Mission Fireside, Temple Videos Event, Section Meeting, Doctor Appointments, and New Ward

A Storm is a coming

This week was pretty slow. I find I have fewer and fewer things to do, so I will probably be working in other Zones as needed. Several things are contributing to this change. First, most of my responsibilities have all been moved to the Linfords. And in preparation for the Linford's and the Wilcox's missions ending in the near future, they are moving all the PLUNET program functions to an employee very soon. So the Linfords may be doing some work in other Zones, too. This has been going on for about eight months now. I am supposed to be working on the Microsoft List that will work for Interpretation, Translation, and Sacred Materials; but, I'm beginning to think that is not going to happen. The more I have tried to automate the manual processes we have been doing, the more road blocks I keep running into. Without the automation, all I would be doing is adding one more manual process that needs to be maintained. That is not what we are after.

Progress on our Application

Monday I did work a bit on the Microsoft list, but ran into a lot of frustration. So, I moved to making phone calls for doctor and dentist appointments so we can submit our new mission application soon. I was so surprised when I was able to get a same day appointment for Elder Wilcox and mine just three days later. The dentist is next Tuesday and we both have follow-up doctor appointments next Thursday. If all goes well, we should be able to submit the application on Thursday or Friday. Monday evening we had an awesome Mission Fireside with Elder and Sister Jaggie. 

Tuesday started with our Zone Devotional at home, before heading to the Wellness Center. I spent part of the morning updating my List with all that manual process I was talking about above. It takes a good hour or two to get it all updated. In the afternoon we had our Team meeting. We did have a lively discussion on the timing of when we should get the actual translation work put into Event Central for our interpreters. Many of our events go to the translation department first and then our interpreters can read and practice the scripts they get. However, sometimes we don't get the translation until right before the event. In the meantime, the interpreters panic and end up translating the English talks for themselves so they can be prepared. We end up having to pay for the translation twice. So, the discussion was to see if we can get a hard and fast rule about when we can get translations before an event.

Tuesday evening we had an event called Temple Videos. I was very excited as I didn't know what to expect. As it turned out, they were videos about caring for the laundry in the Temple. They were interesting, but not at all what I expected.😒There was a series of about 9 different videos. We only did three languages: Cebuano, Tagalog, and Thai. We only had Thai in Salt Lake City. It was nice to visit with those interpreters as we don't get to see them very often. It should have taken just an hour, but with all the retakes we took two and half hours. Add the call time to that and it was a total of 3 1/2 hours.

One of our Getting to Know you games

On Wednesday we had a virtual Section meeting. We played several "getting to know you" games as we have added a few area personal to the section on the Sacred Materials team. We got to meet Daniel from Spain. He served a mission to Ireland when he was younger and he lived in England for several years. He had a heavy Spanish accent so I asked him if he could speak with an Irish accent. He entertained us for several minutes with an Irish accent and several English accents for the different areas in England. It was wonderful. We also met Diane from Rome. She was also very funny. They are supposed to be getting a few more area people on that team.

On Thursday I had my doctor appointment. It went well. My follow-up next Thursday is to go over the test results and get the paperwork signed so we can send it in. I worked from home for a little while after the doctor's appointment before it was time to go to the Temple in the afternoon. We went a little early so we could do sealings and an endowment session. We had a wonderful Sealer. He shared a few stories in between sealings. One of the couples we were sealed for was married on February 14, 1839 in Wincheringen, Rheinland, Deutschland. After we finished the sealing, the Sealer told us since they were married on Valentines Day we could kiss over the alter. After we did, he then said that it probably wasn't Valentines Day in 1839 in Germany. Hahaha.

Card for Sabrina

Friday was my Emotional Resilience Class. One of the couples in the class couldn't make it. So, I sent Elder Ure up to the 28th floor to recruit Elder Wilcox to come to the class since we were going to have some pairing off activities and Elder Ure didn't have a partner. I had asked Elder Wilcox earlier if he would join us, but got no where. Elder Ure used just the right persuasion. I worked on a "Thinking of You" card for one of our Portuguese interpreters. We found out on Tuesday that she has cancer. Of course she is devastated. Since most of the team works from home I had them send me their comments so I could add them to the card. I was hoping to get it in the mail before we went home, but I didn't get the last two contributions until Friday evening. I will get it in the mail Tuesday morning.

