, building her business back up. She had to slow way down to help take care of her dad and to take Vicki back and forth to the hospital as Vicki couldn't drive for awhile. Her business is picking back up so she is very busy. She does beautiful art work. She paints a lot of store front windows for the holidays. That is how she started when she was a teenager. She does a lot more now, but she still has some of her old clients she still paints for. We are very much enjoying Vicki's family and look forward to spending time with them in the future.

Sunday was wonderful as usual. After my prayers the night before and a good night's sleep, I awoke with an idea to fix my color coding format for the contract expiration dates. It worked perfectly. I knew exactly what to do. I love it when I'm in tune with the Holy Ghost. All things are spiritual to the Lord. Over the years, I have received lots of help with my programming problems. Every time when I humble myself and pray about my problem I get the answer. When I try and figure it out on my own, it takes much longer and I have many more trials and errors. I'm going start with prayer about what I need to do first and see if things move along quicker than usual. 

Our meetings were great. We spent the second hour discussing two talks President Holmes asked us to study. Both are outstanding. They are:

Sharon Eubank – By Unity of Feeling we Obtain Power with God  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/31eubank?lang=eng

Elder Bednar – The Character of Christ https://www2.byui.edu/presentations/transcripts/religionsymposium/2003_01_25_bednar.htm

Later that evening we got to support an event called "North America Southwest Area Senior Missionary Devotional". The added blessing of this event was the Haynies got to come. We were supposed to meet for lunch and a tour on Friday, but one their grandchildren they were babysitting was up all night sick, so they had to cancel. They are leaving Tuesday morning so we tried to figure out the best time we could get together. I asked Aaron, our supervisor, if we could invite them to our event...especially since they are Senior Service Missionaries and this was a Senior Missionary Devotional. Aaron said he would love to have them. It was even better when I told Aaron they were both High School Spanish teachers and for our event we are only doing Spanish. So they got to get a tour and hang out with some of our Spanish Interpreters for dinner, and then watch what they do in action. They even got to sit outside the Spanish booth and listen to the Spanish Interpreters. So fun!

We hope you have a Wonderful Week! Enjoy the fall colors and cooler weather.

All our Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

It's a Small World

Monday morning started with our weekly Mission Devotional. We heard from a couple of people who are working on a major Humanitarian project called My Hometown. It kind of reminds me of our old Neighbor to Neighbor projects we did for several years in the Oregon City Stake, only this My Hometown is an ongoing project in various communities. They were hoping to illicit help from our Senior Missionaries when possible. We have about 800 full time and Senior Service Missionaries in our mission. Many of them are looking for opportunities to serve outside of their normal missionary responsibilities and this will be a perfect opportunity for them. For a lot of us, we don't have much "free" time available. Our schedule is so hit and miss, feast or famine we can't commit to anything "extra curricular". We may be able to attend once in a while, but not regularly. Lots of missionaries also work many hours and even 6 days a week and on holidays. The Family Search Library with the Discovery Zone is open all the time except Sundays. And they will even open on a Sunday for special occasions like General Conference weekend. Sometimes I think they are busier than we are. Anyway, it should be a good fit for many of our missionaries and those of us who cannot commit should not feel guilty. 

Later that afternoon, Elder Wilcox and I went in for follow-up eye appointments. Both of us are doing good and they don't want to see us again for 6 months. I just need to keep on keeping on. As long as I continue with my drops and gels, there is nothing else I need to do. My eyes are doing great and I only have a problem in the evening when my eyes are tired and a little dryer. Elder Wilcox has a touch of dry eyes too, and was counseled to use some "tears" drops twice a day. His knee has been feeling better, although it still hurts him. He has an appointment with an orthopedic specialist on Monday. The x-rays showed some calcium build up in the joints along with some arthritis. 

Monday evening we had our wonderful Family Home Evening group. I wasn't sure we would have very many people as I knew several couple were going to be gone. Our Mission President and his wife are hosting a special Family Home Evening with each of the Zones in the mission. Since our floor is made up of several different zones we had several that were going to be at the Mission President's house that night. Our turn is next week. Anyway, I was surprised when we had a full house. I led the discussion. I chose the Sunday morning October General Conference talk by President Nelson called, Overcome the World and Find Rest". We had a great discussion. I love hearing all the insights and experiences of our fellow missionaries. I learned so much and I think we all came away strengthened and edified.

