Events, Costco Shopping, Moving, and 50 Years!

We had several major events this past week. I hope some of you watched the Face to Face with Elder and Sister Bednar last Sunday. We had 32 people there. We ate with one of our Cantonese brothers and enjoyed getting to know him better. Because of so many people, we served them down in the cafeteria. Since it was a weekend, that meant we were responsible for the whole meal, setup and cleanup. We missed part of the broadcast since we were still cleaning up. We had already watched the original taping of the broadcast a week or so before, but it was nice to see the edited and finished product. I thought it turned out very well.

Our Monday was typical with more work coming in that we needed to be aware of. We took most of the day off and paid the price on Tuesday when we had some surprises that turned into emergencies. We were informed that we were going to be moving into our remodeled apartment on Friday, so we took most of Monday to do some preliminary packing. Then we held our last Family Home Evening in our West Temple apartment. By unanimous vote, we will be continuing to host Family Home Evening in our new apartment starting tomorrow. We don't mind. We think it is very fun.

So Tuesday morning as we were reviewing our upcoming events we discovered one event that was happening the next morning and required a breakfast. It had been in "Prep" for so long we completely forgot about it. Apparently it came out of "Prep" on Monday and we missed it because of our day off. Anyway, we scrambled and got everything taken care of and our breakfast ordered. We also made final preparations for another event for Wednesday evening that was very large. While Steve was working on the meals, I was working on the final Agenda for our Team meeting that day as well as getting everyone entered into our invoicing system called Plunet. 

Right after the Team meeting we went Costco shopping with Baptiste, our lead Supervisor. Apparently we get to do this twice a year right before General Conference. We bought nearly $600 worth of snacks and supplies not only for General Conference, but for all our events for the next 6 months. It was a very fun trip. I mean, how fun is it to buy tons of cookies and candy and chips. We bought a few protein bars too, to throw in a little healthy stuff. 😊

We received an email that day that we were able to move in on Wednesday. I wrote back and said there was no way we could move on Wednesday because of our busy event schedule and was told that that was the earliest we could move and we were OK to wait until Friday. Well, we decided to move in the stuff we packed the day before on Tuesday night. We thought we would just drop it off that night, but ended up unpacking and putting everything away. We also moved some furniture around to better suit us. I'm so glad we did. It made for a late night, but it made it so much better when we moved the rest of our stuff.

So, Wednesday morning started with an Event called Leadership Enrichment Series with Elder Gong. This was a new series so we were all in the dark. That is part of the reason it stayed in "Prep" so long. We just didn't have all the details we needed. We had a total of 19 people, 14 of them were interpreters.  This was a zoom meeting with a panel of leaders. One of the main things they talked about was the demographics of the Church from about 1920 to a projection of 2050. It was fascinating. For example, we know that 1998 was when the members of the Church outside the United States became greater than the members living inside the United States. It is projected in 2025 that the members living in Latin America will surpass the members in the United States and Canada. They also shared the world wide Congregation Geography of the Church. Meaning, out of every 100 people how many are US, Europe, Latin American, Asia/Pacific, and Africa. They showed a comparison from 1980 where 72 percent was US and Canada and 2020 where it dropped to 42 percent. That doesn't mean there are fewer members, just that other countries are growing. Latin America is 40 % in 2020. They also showed some projections. Next they shared the Congregation Demographics between married, children, youth, and unmarried adults. Again comparing 1980 to 2020 the numbers are surprising. Married went from 42% down to 32% and unmarried went from 29% up to 54%. It was a fascinating event.

A couple of hours later we were doing the World Report October 2021. We had 21 to feed which included 16 Interpreters (4 languages) plus support staff. This was another crazy event with last minute changes. We actually had several other languages but they were either done on different days in the Conference Center or were done in country. For example Spanish recorded in the Conference Center on Monday. Portuguese on Tuesday. While Portuguese was recording we got word that another segment was being added to the broadcast. Since Portuguese was recording, they just threw that in and got it recorded. Spanish had to come back on Wednesday night with the other languages and just record the new segment. It was crazy. But we got it done. I hope you will all watch the World Report between conference sessions. There are some very cool segments.

We didn't exactly get to watch much of this event because our supervisor, Curtis, is a TALKER. He is fascinating and we always learn so much from him. He is a Joseph Smith expert.  For example, several years ago there was some controversy over where Joseph and Hyrum were really buried. Apparently some evidence came out that the bodies were misidentified. Curtis wanted to know for himself if the long held belief was correct or the newer evidence. He had no agenda, he just wanted to know for himself. He is a genius, literally. Long story short, he spent two years researching all the information he could find, visiting the different sites, examining the two reported death masks of the brothers, and taking hundreds of pictures from different angels using a tool he designed and built so he could capture every angle of the death masks. When he was done he was satisfied that the original information was correct and the so called new evidence had been fabricated. He was able to prove scientifically his results. In talking with others he was asked to present his findings to several different organizations, including the Church History Association (not sure if that is the right name.) He even published a paper on the subject that is now used by different organizations and can be found by searching Curtis Weber Joseph Smith. Look for the PDF called Skulls and Crossed Bones....  We read the paper and are presenting it to our FHE group tomorrow. Needless to say he took the whole event time to tell us his story. It was worth every second.