Saturday we took a walk to Deseret book. I had a $30 gift card that we wanted to use. We just got our new Temple Recommends and decided we wanted to get new holders, since our other ones had ink on the inside of the holders. While were were there we decided to pick up a few little gifts. One of them was for Sister Farnsworth who broke her shoulder last week. It was a cute little plague that had a fun Sunshine quote on one side and an American quote on the other side. We stopped in to see how she was doing. She had her surgery last Wednesday, a whole day earlier then they expected. The surgery went well, even though it took an hour and a half longer than expected. the shoulder was in several more pieces than expected so it took longer to put back together. It was an out patient surgery so she came home the same day. She has had a couple of rough nights sleeping in the recliner, but is finally doing better. She is able to get up by herself now and even take a shower. She is walking around and feeling better everyday. 

Our new Chapel

On Sunday we went to our new ward. It is going to be wonderful. It is a little small but the people are so friendly. There are a few primary and nursery kids and as far as we can tell only one Deacon. There are lots of older people in the ward. I think we are going to love it. They were all very welcoming and are excited to have us there. Elder Wilcox was already asked to teach a class in Elder's Quorum in two weeks. We met the Bishop and then were informed the Bishopric will change next week. I think the sweetest experience we had was watching a Brother lead an elderly brother to the front of the Chapel and seat him down on the front row so he could pass the Sacrament. We then watched another brother help lead the elderly brother so he could pass it his assigned rows. We were privileged enough to be the first people he passed it to. I have to admit I was moved to tears watching this faithful brother do his Priesthood duty, even though it is difficult for him to even walk. The Spirit is very strong in our new ward. I am looking forward to serving with them for the next few months. I can't think of a better place to be to end our mission. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. We are all sons and daughters of Heavenly Parents who love us. We all have a divine nature and an eternal destiny. I know this is true with all my heart.

All our Love and Prayers, 

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Devotionals, Potluck Luncheon with Daniel, Tour, Temple, Several Events, and Mission Recommendation Forms

The Burgoynes and the Wilcoxes

Another slow work week, but we tried to stay busy. We had a wonderful Mission Devotional Monday morning. The Supervisors were at an Offsite meeting all day so our day was very quiet. We were also having some problems with PLUNET and our master spreadsheet. So, we sent the Linfords to visit the Saratoga Springs Temple Open House since they hadn't gone yet. It was there turn to take a P-Day.

The Offsite meeting was on the 27th floor. I got everything set up for them before our Mission Devotional. We didn't see or hear from them until the end of the day. They said it was a very productive meeting.

The Farnsworths, Durrants, Burgoynes
and Wilcoxes

I spent the day fixing the master spreadsheet for the Linfords. I also worked on my Power App so we stayed busy throughout the day. I'm not sure what Elder Wilcox worked on. We left around 4:30, after we cleaned up after the Offsite meeting. There wasn't much to clean up, but we had to lock doors to the snack closet and take back a roll around white board. I continued working on the spreadsheet after we got home and finally finished just as we were about to start our Family Home Evening.

Originally we were supposed to have a Mission evening devotional, but the speaker had to postpone at the last minute. So, since we didn't have a scheduled couple in charge we decided to just have a game night. Everyone brought a game to share. Some were pretty silly and we had lots of fun. We prepared Strawberry Shortcake for our desert. It was the official last FHE with the Burgoynes. They will be here for one more week, but next Monday will be the Mission evening devotional speaker that had to postpone. We will cross our fingers as it is the second time they have postponed. Maybe the third time is the charm. 

Our Family Home Evening Group

Tuesday was a very busy day. We started with our Zone Devotional by President Jackson. I watched it while working out at the Wellness Center. I'm so grateful for modern technology that allows me to watch it on my phone and still work out. After studying scriptures and working some on my Power App, we headed to the 27th floor for a "farewell" luncheon for Daniel. We had a wonderful potluck with a variety of foods from around the world. The entire team showed up, which hasn't happened in a while. We enjoyed good food, good company, and a wonderful time sharing thoughts and feelings about Daniel. The spirit was strong and I think everyone really enjoyed it.

The Whole Team plus Daniel. From left to 
right front row: Eunlan, Sister Linford,
Sister Wilcox, and Ljiljana,
Back row: Elder Wilcox, Baptiste, Aaron,
Curtis, Daniel, Jarod, and Venky

I spent a frustrating afternoon working on my Power App and did not make much progress. We decided to go home around 4 as I was not making any progress and almost everyone else had left for the day. Just as we were packing up, a Brother showed up on our floor looking for one of our Interpreters. I told him that the Interpreter didn't work on the floor, but only worked for different events and asked if I could help him. He said he and several other people from various parts of the world were in a leadership training meeting and the Interpreter had said he would give him a tour if they wanted. I told him I could give them a tour since the Interpreter was not there. 

