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