Not much happened this week. We didn't have any events that we had to support. We have 5 events that we did, but all were either Language Coaching, Zoom, in Studio, or in person with one of the General Authorities. We got a few new events that the Linfords set up. I tackled a few invoice problems. 

Not my list as I need to protect names and such.

Mostly I worked on the new Microsoft list that we are hoping will replace the program we call ITI, at least the interpreter portion of the program. There are several advantages the MS list will handle. The first and probably biggest advantage is a MS list is web based so it is available on our phones or any other device. That also makes it scalable for those devices. With ITI, if a supervisor needed a phone number of an interpreter while they were on location for an event, they would have to contact one of the missionaries to look it up and send it to them because ITI is only available on a Windows PC. With lists they can look it up easily from their own phone. Another advantage is if we want to capture any new information we can simply add a new column to the list and begin using it immediately. With ITI, Curtis would have to program it to add the new information.

One CURRENT huge disadvantage right now is interacting with Event Central and the the Events in ITI. Curtis has programmed ITI to be able to send out emails to the team leads and coordinators over the different languages that are in a new event to let them know about the event and what is expected. I am hoping to be able to have ITI send the information needed in a API to MS lists and we can trigger the email from the API. I have to learn a lot more about MS lists before that can happen. We are also hoping to have PLUNET send an API to MS lists with any status changes so our statuses will match and be up to date immediately. The big problem with that has been the major problem I have been dealing with for almost the whole time I have been here. That is matching PLUNET people with both Event Central people and ITI people. There is NO common field they all have that we can match with. I have created lots of workarounds in SQL; however, that will not be sustainable when we are released from our mission so I need to find a better solution. So currently, we are maintaining yet another system to keep our people up to date. We are not ready to replace the people portion in ITI yet, but we do want to make use of the advantages the new lists will provide. So what we update in one system, we also need to update in the other.

Tuesday we had a very nice Zone Devotional. It is always the perfect way to start our day. It was pretty quite in the office. There was no one besides the missionaries. We stayed busy and actually left at a normal time.

Wednesday was a little busier as many of our team came into the office. It is always good to see them. I worked hard on the MS lists so I could demo it at our afternoon team meeting. We also made an appointment at the Temple to go with the Linfords. Our team meeting went way over as usual. I had just a couple of minutes at the end to show the new lists. Curtis pointed out why we couldn't use it yet because it didn't do everything ITI does. I agreed, but said we have to start someplace and it will take time to get all the functionality we need. One other major problem we have with ITI is syncing with SharePoint. SharePoint was never designed to have a working program using it. It is a place to store files and share things like documents and spreadsheets. ITI is so much more and SharePoint can't keep up. Needless to say it causes us pain when we are not all in sync.

As soon as our team meeting was over, we headed to the Bountiful Temple. It was so nice to walk in those beautiful doors and leave the world behind. I didn't think about ITI, lists, or any problems pertaining to work. We were surprised when we were asked to be the Witness Couple. I think it was just what I needed. I felt more engaged in the session than I have for awhile. It was so nice. When we left the Temple we were greeted with the most beautiful Sunset!

Thursday was more of the same. My list was looking pretty good. I had added some triggers to change the color of expiration dates for those that had expired to make them easier to see. I want to add another color for those that are about to expire in the next two months. I added triggers and colors to several other fields to make it easier to identify information quickly. I decided it was time to add the area leaders and coordinators to the list. I spent most of Thursday working on that. I first downloaded the list from ITI and dumped it in a spreadsheet. Then I manually looked up each area person in PLUNET and included additional information to the list so I could match as many columns as I could in my current MS list. That pretty much took up most of the day.

Friday was a treat. Sister Petty dropped by for a quick visit. She was having her exit interview and luncheon with the Mission Presidency. She said she had come for her hugs! It was so nice to see her and give her hugs. We visited for a while before she had to go in for her interview.

I tried finding a way to add my area records from the spreadsheet into my Microsoft List with NO success. You can create a NEW list from a spreadsheet, but you can't import records into an existing list from a spreadsheet. I spent a lot of time on Google. Finally I contacted a guy who I will be working with on these lists to see if he knew a way. All his suggestions I had already tried, so I ended the day very frustrated. I had 104 records that I needed to add and I did NOT want to add them one at a time manually.

