MTC Devotional, President Holmes, Farewell Potluck, Moroni, and More Packing 

Moroni and Sister Wilcox

I thought we would be winding down this week, but we have been busy training the employees to cover all our responsibilities. I think some things will be simplified and even eliminated after we leave. Baptiste is already working with management to simply things so they can function without missionaries. But until that happens, they must know what we do.

I spent most of Monday setting up the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. We will be doing 40 plus languages, but so far only 6 or 7 will be in Salt Lake. Of course, that is subject to change the closer we get. I have to show Ljiljana how to change a language item from IN COUNTRY to SLC in PLUNET. After we were done, we headed to the COB Auditorium for our Mission Fireside. Elder and Sister Martinez spoke to us. He is a member of the Area Presidency. They were both delightful and funny. We enjoyed them very much.

Tuesday was an extremely busy day. We started with our Zone Devotional. Elder and Sister Slack presented an awesome devotional, finishing with Elder Slack playing and singing A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. It was very beautiful. We are so glad we got to know them, even if only for a little while. We loved having them in our FHE group.

Elder and Sister Slack

Not long after the devotional we had our exit interview with President and Sister Holmes. What a special experience that was for us. We absolutely loved having them as our Mission leaders. Of course, we loved President and Sister Randall too. Each brought their unique gifts and talents to the mission. We had a wonderful interview and felt so much love from them. After the interview, we gave some goodbyes to several people we know at the NOB (North Office Building). We will miss them.

We went immediately from our interview to our Team Farewell Potluck luncheon. That was a special time. Jeanpierre, Daniel, Sara, and Sister Petty all came to wish us well. It was so fun to visit with them. Eunlan, Jarod, and Xenia missed our meeting, but we will see them next week. Elder Wilcox made special double-sided "credentials" for each one highlighting their native country or interpretation language. I think they really liked them. I made a card for each one. We, in turn, received several gifts from our team. Each one was so thoughtful, and we think we may be able to take them with us to New Zealand. We will have to see how the packing goes. Lol.  We moved from the potluck luncheon into our Team meeting.

Almost as soon as the meeting was over, we got ready for two back-to-back events. The first was the Utah Area Broadcast - Pre-recording event with Spanish and Portuguese. It went from 4 to 6. That went immediately into the MTC Devotional with Elder Uchtdorf that went from 6 to 8 and included Spanish, Portuguese, and French. The Spanish and Portuguese interpreters did both events. We had a nice dinner at 6 for the call time. It was wonderful visiting with the interpreters. We got lots of pictures after the event was over and hugs from everyone. It was a wonderful day!

On Wednesday, we called Sierra to sing her Happy Birthday after our day was over. The day was busy, and I accomplished quite a few things, even though none of them were on my to-do list for the day. I did some training with Curtis on how he can get and input hours for the next General Conference in April. We discovered after the "big clean up" of all the cabinets we have on the 27th and 28th floors that the talks for our screening events disappeared. We still had the GC Prep meeting talks, but not the screening talks. So, I spent much of the day finding and printing talks in 12 different languages for all the people to be screened. 

Just as we were getting ready to go home around 5:30, I got an email stating that the power was out at our apartment building and wasn't expected to be on until 7 or so. I decided to do a few more things in the office where it was light and warm. Hahaha. I scanned all the previous screening documents and save them in a folder on SharePoint. I will scan in the new ones after our screening event on Monday evening. We got home a little before 7, and the power was still off. We looked for a lighter so we could light some candles so I could take a shower. I also turned on my phone flashlight. Hahaha. Just as I was getting ready to get in, the lights came back on. YAY!!!!

Thursday morning started with our Zone Devotional. Sister Gabbard did a spotlight on Elder Wilcox. She did such a wonderful job. I had her send me the PowerPoint so I can share it with the family. I spent much of the day finishing up the operations manual and the PLUNET manual as well as a simple checklist with links to all the "normal" things we do. For the "once in a while" things, they can look those up in the manuals. I put everything in a single folder on SharePoint and sent everyone a link to the folder. At this point, I think that is about all I can do. After lunch, we went to the Bountiful Temple for the last time. President Randall was the officiator on our Endowment session. That was a treat. He told Elder Wilcox that he prayed us there. It was an earlier session than we normally go to, so perhaps he did pray us there. I prayed he and Sister Randall would be our Session officials. I got half a prayer answered. Hahaha. I ran into Sister Randall in the locker room after our session, so I had a nice visit with her. We hugged and said our goodbyes. It has been such a blessing to see them almost every week when we go to the Temple. 

Friday was a little lower key. I did some updates on PLUNET orders. I tried to set up a new one but couldn't do it without a PRJ number. I'm hoping to get that on Monday since they have already started the project. It covered 4 days: Friday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I got my work laptop transferred to Ljiljana, at least in the system. I tried to get it set up for her, but I kept running into problems. We will have to take care of that on Monday, when she comes in for training and the screening event. I also transcribed some notes for Baptiste. The first set was some notes Curtis wrote on the whiteboards that Baptiste wanted to make comments on. Later, he sent me some notes he took at a conference he went to last week in Miami. I told him what he really needed to hire was a personal assistant. He agreed. That is pretty much what I have been doing for both Daniel and Baptiste for the last 2 1/2 years. I also managed to put in a little time on HawkSoft. I had to finish that up on Saturday.

