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