GA Wives Meeting and New Interpreter Screen Events
We stayed home on Monday and Tuesday. We were feeling much better and worked the whole day from home so that was good. Monday evening was the Mission Devotional with Elder Kevin S. Hamilton of the Seventy. We were able to watch it on Zoom. One of Elder Hamilton's primary responsibilities is to work with Family Search. He shared with us all the progress the Church is making in that area. It is amazing! When they started digitizing all the microfilm they have it was predicted to take 183 years! Modern technology came along just at the right time and the project was completed in just 13 years. There is an Artificial Intelligence program that is now working on digitizing the vast histories and genealogies of the Chinese people. Doors have open up in countries that have been closed to the outside world. We now have missionaries that are digitizing all of their government and church records. Not long before the war broke out in Ukraine we were finally able to get in and start work on digitizing records. When the war started our missionaries left for safety reasons. The government contacted the Church and wanted to know where the missionaries went and could they come back now and continue their work. Not only did the two missionaries go back, but an additional 8 more missionaries are now there helping to move this work forward. It is AMAZING! The Lord is hastening His work.
I tested again on Tuesday afternoon and was pronounced COVID free. YAY! The Linford's covered a small event on Tuesday morning that was a continuation of the event they did on Sunday evening.
They also covered an event on Wednesday morning called Seminar for New MTC Leaders. I went into the office on Wednesday for most of the day. We had a PSD All Hands Meeting in the morning. It was pretty good. They announced some new structuring within the department, mainly in the upper management. We are moving to an Area Centered, Church Supported model, which is why we are undergoing so much change at this time. None of us are really sure what this is going to look like so we are just going with the flow until all the bugs get worked. out.
Not long after that meeting we had a potluck luncheon in our team to say "good bye" to Sara. I think I mentioned before that she was on a contract with the Church and it was expiring April 1st. Although we tried to get her hired on full-time permanently with our team, it didn't happen. However, she did get hired permanently full-time in our PSD Department and in our new section so we still get to see her at least once a month. She is the new Sacred Materials Team Lead. So, although we are very sad to see her go from our team, we are so happy for her to be permanently full-time now and still at least part of our section. Jeanpierre was the other one in our team who was on contract. He got shifted to a new division in the PSD department when they did the restructuring several months before the end of the year. We have been praying he would also get a permanent full-time position and he also got hired. He gets to stay in his new division so he is very happy. He works in the Temple Division of PSD. We are so excited for him. I ran into him at the PSD All Hands meeting and invited him to our potluck for Sara. It was nice for him to see the old team again. We all had a great time and of course shed lots of tears as we expressed our love for Sara.
Elder Wilcox stayed home on Wednesday because he was experiencing dizziness. He was able to participate in the potluck and our team meeting after the potluck via a video conference call. As usual, our team meeting went way over time. We started it an hour early since we did it right after the luncheon, but it still went to almost our normally scheduled end time. Hahaha. After that meeting, Ljiljana wanted me to help her with some email templates that were needed for our upcoming Screening Event, so we stayed another hour. By then I was ready to go home. I was a lot more tired than I expected. Since I didn't want to walk home up the hill, I called Elder Wilcox to come and pick me up. I'm not sure I could have made it otherwise. Hahaha.
Thursday was a very long day for us and just about wiped us out. We started with our Zone Devotional which we watched from home. (I missed Tuesday's devotional because we didn't wake up in time.) After the devotional we both went to work. It was our turn to support an event. We had the GA Wives Meeting and Luncheon. Normally it is just the luncheon with a short speaker. It usually takes place in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and we don't normally have to do anything other than get it in PLUNET. This year they are changing the structure. It was a full meeting for 1 1/2 hours followed by a luncheon. It took place in the auditorium in the East wing of the Church Office Building. After the meeting they went up to the ballroom on the 26th floor for their luncheon. Normally our interpreters interpret through the luncheon if need and they are also fed. Now, they will only interpret the 1 1/2 meeting and are not getting fed. They also interpreted on the 27th floor like we do for all other live events. The benefit for us is, we now get to hear the talks. This first meeting started off with a bang. They brought in an expert instructor on the family from BYU. She gave a great talk...that we can't talk about. They plan on having lots more big names and topics in the future.
There was only one problem with the event on Thursday. Right in the middle of the event, Curtis and I had to join a video conference to talk about the potential new PLUNET replacement. It took up an hour and we missed most of the GA Wives talk. Elder Wilcox got to hear it all and said it was great. I put in my two cents worth on the new potential replacement. It sounds like it is probably a done deal, but they wanted our input anyway. I'm not terribly excited about it. I guess for me the good thing is it probably won't be implemented until after we are done with our mission so I don't have to worry about it. Hahaha. I did tell them what I think we need in the program so I hope that helps.
Elder Wilcox had a treat in the afternoon when he was on the elevator. He got to ride the elevator and have a conversation with Sister Cordon. At the end of the day we got ready for the New Interpreter Screening Event for that night. We had nearly 30 perspective new interpreters for about 16 different languages. We have a couple of other languages that will hold virtual screenings in the next week or so. It was a busy night and fun to meet new people and see some of our team leads who were conducting the screenings. We had a good time, but Elder Wilcox and I were exhausted when it was over. Aaron ran the event and had another event the next morning, so he stayed over at our place that night. Thankfully Sara offered to give us all a ride to our apartment so we didn't have to trudge up the hill. Again, I'm not sure we could have made it.
Saturday we had to run a few errands. We got hair cuts and did some grocery shopping. I spent some time revamping the Zone SharePoint site. I started it on Friday and did some tweaking on Saturday. I'm pleased with the results. I have to give a Zone devotional on the 24th and I was asked to do it on the SharePoint site. I don't think most people in the Zone even know it exists. Hahaha. I also worked for about an hour on HawkSoft stuff and worked a bit on my list of interpreters. It ended up taking a little longer than I planned. (Typical!)
Sunday was WONDERFUL! I can count on 1 hand the number of times I have missed Church since I joined the Church over 51 years ago and two of those times were the last two weeks. It was SOOOOOO good to be back at Church. We had a wonderful meeting. Sister Stevens, one of our Zone leaders who is ending her mission next week, was one of the speakers. She did such a great job. I will miss her and her delightful husband. We have become great friends with them and it will be hard to see them go. The Johnson's are our new Zone leaders and they are great too, but they don't live in our apartment building. There is just something special with everyone that lives on our floor. We are loosing three couple next week. It will be SAD!
I hope you have a Wonderful Week! Oh, and Happy Birthday to our beloved son-in-law Sean. Today is his birthday!!!
I’m glad you’re getting better. Both of you, please continue to take it easy and listen to your body. Did Dad’s dizziness resolve?
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