MTC Devotional, Zone Devotional,  Farewell Missionary Luncheon,  and Fort Worth Texas Temple Groundbreaking

Elder and Sister Bauer

This has been a fairly slow week. We had a wonderful Mission Devotional on Monday morning. President Holmes taught us about the patterns that can be found throughout all of the talks President Nelson has given since becoming the President of the Church. We talked about several that he identified. One that resonated with me was the "joy of daily repentance." He has actually mentioned that is a few of his talks. I decided to do an extensive study of that a while back. I remember thinking how I always thought of repentance as having to do with serious sins. Consequently, I struggled with repentance because I didn't commit major sins like murder or robbery. I didn't understand what President Nelson meant about the "joy" of daily repentance. Through the course of my study, I realized that repentance is really "change". It is changing ourselves to become more like our Savior. There are lots of things I need to change in myself to become more like Jesus Christ. As I started working on different characteristics I want to acquire, I found true "joy". That has become a daily pursuit ever since and I now know what is meant by the "joy of daily repentance."

Alex Melecio

At work I reviewed our upcoming events. There are only a few so far over the next couple of weeks. Then I started on our Zone Devotional. We presented it on Thursday. I decided to focus on a quote from Elder Bednar's General Conference talk. He said, "The phrase 'in the path of their duty' describes the inspired translators and interpreters around the world who serve the Lord by helping friends and members to 'hear the fulness of the gospel in [their] own tongue, and in [their] own language.' Their voices, signed language, and translated documents convey eternal truths, yet few of us know their names or ever express appreciation. Through the gift of tongues with which they have been blessed, translators and interpreters serve diligently, selflessly, and, most often, anonymously to help people receive the spiritual gift of faith through reading and hearing the word of God."

I mentioned how we all serve "in the path of [our] duty." I then shared with them several pictures of Interpreters so they could know their names. I shared an email one of our Interpreters received from a non-member judge who came to the weeklong BYU Law and Religion Symposium the same weekend of General Conference. The "thank you" email he sent after he returned home to Brazil could have been written to any and all of our Interpreters for the great work they do and the live they touch with their gift of Interpretation. That was about as far as I got on Monday. 

Alex Melecio and Martha Speed

Over the course of the next few days, I added to the PowerPoint presentation and shared several things we have learned on our mission as we performed "the path of [our] duty." Elder Wilcox talked about several things that he has done where he was inspired to do something new or different. He shares some of the signs and badges he has made that not only served Global Interpretation, but also added some fun to our home life in our apartment building. I shared about some of the miracles I have seen with things like particular formulas in spreadsheets that made things so much easier, or finally getting finance to pay attention and simplify the invoicing process for our Interpreters. Elder Wilcox then closed by sharing a favorite poem by Garrison Keilor called "Ode to Oregon." I think it went well.

On Tuesday we had an in-person Zone Devotional at the COB auditorium. Sister Slaughter gave a presentation on the work she is doing to identify enslaved people in the 1700 and 1800 hundreds, and getting them into Family Search so their decedents can find them and do their work for them. It is a massive project. She has already a great many individuals and tied them to their owners as well as their enslaved families. It was a fascinating presentation. Her mission ends soon, but she will be continuing the work as a Service Missionary until she completes the 1800 hundreds. 

Tuesday evening, we had an MTC Devotional with Elder Andersen. It was very good. We had French, Portuguese, and Spanish. It was fun to visit with the Interpreters, some for the very last time. We will miss them all so very much.

Wednesday morning, Steve headed to the ear doctor to get fitted for new hearing aids. He also had to swing by the eye doctor to pick up his new eyeglasses. It is nice that Steve can hear again!  By the time he got back, he went directly to the NOB (North Office Building) for our Farewell Missionaries Luncheon with the Mission Presidency. We had a delicious lunch of Parmesan Crusted Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and heavenly salad. While we ate, each missionary got up and shared a brief testimony and a little about where they had worked and about where they were going home to. It was very nice. I recognized a few missionaries, but only knew one couple very well. It was all very nice. We went back to the COB and worked for about an hour or so.

