Holiday, New Mission Leader Seminar, Latin American Assembly, Temple, HawkSoft, and Music and the Spoken Word

It has been a very slow week in terms of "work". Monday was a holiday, so we had the day off. Since last Saturday was spent with Audrey and her friend, we did all our errands on Monday. We got haircuts and then went to lunch before we went to visit Vicky and her family. We had a delicious lunch at R&R BBQ. We had a wonderful visit with Vicky too. I helped her get setup on her laptop so she can start working on Family Search again. She said she used to love doing genealogy but hadn't worked on it for several years because of taking care of Roy. 

We headed home to get ready for our Family Home Evening group. The Parkins were in charge and we spent the time sharing miraculous stories about temples around the world. We enjoyed it very much. We also played a couple of fun games. The first one was to draw our favorite Temple with our eyes closed. For the second one we had to build a Temple out of marshmallows and toothpicks.  We all had some good laughs over our "masterpieces". 

Tuesday morning started with several changes to the Mission Leader Seminar setup after I went to the Wellness Center and Zone Devotional. Once the changes were all done, I was able to do a little work on Dataverse. Matt, the guy I work with on Dataverse was in the office on Tuesday, so he decided to come to my cubicle for an in-person meeting. We usually meet briefly once a week on Teams. I showed him what I was working on and he asked me to do a few things for the next level. Unfortunately, the roadblocks I'm running into is importing all the data so it will properly fill in the fields to the new tables. I can get most of the data, but my language field is not coming in because it is setup as a multi-choice field that is populated from another table. It is very frustrating. I'm still researching. 

As soon as Matt left, I headed to the 27th floor for our afternoon event. The Linfords covered the morning session, and we covered the afternoon session of the Latin America III Regional General Assembly event. We had our Team Meeting while the event was going on. They both ended about the same time. We went home about an hour after our meeting ended.

Wednesday was kind of boring. I went to the Wellness Center again and then spent most of the day on Dataverse. We hung around to about 3 before we went to the Family Search Center so Steve could make a cool 9-generation Fan Chart. Most of his lines went back that far. Only his Wilcox line was not quite so filled in. We stayed for a while before we headed home.

On Thursday I stayed home so I could help Sister Crockett with her PowerPoint presentation for our Zone Devotional. She practiced before our devotional and did just fine. She did a great job for the real thing. After our devotional I did my scripture study at home before heading to the Wellness Center. Once in my cubicle, I worked on some changes to the Mission Leader Seminar and then some Dataverse work.  Just before we were ready to leave early to go to the Temple, Baptiste called with a request for a special report. At first, I didn't think I would have time to get the report done before we had to leave, but the report was easier than I thought. I was able to get it done within 10 minutes.

We then left to pick up the Ures on our way to the Temple. Our Emotional Resilience Class was doing a session together. Most of our class were able to attend. We had a wonderful session and went out to dinner together. I can't believe how much fun we had at dinner. It was a great team building activity.

Friday was another slow day. After a little work in the morning, we headed over to the North Office Building (NOB) to the Mission Office. We needed to pick up some reimbursement checks. We did some visiting with friends we don't get to see very often.  We stopped for lunch and then headed up to the 27th floor to setup for my last Emotional Resilience class. We had such a wonderful discussion for our last class. After my class I headed up to the 28th floor to get ready for my video conference Team meeting with HawkSoft. We had a great meeting, and it was fun to see old friends. 

Saturday, Steve did his normal shopping and I stayed home. I did some final work on the Mission Leader Seminar. I also did some work on HawkSoft. I relaxed with some movies too.

Alex Melecio with the Tabernacle Choir

Sunday dawned bright and early. Normally, Music and the Spoken Word is a pre-recording done the Friday before the Sunday broadcast. We only record the spoken word part. Usually everything else is live. Most of what Lloyd Newell says is pre-recorded. Last week, the Tabernacle Choir was on tour in Mexico. One of our Interpreters, Alex Melecio, actually hosted the concerts as well as performed with them. In addition, the artist Adassa, who is the voice of Disney's "Encanto" character Delores Madrigal, and a premier guest artist Mariano Osorio were there. They recently returned home, and Alex went to the MTC to interpret for the Mission Leader Seminar. Anyway, on Sunday the choir pulled excerpts from their tour and recordings of Lloyd Newell to put together the Sunday morning Music and the Spoken Word. The Choir didn't sing in person partly so they could rest up, but also because several choir members came back with COVID. Long story short, we had to do live interpretations for the morning broadcast. It was our turn to support the event since the Linfords did the Friday night Worldwide MTC Devotional that was part of the Mission Leader Seminar even though the interpretation was done at the COB instead of the MTC for that one.