Saturday I started with a short HawkSoft project. It took a total of about 15 minutes. Then I started on the MS list problem again. Elder Wilcox went shopping. I can't believe he was gone for over 4 hours! But that is what he likes to do so he was happy. I, on the other hand, spent that 4 hours trying everything in the book (actually in google) to try and automatically add those 104 records to my list. Finally, after many failed attempts, I came up with a manual process that worked. It wasn't one at a time, but it wasn't completely automated either. I ended up copying one column at a time. That sort of worked, although it had its share of problems. Sometimes I would get a message that it couldn't copy it because the data was not compatible. Other times it was a different message equally untrue. In the end I made it work by coping only a few cells at a time from the column. Sometimes I could copy as many as 30 before getting the bogus message. Other times it was one at a time for a while before I could copy and paste multiple cells again. In the end I got them all entered into the list. Hopefully, I won't have to enter anymore in mass. The best part of Saturday is I didn't have to leave the apartment all day!

Sunday I started the day reading the wonderful newsletter I get each week from our dear friends Larry and Debbie Draper. They are currently serving a humanitarian mission in the Adriatic North Mission, MONTENEGRO. They share such wonderful stories about all the lives they touch and the people they help. I love reading about their adventures. In the current newsletter they posted a picture from their Senior Conference. Normally I just glance at the names, because I don't ever know anyone; however, this time one name stood out to me. I thought, "I know that name." It is an unusual name so I went to PLUNET and looked up the name. Sure enough there was the brother and his wife's name in our list of interpreters in country. I now have faces to go with those names.  Meet Davor and Stanka Majc, two of our interpreters. It is a small world.

Church was great, as usual. I always enjoy the feeling of peace and love I feel when I go. It is also so wonderful to see so many faces I love and visit with our friends and fellow missionaries. Elder Linford spoke and did a great job. That made it even more special. In Relief Society we discussed Elder Renlund's General Conference talk A Framework for Personal Revelation. It was also very good. Sunday afternoons are always so nice. It truly is a time of rest and relaxation. 

Have a GREAT week.

Love you!!!

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Hamilton New Zealand Temple Rededication and Meetings

It was a much slower week than we have had in a while although we had several events. It was a more "normal" week than usual. Not much happened on Monday. We tied up loose ends to finish up General Conference. We found out that one of our Interpreters who worked both days at General Conference lost his daughter just a few days before General Conference. When asked why he was even there, he said he needed the Spirit he feels when working General Conference. 

We also found out that Sister Petty decided to be released from her mission. Her original request was for 18 months, but they asked her to extend so she did. She has served over 20 months and said she was fine with that and asked to be released. We are all very sad, but we understand how she feels. Unfortunately for us, she cleared out her desk on Friday and no one knew until after she left. She did take some pictures with the Linfords and us but we didn't know she was not planning on coming back. 😥 There were lots of phone calls and discussions about what happened and how things were handled. I did find out that an error was made when she was told they would "find something for her to do". She was actually supposed to continue to work with all the contract renewals. If they would have told her that I think she would still be here. 😥 

So between Roy's passing on Sunday, the passing of the daughter of one of our interpreters, and Sister Petty leaving, I decided to create several greeting cards for the Team to sign on Wednesday. I create the PDF and send it to the Document Center. They professionally process it so it looks beautiful, only personalized. And it only costs pennies to do.

Monday night we had a very fun Family Home Evening. Our Zone leader was in charge and he created a very fun game that reviewed General Conference. It was the Sisters against the Elders and we slaughtered them. 😁

Tuesday we started with our Zone Devotional. I also started work on the new Microsoft Lists database. I'm excited for the potential it offers. I'm hoping to have it up and running for everyone in the very near future. One major advantage is this list will be available on all our devices such as cell phones. Our current program is only available on Windows PCs. It will not work on a cell phone or other mobile device. This will save Supervisors from having to call us when they are on site for an event and they need an interpreter's phone number. They will be able to look it up themselves. Since we were so slow, we decided to go to the Temple for the afternoon. We missed going for the previous two weeks because of General Conference so we decided to take a couple of hours off and go.

We were back in time for the Tuesday evening MTC Devotional with Elder and Sister Rasband. The format of the devotional was very different than usual. They sat with a the host and his wife in a conversational atmosphere and just talked and answered questions. They talked about how they met, fun things they did with their kids when they were growing up, missionary experiences, and many other things. It was fun to watch. Elder Rasband also showed pictures of his family and how they are a missionary family.  He showed pictures of several grandchildren who are currently serving around the world as well as one who was in the audience getting ready to go.