Thursday started with our Zone Devotional. Like I said, I think it went well. After that I worked with Elder Williams a few times on SharePoint stuff. I reviewed our upcoming events. I helped Steve with a project he is working on. After lunch we headed to the Bountiful Temple. We went earlier than normally as we had a sealing appointment as well as an endowment appointment. It was really nice to be there and get so much work done. The Spirit was so strong. I got almost all my sealings done. I made another appointment for next Thursday so we can finish them up. We will start fresh again, when we get to Oregon. 

Friday, I worked from home again. It is kind of a P-day. I didn't have much to do, which is why I stayed home. Once I finished some PLUNET stuff in the morning, I turned my time to HawkSoft, and spent the rest of the day doing certifications. It was nice not to leave the apartment. Well, I didn't leave the apartment. Steve was gone for hours. Hahaha. We each got to do what we like. 

Saturday morning started early at the COB. We supported the Fort Worth Texas Temple Groundbreaking. Apparently, it was pouring rain there so they had the ceremony in the Stake Center nearby. They were not able to actually "turn the soil" as part of the ceremony. They said they would do that later in better weather. It was only Spanish. Two of my favorite interpreters were there. Martha and Alex Melecio. I have mentioned Alex before as he is also a performer. I asked if he was going to be doing the Luz De Las Naciones event next Friday and he said he was not. For the first time in something like 15 years he will not be doing the event.  I was sad, as I was hoping to see him one more time. He is a great singer and dancer as well as an interpreter. Anyway, we got pictures, as it will probably be the last time I see them. I actually ran into Alex on Wednesday morning when I got to the COB. He was just finishing a language coaching with Elder Gong. We did not have that event on our radar, so I did some checking to make sure he got paid. After some research and talking with Mabi our Spanish coordinator, we managed to figure it all out. Apparently, Aaron knew all about it, but failed to mention it to us. Aaron was in Miami at a convention, so it was hard to contact him for any information. Mabi and I took care of it.

After the groundbreaking, we headed back to the apartment where we proceeded to start sorting and packing. If we do a little bit each day or week, we will be done in no time. We put a bunch of stuff in our hallway by the elevator for people to take if they want. Whatever is left next Saturday, we will take to Deseret Industries. I'm sure we will be putting more things out as we continue to sort and pack.

Just as we were finishing up, we decided to see what was left on our list of things to do before we move. I signed into the USPO so I can put in a change of address request so I wouldn't forget later. While we are at that, we decided to call about putting in a cancellation request for our Internet for November 16 and see what it would take to continue our mobile service with them. Of course, that is two different departments. As the guy confirmed my cancellation for November 16th and then transferred me to the mobile team, our Internet went down. I told the person on the phone that we had just requested to turn off our internet on November 16th when it looked like they turned it off immediately. He checked and sure enough, that is exactly what happened. He gave me a ridiculous quote to keep our mobile service so I asked him to transfer me back to the Internet team so I could get our service turned back on. Simple click to turn it off...right? It took over THREE hours to finally get it turned back on. It didn't take that long to get it set up when we first got here. Needless to say, we were NOT happy with them. When I got off the phone the last time and our Internet was still NOT up, we were supposed to take our modem in on Monday and get a replacement. Not long after I hung up, the Internet came back up. It has been stable ever since. 

Sunday was a wonderful Sabbath day. Our speakers were great, and we had an interesting 5th Sunday Forum discussion. Our Stake, and specifically our ward, is part of a statewide education initiative program. The presentation was very good. We ended up talking to several people after the meeting. Not necessarily about the initiative. We also talked briefly to our Stake President. He is a very interesting man. He owns a pottery shop. We are going to go visit it this week. Check out his shoes. He also wears a purple bow tie. He's great. The rest of the day we rested. We needed it.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Eye Problems, Lots of Office Chairs, Saratoga Springs Temple, Bangkok Temple Dedication, Thai Interpreter? 

We had a very nice Mission Zone Devotional Monday morning. The US/Canada Zone presented. Their musical number was a BEAUTIFUL piano duet medley. It was very moving. The talks were all good. The Zone leader shared a Mystery Missionary. He presented clues about his life and at the end we were to guess. He shared some very interesting facts about President Homes. It was very fun. 

