Lots of Meetings, Presenting to New Missionaries, Farewell Dinner, and a New Bishop 

Our Family Home Evening Group

Monday morning, we packed and straightened the rental house. We all left around 10:00 AM. Our kids headed to Coeur d'Alene for a nice little vacation and we headed back to Utah. We got home early enough to get everything unpacked and laundry started before our weekly Family Home Evening. Elder and Sister Walters gave a wonderful presentation on Temple symbolism. It was really quite fascinating. It was the Durrants' last Family Home Evening with us. We will miss them so much.

On Tuesday morning we had a meeting with Baptiste and a guy from security named Mike, to talk about General Conference logistics. We thought we were talking with the guy in charge of food for GC because he is in the Events department. Normally we go through COB Catering for food, except for General Conference. Events take care of going through COB Catering. However, Mike wanted us to talk directly with Josh, who is over COB Catering. Our biggest concern is if the changes to the access badge stations are going to be done before General Conference. We couldn't get a definitive answer. We are not sure how that is going to affect us for check-in. I have a feeling we won't know until General Conference weekend!

Elder and Sister Durrant

In the afternoon, we had our Team meeting. We weren't going to talk about General Conference because we had a General Conference Preparation meeting on Wednesday morning. Curtis mentioned how we weren't going to talk about conference and then proceeded to have a 45 minute discussion about General Conference. We scrambled to cover everything else in less than 15 minutes because Baptiste had another meeting, he needed to attend at 3:00. After our meeting, I put together a slide show that we needed for a presentation we were doing for our Zone to show new missionaries at one of their last training meetings before they get assigned in the mission. This particular group were all Service Missionaries with a few Visa waiters. We need new full-time missionaries. We will be doing the presentation again in September to the full-time missionaries.

One of the Slides from our Presentation

On Wednesday, we started with our General Conference Preparation meeting and basically continued from where we left off the day before. It is hard to believe we have 5 weeks left. After lunch, we had a section meeting. We met on the 27th floor. We were in charge. Baptiste had each team present what their team does and introduce their team members. They were all good reports. 

Sunrise on the way to Oregon

After our meetings, we stopped at the Missionary Medical department to ask some questions about what is needed for our Visa application. They didn't know all the answers, so they sent us to the New Zealand Visa section in Missionary Travel. They gave us some good answers but couldn't answer all our questions. They are going to reach out to others and try and get us our answers. I'm glad we have lots of time to get all our questions answered.

On Thursday we basically played hooky. We met with Baptiste at 9:30 for our one-on-one meeting. He wanted to know what we needed for General Conference. I told him we were in pretty good shape, but as soon as we know the logistics, we may have more questions.

After our one-on-one meeting, we headed to the NOB (North Office Building) to do our presentation to the new missionaries. We were second to last. I think it went pretty well. After the presentation, Sister Bauer wanted a copy of our PowerPoint presentation and the "script" that goes along with it. We don't have a script! So, we are going to be creating a script and sending that to her by next week sometime. After our presentation, we went to lunch and then to the Temple. 

Dinner with the Durrants and the Jacksons

After the Temple, we went home and took care of a few things before we met up with the Durrants for dinner. Elder and Sister Jackson went with us too. It was all kind of funny. We invited the Durrants to dinner. They said that they owed us dinner and did we want to go out to dinner. We said that would be great. Then the Jacksons asked if they could take the Durrants out to dinner. So, we all went together. We went to Zupas. We had fun with the cashier with each of us trying to pay for some else's dinner. It ended up with us paying for the Durrants, and the Durrants paid for ours, and the Jacksons ended up paying for their own. We all had a wonderful time.

We were up very early on Friday as we threw in the last few things into our suitcases before we hit the road again. This time we headed to Oregon. We got a call a couple of weeks ago inviting us to Oregon so we could be there with our son-in-law was sustained as our new Bishop. It was a long trip, but everything went smoothly. We arrived about 15 minutes after our kids got home from Coeur d'Alene. It has been a crazy weekend.

We watched a movie and ate Pizza Friday night. On Saturday, we went to the Classic Car show in downtown Canby. That was fun to see so many cool cars. I loved all the vibrant colors. After walking around for a while, we headed to an ice cream shop to cool off with some delicious ice cream. Once we got home, I think everyone managed to doze off for a while.

Bishop Sean Hawkins

On Sunday, we were there for our son-in-law's sustaining as the new Bishop of our ward. We were also able to surprise some of our other family members as they didn't know we were coming. We couldn't tell them because the announcement of the Bishop was a surprise, although I think most of the ward had already guessed who it would be. 😊 We knew it was going to happen soon as our Bishop had been in just over 5 years. The Stake President waited until after all the youth activities this summer before making the change. We suspected it would either be our son or our son-in-law as both men are outstanding. However, at the same time they called our son-in-law to be the Bishop, they moved our son from the High Council to be a Seminary Teacher. He will be an AWESOME Seminary Teacher. He has worked with the youth his entire adult life. It was very fun to see our ward members and share in this glorious day. We relaxed Sunday afternoon. We packed the car so we wouldn't have to do it so early in the morning. We will leave dark and early Monday morning to head back to Utah.

All our Love and Prayers,
Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa
Great Grandma and Great Grandpa
Steve and Leslee
Elder and Sister Wilcox

Baby Ruth and my Amazing Grandchildren

Alyx named my Blog post today. 

Alyx and Baby Ruth

Monday morning started with our Mission Devotional. The Elijah Choirs sounded exceptionally good. We heard from four missionaries. Two of them are our good friends. Sister Last and Elder Ipson. It is such a wonderful way to start the day and the week.

After normal Monday morning stuff, we went down for lunch a little earlier than normal. I had a phone call from the blood pressure study project I was asked to participate in. I wasn't exactly sure what the call was about. My contact, named Sierra, called a little after 1:00. After some brief chit chat, we were ready to get started. I didn't realize we were going to do some testing with the new blood pressure machine they sent me, which of course, I didn't have at work. So, I told her I would run home and she could call me back in about 10 minutes. When I got home, I settled down at the table with the machine and waited for her phone call. Nothing. I checked my phone and saw that she left me a message about 5 minutes before saying she tried calling but received no answer. I couldn't call out either. I rebooted my phone and finally got connected again.

Baby Ruth

She then proceeded with about an hour and a half of different tests. Most of them were memory tests. Some of them I did just fine and others I think I failed miserably. Anyway, I was very glad when they were done. About a half an hour later I received an email with what group I would be in. The two groups are: 1) controlled where they monitor blood pressure every morning and night at set times for two weeks and then as directed by the pharmacist in charge. 2) not controlled or placebo where they can pretty much take their blood pressure whenever or even if ever they choose. They will not be monitored. However, they will be contacted every three months for two years to check in. I was put in the second group. I suppose that is good for me as set times each day to test my blood pressure is not practical. Also, I'm not even sure I will be able to continue since we will be in New Zealand in six months. 

Our TIPS Group

We had a wonderful Family Home Evening. It seems like it has been a long time since we were together. The Durrants were in charge, and we had a great discussion. The Durrants are ending their mission in a couple of weeks. We will be sad to see them go. Sister Durrant decided to clean out her refrigerator and cupboards, so we had a wonderful variety of refreshments. We technically ended a little before 8:00 but no one wanted to leave. I think people finally started to leave around 8:30 or so.

Our whole team back together again

On Tuesday we started with our Zone Devotional by President Jackson. He had asked that we come prepared with invitations that we have received from President Nelson since he because President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In particular, he wanted us to share what invitations or advice really touched and changed us. It was a wonderful devotional and lots of people participated. I loved hearing about how President Nelson has touched everyone's lives in so many different ways. 

Elder Nicholls and others from TIPS

I had the Spiritual Thought for our Team Meeting, so I used my research about President Nelson's invitations as my basis for my Spiritual Thought. I think it went well. One of the invitations that touched me the most was how to find Joy in Daily Repentance. I always felt "repentance" was for big sins such as theft, burglary, or murder. I have never been guilty of such serious sins that I didn't feel I had anything that I had to repent of. WRONG. Oh, I would repent from time to time when I felt guilty about something I had done, but it wasn't every day and I didn't necessarily find joy in doing it. I was intrigued by the words "find joy in daily repentance." So, I undertook an in depth study of repentance to see what President Nelson meant. 

Elder and Sister Wilcox at Gilgal

 I increased my understanding of repentance. Repentance basically means CHANGE. In my studies I have seen all the different ways I can change to become more like Jesus. I am finding joy in that. Each day I can identify one or more things I can work on to become a better person. I am actually excited about repenting now. I am evolving into someone I really want to be and someone I hope my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I challenge you to find the joy of daily repentance.

The Sphynx at Gilgal

Since we hadn't met as a team in over three weeks, we had a very long Team Meeting. It was hard to take minutes because the conversations were all over the board. It was so fun to be with everyone again. Over the last three weeks all but Aaron has gone somewhere out of the country. 

After work we joined our TIPs (Tuesday In Person Social) group for dinner at Hires Big H restaurant. I think we had about 28 missionaries. It was lots of fun. Then, after dinner we all walked over to Gilgal Park to see the monuments there. It is a small park in the center of the neighborhood. There are about 15 different stone monuments, most depicting scripture scenes or Church History. It really is quite remarkable.

On Wednesday I had an hour-long video call with Curtis and Baptiste. We talked about things we need changed or added to Event Central to make it a more complete program for Interpretation. We really want it to do everything! If we can add some additional detail about each interpreter so we can have the system be "Team Aware" then we can get lots of useful information to help the missionaries know who is going to be at the COB (Church Office Building) for events so they will know which ones, they need to support. We also want to add an invoicing to Event Central to take the place of PLUNET. We don't want to just use a different invoicing system, but we want to use only ONE system that will do everything. I'm sure it is several years away, but at least they recognize it is something they need to do. Curtis and I have been plugging the changes for two years now. I think at last it has quit falling on deft ears. After work we went to the Temple.

On our walk to the Idaho Falls Temple

Thursday morning started with an in-person Zone Devotional. Sister Last (piano) and Elder Thompson (viola) presented a beautiful concert. I was very touched by it. After the devotional we headed to the Wellness Center for our daily exercise. Then we went home to pack for our trip to Idaho Falls for the Blessing of Baby Ruth. 

Just as we arrived in Idaho Falls, we received a text from our daughter asking if we could go to Costco for them since they were stuck in traffic and running behind schedule. So, instead of going to the rental house, we headed to Costco. Since my daughter is feeding an army this weekend, we bought a ton of food. They also went to the grocery store to get another ton of food that was in smaller containers than what Costco covers. Djeryd, Eva, and Baby Ruth came over for dinner and the evening. It was so much fun to visit with everyone and to hold our precious great granddaughter. I think we finally shut down around 11:30 PM. 

Alyx, Anna, and Elle
at the Temple

Friday started with a nice walk to the Temple and then to the Idaho Falls. It wasn't too hot but was warming up a bit as we headed home. Then we went to the store to pick up a charger for my laptop. I can't believe I forgot to pack it. Since I used my laptop in the car on the way to Idaho Falls the battery was dead by morning. By the time we finally got back, Sean's parents, (Paul and Carol) were at the house. To my surprise Baby Ruth was there too. Djeryd and Eva dropped her off and took Anna out to lunch. I think it may have been the first time Baby Ruth was without her mama. She did good for the most part, but there were a couple of times she really wanted her mama. Grandma and two great grandmas and three different aunties all did their best to keep her entertained and happy. By the time Djeryd and Eva arrived back at the house the second time, Baby Ruth was happy and sleeping in great grandma's arms. I couldn't have been happier. Then they left to meet up with Eva's family for dinner and the evening with them and we started cooking dinner. We had another enjoyable evening visiting and playing games before Paul and Carol left around 10.

Four Generations of Hawkins and Wilcox

We went to the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday morning to do baptisms. What a beautiful experience that was. Anna and Alyx were each baptized for four ancestors a piece. Sean accidentally printed 4 brothers so he was baptized for them. It was wonderful to be in the Temple with my family and watch our beautiful granddaughters be baptized for their kindred dead. I felt the Spirit so strong. MyLiege took lots of pictures outside when we were all done.

At home we all changed into casual clothes and just lounged around all day. Paul and Carol came over after they napped a bit. I started working on this blog and the girls went shopping.

Great Grandma and Ruth

Sunday was a fun filled day with family and friends. We woke up to Oregon style of drizzle all day. We headed to Church around 10:00. It was so fun to be in a ward with so many young families. Lots and lots of babies. There was also a good group of youth. Djeryd gave Ruth Talei Hawkins a beautiful blessing. We had lots of family and friends come over to the rental house for lunch and visiting and of course holding Baby Ruth. We took several different multi-generational pictures with Ruth. We had four generations on the Wilcox side and the Hawkins side. Those are both our grandson's side. There were three generations on the Poff side. Ruth was an angel through it all. No fussing through all the pictures and being passed around to so many people. After all the pictures she was tuckered out and fell asleep in grandma's arms. I got to hold her through most of the four generation pictures. 😊

Grandma MyLiege and Baby Ruth

It has been a wonderful few days. I am one lucky great grandma!

All our Love and Prayers,
Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa
Great Grandma and Great Grandpa
Steve and Leslee
Elder and Sister Wilcox

 

Mission Devotional, Temple Leadership, Mission Prep,  and Saratoga Springs Temple Dedication

Part of our tour group.

We had another slow week. I know it won't last much longer. We are taking advantage of some much-needed time off. The Linfords usually come in early and work until noon. Then they usually head to the Temple for the afternoon. We come in a little later and stay until 3 or so. It depends on what is needed. Sometimes we just go home. Other times we go to the Temple or some other activity with other missionaries.

Monday afternoon, I helped Elder Johnson on his spreadsheet. I think I got everything done he asked. I finally had him send it to me so I could work on it at my desk. The formulas kept changing the cell numbers on me. I’m not sure why. Once I figured out what they were doing, I was able to fix the problem and it all worked perfectly.

After work, we headed home for a quick dinner and then back to the COB for our Mission Fireside with President and Sister Holmes. We were asked to study Alma 5, but President Holmes went in a different direction. He talked about how we can truly be converted every day. It is not an event that happens once. It is something that must occur time and time again. That is how we experience that Mighty Change in our hearts as talked about in Alma 5.

President and Sister Holmes

Sister Holmes talked briefly about how we “make it” in this life. She shared a visit she had with a wonderful woman who is strong and active and doing everything right. This woman confided in Sister Holmes that she was afraid that she wasn’t going to “make it”. Sister Holmes told her she WAS going to “make it” because it isn’t a checklist that you have to complete, but it is the desires of our hearts. That really struck me as I suppose I wonder all the time if I am going to “make it”. That is why I work so hard and yet feel I always fall short. When she said it is the righteous desires of our hearts that make a difference, I have HOPE. From the time I was a little girl, I had always prayed that Heavenly Father would help me to be a “good girl.” I still pray for that. My greatest desire is to be a good and faithful servant and be an instrument in the Lord’s Hands. I want to return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ AGAIN!

I will continue to do the best that I can do, but now I have hope that I will “make it” because that is the desire of my heart.

Elder Anderson and Elder Gong

On Tuesday, I started with the Wellness Center and the Zone Devotional. Sister Gabbard gave a very nice devotional. I stopped off at the Johnson’s cubicle after I finished my exercise so I could show Elder Johnson the formulas I did for his spreadsheet. I came away with two more tasks to do.

At 11:00 we went to the 27^th floor to watch the Temple Leadership event with Elders Gong and Anderson. It was really good. Then we went to lunch. The Portuguese and French teams joined us for lunch. That was nice.

At 2:00 we met with Elder and Sister Jensen about our new mission call. We had a good time visiting with them. Elder Jensen had me check my email to make sure we got the one he sent. I was surprised to see several emails in my inbox. We got medical information and visa information to start working on. 

Elder and Sister Farnsworth
taught us about Alethea.

After that call I had a quick call with Darrin on some HawkSoft stuff. He gave me 14 hours of certifications to do so I need to get started on them ASAP.  I think the added hours are going to be helpful for all the different things we need to pay for before we leave on our mission. For example, we have to have another medical exam by a “panel doctor” that costs about $400 a piece. And we can’t do it until three months before we leave so it will have to be done in Seattle instead of Provo. Hopefully most of the rest of our stuff is already done from before.

After work we had a tour of the Alethea program at the North Office Building. It is a slick new way they are teaching a computer how to do indexing. What takes humans months and even years to do, the computer can do in only moments. Where we do thousands of records, the computer does millions, once it has been trained.

On Wednesday, we got up early to go to my Mammogram appointment. Then I did my exercise and Scripture study before starting on HawkSoft. I put in about 2.5 hours on HawkSoft. The rest of the time I worked with Elders Johnson and the Barney with their different spreadsheets. They were both happy with the results.

The room we were going to
put the ASL team in

On Thursday, we watched our Zone Devotional and then headed to the Wellness Center. I spent much of the day working on HawkSoft. I also helped Elders Johnson and Barney on their spreadsheets. We planned on going home right after lunch so we could go to the Temple. I had Elder Wilcox go get my lunch so I could finish up what I was working on. While he was gone, one of the producers came up looking to see if we could have our ASL team do the Saratoga Springs Temple Dedication on the 28th floor instead of the Conference enter. When he left it looked like that is what they were going to do. So, we contacted our ASL Team Lead to see how many people would be there so we could add them to our meal. Elder Wilcox then contacted the cafeteria to increase our food. Once we were sure everything was good, we left for the temple.

On Friday, I contacted the producer again to see if there was anything he needed from us for the ASL team. I was then informed that they decided to stay at the Conference Center instead. I told him we would cancel the extra food and he told me to ask the Team Lead. When I finally got a hold of her, she said they were going to walk over and join us. I said, "Great!" About an hour or so later she chatted back that they were going to eat at the Conference Center after all so they didn't need our meals. By then it was too late to cancel our extra meals. So we will have PLENTY of food for the Temple Dedication on Sunday.

I worked on HawkSoft for part of the day and was about to leave at 3:00 when Curtis called me. We talked about our Mission Call and then about onboarding new interpreters before General Conference. I think we talked for at least 1/2 hour or longer. After we got home and ate dinner, we headed to the Winder's apartment to meet a couple they know from New Zealand. They are dear friends of ours. We had some yummy snacks and then talked for several hours about New Zealand. It was a wonderful evening.

Saratoga Springs Temple

On Saturday we had a lazy day. We worked on our Mission Checklist to see what we needed to work on. Mostly we are done with everything because our previous preparations. The main thing we still need to do is our Visa application; however, we can't start until three months before we enter New Zealand. So, we will start that the first week of December. With any luck New Zealand will process it in a timely fashion and we will not be delayed in entering the country.

On Sunday, we got to participate in two sessions of the Saratoga Springs Temple Dedication. President Eyring presided and gave the Dedicatory Prayer. It was a wonderful day.

All our Love and Prayers,
Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa
Great Grandma and Great Grandpa
Steve and Leslee
Elder and Sister Wilcox

FHE With the Holmes, Temple Sealings with our TIPs group, Tour, and MISSION CALL!

FHE with President Holmes

All week was extremely slow. The Linfords usually came in before 8:00 and then left around noon. We came in around 9 or so and left between 2 and 3. There just wasn't any work to be done. Half the team have been on vacation.

Monday morning, we had a delightful Mission Devotional. The Mission Office Zone reported, and we learned a lot about what they do. We heard from four speakers who work in different aspects of the Zone. The main thing is they get to work with the Mission Presidency every day. how cool is that. They also work with all the new missionaries that come about twice a month. They do all the training and then send them on their way when they get their assignments within the mission. 

After the devotional we went to the Wellness Center. I decided to change my workout and use the treadmill instead of the elliptical.  WOW, what a workout. I think I will stick to that from now on. After the treadmill, I also worked on an arm machine. Hopefully I'll start seeing some progress.

The Durrants

I worked on another User Story for part of the day as well as just answering emails and such throughout the day. That evening we connected with the Ures and headed to President and Sister Holmes house for our Zone Family Home Evening. It was supposed to rain and Sister Holmes was worried they wouldn't have enough room in the house to put all sixty of us in one room. The rain held off and we had a beautiful evening. About the time we were leaving we could see some heavy clouds in the distance heading our way. We had a storm that night. Anyway, we had a wonderful time with our Zone. It was so nice to see people we don't get to see very often anymore since we don't all meet together on Sundays. The food was great, the company was fantastic and our FHE discussion was AWESOME. We talked about the cause of Zion and what that means. We all feel that we live in Zion on this mission. We talked about why we feel that way and how we can make that happen outside our mission. I loved it.

Tuesday started with our Zone Devotional at home. Then we headed to the Wellness Center again and had another great workout. I think Steve is doing awesome. I don't think I'll have to remind him anymore. I cut mine a little short because I was supposed to have a meeting with Matt to go over my User Story, but he cancelled on me. So, I called Global Tech because I have been having weird issues with my Outlook for over a week. The guy tried a few things, said to reboot, and called it good. Lol

We started checking our emails first thing in the morning and then ALL DAY LONG. No Mission Call. We have friends who work in the Missionary department keep asking us if we got our call yet. We said "No." They said they couldn't understand it because our status had indicated the call had been assigned and should have been sent. I figured they somehow got our email address wrong, even though we have both had the same email addresses for over 25 years. Anyway, we were a bit disappointed. 😒

Our Temple Sealing Group. The Barneys on
the Left and the Ures on the Right

Later, we headed to the Temple for a Sealing assignment. We have a group called TIPS that stands for Tuesday In-Person Social. It started just as we were coming out of COVID because everyone was so tired of not seeing anyone. Most missionaries worked in the apartments. We at least got to go to the office. Anyway, they do fun things every week. We don't always make it because of events, but we go when we can. That night, Sister Nicholls made four different sealing appointments for our TIPS group. We were in the first appointment. We had the Barney's, the Ures and Sister Penrod in our group. Our Sealer was an amazing brother who did a FANTASTIC job of pronouncing all the foreign names we had. Some were very tricky. I could have listened to him all night. It turns out his father was Sister Ure's family doctor who made house calls. The sealer also became a doctor and probably served her family too, but she may have already married and moved away. Small World. 

Baby Ruth

After the Temple we went to dinner. What a great time. This is for Douhet! We went to a Mandarin restaurant not too far from the Temple. The food was really good, and the company was even better. 
On Wednesday, Steve woke up very dizzy. He stayed home and didn't move much. I went into the office and spent another hour on the phone with Global Tech, because my Outlook was still messed up. He did a few more things and finally pronounced it fixed. I was skeptical. The next day I had no issues. Nor any issues since then. It really is fixed. I went home around 2:30 to see how Steve was doing. He felt better, but not 100% yet.

On Thursday, Steve was better but not great. He stayed home again. I went in because I had a couple of meetings. Before my first meeting, Elder Johnson stopped by. He is our Zone Leader, and they work in the Self-Reliance group. There is also a Humanitarian group that does almost the same thing they do. So, the higher ups decided to combine the two group's responsibilities into just one missionary couple. Since the Johnsons are leaving in November and the Barneys just got here, the Barneys are the missionary couple to do both jobs. The Johnsons have been given another job for the next 3-4 months. Elder Johnson stopped by to talk about how best to set up a new spreadsheet to do their new job. I gave him some ideas, (actually he had most of the ideas himself) and sent him on his way. He will create the spreadsheet and then I will help him out with some formulas and other things to help him track what he needs to track and produce the reports they are looking for. That will be fun.

More FHE

At 10:00 I had a phone call meeting to participate in a Blood Pressure Study sponsored by the University of Utah Medical Center. That is where our doctor is, and since they just prescribed me blood pressure medicine, I guess I showed up on somebody's radar. Anyway, it sounds fun, so I'll be in a study group for the next two years. 

At 11:00 Sister Nicholls arranged for me to give another tour. She brought over two couples who work with her at Ensign College and one student. One of the couples happens to be our next-door neighbors as they now live in the Beeches old apartment. We had a fun time. I ate lunch with them after the tour. Then I went up and did some work on HawkSoft before heading home at 3:00 to check on how Steve was doing. When I got home, he seemed to be feeling better, but still wasn't moving much off the couch.

On Friday morning, Steve thought he would go to the office. I told him to let me know if he decided to stay home one more day. I headed to the Wellness Center and then to the Prison Ministry. I had a meeting with Sister Bennion to help her with some computer issues she was having. She then had me help Sister Ricks with some issues. 

The Linfords left around noon, and I stayed until 3:00. Steve never did come in, but when I got home, he was feeling much, much better.

On Saturday morning, Steve woke up and was ready to get out of the house. So, we decided to go to the movies and then get haircuts. We also had to do some grocery shopping. The movie we saw was Sound of Freedom. The Burgoynes recommended it to us. We had been thinking about it anyway, but their recommendation solidified it for us. I HIGHLY recommend it when it comes to a theater near you. It is an important film and a must see! We bought ingredients to make Broccoli Salad for our Break the Fast the next day. Once home, Steve started making the salad and I took a shower. Then he told me he needed to go back to the store because he didn't have enough broccoli. He thought he had more in the fridge than we had. So, he went back to the store. When we walked back in the door, he was holding a great big envelope from the Office of the First Presidency. Our Mission Call. We quickly started a Zoom call and told the kids we would open the call in five minutes if they wanted to see. Season was the only one who couldn't make it. 

Steve with our Mission Call

We opened the call and did NOT read ahead. Steve read the letter. Sean and MyLiege finally joined the call just as Steve read, "You are assigned to labor in the New Zealand Auckland Mission." We are so excited. Djeryd later wrote us, "YAY!!! WE'RE SO HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Praying it works out this time!!!" Hahaha. So are we!!! We will be serving as member and leader support missionaries. We report to the MTC on February 12th and to our field of service on February 28th. Now we just need to get our Visas in process, so we don't become Visa waiters when it is time for us to actually go. We have had A LOT of visa waters in our Headquarters mission. Some are only here a week and others a couple of months. I hope we are starting early enough to get it all done in time.

Our Sunday was awesome. I love our little ward. We had a wonderful Fast and Testimony meeting and I shed more than one tear. The Spirit was strong. Our Sunday School class was great as we talked about Paul's missionary journeys. We actually spent time talking about Paul himself. Lots of interesting comments. I want to be a 'Paul'. He was a one-hundred percenter. 

At 1:00 we headed to the Park Lane Senior Living Center. We serve there twice a month so we can give the residents the Sacrament. We had the biggest turnout we have ever seen. Several new residents recently moved in. I love getting to know them and visiting them. They are all so sweet. I am still learning names. I am so bad at remembering them. Several residents came up afterwards today to talk to us. I love serving.

At 4:00 we had our Break the Fast. It was awesome as usual. Of course, we talked about our mission call. The whole floor knows. Sister Ipson is one of the missionaries who works in the Missionary Department. She was one that asked us last Tuesday what our call was. They can see the status changes, but they don't know what the call actually is. She was very surprised we didn't get it on Tuesday. She decided to ask about it and found out that because it was our second mission AND we are still on our current mission, they don't email the new call. They send it by snail mail. That is why we didn't get it until Saturday. I'm not sure why but knowing that made me feel better.

This past week I had a lot of ah-ha moments in my Scripture Study. Some of the thoughts I had I have had over the last few months. They all seemed to come together this weekend. Some of it is hard to explain what I thought and felt. One particular impression occurred Saturday morning, before we received our call. I had been pondering a verse found in Alma 5:46 where Alma shared, "I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself." I realized my fasting and prayer has not been what it should be. I needed to do it with more purpose of heart. Then I read this quote by Joseph Fielding Smith that I had associated with that verse. It reads,

“When a man has the manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even of the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase” (Joseph Fielding Smith, *Answers to Gospel Questions*, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. [1958], 2:151).

I realized that I have had several "manifestation[s] from the Holy Ghost" that have truly left "an indelible impression on [my] soul." I also realized that even though those impressions have occurred many, many years ago, they did indeed "sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase." I KNOW they are true. I have seen several of them fulfilled while serving this mission. I suspect that perhaps others will be fulfilled while serving on the next one. 

I am so very grateful to be serving our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If I can serve Him full time for the rest of my life, I will be content. 

All our Love and Prayers,
Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa
Great Grandma and Great Grandpa
Steve and Leslee
Elder and Sister Wilcox