Oh, I forgot to mention two special treats we had on Friday. When Elder Wilcox arrived at the COB Friday morning, he ran into Moroni. Moroni used to manage COB Catering. We worked with him for our first year or so and WE LOVE HIM! He transferred back to the MTC because it was closer to home. We were sorry to see him go. I was thinking of him just a day or two earlier thinking maybe we would see him when we go to the MTC in February. Well, Moroni has transferred again and works for an event planning department in the Church that is even closer to his home. He does some traveling all over the world. He was in Salt Lake for a big event about the Temple Construction project. So, Elder Wilcox was able to visit with him for a little while before coming up to the office. He told me to go downstairs and see Moroni. What a treat that was. We exchanged contact info and he said he will come and visit us in the MTC. YAY! Then, when we went to lunch, we saw another one of our favorite people who has been out on paternity leave for the last two months. He and his wife just had twins. I was afraid he wouldn't be back before we left for home. He was at his checkout stand. Needless to say, we hugged, and he showed pictures of his twins, and I showed him a picture of our little Baby Ruth. We will see him next week too. I'm so excited.

Saturday was spent PACKING. I didn't think we had that much stuff, but it is amazing how stuff you can accumulate in 2 1/2 years. Of course, we gave a LOT of stuff away. That last of it was the extra dishes and kitchen things we purchased. Most everything has disappeared. Whatever is left on Wednesday, we will take to Deseret Industries. We are trying to have EVERYTHING packed except for the last-minute things we will need for the next few days. Our upcoming week is very busy, so we won't have time to "finish" packing. We reconnected with one of the Temple workers on our Tuesday shift in Portland who now lives in Utah. We kept talking about getting together and it never happened. He is finally going to visit us on Wednesday. I'm excited to see him again too. After our visit with him we will head home to load all our stuff in the car except for what we will need the next day. I also finished my HawkSoft work, and then we headed to the COB to pack up our cubicles. I didn't want to wait until the last minute. I think we are in pretty good shape.

Sunday was a good day. We had our final day in the 12th Ward. They had their Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation. They did a fantastic job, even though they only have 4 little boys in Primary. They each gave talks, including the little 4- or 5-year-old. The leaders helped with the singing and two gave short talks as well. The closing song was a new one I have not heard before. It was beautiful. They had the Aaronic Priesthood join them on that song. All two boys we have. We don't have any young women or girls in the primary. Well, a new family just moved into the ward, and they have 5 kids that will just about double our youth and primary. And they have a couple of girls! Anyway, they did a beautiful job.

We had our One Heart Gathering on Sunday afternoon. Our apartment building was responsible for refreshments, so Steve baked cookies on Saturday. We bought two tubs of Toll House Cookie Dough. We had SOOOOO much food. They do an introduction for all the new missionaries coming into the mission, and those that are leaving give a brief testimony. We shared things we learned and felt on our mission. I think that is the last official thing we have to do. Oh, we still have two events to support before we go. We have the Screening event on Monday night. And on Thursday morning we are supporting the Salt Lake Temple Construction Worker Devotional event. I supposed technically we don't have to do that one since we are leaving that day, but Elder Wilcox has been following the reconstruction of the Salt Lake Temple since we got here, and he wants to see that devotional. So, we will leave 4 hours later than originally planned. 😉

So, technically, this is the last post from our mission. I am having all my blog posts bound into a book, and I must turn it in Sunday night to get it back by Wednesday. I'll recap what next week will look like to finish our mission.

Monday - PLUNET, training Ljiljana, anything else that comes up, and the Screening event.

Tuesday - PLUNET, training Ljiljana, Team meeting, lots of hugs and goodbyes and probably tears. We may be able to finish up anything that is still not packed.

Wednesday - PLUNET, whatever anyone wants that I can help with for the last time, visiting with Brother Foster, picking up the rental car, loading both cars, doing a last load of laundry and hopefully getting to sleep before midnight.

Thursday - The Salt Lake Temple Construction Worker Devotional event first thing in the morning, drop all out keys off and check the apartment one last time, jump in the car and drive 12 hours to get home!

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Fire Alarm, Potter Boy, PSD Potluck, Luz De Las Naciones, Park Lane, and Break the Fast

Things are getting a little crazy around here. We don't have very many events except for Language Coaching jobs, but this is still plenty to do. We had a beautiful Mission Devotional Monday morning. We learned more about one of our Zones. I love hearing about their "Elijah" moments. One of the brothers in their zone presented an incredible organ song. I loved it.

I spent time on some special projects I was working on. I will talk more about them after they happen. We had a very fun Family Home Evening. Elder and Sister Farnsworth were in charge. It is the last one we will have in our apartment. I'm so sad. 😪 Next Monday is our Mission Evening Fireside so we won't meet as a FHE group. The following Monday, which is our last Monday on our mission, we will be working a screening event. It was supposed to be later in November, but I think they bumped it so we would be here. 🤣 We had a great time. Sister Farnsworth put together a fun General Conference Jeopardy game. We laughed a LOT. We had our largest turn out ever. We took lots of pictures. I'm going to miss them all so very much. That group has been a highlight of our mission.

As I was getting ready to leave our apartment after our Tuesday morning Zone Devotional, I heard this faint high-pitched sound. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Elder Wilcox couldn't hear a thing. He put in his temporary hearing aids and then he could hear it too. It didn't sound any louder in any part of the apartment. I opened the door to the hallway, and it was LOUD. Emergency lights were flashing too. I didn't see any smoke or anything, but I went back in and told Elder Wilcox he had better hurry and get ready and get out. I went back in the hallway to leave when the alarm stopped. I went back to tell Steve he didn't have to hurry quite as fast. I left down the back stairs by our apartment and walked down the walkway that runs the length of our building. When I got to the street, I saw the fire truck and several firemen trying to get into the building. My guess is someone had something burning on the stove and it triggered the alarm. A little excitement is always a good way to start a day. Hahaha

I worked on PLUNET and finished up my special projects. We had our Team meeting in the afternoon. Not long after our meeting, we left for the day. We decided to go visit our Stake President's place of work. He is a potter and has a shop behind his house. It is called Potter Boy. He had a lot of very cool things. We couldn't really use anything he had since we can't take it with us to New Zealand, but we wanted to buy something. He makes these cool little "love" rocks that you can keep in your pocket or purse. We picked out two we really liked and bought those. 

Victoria, wife of one of our interpreters 

Wednesday was a day of not much work. We started the day with a PSD Meeting in the COB Auditorium. We have this meeting once a quarter. Jeff, our department manager, briefly started the meeting and then rushed off to meet with the Quorum of the Twelve. He pre-recorded a longer message for us that was played near the end of the meeting. We heard from two of our teams and then from Jeff. He announced several organizational changes in our department but didn't elaborate on them because they don't really know what it is really going to look like. This is all to move closer to the "Area Centered, Headquartered Supported" model that we are all moving towards. That is part of the reason they haven't planned on hiring any new people on our team. We are reorganizing too. 

After the meeting we had a short "linger longer" activity in the lobby with treats. Then we went to an open house for the Service Project Shop (SPS). This group is full of service missionaries of various ages that are geared up to help any and all teams within our PSD department. I have a feeling we will be using some of these service missionaries to fill in the gaps that our going to occur with no missionaries on our team. The new missionaries that were just assigned are being reassigned elsewhere with no plan to bring on any new missionaries. We will be working out how that will work in the next week or so. Almost everything we have been doing will either be given to the translation team or spread out to the employees on our team. I have training to do next week. LOL

After the tour we had a brief 1/2 hour in our cubicle to do a few things before heading back down to the lobby area by the auditorium for a huge potluck luncheon for our division. It was fun to see so many people from other teams and visit with them. The food was good too.

Thursday started with our Zone Devotional. We only have a couple more to attend. I did a little work in PLUNET and then tried to organize what all needs to be shared with the rest of the team. The Sapps were attending the GA Wives Luncheon. We had a one-on-one meeting with Baptiste where we talked about what all this is going to look like. I think it will be very doable, especially if they get some service missionaries to fill in the gaps. The huge advantage of having the employees take things over is not having to retrain missionaries every year or so. The employees already have the big picture of what goes on for our events. The only things they need to learn are the spreadsheets and that will be very easy for them since they already use a bunch of spreadsheets. I actually feel very good about this moving forward. Of course, they will still need help with things like General Conference, but that can easily be covered with service missionaries to help out.

Some of our Portuguese Team

After lunch we headed to the Temple to finish up our sealings and do an endowment session. I had a very nice visit with Sister Randall before she gave me the new name for my endowment session. After we did sealings, a sister came up to us and said she could just see the love between us because we look at each other over the alter. It was a very nice complement.

Friday, we worked from home again. We had planned on visiting Vicki, but she was going to lunch with her sister so we told her we would visit on Saturday. Steve spent most of the day sorting and packing. We put a lot of things in the hallway by the elevator. It is sort of a mini swap meet. Whatever doesn't go after a few days is either taken over to the monthly missionary swap meet or giving to Deseret Industries. Most everything we have put out has disappeared quickly. I'm not sure we have anything left to put out. Things are looking bare. All the pictures are either packed to go home or put out to be given away. We will sort through our kitchen stuff this coming week. We were given some basics when we got here and are only supposed to leave this in the apartment when we leave. Everything else that we have accumulated has to go. Most of that will be put out for whoever wants it.

Lluvia and Emma

I thought I would be able to work on HawkSoft stuff, but received several requests that kept me pretty busy all day. I had to set up a Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults that will take place the day we leave. There will be two sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening. There are 42 languages, most of which are Tieline so that helps. I think there are only 5 or 7 that will be in SLC in the evening session. Anyway, with that many languages, it took me quite a while to get it all set up. 

After we ate dinner, we headed to the Conference Center to watch the Luz De Las Naciones program. PSD got some really good tickets, so we had great seats. This is the first performance that our friend and interpreter, Alex Melecio, was not in in fifteen years. He is back east for a soccer tournament for one of his kids. I was sad we weren't going to see him perform. We did get to say goodbye, last week to him. The entire performance was in Spanish. We forgot to get headsets, so we didn't understand a single word. HAHAHA. The singing and dancing were GREAT. It was so fun. We sat next to this very fun sister. She introduced herself to us and we told her we were serving a mission in Global Interpretation. She then said that her husband interprets. She is Spanish so I figured her husband was on the Spanish team. I asked his name. Sure enough, he is one of our regulars. We see him all the time. We took pictures and she sent it to her husband who was interpreting for the event that night. We had a great time with her all evening. After the event was over, we saw a bunch of our Portuguese team walk by. We all slipped into some rows so we could visit. It was so fun to see and talk to so many that we know and love. 

Cristina and Helena

Saturday, I spent working on HawkSoft. It took quite a bit longer than I expected but I got it all done. I worked for part of the day before we went to visit with Vicki. After Vicki, we stopped at Mo' Bettahs to pick up dinner for the second session of Luz De Las Naciones that we were supporting. The Sapps were able to attend the performance Saturday night. We had a wonderful time with our Interpreters and Curtis. I worked some more on HawkSoft during the event, but still didn't quite finish it. After the event we took a bunch of pictures and talked with the Interpreters. There were lots of hugs and some tears. They all want to keep in touch so I will be sending out an email with our personal emails so we can keep in touch. After we got home, I spent another hour on HawkSoft so I could finish it up. Whew!!!

I was glad that daylight savings ended, and we were able to get an extra hour of sleep. I woke up without an alarm, so I guess I slept enough. Church was good. I enjoyed the testimonies and Sunday School. Later, we headed to the Park Land Senior Center for our Sacrament and Testimony meeting with the residents. We have enjoyed meeting with them a couple times a month since we have been assigned to this ward. It has been a GREAT blessing in our lives. We will miss them very much.

Spanish and Portuguese Teams

Then, not long after we got back it was time for our monthly Break-the-Fast potluck dinner for our apartment floor. This will be the last one we get to attend. Oh, how we are going to miss our floor. Everyone has become such great friends. Even the new people just fit right in. We are hoping Ken and Leanne Jenson will get our apartment when they start their mission here the first week in December. We let the housing missionary know they would like our apartment and he has made note of it. Fingers crossed they get it. Of course, we told them if they get the apartment, they have to host the FHE group because it is the biggest apartment. Hahaha

Have a GREAT week and start thinking of all the things you are thankful for so you can share them with your family at Thanksgiving. 

Fernando and Curtis

Our Love and Prayers are with you!

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

MTC Devotional, Zone Devotional,  Farewell Missionary Luncheon,  and Fort Worth Texas Temple Groundbreaking

Elder and Sister Bauer

This has been a fairly slow week. We had a wonderful Mission Devotional on Monday morning. President Holmes taught us about the patterns that can be found throughout all of the talks President Nelson has given since becoming the President of the Church. We talked about several that he identified. One that resonated with me was the "joy of daily repentance." He has actually mentioned that is a few of his talks. I decided to do an extensive study of that a while back. I remember thinking how I always thought of repentance as having to do with serious sins. Consequently, I struggled with repentance because I didn't commit major sins like murder or robbery. I didn't understand what President Nelson meant about the "joy" of daily repentance. Through the course of my study, I realized that repentance is really "change". It is changing ourselves to become more like our Savior. There are lots of things I need to change in myself to become more like Jesus Christ. As I started working on different characteristics I want to acquire, I found true "joy". That has become a daily pursuit ever since and I now know what is meant by the "joy of daily repentance."

Alex Melecio

At work I reviewed our upcoming events. There are only a few so far over the next couple of weeks. Then I started on our Zone Devotional. We presented it on Thursday. I decided to focus on a quote from Elder Bednar's General Conference talk. He said, "The phrase 'in the path of their duty' describes the inspired translators and interpreters around the world who serve the Lord by helping friends and members to 'hear the fulness of the gospel in [their] own tongue, and in [their] own language.' Their voices, signed language, and translated documents convey eternal truths, yet few of us know their names or ever express appreciation. Through the gift of tongues with which they have been blessed, translators and interpreters serve diligently, selflessly, and, most often, anonymously to help people receive the spiritual gift of faith through reading and hearing the word of God."

I mentioned how we all serve "in the path of [our] duty." I then shared with them several pictures of Interpreters so they could know their names. I shared an email one of our Interpreters received from a non-member judge who came to the weeklong BYU Law and Religion Symposium the same weekend of General Conference. The "thank you" email he sent after he returned home to Brazil could have been written to any and all of our Interpreters for the great work they do and the live they touch with their gift of Interpretation. That was about as far as I got on Monday. 

Alex Melecio and Martha Speed

Over the course of the next few days, I added to the PowerPoint presentation and shared several things we have learned on our mission as we performed "the path of [our] duty." Elder Wilcox talked about several things that he has done where he was inspired to do something new or different. He shares some of the signs and badges he has made that not only served Global Interpretation, but also added some fun to our home life in our apartment building. I shared about some of the miracles I have seen with things like particular formulas in spreadsheets that made things so much easier, or finally getting finance to pay attention and simplify the invoicing process for our Interpreters. Elder Wilcox then closed by sharing a favorite poem by Garrison Keilor called "Ode to Oregon." I think it went well.