I spent most of the day working with Sister Sapp. I gave her instructions on sending out a thank you email to the supporting staff for General Conference. I reserved the missionaries for myself, and I also sent it out to the kitchen staff. 

I added instructions to the operations manual and reprinted it for them. If they decide to send out Thank Yous at the next conference, hopefully the instructions will be helpful. I’m not holding my breath that it will happen. I don't think they sent them out before Eunlan was in charge of General Conference. She and I came up with the plan. She is no longer in charge so I think it may disappear.

After that, we headed to the Eye doctor. It was Steve’s annual appointment. He was having some trouble with his eyes. His cataracts are changing. They are not bad enough for surgery because they can still be corrected by glasses. But he may have to have surgery when we get back from our New Zealand mission. My eyes are doing OK. They were a lot dryer than the last visit. Doctor Masihdas put some contacts in my eyes with a solution. I needed to keep them in my eyes for three days. He gave me different drops to use at least twice a day. My eyes were very blurry for the next three days. I actually had to wear my glasses again, all the time, just to see. It was very frustrating.

We had a very nice Family Home Evening. The Ipsons led our game. We played a General Conference recap. It was hard for us, because we had only heard two talks by Monday, so we weren’t much help to our team. Luckily for us we had GREAT people on our team. We won!!!

Tuesday started with our Zone Devotional. I didn't go to the Wellness Center when I went to the office because I had some work to do. I turned the minutes of our Team meetings over to Sister Sapp. They will be different than the way I did it, but that is OK. It is her job now. Our team meeting was fairly short because Baptiste was in France. I was all set to go home early since we didn't have much to do when Eunlan contacted me with 9 PLUNET jobs she wanted created. So, Steve went to the store, and I stayed and worked until 5:30. 

Wednesday was very slow. I spent most of the day working on our final Zone Devotional that we will give next Thursday. I don't know why I am having so much trouble trying to decide what to do. I think it will come together before too long. After lunch we went to the 7th floor to test out office chairs. They had 10 different chairs that we were supposed to evaluate. We got to use all the levers and play with the chairs. We also had to fill out an evaluation form for each chair. It took about an hour. It was fun. Shortly after that we went home early. 

After our Zone Devotional Thursday morning I had a meeting with Elder Williams. I turned over all the stuff I have been doing to maintain our Zone SharePoint site. I think he will do just fine with that. It feels good to offload some of the things I have been doing. Of course, I still have PLUNET, probably until the last day we are here. LOL After lunch we went back to the eye doctor. He took out the contacts and I could SEE again. YAY. I need to do a better job of using my drops ore during the day, so I don't let them dry out so much again. After that we went to the Bountiful Temple to do some initiatory work. We haven't done that in a while. It was nice. The best part of the day was when we called Joey so we could sing Happy Birthday. I can't believe Joey is 17-years-old. We had a wonderful talk and enjoy our time very much.

We actually took Friday off (sort of). I did a little work in the morning and at the end of the day. We spent most of the day in Saratoga Springs going to the Temple. It is about an hour away. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful session. We had a great day. I did a little work after we got home. 

Saturday, we did some sorting to think things out before we start packing. I spent much of the afternoon working on HawkSoft. We showered early and got ready to go to the COB for the Bangkok Thailand Temple Dedication. We are doing 11 languages for this dedication. 6 of them are in country, and 5 are here in Salt Lake. We flew in 4 interpreters from California, Arizona, and Florida for this event. Since the native language of the Temple is Thai, there were several talks that were done in Thai rather than English. All the Thai interpreters were in Thailand. For our interpreter here to hear the English interpretation from the Thai Interpreters, I had to sit in the Thai Interpretation booth and flip the relay buttons so we could hear their English interpretation. I got to be the SLC Thai Interpreter for the Dedication. Hahahaha. It was pretty easy, but I was a little nervous at first. It all worked out perfectly. The Dedication started at 9:00 PM and didn't end until 2:00 AM. It was two different sessions for 1.5 hours a piece with a 2-hour break between the sessions. I got to do the relay for both sessions.

It was hard to get up for Church Sunday morning since we were so late on Saturday night. I felt we needed to be there because we sort of set up Elder and Sister Bailey to be the speakers. I thought we should support them.  As it turned out, the counselor got a different missionary couple to speak. They are visa waiters waiting to go to Mexico. They did an amazing job.

I had an amazing experience this morning during the Sacrament. As I closed my eyes in prayer, I poured my heart out in gratitude. I felt like I recalled hundreds of different things I am thankful for, all of which pertain to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I find it interesting that this was the first quote I focused on in my Scripture Study today.  

Here are some of the things I am thankful for in no particular order: 

• My body. I am healthy enough to serve missions. 

• Forgiveness. No matter how many times I mess up and make the same mistakes, I can repent and be forgiven. I can still return to live with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

• The Sacrament. I can renew my covenants each week and start fresh again. 

• The scriptures. Whether they are paper or electronic, the scriptures are a tremendous blessing in my life. They are the WORD of God. They teach me what I must do to return to my Father. They teach me HOW I can be more like my elder brother, Jesus Christ. I love the scriptures. 

• Temples. I love the Temple and the saving ordinances that can only be found within their walls. 

• The Priesthood. Without the power and authority to act in the name of God, we would not have the saving ordinances of the Gospel. We couldn’t have priesthood blessings. We couldn’t have Patriarchal Blessings or blessings to heal. I love the Priesthood. 

• A living Prophet. We would be as lost as the world is without a living Prophet. He communes with God every day and teaches us what we should do. I love President Nelson. 

• General Conference. Every six months we get to hear from our leaders. We are given instructions and love. The love they have for us transcends time and space. We can feel it weeks, months, and even years later as we watch or listen to a Conference talk.  

• Modern technology for our videos, talks, messages, trainings, conferences, Temple Dedications, and countless other opportunities to receive blessings from God. 

• Prayer. And answers to prayers. It is our way to communicate with Heavenly Father. 

• The Holy Ghost. He gave up having a body so He can dwell with us and be our constant companion. He comforts, teaches, warns, guides, and so much more. 

• Of course, the Savior and His Atoning sacrifice. Without His Atonement we would be cut off forever. He provides a way for us to return. 

• Heavenly Parents. I look forward to the day when I will return to them again and see them and feel their arms around me and see how familiar they are to me.  

The list can go on and on. I am just so very grateful for EVERYTHING. 

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Winding Down, 5 Events, 19 Straight Days, and a Day Off

We have pretty much worked 19 days straight from September 25th to October 13th. We supposedly took Friday, October 6th off, but I ended up working the whole day at home. We had General Conference the weekend of September 30 and October 1 and then the following weekend of October 7th and 8th. We again, supposedly had Friday, October 13th off but I still worked at home. I must admit that I didn't work the whole day because PLUNET was down for part of the day, but I did manage to stay busy. 

So, Monday morning we slept in since we worked the weekend. Our Mission Devotional was scheduled for Monday evening because they don't hold a Mission Devotional after General Conference. I managed to go to the Wellness Center again after missing for two weeks. I was still very tired, but it felt good to be back on the treadmill. It isn't as if I didn't get any exercise during those two weeks. My total steps were higher than most weeks. Hahaha. I managed to get everything done on my checklist so that felt good.

We don't normally have events on Monday's, but we had one that day. It was during the day so that was nice. It was for the Leadership Enrichment Series. On Monday we did a Spanish to English interpretation so we could do English to Portuguese and French the following Thursday. It proved to be a lot more challenging than they thought as the "translated" scripts were not very good. Our interpreters ended up doing simultaneous instead. Thankfully it was pre-recorded from the live event in September, so we were able to do retakes until we got it right. It took an hour longer than expected.

Monday evening, we headed back to the COB for our Mission Devotional. Elder Brian and Sister Jill Taylor of the Seventy. Sister Taylor is the only daughter of Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone of the Seventy. They gave a great fireside. They were funny and also very spiritual. We really enjoyed their talks. They focused their remarks on the Doctrine of Christ.

Tuesday was fairly busy. We started with our Zone Devotional. We also had a General Conference retake in the morning for one of our area teams. We didn't have to do anything for it. We had our Team meeting in the afternoon. It went a little long because we cancelled our meeting last week. I spent much of the day adding helpful notes to the Missionary Spreadsheet for the Sapps, as well as, updating the Missionary operations manual for them. I didn't finish the manual until Thursday.

Not long after our meeting we had two evening events that started 1/2 hour apart. The first one was a Post-Recording for the GCLM Instruction by the Twelve Apostles. I think we had to rerecord Korean (SLC) and Mandarin (Tieline). That one was scheduled from 5:30 to 8:30 (counting call time) They ended pretty much right on time. The second event was our monthly MTC Devotional.  This one was with Elder and Sister Gong. It was only 2 hours from 6:00 to 8:00 and went very well. That was the one we got to watch. We sent the Sapps home after the MTC because we needed to hang around for Jeanpierre to finish his production. He had back-to-back productions for Tuesday and Wednesday where he had to work later in the evening and start very early the next morning. So, we let him crash in our second bedroom. Because of the late and early hours, we didn't get to visit much, but I'm glad we could help him out.

Wednesday was another fairly busy day. Just as I got to the COB, I received a text from Ken and Leanne Jenson telling me they were about 20 minutes out. I asked where they wanted to meet, and they said the apartment. At that point I realized I forgot my name badge and my access badge at home, so I needed to go home anyway. Steve was still home because he had a dentist appointment to take care of a couple of small cavities he had. Luckily, the Jenson's arrive before Steve had to leave and they were still there by the time he got back so we were both able to visit for a while. They had lots of questions about the Headquarters Mission as they recently received that call here. They will arrive about two weeks after we go home. We have put in a good word in hopes they can get our apartment. Hahaha. They left around 10:30 and we headed to the office.

I continued working on the spreadsheet instructions and the operations manual. Around 5:00 I got kicked out of EVERYTHING. So did Elder Wilcox. We think it had something to do with our mission ending and somebody just didn't have the right dates. We had another event that night, so I got on the phone with Global Tech to figure out what happened. They told me I was removed from the system. I told him we had 4 more weeks left. He said he needed my manager's permission to put me back in the system, so he called Baptiste. He was as shocked as I was and gave permission to add me back. It took a while to get entered back into everything I had access to, but before too long I was good to go. It was a good thing too, as I needed to help Aaron, our supervisor that night and one of our interpreters. Aaron needed to send a fillable PDF to someone and I'm the only what with authority to create them. I suppose that was good that that happened now so I can put it on my list to make sure someone else gets that program. Our event that night was the Utah Area Educational Devotional. It was really good. Our speakers included Elder Gilbert, Elder Pearson, Sister Emily Freeman, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Jeanpierre spent another night with us after his production.

I forgot to mention, when I got to the office that morning, I got a message from Sister Burgoyne. They went home several months ago. Anyway, she asked if we had received a surprise package from them. I said we hadn't received anything. She got concerned, because she said it should have been delivered the day before. I told her I would ask the people on our floor to see if anyone had picked up a package for us. She texted a little later and said it would be delivered that day. When we got home after our event there was a package in the foyer of our apartment complex. Usually someone from the floor will take it up to the apartment it belongs to. When we looked at the address it had no name, but the apartment was #318. We don't have a #318 on our floor. I thought it may be for us, so I looked around the box a little more. I found a from address that had the name of Greg Burgoyne. Then I knew it was for us. When I opened the box, it took forever to get all the bubble wrap off before I could see what it was. To our GREAT delight, Elder Burgoyne made us a model airplane. He has MS, but he loves doing woodworking. He makes all sorts of wooden toys. He could probably sell them and make a fortune, but he loves to give them away, mostly to his grandchildren. Anyway, we have been blessed to be a recipient of this treasured gift.

By Thursday I was feeling someone had it in for me. I tried to use my access badge to get on the elevators and it wouldn't work. I went into the access badge office to see if would give me access again. It appears it was connected to the lockout the night before. I'm sure my badge quick working that night, but I didn't need it to get out of the building. Anyway, they granted me access until the day AFTER we leave so I think I'm back to normal again. Elder Wilcox had to do the same thing.

We had the second half of the LES recording event. This one was for French and Portuguese. Again, it was during the day. They had almost as much trouble as the Spanish team had on Monday. When it was all over, Aaron and Baptiste talked and decided we needed to pay them all a little more than just the normal jobs they did. All of them worked extra hours at home that wasn't accounted for. They asked me to add another job to each interpreter to account for that extra time. I finished the instructions on the spreadsheet and the operations manual. I printed copies for the Sapps, so hopefully that will help them after we are gone. Elder Wilcox and I reviewed everything to make sure it is all in the manual. Of course, that doesn't mean things won't change and they will be asked to do new things that aren't in the manual.

With all of that done, my list was complete. We headed to the Temple. After the Temple I got a haircut. 

We were all taking Friday off (supposedly). I only took care of a few little fires. I answered some emails that came in. I couldn't do any PLUNET stuff because they were upgrading the system and it had been down since the night before. It didn't come back up until about 4:00. So, I spent much of the afternoon working on HawkSoft. I'm all caught up there too. YAY!!! I feel like I can breathe again. It was nice to stay home all day, even though I spent most of the day on the computer.

Saturday, we spent the morning finalizing a few things for our visa for New Zealand. I think we have everything done that we can do up to this point. We can't send in the visa application until three months before we enter the country. So, that will all occur in December. We have our Panel Doctor appointment on December 7th. That is the last thing we must do before we can send the visa application. We also went to the Church History Museum to see the Minerva Teichert art exhibit entitled With This Covenant in My Heart. It was really nice.

Sunday was very busy. We started with Church our meetings. It feels so long since we have been there because of our extra events in the last two weeks.  We had two really good talks. Sunday school was awesome. We talked about Colossians chapter 3. We compared the "natural" man with becoming a "new man" found in verses 10-19. It reminded me of 2 Corinthians 5:17 that says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." We all want to become a "new creature" as we strive to become more like our Savior.

After Church we went to the Park Lane Senior Center. We only have one more time before the end of our mission. I'm sad about that. We enjoyed sharing the Sacrament with them and then a short message. I shared with them a letter that one of our Interpreters received after a weeklong event. It was very touching. When that was over, we headed to the COB Auditorium for our ONE HEART GATHERING where we said goodbye to those who are leaving and hello to those who are new to our mission. They will have one more gathering on the Sunday before we leave so that will be our swan song gathering.

We are hoping with things slowing down again that we may be able to take some Fridays off.

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

 

The Week After

BYU Law and Religious Symposium

We are almost back to normal. We were able to sleep in Monday morning. Sister Sapp took the day off. We went to the office around 9. I wasn't able to get as much done as I had hoped to. Elder Sapp and Elder Wilcox asked a lot of questions and needed help most of the day. 
I spent as much of the day as I could reconciling my reports to make sure I had all the people that attended General Conference and the hours they worked. It was confusing because we had a number of people who checked in and weren't assigned to any talks. There were others that were assigned talks verbally, but were not in Event Central so they didn't show up on any reports. It took most of the day to get it all figured out. 

Lunch between Temple Dedications

We had a wonderful Family Home Evening led by Elder and Sister Slack. We had a great discussion on Light; The Light of Christ, The Light of the sun, The Light of understand and how they are all connected and come from God. We were joined by our two new missionary couples in our apartment complex. We enjoyed both of them very much. After FHE, I jumped on the computer and worked until 1:00 AM.

Tuesday started with our Zone Devotional. I finished with all the problems I was having with the reconciliation. I was finally able to start updating hours and delivering jobs in PLUNET. We had two different events during the day and the Sapps took care of them so I had time without distractions to work. I got about half of the jobs done by the end of the day. I got home a little after 6, took a shower and actually relaxed for a little while before going to bed.

Eric, our Engineer

Wednesday, I started to work from home to see if I could finish up the PLUNET order. When it came time to go to the office, I decided to say at home and finish. I'm glad I did. I was all done by 9:30 AM and headed into the office. Once in the office, my plans for the day went out the window. I ended up working on other requests from people and fixing the missionaries' spreadsheet several times. The Sapps are still overriding the formulas in the spreadsheet so it doesn't work the way it was designed to work.