After the event, we went to Church for the second hour of our meetings. We had a great discussion for our Ward Conference on Ministering. After Church it was time to work on the blog and relax for the afternoon.

President Nelson at the 
MTC New Mission Leader Training Seminar

I hope you have a Wonderful week. We will see some of you in a few days. We leave for Oregon on Wednesday.

Love and Prayers Always,
Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa
Steve and Leslee
Elder and Sister Wilcox

Dataverse, Blood Drive, Events, and Surprise Visit!!!

The week started with a wonderful Mission Leader Devotional on Monday Morning. Brother Stephen Valentine, Senior Vice-President Family Search International was our speaker. He gave an awesome presentation about all the progress and great things that are happening in Family Search all around the world. Of course, he connected everything to the great blessings in the Temple, too. He pointed out that "Temples are Nourished by Names." Temples and Family Search go hand in hand. It was a wonderful devotional.

I spent much of the day watching Dataverse training videos. We went home early because it was a very slow day. We had a great Family Home Evening. Elder and Sister Ure were in charge. We had a good discussion, played a game, and had delicious refreshments. We always linger longer and visit afterward. 

Tuesday morning started with our Zone Devotional and the Wellness Center. Elder Last gave our devotional. It was nice to learn a little bit about his family as part of the presentation. He is one of our medical screeners for prospective missionaries. I found out that he and his father before him were the doctors in the town of one of our other missionary couples. So, they know him very well. It is a small world.

Shortly after I got to the office, I got a chat from Matt. He is sort of my direct report since I have been working on the Microsoft Lists. Anyway, he let me know that I finally have the authority I need to work in Dataverse. It took a little tweaking on his part before I could actually access anything, but eventually I got in. Now I could get to work on applying what I learned from all the videos I have been watching for a week. I worked for a bit on that before it was time for our weekly Team meeting. I think it was a fairly productive meeting.

Later I worked on the HawkSoft security course. We are required to take short courses on a regular basis. It is very helpful in preventing us from falling victim to phishing scams. Not long after that, Sean called looking for a little help with an SQL project he was working on. We made some progress before he had to go to an appointment. We headed home and not long after that Sean called back so we could finish the project. It was fun to talk with him and share what little help I could. I guess it is good I have used SQL on my mission, or I wouldn't have remember what to tell him. Lol.

Wednesday, after the Wellness Center, I got to work on Dataverse. I have actually made some pretty good progress on the project. It helps that I have been working with the Power Apps already using the Microsoft Lists and that made things a little easier. Dataverse has a lot more power and capabilities, so I am learning lots. About 11, Elder Linford came back holding a T-Shirt because he had just donated blood. I remembered the blood drive that I had pretty much dismissed, because I was told several years ago that I shouldn't donate anymore. I couldn't remember the reason why I shouldn't, and I really wanted the T-Shirt, so I decided to go donate. 

The donation went well so I headed back to my cubicle to pick up Elder Wilcox for lunch. We had a baptism appointment at the Jordan River Temple. It is really hard to get appointments because they are booked out so far in advance. We headed down to the cafeteria, but they had already locked the doors. We were late! So, we decided to go home and eat and then head to the Temple. It was a warm day, and the walk home was a bit difficult for me. Feeling a little weak from donating blood, not having any food yet, and the heat made for a tough walk. By the time we made it up the hill to our apartment I was out of breath...more than normal. I should have rested a bit in the lobby, but we were on a tight schedule, so we went up to the apartment. We are at the end of a VERY long hallway, last apartment on the right. About a little over halfway there I had to sit down so I sat on the floor. Steve went to our apartment and brought back a roll around office chair. I got in the chair, and he proceeded to wheel me home. I don't think it was more than 10 or 20 feet before I passed out in the chair and my feet started dragging on the floor so we couldn't proceed any further. Steve revived me and we started again only to pass out again. After the next revival he took me home and put me on our bed. By then I was feeling nauseous and couldn't eat. I started feeling better and of course I still wanted to go to the Temple. Steve didn't think that was a good idea. After I tried to sit up and failed, I agreed we probably shouldn't go. He went and bought me some soda crackers to settle my stomach and I finally started to feel normal again. Then I made the mistake of taking a shower. After the shower I felt wiped out again and laid on the bed for another 45 minutes before I was finally back to normal again. It was quite an ordeal. 😏

Grandma, Audrey, Devon, and Elder
Woodfield at the Church History Library

I sat on the couch and decided to work on a spreadsheet for our Mission Leader Seminar that is coming up next week. Technically I don't have any involvement in the project this year, but I felt impressed to work on it anyway. I called Season for some help with an excel question. While we were talking, MyLiege called and the three of us had a nice conversation. I held the phone next to the computer so MyLiege and Season could talk to each other. What amazing times we live in.

Thursday started with an early morning event. Until two or three days before this event we only had our Interpreter Screening event where we screen for new interpreters. We do this event about twice a year. Then, all of a sudden, we get two new events for the SAME day as our screening event. One was early in the morning and the other was the exact same time as the screening event. What to do? Do we move the screening event to another day? No, the screenees have already committed. We can't hold it at the same time as the other event because of the logistics with the booths. Elder Linford suggested we hold it an hour later. Brilliant! So, the Wilcoxes took the morning event of SNML President Nelson Video Language Recording. This is for the Mission Leader Seminar. The Linfords took the NANE Area Training for the Clerks. And the Wilcoxes started the Prospective Interpreter Screening event and the Linfords joined us after they finished their event. It all worked out very well.

Grandma explaining Interpretation

Anyway, after our morning event, we had our one-on-one meeting with Baptiste. We talked about what concerns I had about the Mission Leader Seminar since it was turned over to the LPM employee that will be doing PLUNET orders for us in the future. They wanted to give this to them as a starter because it is honestly the most complicated event we do in the entire year. Baptiste figured this order would reveal all the possible issues that could happen so they can be addressed before all the missionaries leave. So, I gave him a list of my major concerns. He and Aaron had a meeting later that day with Xenia and the employee that is doing our PLUNET. I didn't hear back after the meeting, so I just let it go.

Friday, we started with the second session of our Thursday morning event of SNML President Nelson Video Language Recording. Japanese was unable to make it (on short notice) to the Thursday morning event, so they did Friday morning. It went much quicker than the Thursday event. On Thursday the engineers had installed a new update on the equipment and our poor engineer had a lot of setup to do to get it up and running again. We started an hour late that day. Friday went very well and even finished early. I attended a Team Meeting on Organization right at the end of our event. I worked on Dataverse after that. It is going smoothly. Lastly, I had my Emotional Resilience class. It is our second to last class. I will miss this group. We have so much fun together and have great discussions. I am learning so much from them.

Then after we got home, I received a call from Baptiste. He had a few questions for me about where some data was on SharePoint. I showed him where it was and how to access it. Then he shared a bit about his meeting the previous day. Bottom line, he asked me if I would be willing to help with the Mission Leader setup for PLUNET. The employee created a shell for the order but that was all they were going to do. They expected the Supervisor to do the rest. NOT GOOD. Aaron is already extremely busy with all the logistics of the event. He doesn't have time to do anything with the PLUNET order. I guess my prompting on Wednesday was in preparation for this as I had already done the preliminary setup that was needed. I started working on it while we watched our shows Friday evening. 

Around 6 PM we received a text from Audrey. For some reason I missed it. Then around 8 we received another one. The first one said she and a friend were coming to Salt Lake City and wanted to stop in and say Hi. The second one said it was going to be rather late and could they spend the night with us. That one I got and answered we would love to have them.  They arrived just before midnight. We visited for a little while before everyone went to bed. Audrey took the spare bedroom, her friend, Devon, took the couch. It was so fun to visit.

