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