I found out on Wednesday from Baptiste that the Church is NOT going to hire a full-time coordinator to do the work the missionaries were doing. I'm not sure who is going to take over PLUNET. We talked about me serving a Service Mission for a few more months until they can figure things out, but Baptiste said they are going to cut me loose in November. The Sapps are still not going to be authorized to manage that and they are not adding an additional full time missionary couple. I'll keep you posted on what is going to happen.

Thursday was a little slower day for me. I still stayed busy all day, but I mostly worked on getting caught up on the things I couldn't do while I was focusing on General Conference. I still didn't finish everything, but a least I wasn't feeling quite so overwhelmed anymore. I gave a quick tour for Sister Nicholls and one of the students at Ensign College and his parents. It was a very quick tour and a lot of fun. After work, we went to the Temple. It had been three weeks so it was very good to be there again. 

Baptiste gave everyone off on Friday, but of course almost nobody took it off as we used the day to get caught up. We just didn't go into the COB. I planned on just working for a bit in the morning and then spending the afternoon on HawkSoft since I haven't done anything in about two weeks. What actually occurred was working on Church work until nearly 3:00 and then only spending about 3 hours on HawkSoft. I still have some finish work to do for General Conference, but for the most part I'm done.

Sister Wilcox and Maritza from the Spanish Team

Saturday we started the day with the Modesto Temple groundbreaking ceremony. We finished with at around noon and headed home. I managed to finish updating all the PLUNET templates while at the event. When I got home I spent the rest of the day on HawkSoft and completed all the certifications I had to work on. I am almost caught up with everything that has been on my plate for while. Now we can start concentrating on the loose ends for our mission to New Zealand.

Sunday was spent at the Church Office Building with two Temple Dedications. Two sessions were for the McAllen Texas Temple and the other two sessions were for the Feather River California Temple. They were all very nice. Elder Utchdorf presided at the McAllen Temple and Elder Soares presided at the Feather River California Temple. We did Spanish for both Temples and added Hmong for the Feather River Temple. I was able to work on my blogs during my time there. We finished up around 4:00 PM. We started a little after 7:00 AM. We had a nice relaxing late afternoon and evening.

It is hard to say goodbye to some of our interpreters that I won't see again. At this point, I don't know who I will see again. We don't have that many events scheduled in the near future. 

I hope you have a great week and enjoy this beautiful Fall weather.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

McAllen Texas Temple

Feather River California Temple

All Things General Conference!

I'm only a full week late on this post. I haven't decided if I will do two posts or just one to cover two weeks. I'm leaning toward two separate posts. 😊

The week before General Conference was very busy. We had lots of General Conference pre-recordings where some of the General Authorities recorded their talks in different languages. For example, Elder Christofferson recorded his talk in Spanish and Portuguese. Elder Uchtdorf recorded his talk in both German and Spanish. We supplied language coaches to assist them. During General Conference, their recorded talks were then played in the various languages instead of our interpreter's channel. That way the people heard their talks in their own voice. I think that is a very cool thing to do.

I gave up going to the Wellness Center for a couple of weeks. They simply wasn't time. On Monday I tried to do some work on the PLUNET order so I could enter all our interpreters into the order, but I never got the time. I gave two tours to our Missionary helpers for General Conference. I spent a great deal of time working with the Sapps on the things they need to learn. I also responded to countless other requests that came in all day long. In the evening we had a very nice Family Home Evening. 

I woke up at 4:30 on Tuesday morning so I could work without any interruptions or distractions for a few hours. I managed to get a little over half the interpreters entered into PLUNET before people started arriving and life happened.

At 10:00 we headed to Costco for our semi-annual trip for snacks before General Conference. I was hoping to avoid going, as I had so much to do, but that didn't work. We were done by noon so it wasn't too bad. I lost another hour when we had our team meeting, not to mention all the normal distractions that I get throughout the day. Later, Baptiste asked me to create a Speaker/Interpreter list to put in each of the booths for Conference. He didn't want me to work on it until Friday, so we would have the latest list of Interpreters.