Saturday, we spent touring around Temple Square. We started in the Church History Library. Then we took the underground tunnel to the COB for my traditional tour of Global Interpretation. Next, we headed over to the City Creek Food Court for lunch. From there Grandpa went home as his legs were wearing out and the three of us headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to check out the beautiful Chapel. With all the construction going on there isn't much else to see there. We then checked out the Tabernacle on Temple Square and then headed to the Church History Museum. Next we headed to the Family Search Center to pick up a large Fan Chart for Audrey. I expected that one to be a quick trip, but we ended up staying about an hour. I helped Audrey fill out a few deceased ancestors that took her chart back more than 9 generations. The Sister that helped us showed us some new software that will let you print a 9-generation fan chart. Hers looked BEAUTIFUL! I decided I wanted one too, but most of my slots were blank. I don't go back 9 generations except for two lines. So, I went back to 7 and there are still a lot of blanks, but it looks better than all the blanks for the 9 generations. 

Our last stop was the Conference Center as it was on our way home. We spent about 30 minutes there. We were able to go up to the roof top and wander around for a while. The kids said they had a lot of fun. I know I sure did. Although I was totally exhausted by the time we got back to the apartment. The kids packed up their stuff, we said our goodbyes, and they headed back to BYU-I. I think they got home around 9. It was such a surprise weekend. We loved it. I spent several hours after we got back working on the Mission Leader Seminar spreadsheet. I had some questions, so I had a nice little call with Aaron. I think we are in pretty good shape. I just have the PLUNET side to finish up, but that won't take long. I can do that on Monday.

Sunday started out sunny and turned cloudy and drizzly by the time we came home from Church. Steve got to use his new razor that he got for Father's Day, and I got to wear the beautiful new earrings that I got for my birthday. Church was good. The talks were great, and our tiny primary made up of four little boys (no girls) sang Daddy's Homecoming. The congregation sang it again with the kids for their second time. After Sacrament meeting, the few young men we have passed out big Snickers bars to the dads. I mean they literally PASSED them to the dads. It brought several laughs. 

Right after Sacrament meeting one of the counselors asked if we would be willing to help him at the Park Lane Senior Living center that is part of our Ward. Of course, we said yes. At 1:30 we met him and his wife there to setup for a small Sacrament for some of the residents. We had 8 elderly sisters attend. It was delightful. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting with them and visiting briefly before and after our short little meeting. We sang a Sacrament song, the Brethren blessed and passed the Sacrament, then they had Elder Wilcox and I each bear a brief Testimony. We enjoyed is so very much. It was a GREAT addition to our Father's Day/Birthday celebration. 

This was actually taken at the Family Search
Center in front of a Green Screen.

I hope all you fathers out there have a WONDERFUL Father's Day. 

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

The Jensons, Welfare Square, Tours, Temple, Wedding Reception, and Mission Social

Elder Wilcox, Sister Wilcox, Leanne, and Ken

This week was more play than work.😊 I started at the Wellness Center and was just getting ready to head up to the office when I got a text from Leanne Jenson saying they were ready to meet up. While I waited for them to arrive at the lobby of the Church Office Building, I decided to check out the recently opened courtyard that we showed pictures of last week. Elder Wilcox took the pictures last week. It was a beautiful morning and I wandered around for about ten minutes and loved it.

Part of my tour group
singing. Sister Aburto
is in Red

The Jensons showed up and we headed over to the Church History Library for a tour. We met Elder Wilcox there. We toured around the library for a while before we decided to head over to the Church History Museum. After we toured the museum for a while, we went back to the Church Office Building for lunch. I had a tour scheduled for a group of Sacred Materials Translators at 1:00 PM and the Jensons were going to join us. Unbeknownst to me, Sister Reyna Aburto was on that tour. I knew she worked for Church Translations, but I was surprised to see her on my tour. Sister Jenson was very happy about that.

The tour went very well, and I think everyone enjoyed it. The tour ended a little before 2:00. After a few pictures with Sister Aburto, the Jensons went back to their hotel room to rest up before they headed to a cousin’s house for dinner. I went back to my cubicle to see what work I could do. We headed home around 4.

Sister Cordon at our
Mission Fireside

After dinner we got ready to go back to the COB for our Mission Fireside. Sister Bonnie Cordon was our speaker. She did a great job and we enjoyed it very much. She talked about how we are all here for a purpose. She showed several pictures of babies during WW2 and had us guess who they were. Turns out they were all apostles that were born in 1940 in preparation for today as they serve as Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She showed several more babies and who they were in history and what good they accomplished. Lastly, she showed about 20 more baby pictures. It turned out they were pictures of 20 of our current missionaries. She said we are all here for a purpose as part of Heavenly Father’s plan. There are no coincidences.

Beautiful roses on our way home!

Tuesday, started with the Wellness Center again followed by our Zone Devotional. I had a Teams meeting with Matt around 10:00. He informed me that he finally got authorization to use Dataverse for our master database instead of trying to use Microsoft Lists. I was told NO when I tried to get it approved about 6 months ago. I guess that is the difference between a missionary and an employee. 😉 He laid out what they hope I can accomplish in the next 5 months before our mission ends. There is one major problem with this scenario. For me to be able to work in Dataverse, I need to have a Pro License. Matt said he would get that taken care of. I asked him on Friday where we were at with this and was told he hadn’t submitted the request yet. So now I have 1 less week to work on this. 😢 Hopefully, he will get that taken care of by this coming week.

Wilcoxes and Jensons at Welfare Square

Right after my meeting with Matt, the Jensons called to see if we wanted to go with them to Welfare Square, so we met up with them again. We had a GREAT tour guide and thoroughly enjoyed our tour. We made it back to the COB for lunch again about 1:00. I had another meeting at 1:30 and then again at 2:00 so I said my goodbyes and headed to my meeting. The Jensons had another dinner planned with friends or family. My 1:30 meeting was with the employee that is taking over PLUNET from us in August. She and her coworker are going to do the Mission Leaders Seminar PLUNET order this month because it is one of our more complicated events. I have a feeling that our Supervisors are going to have to start doing more with PLUNET for things like changing hours, last minute replacements, changing jobs, etc. Time will tell.

The Jensons at
Bountiful Temple

Our 2:00 meeting was very short! Baptiste was in France, so Eunlan ran the meeting. We didn’t have any agenda items, so we just reviewed upcoming events and ended our meeting. Shortly after the meeting everyone that was at the office went home so we went home after that.

Wednesday we pretty much spent the whole day with the Jensons. I did go to the Wellness Center first thing in the morning before we met together and went to the Bountiful Temple. We had a wonderful session. We went to lunch after the Temple and enjoyed a delicious Mo Bettah’s Hawaiian meal. (We brought half of ours home for another meal.)

From there we headed home. After changing we met at our apartment and played games, had dinner and watched a movie. Of course, there was lots of visiting too. We thoroughly enjoyed our day together.

Elder Wilcox, Sister Wilcox, and Curtis

The Jensons had other plans for Thursday and Friday, so we actually had to go into the office for those two days. Hahaha. After the Wellness Center and our Zone Devotional I went to my office. I spent much of the day watching Dataverse training videos in preparation for obtaining my license. I also prepared for my Emotional Resilience class for Friday. At one point I went to update the agenda for our Team meeting for next Tuesday. We have our agenda and minutes in an app in Teams called Meeting Notes. It is great because everyone has access to it so they can add their own agenda items. Well……apparently, Microsoft decided to remove Meeting Notes from Teams and replace it with something called Recap. Recap only works if you record your meetings. I can’t find anyway to add an agenda to the Recap. Soooooo……we are back to keeping our agenda and minutes on SharePoint, which means everyone will send me their agenda items. I will go back to emailing the agenda before our meeting each week.

Curtis's presentation in New York

Steve went to the doctor’s office before going to the office Thursday morning so he could pick up his final paperwork for our mission application. When he got to the office, we checked everything and got it in the mail. Then we checked off the last checkbox on our application and submitted it. It goes to the Bishop and then Stake President for final interviews before it finally goes to Salt Lake City to be evaluated for a new mission call. It will still be weeks before we know anything.

Andrew Ehat - Joseph Smith Scholar

We were supposed to have an event Thursday afternoon, but for some reason at the last minute the event went from doing it at the COB to doing it via Zoom. So, we were not needed. That worked to our advantage as we had a wedding reception to go to Thursday evening. Curtis is one of our Supervisors. He is a Joseph Smith aficionado. His son got married Thursday morning and had his reception Thursday evening. On Thursday night, Curtis (as well as the bride and groom) headed to the airport. Curtis went to New York to present at the Mormon History Association conference in Rochester. He is presenting his forensic analysis of the Larsen Daguerreotype purported to be Joseph Smith. The bride and groom were heading to their honeymoon. While at the reception Curtis introduced us to many people. We also visited Andrew Ehat. He is one of Curtis’s good friends and probably one of the most expert scholars on Joseph Smith. We are currently reading one of his books called Words of Joseph Smith. We had a very enjoyable time at the reception.

Elder Wilcox on the Putting
Green at the home of our
Mission President

Friday, I watched more Dataverse training videos. I had my class at 1:00. We were pleasantly surprised to see Sister Farnsworth show up. She is the one who broke her shoulder several weeks ago. She started physical therapy this week after her surgery the week before. It was so good to have her back. We had a lively discussion. I love my class.

We went home shortly after class and had a relaxing evening. Around 7:30 we got a text message from Leanne saying they were back and wanted to come over so we could say goodbye. We visited for another hour before they left. They got up early Saturday to head back to Washington for home. We enjoyed their visit so much. They are hoping to submit mission papers in October. I’m excited for them.

Saturday, I did some HawkSoft work and worked on turning my blog posts into a book so we will have a hard copy when we come home. We can get a good deal at the document center, which is good because this book is going to be several hundred pages long.

The backyard of our Mission
President's home.

Saturday evening, we went to President and Sister Holmes’ house for a Mission Social. The weather was great, and we had a nice dinner outside and lots of good company. They have a gorgeous yard and home. We hung around for about two hours before it was time to head home.

Sunday, we went to our new ward for the second time. We met the new Bishop. Last week, while we were at the Columbus Ohio Temple Rededication, our Bishopric was being reorganized. Our new Bishop is from Germany and has a wonderful accent. They have asked all the Senior Missionaries to sing a song in July so everyone can get to see us. Haha. We practiced the song right after Church today. The Ward Organist’s son wrote the Pioneer song. It is really pretty good.

After we got home, I worked on the blog. We also watched a YouTube interview that Curtis gave on his forensic study of the skulls and the Joseph Smith daguerreotype. If you have about 3 hours for a fascinating presentation, please check out Joseph Smith Photo the Latest Evidence with Curtis Weber on YouTube or follow this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ-_wHcJ-xI.

Have a wonderful week.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

MTC Devotional, GA Wives Luncheon, Columbus Ohio Temple Rededication, and The Jensons

Monday was a holiday so we didn't have a Morning Mission Devotional. It was nice to sleep in. After working on organizing our pictures, we decided to go to the movies.  We saw the new live action The Little Mermaid. It was really good. 

Monday evening, we had a delightful Family Home Evening. The Durant's were in charge. Since it was Memorial Day, they decided to focus on some very touching stories about some of our patriotic hymns. We then played them on YouTube. Steve finished by reading The Ragged Old Flag by Johnny Cash. Everyone was very touched by the evening.

Tuesday was a little different. I did start the day with the Wellness Center and our Zone Devotional, but instead of heading to my office afterwards, I went home. We had our Mission Application Dental Appointment. Since we had recently had our annual visit, the Dentist didn't need a full appointment. However, they did want to take a full set of x-rays to have on file. Once that visit was done we headed home to drop our car. We had a few things to do before heading to the office. While there, Sean called to show me a way to help me turn my Blog into a Word document so I can have it printed and bound into a book. Our document center at the Church Office Building can do it for a really reasonable price. 😊

They just opened up the courtyard between the 
Church Office Building and the Church
Administration Building

At work I prepared for our Team meeting and started working on creating my blog/book. In our Team meeting, we had several new changes in preparation for our move to a more Area centered program. We will be starting a pilot program to have the Area assigned three of the languages that will be needed for our Mission Leadership Seminar the end of June. These will be Salt Lake City teams, but the Area leadership will assign them. Aaron has been working with the Area leadership. Our MLCs will act as a backup in case there are any last minute changes since the time difference could present a problem for last minute changes. In addition to those changes, the new full time employee that will be taking over PLUNET will start with this event. The employee is not new and is already familiar with PLUNET so the training will be minimal. They will only do this even for the time being. That way the Linfords will be able to continue working until the end of their mission in September.

A Scripture in the renovated courtyard.

Wednesday was uneventful. After the Wellness Center, I worked on the blog/book most of the day. I also prepared for my upcoming Emotional Resilience class. We went home early.

Thursday was similar to Tuesday. I did the Wellness Center and Zone Devotional before heading home again. This time we were going to what we thought were our last step in our Mission Application medical appointments. We accidently scheduled them at exactly the same time in two different locations. Steve had to do a stress test and was scheduled for an hour and a half. Mine was a short appointment to review my test results and get all my paperwork signed. Therefore, I dropped Steve off a half hour early and headed to my appointment. There was a LOT of construction where we dropped Steve off. We missed the turnoff because the GPS was confusing. So, Elder Wilcox ended up walking a bit to get to his appointment. He was still early. 

New plants in the courtyard

I got to my appointment a little early but had to wait for it. With signed paperwork in hand, I headed back to pick up Elder Wilcox. I expected to have to wait for nearly an hour, but before I even got out of the parking lot, I got a call saying he was done and ready to be picked up. When I got to the construction, I ended up in the wrong place again. I went back the way I came and asked a flagger where I needed to go. The turn I should have taken was before the one I actually took. I picked him up and we went to lunch. As it turned out, Steve wasn't able to get his paperwork finalized yet. It was just a test so he had to go back to the doctor. We then headed back home to work a little while before heading to the Temple for our weekly Temple visit. We had a wonderful session. We were greeted by Sister Randall, our previous Mission President's wife. They work at the Bountiful Temple on Thursday afternoons. That is one reason we try to go on Thursdays.

My Emotional Resilience Class

Friday morning, Elder Wilcox called to see if he could get a visit so he could get his paperwork signed off so we could get it in the mail. At first, they were going to book him at the end of June. When we convinced them, we only needed a few minutes to just get it signed, they scheduled him for Friday afternoon. We both went to the office. After lunch, I went to the Library on the 27th floor to set up for my Emotional Resilience class. Steve took a few pictures for me and then headed to his "hopefully" final doctor's appointment. As it turned out, they scheduled him with a newby resident student who was not qualified to sign the paperwork. Sooooooo, the nurse kept the paperwork and will get the doctor to sign it by Wednesday and call Steve to pick it up. Fingers crossed we can get it submitted by next Wednesday.

Eunlan and Venky at the Temple Rededication

Saturday was a stay-at-home day...at least for me. I worked on the blog/book most of the day. It is going to take a long time to put this all together. Good thing we have 5 1/2 months left. Steve went to do a little grocery shopping. True to form, he took 4 hours. I'm not sure how he does that. While he was gone, Sister Linford dropped the P-Card (the Church's credit card) off so Steve could go to Costco and get something we needed for our event on Sunday morning.

Later that evening, Ken and Leann Jenson dropped by to see us. They just arrived for a weeklong vacation. They happen to be staying at the hotel right next door to our apartment building. So, we visited for an hour or so before they left, and we went to bed. It was so great to see them.

Me at the Temple Rededication

Sunday morning, we were up at 5:00 AM to support the Columbus Ohio Temple Rededication. President Ballard presided and offered the Dedicatory Prayer. In the first session, the Temple Matron shared a story of a young man who turned 8 on that Sunday morning. He wanted to attend the Temple Rededication so badly, he was baptized at 7:00 AM that morning so he could attend. What a wonderful story of his sweet testimony and the importance of the Temple of the Lord in his young life. President Ballard apologized to those that run the teleprompters because he was going to go off script. We forewarned our Interpreters as well. He shared a beautiful talk.

Interpreters at the
Temple Rededication

We had our breakfast scheduled to be between the two sessions so all the interpreters can participate. We also got permission for the Jensons to come to the second session so they can not only participate in the rededication, but also see a little about what we do and meet the interpreters during breakfast. Anyone that comes to the rededication, must have and show us their Temple recommend. Our floor is dedicated as an extension of the Temple so we can perform the services we do for this rededication. 

After we were done with our event, we called Audrey to wish her a Happy Birthday.

Later in the day we had our monthly Break the Fast with our apartment floor. It is always so fun.

All Our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox