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