I woke up at 4:00 on Wednesday without an alarm. I started working on the PLUNET order again and managed to finish by 9:00. I worked from home so I could finish it, because I knew as soon as I went into the office I wouldn't get anything else done. It was a good thing I did that, because I didn't get anything else done that I had planned to do the rest of the day. I gave another tour for my missionaries at noon. I created a list of all our SLC interpreters so I could send that to Elder Wilcox so he could send it to the parking and security group. He also sent emails to all the Interpreters with instructions for the weekend. 

On Thursday I finished up the BYU Law and Religious Symposium PLUNET order as that event happens on Sunday through Thursday next week. It has about 20 different sessions so it is fairly complicated. We had three different events during the day. Thankfully Elder and Sister Sapp covered them. I went down briefly just to meet with some of the Interpreters and listen to some of the talks. I gave another tour at noon. That is the last one I will ever give for General Conference. I will probably give a few more for friends, and then that will end too. 😥

Friday was long and fun. I spent all day very busy with all things General Conference. I finalized the setup of the 5 laptops we were using for General Conference check-in. We printed 55 copies of all the agendas for each session of conference. Later in the afternoon I printed the Speaker/Interpreter for each session for each language. Those were all pinned up in each booth. Elder Wilcox and Elder Sapp put up various signs around the Church Office Building. They put them in the underground parking garage directing the interpreters to go to the main floor for check-in. They put them up in the building directing them. They had to wait until after the Chaplain banquet to put up signs on the 26th floor. They decided to go earlier on Saturday to do that. 

Season, Karstin, and Garren arrived around 6:00 PM. I met them at our apartment complex so they could park and take their bags up to our apartment. We then walked to the COB. Elder Wilcox and Elder Sapp along with Eunlan were at the hotel passing out the per-diem to our traveling interpreters. When they finished, they headed to Grown Burger to pick up dinner for everyone. Season and the boys were joining us for dinner. I also gave them a quick tour of where we work. Later, Elder Wilcox had them help hang up signs. After we were done, Elder Wilcox drove home and I took Season and the boys home via our "secret" tunnel that they wanted to see. It was a beautiful evening so the walk was nice. We visited for a while before we all headed to bed. It was so very nice to see them.

Saturday, we were up at 5 and at the COB by 6. Elder Wilcox and Elder Sapp put up the rest of the signs. I setup the computers and got the check-in desk prepared for our Interpreters. Gratefully, there were no problems. We had 4 very early interpreters show up and we were ready for them.

I headed to the 26th floor to help "train" Sister Sapp with our food prep assignment. Normally that was what Sister Linford always took care of, but they finished their mission a couple weeks ago. We create food boxes for the helpers who cannot leave their stations, such as those at the check-in desk and engineers. Sometimes we can help the kitchen staff keep the food stocked on the tables for the interpreters. After that, I headed to the Check-in table. That is where I am most comfortable. I love meeting all the interpreters when they come.

We were able to get good seats for Season and the boys for both the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions. After the afternoon session, they toured around Temple Square and went to the Church History Museum. Conference was a bit hectic for some reason. Nothing I can put my finger on, but it just felt more hectic than usual. Perhaps it was because I didn't just stay at the check-in desk the whole time. Hahaha Although, I heard from some of the other supervisors that it was busier than usual. 

Since the Saturday evening session was only one hour, we were able to go home earlier than normal. It was nice so we could spend time with Season and the boys. It was such a good visit. The boys said they enjoyed Conference. We talked a bit about the talks they enjoyed the most. We didn't get a chance to hear other than small snippets for any of the talks. I look forward to the coming weeks when I can study each one in depth.

Sunday morning we were up early again. Season and the boys got up early too so they could hit the road and head home. It was sad to say goodbye, but we will see them again in just a few weeks. We all left at the same time. Sunday, was less hectic. My favorite part was being able to help one of our interpreters get his contract renewed. There were lots of complications. I texted a message to our contract person, not expecting any response since it was the weekend. But, she responded and helped us immediately. We were able to get his contract straightened out, signed and returned. She then, processed his contract and activated him in PLUNET. We were so grateful to have that done. We finished up with conference and cleanup a little after 5:00 PM. We collapsed when we got home.

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference. I look forward to finally getting to listen.

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