Most of the day on Wednesday we spent in our offsite Team meeting. We met at the new very tall office building not far from the COB. The Church owns the building; but rents out space to other businesses. It also has 2 floors that house 2 wards on each floor. Another 2 floors are in the process of being converted to house another 4 wards. Rumor has it we will be moving there after the first of the year so they can remodel the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Anyway, we did a General Conference recap. After the meeting we moved to the outside terrace on the 5th floor to have a nice lunch. All in all, it was a very nice meeting and relaxing lunch. I think we needed the down time after everyone working so hard for General Conference. We had a couple of events that day, but we didn't need to support them. 

Thursday was a little low key. I worked some more on the Microsoft Lists, just learning how everything works. At 11:30 we met on the 27th floor to share leftovers for lunch from our team meeting the day before. Elder Wilcox and I actually got lunch from the COB as we were sort of supporting an event. We ate with everyone on the 27th floor. After lunch we all headed to our Section meeting over in the East Wing. Our team was in charge. We had a musical number with Jarod playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. We had closed the door to minimize the noise for others in that wing. A little later one of the Sisters popped her head in and was disappointed the bagpipes were over. They didn't hear a thing and several wanted to. So we had Jarod play it again near the end of the meeting and we opened the door. As soon as he started we had about 4 or 5 Sisters walk into the room to listen. We worried a little because Eunlan was next door in Studio with President Eyring for a Spanish Interpretation and we were hoping they didn't hear anything. Curtis gave a presentation of what goes into General Conference. He had a wonderful slide show with lots of interesting facts. Of course he had to end it by tying it to the Prophet Joseph Smith so he could share some of his research pictures again. He can't talk to anyone without sharing his research. The Linfords worked the evening event President Nelson's Temple Video Recording - Spanish. 

Friday we went into the office for a couple of hours in the morning, ate lunch, and then headed to Bountiful for Roy's funeral. We started at the mortuary for the viewing. There were lots of relatives we didn't know but quickly met. They had a beautiful display of Roy's life. After about an hour, Steve was asked to gather everyone for a Family Prayer before we headed to the Cemetery for the Graveside Service. The short program was beautiful. The VFW presented a full honors program for Roy, who served in the Air Force. They did a beautiful job. After that, one of Vicki's brothers gave another family prayer. He was followed by another of Vicki's brothers who dedicated the grave. At the conclusion of the service no one wanted to leave and lingered for probably another half hour. Some family pictures were taken. Roy and Vicki's oldest daughter, Holly, painted a beautiful mural on Roy's coffin. She has made a career of her art in many capacities. She started as a teenager painting windows for various businesses in Bountiful. She has done many big projects since then, but nothing can compare with the beautiful tribute she gave her father. 

Just before we were ready to head to the Bountiful chapel for a nice meal with family and friends, we had a brother come up behind us and put his arms around us and said, "we should get together more than just once every 20 years." I looked up to a somewhat familiar face, but couldn't put a name to the face. I finally apologized for not recognizing him. He turned to Steve and said, "you don't remember me either?" We asked for a hint and he said, "does Roddy ring a bell?" Of course it was Roddy Kartchner. We visited for a while, surprised at how we both knew Roy and Vicki. Such fun! We are arranging a time we can give Wendi and Roddy a tour of the COB.

After spending the day with family and new friends, we finally went home. A little before 10pm we headed to the COB for the first session of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple Rededication. This first event was the Hamilton New Zealand Temple Youth and Single Adult Devotional. Elder Uchtdorf presided over the event. I love when he gives devotionals in a smaller, more personal setting. His talk is more conversational and less formal. He talked about Harry Potter and the Hobbits. He had lots of fun little quotes and managed to link everything to the Temple and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With the time difference, their Saturday evening event was our Friday late night/early morning event. We finished at 1:30 am.

Saturday we slept in a bit but headed to the COB by 10:30. We didn't need to be there until 12:30, but we both had a few things we needed to take care of because we missed most of Friday. The Linfords joined us to cover this event. Not that we had a lot of Interpreters to assist, but because it was a Temple Rededication. One of the perks we have is we can attend ANY event we want to attend. Therefore we spent the day from 10:30 until 5:00 pm at the COB. We only had French in attendance. All the other languages were done in country. They did Fijian, Tongan, and Samoan as the New Zealand Temple covers all those islands. Elder Wilcox had to cover two meals and snacks. So we were all well fed. Elder Uchtdorf presided over all three sessions. There was a scripted talk posted; however, he decided to speak off the cuff for the second and third sessions. At least we found out before the second session so our Interpreter was prepared to do simultaneous. We paid him extra for that. All the speakers for each session were wonderful. the Spirit was so strong for each session. They had youth speakers as well as local members speak at each session. The one who was the same was Elder Uchtdorf and, as I said, he gave a different talk for each session. I love being able to support these events. On a side note, when Elder Linford and Elder Wilcox went to pick up dinner at Crown Burger, they ran into President Ballard while waiting to pick up our order. How fun for them.

It continued into Sunday. We attended the the ward that meets before ours. After the meeting we headed over to the COB to support the Canada Broadcast with President Nelson. On our way out we followed President Ballard as the ward before ours is his ward. We see him periodically when we attend that ward. We don't realize how many trials our leaders have to go through to present the truths they share with us at General Conference. We may never be aware of any of those trials. Many individuals also went through many trials to try and prevent them from attending or even listening to Conference. However, by exerting all the power they could muster to deliver their messages or those attending to listen to those messages, have been greatly blessed. We need to study the messages we received so we may be prepared for what is coming. Someone said it felt like President Nelson is calling us to board the ark. We are so blessed to have a living Prophet today to lead and guide us in these latter days. Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He had prophets anciently and he has prophets today!

President Nelson shared six ways we can prepare for the future.

1. Increase capacity to receive revelation - Be ready. Anything that is not compatible with the presence of the Holy Ghost will prevent us from hearing the Spirit. Get rid of contention. Spend time on your knees. When the Lord knows you want to hear Him, He will prepare a way for you to learn how to hear Him. ASK and live to receive revelation.
2. Be a better disciple of Jesus Christ. - Be discerning and seek truth. If the conclusions were compatible with the Gospel then pursue studying that. If not, then don't spend time reading them.
3. Refuse to let opposition to truth weaken your testimony. - Instead let it strengthen your testimony.
4. Serve in the Temple
5. Realize just how vital you are to the gathering of Israel
6. Expect Joy - Joy comes from following Jesus Christ.

I hope and pray you will have a wonderful week. Please know that you are always in our thoughts and prayers. We love you!

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder Wilcox and Sister Wilcox

General Conference and then some

Jerod and others at check-in

The week leading up to General Conference and the week after General Conference were very busy and in some ways very difficult. The week before we continued with General Authority pre-recordings of their talks in different languages. We did 4 on September 27 and one on the 28th. We also started the Oct 2022 General Conference Leadership Meetings that consisted of 6 different sessions over the course of several days from September 29th through October 4th. Most of those meetings we had to support, unlike the General Authority pre-recordings that took place in the studios at the Conference Center and didn't involve us directly other than setting up the event so the Interpreters could get paid.   

Xenia and Amanda passing out envelopes

We had a VERY last minute scramble on September 28th caused by a mix up. As part of the Oct 2022 General Conference Leadership Meetings they held a General Authorities Wives meeting on September 30th just after lunch time. On September 28th we had our monthly General Authorities Wives Luncheon. However, the supervisor who was over both events thought those two meetings were one in the same and failed to schedule the regular monthly meeting. To be fair, he was also over all the GA pre-recordings as well as all the GC Leadership meetings so he was very, very busy. Anyway, Eunlan somehow discovered we didn't have anything in place for the monthly GA Wives Luncheon. The other supervisor was currently in one of those General Authority pre-recording sessions. I had come in early that day because I had a number of things to do. So Eunlan and I scrambled to get the event together. We kept the other supervisor in the loop and he did what he could from where he was. Needless to say we pulled it together and got interpreters and everything set up. It all worked out.

The full check-in crew for Saturday morning

We had three meetings on Sept 29th that went from 8 AM to 3:00 PM. Elder Wilcox and I covered those three events. They were very cool meetings where we got to hear from the entire First Precedency. Each one spoke at one of the meetings. These meetings are not recorded and no transcripts are kept. We are not allowed to say what we heard. The General Authorities at the meeting were allowed to take notes, but were told not to discuss it outside of those meetings. Suffice it to say, it was a very special experience for us.

Amanda, Xenia, and Sister Petty

September 30th was the GA Wives Meeting as part of the Leadership Training. It was also the day before General Conference. The Friday before and a few days after every October General Conference there is a huge Military Chaplin's convention. They don't do interpretations so we are not involved with the meetings. However, they have a big banquet on that Friday before Conference in the banquet room on the 26th floor. They don't usually finish until well after 8. There is a LOT of setup that we have to do before General Conference. Some of that setup takes place on the 26th floor. 

Ljiljana, Xenia, and a Missionary

So, this is what our Friday consisted of until about 10:00 pm that night. The first thing we had to tackle was WHERE setup was going to be. Normally we do it on the lower level near the Cafeteria where everyone comes in from the parking garage. Well, we had been bounced around all week. Every tour I gave the missionaries that were coming to help us I told them a different place we were going to be. First it was the lower level in two locations; one near the door for check-in and one station across from the security desk in a little alcove with a big stair case that leads up to the main floor lobby in the east wing. It would have been perfect. However, the cafeteria people did not want us there because of all the people that come in for meals that help with ushering at the Conference Center. So they moved us to the lower level in front of the parking office near the elevators that go to the parking garage. That didn't last as the parking people kicked us out. Next they were going to put us in the main floor lobby (which is where we wanted to go after they kicked us off the lower level). Then we were back on the lower level before we got told we couldn't be there again. So Friday morning, Eunlan and I got on the phone with the head of security to ask WHERE we could be. We even suggested we could be on the 26th floor out of the way of everyone IF (and that was a big IF), we could give a list of names to Security so they would let our interpreters up to the 26th floor without a badge if they didn't have one. We knew that wouldn't fly so we asked again, "If we have to be able to hand out badges to people who need them, where do you want us to be?" After a bit of a discussion he finally agreed to let us set up in the main floor lobby on the south side of the lobby. YAY!!! 

Interpreters reviewing 
their talks during conference

I was just getting ready to send out a MASS email to all the interpreters and the helping missionaries (because we had already told everyone to check-in on the lower level) as we had a quick team meeting at 10:00 am to decide who was going to do what to set up for conference. Eunlan mentioned that we would be checking in on the main floor lobby and Daniel immediately told us NO. We were going to be on 1L (the lower level). We explained that we had been kicked out again and he said he would take care of it. So, I did not send out an email. We finished the meeting and passed out assignments.

Everyone that was going to help arrived at 3:00 pm in the Library on the 27th floor. The GA Wives Meeting was still going on so we had to postpone until the meeting ended at 3:30. The Linfords were supporting that event. I was heavily involved in finishing putting together the packets containing the access badges, parking passes, and credentials for interpreters who needed them. Elder Wilcox as also involved in that requesting all the last minute stuff. After a brief meeting at 3:30 to make final assignments were were ready to get started. Around 4 or so we got word from Daniel, who was excited to say we were going to check in on the Main Floor Lobby south side. That was exactly what we had told him before. He thought we were talking about the east lobby and said that wouldn't work. Anyway, all was good now. I quickly put together a email to send out to everyone and hoped they would read their email before the next morning. We set to work to get everything set up.

Daniel and others in the 
Command Center

Here are just a few things we had to do. Elder Linford and Venky hung signs ALL OVER the place. They put signs in the parking garage with arrows pointing to where we were for Check-in. They put them in the elevators, in halls, on walls, and anywhere else they could think of. Elder Wilcox was busy MAKING signs with the changes of where we were going to be. Several people passed out 68 flower arrangements to all the interpreter booths as well as to a few other places such as check-in. We couldn't setup up check-in yet because the area was setup for the Military Chaplin Banquet check-in. We had them leave the tables for us. Because of the banquet, we couldn't setup the 26th floor with all the stuff we needed there. The IT people came very early Saturday morning to setup printers and laptops for interpreters to print out last minute revisions of their talks. We stayed until after the banquet to put little table signs on all of the tables as well as a few other things we needed. Agendas and Speaker times and word speeds were printed and hung in every single booth. Elder Wilcox and Elder Linford and Eunlan took the per diem envelops and any access badge envelops to the hotel where our out of town interpreters were staying to hand out as much as possible before General Conference. On their way back they picked up dinner for the team that was helping. We wrapped things up around 9:30 or so and went home to shower and sleep.

Curtis - what else can I say?

We started Saturday at 6:30. Interpreters weren't supposed to be there until 8:00 am; however, we had a handful show up well before 7. I was still trying to set up the check-in station. We had 5 laptops to use for check-in so I quickly got them setup and signed in so they could be used to check them in. We actually made them wait because we were trying to have a simple prayer meeting and spiritual thought before we began our very busy day. We also had to setup the boxes of envelops for Sister Petty to hand out. After the initial small group that arrived so early, everyone else came in at the expected time. I had 5 of us checking people in and there were no long lines. Also, because we had giving out so many envelops before General Conference, we didn't have a bog down at the at that station either. It was amazing that everything ran so smoothly. Oh, we had a few glitches here and there, but nothing that couldn't be taken care of quickly. Between the two days we checked in nearly 400 interpreters, many of whom worked multiple sessions but were only checked in once per day.

Our Beloved Sara!

Our missionary helpers were great. We had a total of 38 over the 5 sessions. In addition we also had 4 additional employees from our new section come and help too. It was a good thing, because we were unable to use Aaron, Sara, and Ljiljana for much of conference because of other obligations. Sara and Ljiljana were both interpreting nearly every session for their respective languages of Italian and Serbian. Aaron was also running the 29th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium that ran from Oct 1 thru Oct 5, mostly at the MTC in Provo. I think he was able to help with only two sessions.

Our Senior Missionaries in the Choir

I got to hear bits and pieces from all the sessions, but not any session completely. Saturday afternoon was very fun to watch as our Elijah Choir joined a couple hundred more missionaries to sing for that session. It was such fun seeing so many of our dear friends sing in the choir. The music was so beautiful. As soon as that session ended, three wonderful couples rushed over to help us for the Saturday Evening session. Since our call time was 4:00 and our choir member missionaries couldn't be there until after 4, I had to scramble to get a few pinch hitters to cover the check in and credentials desk. It all worked out perfectly. We finished Saturday night around 9; however, Elder Ure's daughter's family was at Conference and he asked if we could give them a tour. He and his wife helped us Saturday night and they were in the choir which is why his daughter came. So we gave them a tour. When we got to the 27th floor, Curtis was still there. He had a fresh audience so he tempted them with his Joseph Smith research of the daguerreotype picture of the Prophet Joseph Smith. They loved it, but that meant we didn't get out of there until a little after 10. (He also cornered some of our missionaries when I was giving them tours before General Conference.) It is his passion. Sunday went well and we managed to leave just before 6 after doing all our clean up.

Hanging out on the 26th Floor 

We slept in a little on Monday, but headed in so we could start inputting hours for our Interpreters. It took me a little while to get everything ready to start calculating and running the reports. I reminded the multi-language coordinators to make sure they made ALL their changes in Event Central as that is my only way to know who was supposed to be there. We had our check in report, but that doesn't tell me what sessions they were doing and we pay them per session. I finally ran the preliminary report for Elder Linford to input hours at about 4:00. I discovered a few people were missing from the report because of the changes in the way I have to connect the different files together. 

One of our Devotionals

So on Tuesday, as he was entering the hours, I was going through the report one language at a time to see if I was missing anyone and correcting my data files so they would show up on the report. I then updated the spreadsheet so Elder Linford could go back and add any that were missed. When I finished that, I became a second pair of eyes to go through the PLUNET order and verify the hours and approve the jobs so the Interpreters could create their invoices. I finished that on Wednesday by 7 pm just three days from General Conference.

Meal time

All but a few Interpreters were ready to invoice. The last two conferences we did it was a couple of weeks before that was finished. Part of that was because we had to wait for spreadsheets to be sent to us with hours for those that didn't interpret in the COB. This time ALL our SLC languages were in the COB doing live interpretations so we had everything we needed. The handful that can't invoice yet are still not active in PLUNET. They sent in their signed contracts before Conference, but didn't get "activated" yet. We were told we could use them as long as the signed contract was sent in. I think I'm still waiting on 6 people. The reason they are still not active is the gal that does the activating has been out sick for at least part of this past week.

President and Sister Parker

Our Monday Evening Mission Devotional was sad. Normally we don't have a Mission Devotional the day after General Conference; but President and Sister Parker (1st Counselor) are being released. They were due to be released soon, but with Sister Parker's knee replacement recovery, they decided leave a couple weeks early. We are so very sad to see them go. They are WONDERFUL. It was a beautiful devotional. 

The rest of the week we finished up the Oct 2022 General Conference Leadership Meetings. Tuesday had the last two sessions. The Linfords did the morning and we were going to do the evening. 

Help for printing and studying talks

That afternoon, we got a call from Elder Wilcox's sister-in-law about Roy's condition. He was not doing well at all. Vicki asked if we could come and give him a blessing so the Linfords took our evening event and we headed to Ogden Medical Center to see Roy. When we got there, he was in the emergency room. They had discovered he was bleeding internally and they didn't know where it was coming from. He could only have two visitors. Holly, Roy and Vicki's daughter, was sitting in the waiting room so we sat with her. Her brother came out and Steve went on back. I visited with Holly and she gave me the update. The doctors didn't think they could do anything. If they did surgery to find where he was bleeding he wouldn't survive the surgery because he was so week. They recommended they take him home and call hospice. So the next day hospice helped get Roy setup at home and comfortable. We told Vicki we would come out on Saturday to see him again. 

Roy and Vicki

Cody and Steve

When we got there on Saturday, the hospice nurse was just leaving. He said he didn't think Roy would make it through the night. He recommended Vicki call all her kids to come and say their goodbyes. Only one was too far to make it in time. We stayed for most of the day as Vicki asked Steve to give him a final blessing of release. She wanted as many of her kids there so we waited for them to show. They had recently moved a couple of weeks before; but because of Roy being in the hospital, they had yet to get to the new ward. Their new Bishop felt inspired to stop by on Saturday to get to meet the new Ward family. He stayed for several hours to be there for the blessing. We have known Holly for years, but it was nice to meet the rest of the kids. We found out that Cody, Holly's younger brother, knows Brian Call. He took a picture of us and then one of him and Steve to send to Brian. Brian responded with, "NO WAY! Seriously? We go way back! He's like family!" After the last child arrived we were ready for the blessing and family prayer. Steve did a beautiful job. Roy wanted his brother to do it. He was also asked to dedicate the grave when the time comes. Holly texted me at 3:58 AM Sunday morning that Roy passed at 2:32 AM. He was hanging on for Steve and his kids to be there to say goodbye. 😢

Sara and one of our
Interpreters

The other hard part was some news we received about our Team. The week before General Conference we were told some changes were going to be happening. The hardest one for us was that Sara's initial contract was going to expire in April and they had no intention of extending it. She was originally hired temporarily to help with the Sacred Materials project. As she transitioned out of that into a full fledged Supervisor to replace Baptiste when he moved to Translation, she was given a lot of additional responsibilities. We were told most of those will be removed from her almost immediately and will be moved to people in translation. They are the more administrative jobs she does. She can continue to do Events until April. We are all so devastated and can't believe this is happening. Next they said they won't be replacing her as a supervisor so we will be down to only three supervisors. This doesn't make sense because our 4 supervisors are all overworked. I'm not sure how they are going to cover more events each. We were told some of their responsibilities will also be moved to the translation department. We are not sure what responsibilities they are talking about. We were then told they will not be replacing the missionaries. We will finish our missions but they won't be getting any new missionaries. At our meeting on Wednesday, Oct 5, Sister Petty and I were told we are no longer part of the Interpretation team but are moving to a new team. Physically we will stay were we are, but we won't be doing what we were doing before. Sister Petty has three months left on her mission. She doesn't know what she is supposed to do for three months. They told her they would find her something to do. At least I will be working on something I think will help interpretations. They want me to work on a new database that will integrate translators, interpreters, and sacred materials people in one. We are also hoping to have it interface with Event Central and PLUNET. Halleluiah!!! However, I also want to keep helping people in Interpretations. They didn't say anything about who will do what I've been doing. Needless to say, we (our team) is fasting for understanding, and peace, and comfort, and especially that Sara will be able to get a permanent position with us. They are saying they will be hiring other people so we are hoping Sara will be one of those people. We love her so much and don't want to lose her. 

Command Center Watching Conference

This week we got tons of new events so there is no rest for the weary. Most of the ones that came in will all be ones we can support. We are excited for that. I just hope I can still support events in my "new position". 

Church was great. We got a new counselor in the Mission Presidency. We had our monthly Break the Fast on our floor at our apartments. That is always a favorite of mine. We love visiting with all our missionary friends.

We love all of you so very much. I hope you were able to enjoy General Conference. Please share with us your favorite talk or message. We are now ready to start listening to a little of conference each day. 

The Command Center

Love Always and Forever,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox