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