Spreadsheets Galore, Meetings, Events, GC Helpers, New Missionaries, and GC Prep Meeting

We had a VERY busy week as we are in full General Conference preparation mode. Since Monday was Labor Day, we did not have a Mission Devotional. I spent the whole day catching up on tasks I needed to get done before things really started to get busy. I slicked up the General Conference Hours report so it can be maintained by whoever takes it over for April conference. I automated most of it so there are only 4 simple steps they need to do to all the information they need. I'm pretty excited about it.

I also worked on our GC Preparation Meeting Check-in spreadsheet. While I was working on the GC Prep Meeting spreadsheet, Baptiste reached out to me with a fairly big project he wanted me to work on concerning the budget approval sheets he was receiving from all the areas around the world. It took me most of the rest of the day. I tried again to work on some HawkSoft certifications, but I was still having a problem with my software.  Sean finally got back to me near the end of the day, so I didn't get much done on it. By the time I finished Baptiste's project, we had to get ready for Family Home Evening. 

Elder and Sister Ure were in charge of FHE. They always make it pretty fun. Elder and Sister Slack came so it was fun to get to know them better. We love them already. Elder Wilcox made their sign to hang above their door this week. Elder Slack was the CFO for Morris Airlines until they sold to Southwest, so Elder Wilcox included that as part of his sign. They LOVED it!

Tuesday started with our Zone Devotional. At 10:30, Baptiste, Elder Wilcox and I met with security about getting a portable card reader. Mike, the security guy, told us that he was told they couldn't do that for us. We have been asking for several years. Mike then told us that perhaps we could get a 3rd party "time clock" that can read our access badges and use that. Apparently, the custodial staff does that. So, Elder Wilcox will be doing some research and hopefully we will get that approved before General Conference.

Elder and Sister Slack

At 11:00 AM we headed to the 27th floor to support the Live Temple Leadership Seminar event. We have been doing several pre-recording events for this seminar over the last few weeks. The live event was a question-and-answer portion. The Temple Leadership met together around the world on Zoom. There were 4 huge monitors that showed all the new Temple presidencies from around the world. It is pretty cool to see.

When the seminar ended, we had our in-person Team meeting. We meet in person on the 1st and 3rd weeks. The other weeks we meet on Teams. It seems like forever since we met in-person, so it was good to see everyone. It was a little long. After the meeting we had to clean booths from the Temple Leadership seminar before we could finally head home. The Linfords were doing the MTC Devotional with Elder Stevenson that evening.

We went home and got connected to the first of two Global GC Preparation meetings for all the areas around the world. These are for the area employees who are supervisors and translators and not for our contractors. Interpretation takes about 15 minutes to do a presentation about what we need them to know since many of those employees do both translation and interpretation.

On Wednesday, we had our weekly GC Preparation meeting with the staff. Normally our meeting is just 30 minutes to touch bases, but we took a full hour. I think that will be the norm until General Conference.

Curtis came into the COB for our GC Prep meeting. He also wanted to attend a seminar on the Joseph Smith Papers that was being held in the COB Auditorium during lunch. He talked all of us into going too. It was a GREAT presentation.

Later in the day, Baptiste met with our new Missionaries via a conference call. He wouldn't tell us what their name was. I was hoping for Elder and Sister Slack. He wasn't going to tell me until he sent out the email to the whole team. He asked who I was hoping for, and I told him the Slacks. He just grinned, so I thought it might be them. 

I spent the rest of the day working on my General Conference Helpers spreadsheet as well as catching up on the GC Prep meeting check-in spreadsheet. We got nearly 300 RSVPs for our GC Prep meetings. We are holding 4 different sessions on two Saturdays. I sent out my recruitment emails for helpers for General Conference. They started coming in almost as soon as I hit send. I spent most of the day working on the schedule.

Thursday morning started the second of the Global GC Preparation meetings. This one covered the European areas. I worked on updating the GC Prep check-in spreadsheet as well as the GC Helper Spreadsheet. At 10:30 we headed to the NOB to give a presentation about our department to the new missionaries that were completing their weeklong training. Baptiste had sent out an email the night before with the names of our new missionaries, so we were able to introduce ourselves to them. It isn't Elder and Sister Slack. Instead, it is Elder and Sister Sapp. I think Baptiste may have smiled because he thought I said Sapp when in reality I said Slack. Anyway, this is the 6th mission for Elder and Sister Sapp. We are excited to have them, and I think they will work out just fine.  After our presentation and lunch, we headed to the Temple for our weekly session. I got to visit with Sister Randall again. It is always so fun to see her in the Temple.  

Sister and Elder Sapp

On Friday, I spent what time I had working on the PLUNET order for the GC Preparation meeting. I was going to have Elder Linford set it up, but he ran to Casper, WY again to take some more stuff home. They leave on the 20th of this month. I wish I had known, or I would have started the PLUNET order sooner. Sister Linford stayed behind, but she was busy getting all the talks printed in the different languages that were to be used for our preparation meeting on Saturday, so she didn't have time to do the PLUNET order. Around noon, Elder Johnson brought Elder and Sister Sapp by to introduce us and let them start getting to know what we do. Elder Wilcox and I gave them a tour of all the places we usually deal with, the 27th floor, the 26th floor, the main floor for conferences, and the cafeteria where they would pick up food or talk to personnel. We took them back to the 28th floor and I showed them some of the software they will be using. We talked about our preparation meeting on Saturday and let them know if they wanted to, they could join us for one or both sessions. Technically, they didn't have to start until Monday, but they said they wanted to come on Saturday. YAY! After they went home around 3, I was able to get back to my PLUNET and worked until 6 before going home. At home, I worked for a couple more hours, this time on HawkSoft since I hadn't had a chance all week.

Saturday started bright and early with our GC Preparation Meeting. We got to the COB at 7:30 for any last-minute setup and to make sure everything was ready to go. The interpreters didn’t come in until 8:30 so we had time. The Sapps showed up a little before 8. Sister Sapp said she would work on Check-in with me, and Elder Sapp worked with Elder Wilcox passing out badges, parking passes, and credentials. 

The first of our problems occurred when we got to the COB. Maintenance was working on the floor in front of the elevators that go up to the 26th floor where we were meeting. All the signs Elder Wilcox set out the night before on the Lower Level had to be changed. He went up to make some new signs directing them to the parking elevators and then to the main floor elevators so they could take the express elevator to the 26th floor. 

I started getting the two laptops setup for check-in. Normally I just do my check-in spreadsheet but because I wanted to train Sister Sapp on how we will do check-in for General Conference, we decided to use ITI. That ended up being a disaster. We couldn't get it to sync so that the program was up to date. Then when it finally got updated and Sister Sapp was checking in people with the new Training Check-in button, we quit having people sign in on paper as a backup. When we had a lull, I ran the report to show her the check-in report only to find out that Curtis's check-in report was not set up to show the Training Check-in button. It only shows GC Check-in, so we got zip on the report. Thankfully we had almost everyone sign in on paper because of the technical difficulties we were having. I think we may have only missed a couple of people. I'll have to send out an email so see if we miss anyone. 

The third problem we encountered was nearly half of our interpreters' badges wouldn't work. Xenia was downstairs to help get people into the building. Just before the October General Conference every year, security deactivates a bunch of access badges. I know they do that to make sure only those who are still working for us will have access. That means for everyone's badge that didn't work on Saturday, we had to reactivate the badge so they will be good for General Conference. About 1/3 of our people attended via Zoom so we don't know whose badges still don't work. It is a pain. We will still have a bunch at General Conference, so that adds additional stress that weekend. 

The fourth problem was technical problems with the Zoom meeting. I wasn't involved with that, but I know they had sound issues, and choppy picture, and who knows what else. It got fixed by the end of the meeting and was much better for the second session. 

In spite of all the problems we had, we heard several people say it was one of the best preparation meetings we have ever had. That is the bottom line. We want the interpreters to feel they gained something from coming. 

We had a nice luncheon in between sessions. Elder Wilcox ordered pizza, salad, and a cake because Venky will be leaving us before the next preparation meeting. He took a full-time position with the Family Search department. His last day is the 15th and the Linfords last day with us is the 19th. They will have lunch with the Mission Presidency on the 20th and then head for home. Baptiste is trying to talk Venky into helping out for our next Preparation meeting on the 16th as well as for General Conference. I'm not sure that will happen. 

The second session went much smoother. We finished up everything around 3:30 or so and went home. I worked for a couple of hours on HawkSoft. I still didn't finish. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up next week.

We went to Church early on Sunday so we could join the choir. Granted we only have a couple of months left, but it will be fun to sing in a choir again. We had a "Come and See" Sacrament meeting. The ward sent out about 7,000 flyers to invite everyone in the Ward boundaries to see our new meeting house and learn about us. We had a pretty good showing. I bet we had about 50 to 80 more than normal. After the Sacrament meeting, they had a mix and mingle on our terrace on the 5th floor. We skipped out because I had a Zoom meeting with one of our interpreters to help him create an invoice. At 3:00 PM we headed over to the COB Auditorium for our monthly One Heart activity. We have a short meeting where we hear briefly from all the new missionaries and then from all the missionaries who are leaving. After that we mingle with some refreshments. It is always a fun event where we get to visit with our fellow missionaries that we don't see as often anymore since we no longer meet for Church.

It has been a busy week, and I think the next several weeks are going to be just as busy!!!

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