Thursday was a busy day at work so we weren't able to leave as early as we wanted. After work we decided to move more stuff over to the new apartment. Our intentions were to move our bulky items and then go back to West Temple, shower and sleep. Our reality was to move the bulky items, go back to West Temple and pack up everything else and move that too, and go back one more time to get the last remaining things that wouldn't quite fit in the car and move that too. And of course we unpacked almost everything as we got to the apartment. We "finished" a little after 11 and were ready for a shower and bed. HOWEVER, we discovered the water heater gas wasn't turned on. It took Steve about 1/2 hour or more to read the instructions and figure out what the problem was, which was the complicated but safe ignition system. He turned it on and we had to wait for the water to heat up. SOOOOO we decided to finish reading our Come Follow Me lesson while we waited. I think we finally got to bed about 1:30 and 2 before we actually settled down and went to sleep.

We took Friday "off" since that was the day we were supposed to move. We hooked up the Internet and finished unpacking. I was able to start work at home around 10:30. Steve went shopping for a few things we still needed for the apartment. I spent much of the day working on a spreadsheet for General Conference. I contacted my special Excel Help Desk (Season) for some assistance. He helped me again on Saturday with another aspect of the project. Needless to say, this will make the whole General Conference computer interactions much more manageable. For example it would have taking me a couple of days to enter over 100 people into the Plunet system doing it the "old" way I was trained. With the new spreadsheet I had it done yesterday in just a couple of hours. And adding additional people will be a breeze.

On Saturday we celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary differently than we ever have before. We started the day with an event at 6:30 in the morning. Baptiste was feeling bad that we had to be there on our anniversary; but, when he called me a little before 7 to tell me that he set his alarm at 6 instead of hitting the road at six he was very glad that we were working the event so we could get it started before he got there.  This one was a Middle East/Africa North Devotional. We had French and Arabic languages. It was a Zoom meeting and families were on the call. It was fun to listen to the questions and comments from a number of children as they interacted with the leaders of the Church. They did a fun activity with the group. They showed an QR code on the screen and asked the viewers to scan it with their phones. A question then popped up and they were to key in their answer. As they wrote their one word answers, the screen then showed all the words reflecting in size by the number of people who said the same word. Loving was the one that got the most responses. The words continued to move around the screen and change size as more and more people responded. It was very fun. 

After the event, we didn't really do too much for our anniversary. Steve reversed the doors on our fridge. I worked some more on General Conference. Around 3 we decided to go out for a treat and to get some things so we could hang up the wonderful picture blanket we had made when we got our original call and packed away in our "mission" box and totally forgot to open up when we got here because we thought it only contained bug repellent and stuff we would never use here. BUT, when we got to our new apartment we forgot it was our mission box so we opened it up and low and behold we found our beautiful picture blanket. SO, now it hangs beautifully in our living room. I am so happy!!!!!

I almost forgot. Here is the link to the video of the latest updates to the Temple renovation.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/temple-square-renovation-video-august-2021 

Here are some pictures of our new apartment.

Labor Day, Trainings, and Denny's Breakfast

 A little over a week ago we found a little friend our the window next to the door leading out of the apartment building. We couldn't resist taking a picture. I forgot to share it last week.

This week has been busy and fun. Because of Labor Day weekend we actually had Monday off and took advantage of it. Steve has been wanting to take some closer pictures of the work on the Salt Lake Temple. He says there is only so much he can see from our office window. This first one was taken from our balcony. They have recently added scaffolding all around the Temple. They have also brought in a third huge crane to help with the work they are doing on the roof.  The rest throughout this post are from around Temple Square.

After visiting around the Temple for a while we decided to go into the Tabernacle since it has been years since we have been there. One of the Organist was practicing so that was a treat. He was doing a concert later. One in the Tabernacle and then a repeat in the Conference Center. We listened to him practice in the Tabernacle and then listened to the concert in the Conference Center.

After the Tabernacle we went to the Church History Museum.  I think my favorite exhibit was the Children's section. They have made a beautiful setting that focuses on the Temple. Part of the room makes it feel like they are in the Temple. They have lots of interactive things that help point them to the Temple. 

They also have one of three identical pulpits that were made from President Hinkley's walnut tree. One, of course is in the Conference center. We touched that one when we were on our behind the scenes tour right after we got here. The second one is in the Church History Museum in the Children's section. The kids can touch it and stand at it and pretend to give talks. It is very cool and an exact duplicate. I think they said the third one is in the Tabernacle or perhaps it is also in the Conference Center where they can move it to different rooms for broadcasting the different events they do. I can't remember. One interesting thing about the pulpit is there are little fans in it that gently blow on the speaker to cool them from the bright lights that are on them when they speak.

After the museum we went to the Conference Center for the organ concert. It was really quite nice. The organist had us all move up very close as he said it sounds better up close. I thought is sounded great. The organist told us that the Tabernacle organ is best heard from the opposite end of the Tabernacle, but the Conference Center organ is best heard up close.

Then we headed to the airport to pick up Eva and Djeryd. We had a wonderful couple of hours with them before they headed home. After stopping for dinner we took them to the Church Office Building for a special tour. Since it was a holiday there wasn't anyone else in the building. If we would have had more time we could have toured the whole building. Instead we just showed them the three floors we work on. Djeryd's favorite part was seeing the Fiji Interpretation booths.

They really like the view from our windows and enjoyed seeing everything. We took them back to our apartment for another hour or so before they had to leave. They got to meet our Family Home Evening Group and even participate for about a half an hour. Everyone really enjoyed them and they seemed to enjoy everyone. It was a lot of fun. We played a game called "In the manner of the Adverb". Perhaps we'll play it in a couple of weeks when some of us are together for the wedding!

On Tuesday and Thursday we had area training events for Primary and YM/YW in Canada. We also covered North America Central in an event that overlapped the YM/YW for Canada by 1/2 an hour. We served dinner for both groups, although we only ate for one. lol 

Wednesday they did a Sunday School training for North America Center on Zoom so we didn't have to do a meal for that one. 

On Friday I finally finished setting up the General Conference Plunet order. That is the program we use for invoicing the jobs for the Interpreters. It is a massive order as you can imagine. Now I get to populate it with over 1000 interpreters for the 5 different sessions. I don't have to add all the names as many of the other countries will add their own names. But still, it is a lot of work. I spent much of the day trying to figure out how to get some of our Interpreters who are also employees for the Church into the Plunet system. We don't pay them but we do track their hours. It is a NIGHTMARE to get them in the system and supposedly if they are not in the system they can't interpret. Apparently many of them have been doing it for years without being in the system. I apparently have opened a can of worms. Eunlan, the supervisor over General Conference this year, asked me to set up a meeting for next week with all the people we need to talk to to see how we can get these people in the system, because for some languages they are the only ones who can interpret. Wish me luck on Wednesday!

Saturday we had a morning event for the Northern Area Arizona Area Conference. We ordered breakfast from Denny's as we wanted to serve a hot breakfast and since the COB Catering isn't open on the weekends we have to go offsite. We also wanted to try them out because we have MTC Devotionals coming up on Thanksgiving morning and Christmas morning and we want a nice breakfast. We are also considering making breakfast for them. I think that would be very fun.

That pretty much finishes our week. We have the Face to Face with Elder Bednar event today. I think we have over 30 people involved in Interpreting and supporting this event. We have been working on it for almost a month. I am anxious to see the finished product. I hope you will all be able to see it. 

With any luck we can take tomorrow off!

All our love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Concrete lateral supports for North side of Temple

North Side of Temple

Big Hole between Temple and Conference Center. North Temple is right behind the green barricade which is at street level.

More of big hole. Temple is to the right. It is currently 38 feet below street level and still going down.

Both of these pictures are of the tower cranes.

North West Temple Corner

 Service in its Many Forms

We love to serve in all the different ways that come our way. We also love to see and be part of the service so many others give in so many ways. For example, this past week as we are getting closer to General Conference we have had a lot more one on one interpretations for General Authorities. We don't get so see or be a part of that particular service, other than to do the computer work to make it happen. However, we do get to ponder about what the Interpreter is going to experience being with the General Authority. They are not stuck in a booth for these jobs. They are right there with the General Authority. They make it possible for the individuals to hear a General Authority in their native tongue, thus allowing it to truly penetrate them to their very soul. I have on occasion been able to talk with the Interpreters later about their experience. Most of the time they simply don't have words to convey what they felt or experienced.

We only had one event this week that we participated in. It ended up being a very interesting and even complicated experience for us. We first got wind of the event last Sunday evening when Sara, one of our Supervisors, chatted me with a heads up that this was coming and would take place both Monday and Tuesday.  We were doing some pre-recordings for a Face to Face with Elder Bednar that is coming up on Sept 12. Some of the participants in the Face to Face don't speak English so they wanted to pre-record those segments. One of the participants was in Japan and was not familiar with Zoom. We had our Interpreter meet with them Monday morning to familiarize them with how Zoom works so they would be ready for the Tuesday recording. 

On Monday (our so called day off hahaha) we got more details about the event and found out we needed a breakfast on Tuesday morning for 10 people. Steve got busy on that. He checked with COB Catering to see if we could get a last minute breakfast for the next morning. They usually prefer a week lead time. They said they could do it so he sent in the order. I took care of setting up the job and getting it all set up in our invoicing system so I could send out the work orders. Again, these are usually done at least two days before an event. By mid afternoon we felt we had it all under control. We took care of a few errands and prepared for our Family Home Evening Group.

Just before the end of the day we got notified that there would be two more languages added. We scrambled to get it all set up and sent an update breakfast order for 14 instead of 10. We got a confirmation email so all was good.

Then, right after FHE started I got a Teams video call from Sara. I jumped on to see if I could call her back when she said quickly that the two extra languages were no longer doing it. I didn't have much to do because I didn't have the names before so I couldn't set up anything or send out emails. Steve, however, needed to send out another email to remove 4 meals. It was after hours and we weren't sure they would see it the next morning.

Tuesday began fairly early with breakfast. They sent us meals for 14 as it was too late to change the number. Sooooo, since it was also the day for our Team meeting and most of our team were in the office we invited them to breakfast. We didn't get to see much of the broadcast, because our Team meeting was scheduled for the same time and it occurred in the conference room where we normally watch the broadcast.  We had a lively meeting and enjoyed being together. They are such a fun group to work with. We accomplished quite a lot.

After the meeting, our event was still going on. It was scheduled for 2 hours and went nearly 4. They had to do a lot of retakes for various reasons. That is probably the main reason they wanted to pre-record these segments. What we did get to see was wonderful and I can't wait to see the completed broadcast on Sept 12. That will mostly be live as we will be Interpreting that event next Sunday. They will intersperse the pre-recorded segments into the live broadcast.

That night we went to the Temple with our Zone. They have opened it up to more people. We had nearly a full session. It was wonderful to be in the House of the Lord again. We can now schedule our own times so I don't think we will have anymore Zone sessions. I have scheduled Sealings but couldn't get a time that would work for us until November. I'm excited to get those done. I have so many to do. After our session we went to Elder and Sister Larsen's house who live practically next door to the Temple. She made a ton of refreshments for everyone. It was so nice to just socialize together for a while. Through the sliding glass door right behind the Larsen's you can see the top of the Jordan River Temple. It was a glorious site. I didn't want them to close the curtains.

The rest of the week was busy even though we didn't have any other events. I have been working on several large projects including setting up General Conference, adding new jobs to a special project I am working on with nearly as many languages as General Conference, and preparing a simplified procedural manual from the 90 page book our trainers put together. Our manager wants a shorter and simpler book of no more than 10 pages so I am stripping out a lot of "fluff". Daniel, our manager, said he wants it to say "1. get water", not "1. take three steps, 2. turn left, 3. walk down the hall to the closet that has the water in it, 4. put the key in the lock", etc.  You get the picture. He wasn't exaggerating.  Those 90 pages are just what Steve does. I have another book that is almost as long for what I do. It needs to be simplified as well.

Well, we almost had a new missionary join us. President Randall called us to tell us he had a single Sister Missionary that he thought would be prefect for us and wondered if we could work with a single sister. We said YES; but, it would be helpful if she had a companion, at least a Service Missionary part time, that could attend some of the events to give us a break when we have some many back to back and nearly every day. We were very excited. The next day, however, he emailed to say he decided not to assign her to us and that he is still looking. So, at this point it looks like we will be doing General Conference on our own. I feel pretty good that we can do this. With the uptick in COVID our numbers will not be the normal amount that we will have to take care of.  Instead of 300 Interpreters, we will have about 60 with another 12 in supporting staff. Plus there is an Events Coordinator in a different department that will be organizing the meals for us. We just need to help.

With the holiday weekend we didn't have any events. We actually got to sleep in and just hang out on Saturday.  I did do some catch up work in the morning, mainly that special project stuff I've been working on, and then we decided to go see a cool statue garden near us. Season sent us a link to "107 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Utah." One of them was Gilgal Gardens. It is a garden of 14 different rock sculptures mostly based on the Bible. They were very cool.

Today we have our Break the Fast dinner at our permanent apartment building. We took a peek this week when we picked up our mail and it looks like we will be moving pretty soon. It is all done for the most part. They had little blue tape around the apartment for touch up work and then it should be ready for us. Of course that could still take weeks to do. We haven't heard of a move date yet. This is the month I've been expecting all along so I guess they are right on schedule.

Have a GREAT Labor Day and a GREAT week. Love you ALL!!!