On Tuesday we had an in-person Zone Devotional at the COB auditorium. Sister Slaughter gave a presentation on the work she is doing to identify enslaved people in the 1700 and 1800 hundreds, and getting them into Family Search so their decedents can find them and do their work for them. It is a massive project. She has already a great many individuals and tied them to their owners as well as their enslaved families. It was a fascinating presentation. Her mission ends soon, but she will be continuing the work as a Service Missionary until she completes the 1800 hundreds. 

Tuesday evening, we had an MTC Devotional with Elder Andersen. It was very good. We had French, Portuguese, and Spanish. It was fun to visit with the Interpreters, some for the very last time. We will miss them all so very much.

Wednesday morning, Steve headed to the ear doctor to get fitted for new hearing aids. He also had to swing by the eye doctor to pick up his new eyeglasses. It is nice that Steve can hear again!  By the time he got back, he went directly to the NOB (North Office Building) for our Farewell Missionaries Luncheon with the Mission Presidency. We had a delicious lunch of Parmesan Crusted Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and heavenly salad. While we ate, each missionary got up and shared a brief testimony and a little about where they had worked and about where they were going home to. It was very nice. I recognized a few missionaries, but only knew one couple very well. It was all very nice. We went back to the COB and worked for about an hour or so.

Thursday started with our Zone Devotional. Like I said, I think it went well. After that I worked with Elder Williams a few times on SharePoint stuff. I reviewed our upcoming events. I helped Steve with a project he is working on. After lunch we headed to the Bountiful Temple. We went earlier than normally as we had a sealing appointment as well as an endowment appointment. It was really nice to be there and get so much work done. The Spirit was so strong. I got almost all my sealings done. I made another appointment for next Thursday so we can finish them up. We will start fresh again, when we get to Oregon. 

Friday, I worked from home again. It is kind of a P-day. I didn't have much to do, which is why I stayed home. Once I finished some PLUNET stuff in the morning, I turned my time to HawkSoft, and spent the rest of the day doing certifications. It was nice not to leave the apartment. Well, I didn't leave the apartment. Steve was gone for hours. Hahaha. We each got to do what we like. 

Saturday morning started early at the COB. We supported the Fort Worth Texas Temple Groundbreaking. Apparently, it was pouring rain there so they had the ceremony in the Stake Center nearby. They were not able to actually "turn the soil" as part of the ceremony. They said they would do that later in better weather. It was only Spanish. Two of my favorite interpreters were there. Martha and Alex Melecio. I have mentioned Alex before as he is also a performer. I asked if he was going to be doing the Luz De Las Naciones event next Friday and he said he was not. For the first time in something like 15 years he will not be doing the event.  I was sad, as I was hoping to see him one more time. He is a great singer and dancer as well as an interpreter. Anyway, we got pictures, as it will probably be the last time I see them. I actually ran into Alex on Wednesday morning when I got to the COB. He was just finishing a language coaching with Elder Gong. We did not have that event on our radar, so I did some checking to make sure he got paid. After some research and talking with Mabi our Spanish coordinator, we managed to figure it all out. Apparently, Aaron knew all about it, but failed to mention it to us. Aaron was in Miami at a convention, so it was hard to contact him for any information. Mabi and I took care of it.

After the groundbreaking, we headed back to the apartment where we proceeded to start sorting and packing. If we do a little bit each day or week, we will be done in no time. We put a bunch of stuff in our hallway by the elevator for people to take if they want. Whatever is left next Saturday, we will take to Deseret Industries. I'm sure we will be putting more things out as we continue to sort and pack.

Just as we were finishing up, we decided to see what was left on our list of things to do before we move. I signed into the USPO so I can put in a change of address request so I wouldn't forget later. While we are at that, we decided to call about putting in a cancellation request for our Internet for November 16 and see what it would take to continue our mobile service with them. Of course, that is two different departments. As the guy confirmed my cancellation for November 16th and then transferred me to the mobile team, our Internet went down. I told the person on the phone that we had just requested to turn off our internet on November 16th when it looked like they turned it off immediately. He checked and sure enough, that is exactly what happened. He gave me a ridiculous quote to keep our mobile service so I asked him to transfer me back to the Internet team so I could get our service turned back on. Simple click to turn it off...right? It took over THREE hours to finally get it turned back on. It didn't take that long to get it set up when we first got here. Needless to say, we were NOT happy with them. When I got off the phone the last time and our Internet was still NOT up, we were supposed to take our modem in on Monday and get a replacement. Not long after I hung up, the Internet came back up. It has been stable ever since. 

Sunday was a wonderful Sabbath day. Our speakers were great, and we had an interesting 5th Sunday Forum discussion. Our Stake, and specifically our ward, is part of a statewide education initiative program. The presentation was very good. We ended up talking to several people after the meeting. Not necessarily about the initiative. We also talked briefly to our Stake President. He is a very interesting man. He owns a pottery shop. We are going to go visit it this week. Check out his shoes. He also wears a purple bow tie. He's great. The rest of the day we rested. We needed it.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Eye Problems, Lots of Office Chairs, Saratoga Springs Temple, Bangkok Temple Dedication, Thai Interpreter? 