Gorgeous Sunset

I met about a dozen people on the 26th floor and gave them about a 15 or 20 minute abbreviated tour of the 26th and 27th floor. Just as we were starting the Interpreter showed up and I asked if he wanted to do the tour. He told me to go ahead and give it. We went to the 27th floor and I took them to one of the booths to talk about Interpretation and what it takes to be an Interpreter. Rob, the Interpreter, jumped in from time to time to add to or confirm what I was saying. The group had lots of questions and we had a really good time. Rob's Indonesian Booth is right across the isle from the engineering booth that I show them last. So he got to show them his booth. He put on his headset so they could take pictures and he even spoke Indonesian for them. It was fun.

At home, we worked on Steve's devotional that he gave on Thursday. We also had our Mission interview with Bishop Evans. He opened the new portal for us to begin the paperwork process. 

Wednesday I made some progress on the Power App. That is pretty much what I worked on all day. That evening we had and event called The Power of Jesus Christ and True Doctrine with Elder Neil L. Andersen. It was for Seminary and Institute. What we saw of it as good, but since Curtis was our Supervisor, the first part of the evening he was showing one of the Interpreters all about his Joseph Smith daguerreotype presentation that he will be giving in New York at the Mormon History Association conference in Rochester. The interpreter that he was talking to accidently came on the wrong day. He was scheduled for Thursday night but got his dates mixed up. The Linfords were supporting the Thursday event. They also did the Tuesday night MTC Devotional. This event is covering two sessions on two different days to accommodate the 40 languages we are doing.

Elder Wilcox's PowerPoint Presentation

Thursday morning Elder Wilcox did the Zone Devotional. He decided to do it on Grandpa's Personal Grandchild Progression Program. We created a PowerPoint presentation that showed the progression from the 8-year-old Baptism plaque, to the 12-year-old Armor of God pictures, to the 14-year-old shields, to the 16-year-old Pearl of Great Price, to the Graduation Challenge Coin, and culminating with the Sword presented at their wedding day. He did a GREAT job and every one seemed to enjoy his presentation. 

Eight-Year-Old Slide

After the Devotional I went to the Wellness Center and then to my office. We had a one-on-one with Baptiste at 10:30. I finally fixed a major problem I was having with my Power App so I was happy about that. In the afternoon we went to the Temple.

Friday morning we had our second event of the week. We did the Webinar for New Mission Leaders - Training Review. Aaron was in charge. It was pretty interesting. Elder Nash ran the webinar. They had several very large monitors in the auditorium were they could see all the new Mission Leaders from around the world. This is the last training webinar leading up to the in person meeting the end of June at the Provo MTC. We don't get to go this year. 😢I'm so glad we were able to go last year.

Twelve-Year-Old Slide

Elder Wilcox got to be an Uber that morning. Baptiste had to drop his car off at Costco to get his snow tires changed and needed a ride to the office. He said he would call an Uber and Elder Wilcox volunteered to pick him up. The event had already started so he was good to go. While he was gone I finally got a hold of Global Support. We had been having problems trying to access our new Mission Portal so we could fill out our paperwork. Bishop even cancelled and reinitiated our Portal but we still couldn't get in. I called Global Support and the guy said, "let me try this different URL". Voila, I was in. We just didn't have the right link to get in. So I started on my paperwork (actually it is computer work.) We have to fill out and answer a bunch of questions, provide copies of different documents, and lastly, have a doctor and dentist form filled out and sent to Bishop before we can submit everything to the mission department. 

Fourteen-Year-Old Slide

As a thank you for picking him up and then later dropping him off, Baptiste "took us to lunch" at the cafeteria. We sat with one of our Interpreters who had to hang around for something else he was doing later in the day. We had a wonderful lunch with them. While sitting there, Jody Bean came by with her husband and son and a friend from Gladstone. It was fun to visit with them for a bit. Oh, and while we were still supporting the morning event, I got a text from LeAnn Jenson. She and Ken are coming to Utah the first week in June and want to visit with us. I offered them our spare room and LeAnn said they had already booked a room at The Kimball, a cute little hotel right across the street from the Conference Center. I told her it was right next door to our apartment!  We are so looking forward to seeing them. I'm hoping we will have an event they can come and observe. Since things are so slow, I think we will be able to visit with them a lot. 

Laila's, Djeryd's, and Montana's Shields

After lunch I had my Emotional Resilience class. Sister Farnsworth had texted me the day before to say that she and Sister Roberts would not make it as they were both going to be out of town. Well, Sister Farnsworth's plans changed drastically later that day when she tripped and fell down on an uneven sidewalk. She landed on her left shoulder and broke it severely. Needless to say, she did not go out of town. She will see the doctor again on Tuesday to see if they can schedule surgery for Thursday. Please keep her in your prayers. When the class started, Sister Ure told me Elder Ure was at a conference for his department in Heber. They work at Ensign College. Then I got a text telling me that Sister Bauer and Sister Nielson would be late because their "go forth" meeting for new missionaries was going to run over. They never did show up. So our class was only four others and myself. We still had a great discussion, but without the 5 extra people our discussions were shorter than usual so we ended about 20 minutes early. Just as the class was ending, Elder Wilcox had to drop Baptiste off so they left. The Linfords left to go to the Temple so I worked alone for a while. I decided to get back to my Mission application as I was stuck again on my App and didn't want the frustration for the end of the day. lol

Sixteen-Year-Old Slide

Saturday, Steve went to the store first thing. We are making dinner for the Farnsworths for Monday and we needed to get a few things. I worked on my Mission Application and finished everything I could except for the doctor and dentist forms. When Steve got back from the store he started on his Mission Application and I worked on HawkSoft. He managed to get everything done as well. So, on Monday we will call and see if we can get or forms signed and sent in. I think we actually have to have a simple doctor's visit so that may take a little longer to get an appointment for that. I'm hoping to be able to submit everything by the end of the month.

Graduation Slide

Sunday was our last official day as the Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission Branch. After a shorter Sacrament meeting, It was basically a Testimony meeting. Then we went out in the foyer and picked up an envelope with our new Ward Assignment. We met back in the Chapel where President Holmes addressed us that included a question and answer time. We ended at 3:30. After that we had a Linger Longer social with yummy food. 

The Culmination of the Program

It is with mixed emotions that we embrace this. I am looking forward to being in a family ward again and hopefully having some different mission experiences. We have been assigned to the 12th Ward. We get to meet in the big blue building where we have had some team meetings. 

I am also going to miss the amazing experience we have had living in Zion! Where else can you have an entire ward made up with the wonderful people we have associated with for the last two years. Every single person is active, strong, Temple worthy, willing to do whatever they are asked to do, and just plain amazing. We will still have mission socials and devotionals so it isn't like we won't still have wonderful experiences, we just won't meet together in Church each week and we won't get to meet in the beautiful Joseph Smith Chapel anymore. 😢

Our new Meeting House.

Have a wonderful week.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Saratoga Springs Temple Open House,  The UK, Temple, Alyson, and Mission Reunion

Saratoga Springs Temple

Monday morning started with an AWESOME Mission Devotional at 8:00 AM. Four out of the five speakers are very good friends of ours. They all spoke about how they felt about the talk President Holmes shared the previous week called The Everlasting Covenant by President Nelson. It was one of the most spiritual devotionals we have ever had. I think I cried through the whole thing. The Durrants were the first speakers because they had to leave right after they spoke. Then there was a single sister who followed the same spiritual note. The last speakers were the Burgoynes. They also made me cry. Later Elder Burgoyne asked me if his talk was OK even though he got emotional. I told him to NEVER apologize for being emotional and that girls really love it when a guy gets emotional. lol

After our awesome Mission Devotional, Elder Wilcox ran home and got the car so we could take the Burgoynes with us to attend the Saratoga Springs Temple Open House. Originally we were scheduled for the previous Monday when our mission devotional was in the evening. But then we had events that whole week so I changed our appointment to May 8th at the same time. Elder Burgoyne asked if we could go later than planned since he and Sister Burgoyne were supposed to speak at the morning devotional. So, we changed our appointment to accommodate leaving later.

At the Saratoga Spring Temple
with Elder and Sister Burgoyne

We loaded Elder Burgoyne’s scooter and walker into the back of the car and headed to see the Saratoga Springs Temple Open House. They day was absolutely beautiful. We got a wheelchair for Elder Burgoyne and took the tour. The Temple is gorgeous. I was amazed at the bright colors of the furniture. The stained glass windows were also very beautiful with lots of lilies of various bright colors. Blue and purple seemed to be the dominant colors in the upholstery and windows.

After we finished the tour we went to lunch together. We had a wonderful time with them. Conversation flowed all day. I’m so glad we were able to do that together. Their mission ends at the end of this week. We will MISS them very much. They are very dear friends.

