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