We had a very nice Mission Zone Devotional Monday morning. The US/Canada Zone presented. Their musical number was a BEAUTIFUL piano duet medley. It was very moving. The talks were all good. The Zone leader shared a Mystery Missionary. He presented clues about his life and at the end we were to guess. He shared some very interesting facts about President Homes. It was very fun. 

I spent most of the day working with Sister Sapp. I gave her instructions on sending out a thank you email to the supporting staff for General Conference. I reserved the missionaries for myself, and I also sent it out to the kitchen staff. 

I added instructions to the operations manual and reprinted it for them. If they decide to send out Thank Yous at the next conference, hopefully the instructions will be helpful. I’m not holding my breath that it will happen. I don't think they sent them out before Eunlan was in charge of General Conference. She and I came up with the plan. She is no longer in charge so I think it may disappear.

After that, we headed to the Eye doctor. It was Steve’s annual appointment. He was having some trouble with his eyes. His cataracts are changing. They are not bad enough for surgery because they can still be corrected by glasses. But he may have to have surgery when we get back from our New Zealand mission. My eyes are doing OK. They were a lot dryer than the last visit. Doctor Masihdas put some contacts in my eyes with a solution. I needed to keep them in my eyes for three days. He gave me different drops to use at least twice a day. My eyes were very blurry for the next three days. I actually had to wear my glasses again, all the time, just to see. It was very frustrating.

We had a very nice Family Home Evening. The Ipsons led our game. We played a General Conference recap. It was hard for us, because we had only heard two talks by Monday, so we weren’t much help to our team. Luckily for us we had GREAT people on our team. We won!!!

Tuesday started with our Zone Devotional. I didn't go to the Wellness Center when I went to the office because I had some work to do. I turned the minutes of our Team meetings over to Sister Sapp. They will be different than the way I did it, but that is OK. It is her job now. Our team meeting was fairly short because Baptiste was in France. I was all set to go home early since we didn't have much to do when Eunlan contacted me with 9 PLUNET jobs she wanted created. So, Steve went to the store, and I stayed and worked until 5:30. 

Wednesday was very slow. I spent most of the day working on our final Zone Devotional that we will give next Thursday. I don't know why I am having so much trouble trying to decide what to do. I think it will come together before too long. After lunch we went to the 7th floor to test out office chairs. They had 10 different chairs that we were supposed to evaluate. We got to use all the levers and play with the chairs. We also had to fill out an evaluation form for each chair. It took about an hour. It was fun. Shortly after that we went home early. 

After our Zone Devotional Thursday morning I had a meeting with Elder Williams. I turned over all the stuff I have been doing to maintain our Zone SharePoint site. I think he will do just fine with that. It feels good to offload some of the things I have been doing. Of course, I still have PLUNET, probably until the last day we are here. LOL After lunch we went back to the eye doctor. He took out the contacts and I could SEE again. YAY. I need to do a better job of using my drops ore during the day, so I don't let them dry out so much again. After that we went to the Bountiful Temple to do some initiatory work. We haven't done that in a while. It was nice. The best part of the day was when we called Joey so we could sing Happy Birthday. I can't believe Joey is 17-years-old. We had a wonderful talk and enjoy our time very much.

We actually took Friday off (sort of). I did a little work in the morning and at the end of the day. We spent most of the day in Saratoga Springs going to the Temple. It is about an hour away. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful session. We had a great day. I did a little work after we got home. 

Saturday, we did some sorting to think things out before we start packing. I spent much of the afternoon working on HawkSoft. We showered early and got ready to go to the COB for the Bangkok Thailand Temple Dedication. We are doing 11 languages for this dedication. 6 of them are in country, and 5 are here in Salt Lake. We flew in 4 interpreters from California, Arizona, and Florida for this event. Since the native language of the Temple is Thai, there were several talks that were done in Thai rather than English. All the Thai interpreters were in Thailand. For our interpreter here to hear the English interpretation from the Thai Interpreters, I had to sit in the Thai Interpretation booth and flip the relay buttons so we could hear their English interpretation. I got to be the SLC Thai Interpreter for the Dedication. Hahahaha. It was pretty easy, but I was a little nervous at first. It all worked out perfectly. The Dedication started at 9:00 PM and didn't end until 2:00 AM. It was two different sessions for 1.5 hours a piece with a 2-hour break between the sessions. I got to do the relay for both sessions.

It was hard to get up for Church Sunday morning since we were so late on Saturday night. I felt we needed to be there because we sort of set up Elder and Sister Bailey to be the speakers. I thought we should support them.  As it turned out, the counselor got a different missionary couple to speak. They are visa waiters waiting to go to Mexico. They did an amazing job.

I had an amazing experience this morning during the Sacrament. As I closed my eyes in prayer, I poured my heart out in gratitude. I felt like I recalled hundreds of different things I am thankful for, all of which pertain to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I find it interesting that this was the first quote I focused on in my Scripture Study today.  

Here are some of the things I am thankful for in no particular order: 

• My body. I am healthy enough to serve missions. 

• Forgiveness. No matter how many times I mess up and make the same mistakes, I can repent and be forgiven. I can still return to live with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

• The Sacrament. I can renew my covenants each week and start fresh again. 

• The scriptures. Whether they are paper or electronic, the scriptures are a tremendous blessing in my life. They are the WORD of God. They teach me what I must do to return to my Father. They teach me HOW I can be more like my elder brother, Jesus Christ. I love the scriptures. 

• Temples. I love the Temple and the saving ordinances that can only be found within their walls. 

• The Priesthood. Without the power and authority to act in the name of God, we would not have the saving ordinances of the Gospel. We couldn’t have priesthood blessings. We couldn’t have Patriarchal Blessings or blessings to heal. I love the Priesthood. 

• A living Prophet. We would be as lost as the world is without a living Prophet. He communes with God every day and teaches us what we should do. I love President Nelson. 

• General Conference. Every six months we get to hear from our leaders. We are given instructions and love. The love they have for us transcends time and space. We can feel it weeks, months, and even years later as we watch or listen to a Conference talk.  

• Modern technology for our videos, talks, messages, trainings, conferences, Temple Dedications, and countless other opportunities to receive blessings from God. 

• Prayer. And answers to prayers. It is our way to communicate with Heavenly Father. 

• The Holy Ghost. He gave up having a body so He can dwell with us and be our constant companion. He comforts, teaches, warns, guides, and so much more. 

• Of course, the Savior and His Atoning sacrifice. Without His Atonement we would be cut off forever. He provides a way for us to return. 

• Heavenly Parents. I look forward to the day when I will return to them again and see them and feel their arms around me and see how familiar they are to me.  

The list can go on and on. I am just so very grateful for EVERYTHING. 

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Winding Down, 5 Events, 19 Straight Days, and a Day Off

We have pretty much worked 19 days straight from September 25th to October 13th. We supposedly took Friday, October 6th off, but I ended up working the whole day at home. We had General Conference the weekend of September 30 and October 1 and then the following weekend of October 7th and 8th. We again, supposedly had Friday, October 13th off but I still worked at home. I must admit that I didn't work the whole day because PLUNET was down for part of the day, but I did manage to stay busy. 

So, Monday morning we slept in since we worked the weekend. Our Mission Devotional was scheduled for Monday evening because they don't hold a Mission Devotional after General Conference. I managed to go to the Wellness Center again after missing for two weeks. I was still very tired, but it felt good to be back on the treadmill. It isn't as if I didn't get any exercise during those two weeks. My total steps were higher than most weeks. Hahaha. I managed to get everything done on my checklist so that felt good.

We don't normally have events on Monday's, but we had one that day. It was during the day so that was nice. It was for the Leadership Enrichment Series. On Monday we did a Spanish to English interpretation so we could do English to Portuguese and French the following Thursday. It proved to be a lot more challenging than they thought as the "translated" scripts were not very good. Our interpreters ended up doing simultaneous instead. Thankfully it was pre-recorded from the live event in September, so we were able to do retakes until we got it right. It took an hour longer than expected.

Monday evening, we headed back to the COB for our Mission Devotional. Elder Brian and Sister Jill Taylor of the Seventy. Sister Taylor is the only daughter of Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone of the Seventy. They gave a great fireside. They were funny and also very spiritual. We really enjoyed their talks. They focused their remarks on the Doctrine of Christ.

Tuesday was fairly busy. We started with our Zone Devotional. We also had a General Conference retake in the morning for one of our area teams. We didn't have to do anything for it. We had our Team meeting in the afternoon. It went a little long because we cancelled our meeting last week. I spent much of the day adding helpful notes to the Missionary Spreadsheet for the Sapps, as well as, updating the Missionary operations manual for them. I didn't finish the manual until Thursday.

Not long after our meeting we had two evening events that started 1/2 hour apart. The first one was a Post-Recording for the GCLM Instruction by the Twelve Apostles. I think we had to rerecord Korean (SLC) and Mandarin (Tieline). That one was scheduled from 5:30 to 8:30 (counting call time) They ended pretty much right on time. The second event was our monthly MTC Devotional.  This one was with Elder and Sister Gong. It was only 2 hours from 6:00 to 8:00 and went very well. That was the one we got to watch. We sent the Sapps home after the MTC because we needed to hang around for Jeanpierre to finish his production. He had back-to-back productions for Tuesday and Wednesday where he had to work later in the evening and start very early the next morning. So, we let him crash in our second bedroom. Because of the late and early hours, we didn't get to visit much, but I'm glad we could help him out.

Wednesday was another fairly busy day. Just as I got to the COB, I received a text from Ken and Leanne Jenson telling me they were about 20 minutes out. I asked where they wanted to meet, and they said the apartment. At that point I realized I forgot my name badge and my access badge at home, so I needed to go home anyway. Steve was still home because he had a dentist appointment to take care of a couple of small cavities he had. Luckily, the Jenson's arrive before Steve had to leave and they were still there by the time he got back so we were both able to visit for a while. They had lots of questions about the Headquarters Mission as they recently received that call here. They will arrive about two weeks after we go home. We have put in a good word in hopes they can get our apartment. Hahaha. They left around 10:30 and we headed to the office.

I continued working on the spreadsheet instructions and the operations manual. Around 5:00 I got kicked out of EVERYTHING. So did Elder Wilcox. We think it had something to do with our mission ending and somebody just didn't have the right dates. We had another event that night, so I got on the phone with Global Tech to figure out what happened. They told me I was removed from the system. I told him we had 4 more weeks left. He said he needed my manager's permission to put me back in the system, so he called Baptiste. He was as shocked as I was and gave permission to add me back. It took a while to get entered back into everything I had access to, but before too long I was good to go. It was a good thing too, as I needed to help Aaron, our supervisor that night and one of our interpreters. Aaron needed to send a fillable PDF to someone and I'm the only what with authority to create them. I suppose that was good that that happened now so I can put it on my list to make sure someone else gets that program. Our event that night was the Utah Area Educational Devotional. It was really good. Our speakers included Elder Gilbert, Elder Pearson, Sister Emily Freeman, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Jeanpierre spent another night with us after his production.

I forgot to mention, when I got to the office that morning, I got a message from Sister Burgoyne. They went home several months ago. Anyway, she asked if we had received a surprise package from them. I said we hadn't received anything. She got concerned, because she said it should have been delivered the day before. I told her I would ask the people on our floor to see if anyone had picked up a package for us. She texted a little later and said it would be delivered that day. When we got home after our event there was a package in the foyer of our apartment complex. Usually someone from the floor will take it up to the apartment it belongs to. When we looked at the address it had no name, but the apartment was #318. We don't have a #318 on our floor. I thought it may be for us, so I looked around the box a little more. I found a from address that had the name of Greg Burgoyne. Then I knew it was for us. When I opened the box, it took forever to get all the bubble wrap off before I could see what it was. To our GREAT delight, Elder Burgoyne made us a model airplane. He has MS, but he loves doing woodworking. He makes all sorts of wooden toys. He could probably sell them and make a fortune, but he loves to give them away, mostly to his grandchildren. Anyway, we have been blessed to be a recipient of this treasured gift.

By Thursday I was feeling someone had it in for me. I tried to use my access badge to get on the elevators and it wouldn't work. I went into the access badge office to see if would give me access again. It appears it was connected to the lockout the night before. I'm sure my badge quick working that night, but I didn't need it to get out of the building. Anyway, they granted me access until the day AFTER we leave so I think I'm back to normal again. Elder Wilcox had to do the same thing.

We had the second half of the LES recording event. This one was for French and Portuguese. Again, it was during the day. They had almost as much trouble as the Spanish team had on Monday. When it was all over, Aaron and Baptiste talked and decided we needed to pay them all a little more than just the normal jobs they did. All of them worked extra hours at home that wasn't accounted for. They asked me to add another job to each interpreter to account for that extra time. I finished the instructions on the spreadsheet and the operations manual. I printed copies for the Sapps, so hopefully that will help them after we are gone. Elder Wilcox and I reviewed everything to make sure it is all in the manual. Of course, that doesn't mean things won't change and they will be asked to do new things that aren't in the manual.

With all of that done, my list was complete. We headed to the Temple. After the Temple I got a haircut. 

We were all taking Friday off (supposedly). I only took care of a few little fires. I answered some emails that came in. I couldn't do any PLUNET stuff because they were upgrading the system and it had been down since the night before. It didn't come back up until about 4:00. So, I spent much of the afternoon working on HawkSoft. I'm all caught up there too. YAY!!! I feel like I can breathe again. It was nice to stay home all day, even though I spent most of the day on the computer.

Saturday, we spent the morning finalizing a few things for our visa for New Zealand. I think we have everything done that we can do up to this point. We can't send in the visa application until three months before we enter the country. So, that will all occur in December. We have our Panel Doctor appointment on December 7th. That is the last thing we must do before we can send the visa application. We also went to the Church History Museum to see the Minerva Teichert art exhibit entitled With This Covenant in My Heart. It was really nice.

Sunday was very busy. We started with Church our meetings. It feels so long since we have been there because of our extra events in the last two weeks.  We had two really good talks. Sunday school was awesome. We talked about Colossians chapter 3. We compared the "natural" man with becoming a "new man" found in verses 10-19. It reminded me of 2 Corinthians 5:17 that says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." We all want to become a "new creature" as we strive to become more like our Savior.

After Church we went to the Park Lane Senior Center. We only have one more time before the end of our mission. I'm sad about that. We enjoyed sharing the Sacrament with them and then a short message. I shared with them a letter that one of our Interpreters received after a weeklong event. It was very touching. When that was over, we headed to the COB Auditorium for our ONE HEART GATHERING where we said goodbye to those who are leaving and hello to those who are new to our mission. They will have one more gathering on the Sunday before we leave so that will be our swan song gathering.

We are hoping with things slowing down again that we may be able to take some Fridays off.

All our Love and Prayers,
Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa
Great Grandma and Great Grandpa
Steve and Leslee
Elder and Sister Wilcox