We stayed home the rest of the day. We did a little work, but mostly had an actual P-Day. Things have been a little slower lately so we didn't have much to do for that day. We had a very nice Family Home Evening led by Elder Walters. He led a very exciting discussion and the difference between the Church of God and the Kingdom of God with the council of Fifty. He shared the lively debate that was had in April of 1844. He had copied several quotes from the minutes of that meeting. We each read a quote and then could support what we read with some thoughts and feelings of our own; or, if we disagreed with the quote, we could not say anything. It was interesting to have our own little debate. Some believed the Church of God and the Kingdom of God were the same thing and others said they were different. My quote said they were different, and I agreed with that and added my own thoughts. When our “debate” was all over, Elder Walters read what Joseph Smith said about it and he said they were definitely different. He cited similar reasons to what I had said. It was a very fun little exercise.

At the Saratoga Springs Temple

Tuesday was slow and uneventful. Curtis and Baptiste asked me if I could create a report for them of all Contractors and Employees that worked as interpreters for General Conference around the world for every language. They didn't want to include volunteers because they were trying to get a better estimate of actual interpretation costs for General Conference. I told them I could do it, but I may have to do it from home. My SQL at work doesn't play very nicely when trying to import certain files. After some futile attempts to import data, I went home and had the whole thing done is less than two hours. 

Later we had our Team meeting in the afternoon. It was relatively short. When I got back to my desk, Elder Ure had dropped off a book that had some pages he wanted me to scan and print for him. I had Elder Wilcox scan them on the printer and email them to me. I combined them into a pdf document and emailed it to Elder Ure. I also made a printed copy that I dropped off at his apartment along with the book on our way home. 

President and Sister Randall 
greeting Missionaries

The Linfords did the MTC Devotional that night and we headed home for what we thought was supposed to be a meeting with Bishop Evans to start our new mission process, only to find out the meeting is for next week. We were disappointed to have to wait another whole week.

Wednesday was fairly slow as well. I worked most of the day on the Power App I'm making for my master Microsoft List maintenance. I did not make much progress. Near the end of the day Baptiste and I collaborated on a Missionary Responsibilities document to send to President Jackson so he know what the department needs in the way of new missionaries. The Linfords leave in September and we leave in November. It doesn't look like they will be replacing both couples with full-time missionaries. We will probably just get one full-time couple and one part-time couple to help with all the events. Anyway, President Jackson is over our Zone so he will be primarily responsible for selecting a new (or two) couple[s] for us. He wanted to know what we do. Hence the Missionary Responsibilities document.

President and Sister Randall

Just before we were ready to leave we got a call from Alyson. She was coming to Utah from Thursday through Sunday and wanted to know if she could stay with us a couple of nights. Of course we said YES!!! She spent time with friends from her mission over Thursday through Saturday. We got her Friday and Saturday night.

Thursday morning, after I went to the Wellness Center, I got back to my desk in time for the Zone Devotional. After my scripture study I had a Teams conference call with Pieter from the United Kingdom. I connected with Pieter the day before on a website chat when I was trying to get some help for my Power App. We set up a Teams call for the next day. Anyway, after about 30 minutes he helped me with the two major problems I was having with my app so I could move forward again. I was very happy.

I worked on some Zone stuff on SharePoint for much of the day and then worked on my Power App for the remainder of the day. We left around 3:00 to go to the Temple. We were scheduled for the 4:30 session, but managed to get there early enough to catch the 4:00 session. It was so nice to see Sister Randall when I walked into the dressing room. I asked how President Randall was doing since he had been down for about three weeks with COVID. She said he was doing much better and would be able to make the Mission Reunion on Friday night. After our session we ran into the Linfords in the waiting area. They were waiting for Venky who was being interviewed to be a Temple Worker. He came out shortly and just beamed. He starts his session on the 20th. He is so excited.

The Drassos at the Reunion

Friday was a little busier. I worked on a few things at home before heading into the Wellness Center and then the office. I wanted to work on my Power App all day, but never got around to it. I ended up spending most of my time setting up and fixing the new spreadsheet for the Linfords to track all the information needed for events. We used to do a 6 months at a time spreadsheet, but because of all the events, it just makes the spreadsheet impossibly slow to work in. So we decided to change it to every four months instead. I created a new one for May to August and then moved all the events they had for May and June into the new spreadsheet. It should make things much easier for them for the next few months.

Before I finished with that, it was time to get setup for my Emotional Resilience class on the 27th floor. We had such a wonderful discussion. I just hope it is helping the rest of the class as much as it is helping me. I love it. After class I finished up the spreadsheet for the Linfords so they are all set now. 

The Boushleys at the Reunion

Steve ran to the store to grab a snack to take to the Mission Reunion, while I had to prepare another document for Baptiste. He wanted a list of the things that I specifically do that were not part of the list we prepared for President Jackson earlier in the week. I prepared the list with comments like, "this will probably go away after I leave" or "I think they will be able to continue to use this after I leave", etc. President Jackson said if Baptiste wanted to keep us, they would take that into consideration for our new mission call. So, we may end up staying here for another 2 years. We will just have to wait and see what the Lord has in store for us.

Steve showed up about the time I finished my list and we headed to the Mission Reunion with President Randall. It was so great to see so many of our dear friends who have left their mission. It was also very noticeable that there were several we wanted to see who were not there. All in all we had a GREAT time. Alyson had Virginia drop her off at the Stake Center where we were having the reunion. She got there just in time for the program. President and Sister Randall spoke briefly and then showed a couple of video presentations. Short and sweet and it was over. We went home and visited for the rest of the evening.

Hiltbrandts at the Reunion

Saturday morning Alyson met up with some friends from her mission for breakfast. I told her to see if her friends wanted to tour the top of the Church Office building. They said Yes. So, after their breakfast they came back to the apartment so we could head over to the COB for a tour. It was a lot of fun. The girls had to go so we went back to the apartment so they could pick up their car. Then Alyson and I went to the Conference Center, Joseph Smith Memorial Building Chapel, and unexpected a tour of the Church History Library. Elder Wilcox didn't want to walk anymore so Alyson and I went by ourselves. She wanted to see the tunnel we sometimes take from the COB to the Church History Library across the street. When we came out in the Library there were missionaries at the reception desk waiting to give tours. I didn't realize they were open on Saturdays. So we took a tour. It was fascinating. Just about the time the tour was over, Elder Wilcox called wondering where we were. He was hungry and wanted to go to lunch. lol  We finished up and walked home so we could go to lunch. 

Alyson with two of her missionary friends

Alyson was supposed to meet up with a few other missionary friends at 4:00 but it got cancelled so we got to hang out. I think we were all done "touring" so we just hung out at the apartment and talked. Alyson decided to go out for a walk so Grandpa worked on the Devotional he is to give this coming Thursday morning and I worked a bit on HawkSoft. After Alyson got home, we decided to have Ice Cream for dinner since we had such a late lunch. 🤣 We watched a movie and went to bed.

Sunday morning we decided which ward to go to for Sacrament meeting. At first we were going to go to President Ballard's ward. They meet at 11:30. But then we thought of Venky's ward as it is a family ward and there might be more people Alyson's age. Besides they meet at 10:30, which made it better to come home, have a little lunch, and then go to the airport for Alyson to catch her flight home. The family ward was nice, but they were kind of lacking in the youth and young adult age. They had a nice primary group and of course lots of older adults. But the sweet age we were looking for was practically non existent. We had asked Venky about it when we were finding out when they meet and he did say there weren't very many young adults. Alas, he was telling the truth.

The Sacrament meeting was nice. They have two Elders Quorums in the Ward and both Presidents spoke. They had an impromptu men's choir between the speakers. They did a beautiful job. I enjoyed the meeting very much. After Church, Alyson finished packing, made a quick little lunch of nachos, (so yummy) and we headed to the airport. It was sad to see her go. We enjoyed our time with her so much. It made for a WONDERFUL Mother's Day.

I hope all you wonderful Sisters of mine have a very Happy Mother's Day!

Love and Prayers Always,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Special Projects, BYU Women's Conference, and Temple

Monday started a week long event called  2023 Special Projects Department Worldwide Training. The Special Projects Department deals with all things Temple. With all the new Temples announced or in the process of being built, they have had to hire lots of new people to get the work done. They did a complete restructuring of the department and added many new positions around the world. This is the first worldwide training they have ever had. The event lasted all five days from about 8:30 am (7:30 call time) to nearly 5:00 pm each day. We decided to split the event into morning and afternoon sessions each day and we took turns supporting it. The Linfords did Monday and Wednesday morning and Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoon. We did Monday and Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday evening (different event) and Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. It worked fairly well.

I don't even remember what all I worked on throughout the week. Baptiste gave me a new project to put together all our policies and documentation into one spreadsheet so I know I worked on that throughout the week. I don't think I even touched my Lists this week. lol

At 11:30 or so, we went and got our lunch, then headed up to the event. When we got there, Sister Linford and Curtis told us of all the wonderful things they had heard that morning.  Things we cannot share. We were excited and anticipated more to come. After the lunch break they started the next session. We got two hours of very technical and boring stuff on all the contracts and legal information that goes into getting a new Temple built. I didn't understand half of what was said and wondered how our interpreters were doing. At the two hour break a couple of Spanish interpreters came into our "command center" and mentioned that the last two hours should have been a Simultaneous Technical job instead of just Simultaneous. I told them I agreed and I would see what I could do to get it changed for them. At that moment Curtis was in a booth having a one-on-one with Baptiste. When he got back to the "command center" I mentioned what the Spanish interpreters said. He questioned whether or not he had the authority to add the Technical job or if it needed to go through Baptiste or the producer. I told him I figured it had to go through the producer and he agreed. As he talked to the producer he told them they needed technical jobs instead of just simultaneous. Both Curtis and the producer thought I meant the whole day. The producer said they couldn't afford to change the whole day as the Technical jobs are almost twice as much as straight Simultaneous. When Curtis told me the producer wouldn't go for the whole day, I told him NOT the whole day, just the last two hours. He took that back to the producer and got it approved. So, I proceeded to change the total hours to be two less and then added technical jobs for everyone for two hours. When the event was over, I teased the Spanish interpreters and told them they owed me because I got them a two hours technical job. They were happy.

President Holmes in our
Mission Devotional

After work, we went to the auditorium in the COB for our Mission Devotional. President Holmes facilitated a wonderful discussion on a talk given by President Nelson last year entitled, The Everlasting Covenant. We mainly talked about how the covenant affects our families both ancestors and descendants. We talked about Malachi 4:5-6 and D&C 138:46-48 where it talks about how "the Prophet Elijah was to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers." There was one quote in the talk that really stuck out to me. It went beyond just the promises about families. President Nelson's talk was about the Hebrew word for love called hesed. He said there is no word in English that completely defines what hesed means. Hesed is not merely an emotion or feeling but involves action on behalf of someone who is in need. Hesed describes a sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior toward another person. Anyway, the quote said, "The covenant path is a path of love—that incredible hesed, that compassionate caring for and reaching out to each other. Feeling that love is liberating and uplifting. The greatest joy you will ever experience is when you are consumed with love for God and for all His children.

"Loving God more than anyone or anything else is the condition that brings true peace, comfort, confidence, and joy." I KNOW this to be true. Prior to that devotional I had multiple experiences where I felt hesed even before I knew the word or what it meant. I remember trying to put into words the special kind of love I felt and there simply were no words I could say. After reading that talk, I knew it was hesed. I KNOW this to be true.

Tuesday morning we started with the morning session of our Special Projects event. It was much more spiritual than Monday afternoon. It was a very good morning. After the event we got lunch and then prepared for our Team meeting. We headed back down to the 27th floor to our "command center" for our meeting. I shared a spiritual thought and talked about the Mission devotional of the previous night. We had a good meeting and discussed things we need to deal with as we move forward in our team. I think we will see more changes in the near future. After the meeting ended, we stayed and discussed a topic that Baptiste wanted to share. He showed us a video of the General Relief Society President, Camille Johnson, that she gave at the HRD Development @work Conference event we supported in the middle of April. We discussed her talk for a few minutes after the video and then ended our meeting. Most everyone went home. 

Interfaith Fireside with Elder Kevin W. Pearson

We hung out and ate our dinner before we headed to an Interfaith Fireside at the Tabernacle in conjunction with the tour of the replica of the Tabernacle of Moses that we went to last Friday. The Fireside was wonderful. We heard from an Evangelical Minister, a Muslim Imam, a Jewish Rabbi, and Elder Kevin W. Pearson, the 1st Counselor in the Utah Area Authority Seventy in our Church. They all talked about what Moses's Tabernacle meant to their religion or what the prophet Moses meant. I was extremely impressed with the Muslim Imam and his words about the teachings they have about the Prophet, Jesus Christ. They believe and worship all the prophets, including Jesus Christ. He also talked about the prophet Moses. I enjoyed the other talks as well. Everyone talked about all the things we have in common. It is refreshing to hear people of all faiths talk about their faith in God. What is sad is how so many in the world have lost their faith. Satan's minions are working in full force as the Second Coming of our Lord gets nearer.

On Wednesday I got to "attend" the All Hands Meeting for HawkSoft. It was AWESOME.  They talked about HUG (the HawkSoft User Group) meeting held in Texas. They gave shout outs to so many people who helped make it all come together. I wish I could have been there. One AMAZING thing that happened at the opening ceremony was our beautiful granddaughter Alyx singing the National Anthem acapella. Here is a link for you to see for yourself how great it was. 

President Camille Johnson, General Relief
Society President at the BYU Women's Conference

At 2:00 we headed over to the COB. We added the BYU Women's Conference to our event schedule. Since the opening session of that event was only Wednesday evening, we decided to split the day in half. The Linfords took the first half to about 2:30 and we took the last half that covered the second half of the afternoon session for the Special Projects event that ended at 5:00 and then covered dinner and the evening event for the BYU Women's Conference. Aaron covered for Curtis Wednesday and Thursday so he was there for the afternoon with us. Then Eunlan showed up just before 5 for the Women's Conference event. We were only doing Spanish for that event. The Special Projects event was in Spanish and Portuguese. The thing I love most about our mission is visiting with the Interpreters. We have developed a great love them them individually as well as collectively for what they do. It seems like most of the events lately have been language coaching so we haven't seen them very often. This week has been so great to see them everyday. I love the hugs I get from them. The talks were great and I have been spiritually fed this week. After a great event, we got home about 9:30.

We were up early Thursday for the morning events. We did both, the Special Projects event and the BYU Women's Conference event. We had to juggle booths a bit since we had two Spanish teams, but it all worked out. Meals were easy because they could just go to the cafeteria and get what they wanted for both breakfast and lunch. Elder Wilcox just sent their names down on a list and they go through a particular check stand so they don't have to pay. It works great. It was tough to choose which event we were going to watch since we wanted to see both. The Women's Conference won out for the morning and that was projected in the Library for us. Elder Wilcox and Aaron found another booth to watch the Special Projects event. I really wanted to see one of the sessions for Special Projects because they were showing slides and talking about the renovations on the Salt Lake Temple as well as other Temples around the world. Steve said it was really good. He is going to see if we can get the slides from Aaron. Aaron has to check with the Producer to see if they can be shown outside of the event. I didn't see much of the event because I was helping Eunlan set up a new laptop and then helping Lluvia, one of our Spanish interpreters with putting together a side-by-side talk she needed to do that morning. I love helping people.

Elder Burgoyne in costume

After the event and lunch, we headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the new Missionary Orientation meeting. It was so much fun. Three different Zones were asked to present a little about their Zone. Normally it is just the Zone leaders that present, but our Zone leaders asked us to present what we do. They did an overview of our whole zone and then turned time over to us to present Global Interpretation. The choose someone different to present for each orientation meeting they attend. After that, we went back to the COB for our one-on-one with Baptiste. After that we headed to the Temple. I really needed to be there. When we got home, Steve dropped his Aussie hat off at Elder Burgoyne's apartment. He needed to borrow it for a costume party on Friday night.

Sister Sheri Dew at
Women's Conference

Friday, we were up early again for our events. Baptiste covered for both Curtis and Eunlan for the morning events. It was so fun to have him there. It has been over a year since we have been on an event with him as a supervisor. I was kind of disappointed we weren't going to be able to do the afternoon session of the Women's Conference, as one of my good friends was speaking. Ana De Agostini is one of our Portuguese Interpreters. She is also an employee and a good friend. On Monday, Ana accidently sent me a copy of her talk. I'm so glad she did since I wasn't going to be able to see it. The other person she was speaking with is also named Leslie and when she went to email her the copy she accidently picked my email address. We shared some fun emails over that. Anyway, after our morning event we picked up lunch and then I headed up to prepare for my Emotional Resilience class. The class went really well. Our discussion was exactly what I needed. After the class I asked Baptiste and Steve to give me a blessing to help with some emotional baggage I have been carrying around. Almost immediately after the blessing I felt better. I love the power of the Priesthood. We actually went home early, which was nice. We had a very relaxing evening.

Richmond Temple Dedication Crew
Elder Wilcox, Genesis, Herman,
Sister Wilcox, Adam (the engineer),
Eunlan (Supervisor), and Maritza

It rained on Saturday. Steve did some shopping and I worked on the blog as well as a few other things. I even watched a fun movie in the afternoon. It was nice to be home with nothing to do for awhile. The Linfords stopped by around noon and we had a nice visit. 

Sunday morning, not so bright but very early as we went to the COB for the Richmond Temple Dedication. Our setup time was 6:00 AM, call time was 6:30 and the first session started at 8:00. One of my favorite parts was when they had several children participate in the ceremonial sealing of the Corner Stone. What a special experience for each of them to remember for the rest of their life. We had breakfast between the first and second sessions. The Linfords came to the first session. The Temple dedications are always so special. The second session ended at 1:00. We quickly cleaned the booths and then headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for our regular Church meetings. After Church, we enjoyed a wonderful Break the Fast with our floor. I love being on a Mission!

All Our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox