Post Conference and Elle's Baptism!

We survived General Conference. It was busy, but oh, so rewarding. However, Conference is not over for us yet. Now we have all the computer work to do. Elder Wilcox has lots of access badges and parking passes to order for people who didn't have them when they checked in. My job and the Linfords is to input all the hours everyone worked. We have to verify they actually worked the sessions the interpreters were assigned. We also had a couple of people show up that we didn't know about so we have to get all that straightened out. 

We had a wonderful Leadership Pattern Journey class on Monday night. Our discussion was exceptionally good. The Rohrbach's lead our discussion and did a great job. I love our group.

On Tuesday we finished up the General Conference Leadership Training meetings. This event finished up the last 4 meetings. We had an AOA tour. Next was the Assignment Meeting. The Linfords handled both of those so I'm not sure what that was all about. At 12:30 we started the AOA training meeting. We attended that one. They are the General Presidency members of the three women's organization, RS, YW, and Primary who do training and presentations.  Lastly, was the Seventies and Wives Social. We had another obligation, so the Linfords covered that for us.

Wednesday we had our team meeting. Several Supervisors were in the office, so that was nice. We tried not to talk about General Conference because we have our General Conference recap meeting next week. A few things crept into the meeting. I spent much of Wednesday trying to get some newer laptops for our missionaries and one Supervisor. Sara, the Supervisor, has been using her laptop for months with a very swollen battery. Her case is literally splitting apart. A couple of our missionary laptops are doing the same thing. 

Well, on Monday I went to the IT department to see if they accidently picked a couple of chargers that some Interpreters left behind in the computer area that we had set up for conference. They couldn't really tell which ones were the missing ones, but they said they would just give us two replacement chargers we needed. I had one sister on the phone so I just handed the phone to the IT guy so he could get the correct charger. The other one I knew what it was because he had borrowed my laptop charger at General Conference. I sent Elder Wilcox to grab the charger from another laptop we had upstairs that was the same kind. He brought up the laptop, too. This laptop was in a little better shape case wise than mine, but it wouldn't let us sign onto the network which is why we weren't using it. When the IT guy took one look at the case he said we should not be using that laptop. It is a safety hazard. So I told him about Sara's laptop and he said to tell her to turn it off and don't use it until it gets replaced.

It took two days to jump through all the hoops to finally get them requested and approved. We should have them early next week. I think we are getting 4. I'm just hoping Sara's computer doesn't blow up before next week, because there is NO WAY she is going to stop using her laptop. I also pled my case during this same time to get approval to get SQL on my work computer. I had to justify why I wanted it and if it was something that would just go away when our mission is over. I pointed out that I was thinking about when I leave and that I wanted to make it easier for new missionaries to be able to continue to run the reports I have created. In this particular case, since the reports are something we do regularly, it is easier to run SQL scripts rather than have to manipulate Excel spreadsheets all the time. The scripts have all the manipulation built into the script so all they have to do is run the script and it does everything. It is pretty slick. Anyway, I got approval for that too, so I should be getting that next week as well.

On Wednesday night we did laundry and packed for our trip to Oregon for Elle's Baptism. Thursday was a very long day of driving. One really cool thing is because everything on our Church SharePoint site is backed up to OneDrive and that syncs to my laptop, I had everything I needed to continue to work on my SQL scripts for after Conference reporting. So, I happily worked in the car while Steve did the driving. It worked out very well.

We arrived in Canby a little before 4 Thursday afternoon. It was so fun to see everyone. We stayed with MyLiege's family as it was less juggling than trying to move people around at Douhet's house. Djeryd and Eva were there too. Djeryd was Baptizing his little sister, so of course he had to be there.

We ran some errands on Friday. We went to our place and swapped out a TV. We had a very nice visit with Jayne while we were there. She is staying at our place while her house is getting remodeled, so the timing worked out perfectly. Tyus and Laila are staying with Douhet and Kylee in Laila's old room since Alyson is on her mission. After picking up a few things we headed over to Costco to pick up more things so we could avoid paying the sales taxes we pay in Utah. So we stocked up on several things that I hope we can now fit in our apartment. Several cases of paper towels and toilet paper are pretty big items to fit into a small apartment. Hahaha Friday night we were on food prep for Elle's baptism party. By the time we finished we were all so tired we just went to bed.

Saturday was the big day. We started the morning having breakfast with Erik at IHOP. Djeryd and Erik haven't seen each other for over 4 years. It was sweet to see the bothers embrace each other. We, of course, haven't seen him in 10 months. It was so good to see him and how well he is doing. We all had a lot of fun together. After breakfast we spent the afternoon doing final preparations for the big party after the Baptism. Then we all changed and left.

Elle's Baptism was awesome. Douhet is on the High Council and over the Stake Youth Baptisms. Elle shared her day with another 8 year-old named Eric Gray. We have known both sides of Eric's family for years so it was fun to see other old friends we haven't seen in a while. Grandpa Wilcox gave the sweetest talk on Baptism. He went up to the front of the Chapel and had the two young 8 year-olds come sit on the front bench. He then sat down next to them and faced them. He told everyone that this talk was for them. He proceeded to ask them some questions and just have a nice little visit with them about baptism and why they want to be baptized. He talked softly and tenderly. The rest of us could hardly hear the talk. It was so sweet and tender.

After his talk we went to the baptismal font where Djeryd performed Elle's baptism. Eric's family stayed in the Chapel for a few minutes. Anna and Alyx got to be the witnesses. The room was packed with friends and family. It was so nice to see so many people show their love to, and for Elle.

After the baptism we went to the Relief Society Room to finish the program. While we waited for Elle to change into the beautiful dress that MyLiege made for her baptism day, I passed out cute notecards and pens for people to write a message to Elle on her special day. When MyLiege and Elle returned, Alyx gave her talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She did a FANTASTIC job. She had a bag with several objects that represented different things the Holy Ghost does for us such as: comfort us, protect us, guide and direct us, and several other blessings. She let Elle pull something out of the bag and then she would talk briefly how that applies to us. She gave several examples from her own life. It was a great talk. We closed with the song, "I Am A Child Of God" with Anna at the Piano and a good friend, Isaac, on the Cello. It was beautiful.  

After brief visits and pictures we all headed to Elle's home for a big party. We had good food and wonderful company. We probably had thirty people there. It was so much fun to see and visit with so many friends we haven't seen in quite a while. The party ended around 8:30, we finished cleaning up about 10 and everyone headed to bed. 

Sunday morning bright and early we were heading to Church. Once again, it was great to meet and greet people from our Ward that we haven't seen in a long while. We had fun telling them about what we do on our mission, why we were home, and when we were leaving again. We told them we would be leaving early Monday morning; however, we got a storm warning weather report that said snow up to 16" inches expected in some areas on our way home be begin at 3:00 AM. We debated about what we should do and finally decided to go home Sunday afternoon, rather than Monday morning. We could overnight someplace and perhaps beat the worst of the storm. So, once again I am writing this from the car, this time on the way back to Utah!

I hope you have a FANTASTIC week. We love ALL of you!!!

All our Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox 

General Conference Report - Better Late Than Never

Our Incredible Engineers

Sorry, this is late, but we have still been working on General Conference. I am writing this now in the car on the way to Oregon for our youngest grand-daughter’s baptism. We are so excited for her and to see family and friends of course.

Here is a quick recap (I do not think I know what that word means) of the week leading up to General Conference weekend. Our 4^th Monday Mission Devotional always focuses on a particular Zone in our mission. The 28^th of March focused on the Church History Library. That is where the Beechs serve. I remember it was very interesting, but to be honest with everything General Conference going on the rest of the week, I don’t remember any specific things to share with you.

From our Portuguese Team

Tuesday was busy with Supervisors, events, and meetings. Actually, the whole week was busy with Supervisors events, and meetings. We had General Authority pre-recordings all week with as many as 4 in one day. Those didn’t specifically involve us, but Curtis came in the office after those events for an hour to two. Eunlan was in almost everyday. She is in charge of General Conference and said she could get more done in the office. Aaron popped in for a couple of events, and even Sara came in one afternoon. We even saw Daniel a few times. It was nice to see so many in the office.

Baptiste and Aaron

We had our last pre-conference meeting on Tuesday. We invited all of the missionaries that were helping with conference to join us. I got to do introductions for everybody; staff and missionaries. It was a pretty fun meeting. Curtis was as entertaining as usual. Everyone seemed to become instant friends. Eunlan explained and overview of conference and Curtis shared the schedule and what they would be doing. He then told them to contact me to give them a tour sometime that week. Almost before the meeting was over I had several requests for that very afternoon. I had to delay it until the next day or rest of the week as I had another meeting I was already late too because of course our meeting went over, plus we had a Temple appointment at 4:30 so we were leaving early. Tuesday evening was about the only night we didn’t have any events.

From one of our Events

I came home from the Temple and worked until after 11. I have been wanting to put my data into SQL to make things a little easier for the other missionaries as well as for me for quite a while now, so Tuesday was it. I had so many different reports I was running for Elder Linford to help with entering data into PLUNET. I tried to show him how to manipulate the spreadsheet and all the manual things I was doing and he finally agreed that I should keep doing it. Haha That was when I realized I needed to so something that would be easier for them to maintain. (I had already been thinking about it, but now it was necessary.) So, for the next several nights I worked on SQL because I did not have that program at work. I knew I would have to jump through some hoops to get it and there wasn’t time before General Conference. So now I just have to import the data that changes (the data that shows the new people coming to General Conference), and then run a script to get the results. No more manipulating spreadsheets. The script does it all!

Wednesday started the events that we were involved in. We had our monthly GA Wives Luncheon, only this time the interpreters were doing it from the COB instead of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. That meant we provided them lunch and supported the event. It was fun.

On Thursday and Friday we had General Conference Leadership Meetings ALL day BOTH days. There were a total of 13 meetings, most of which happened on Thursday and Friday. We finish up on April 5^th. We had a total of 6 languages: French, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish. The meetings consisted of general  meetings for everyone, quorum meetings for the different areas, another wives luncheon, a tour, Area Organizational Advisors Meetings, and a Seventies and wives evening social. We split the events with the Linfords and we were all very busy. Poor Curtis was responsible for all the meetings. Thankfully, we have a team that helps each other and both, Aaron and Sara stepped in to help cover some times for Curtis. Curtis and I had many late night Teams (like Zoom) video calls going over schedules, ITI, reports, and anything else that needed to be done. I also talked with Eunlan and Sara most nights as well. I found my days were filled with helping people, giving several tours for our missionaries, Teams meetings and who knows what else to get anything done on the SQL reports I was trying to do. I even took my laptop to work to see if I could work on it during the day. Hahahahahahahahaha That didn’t work.

More from the Portuguese Team

After our Friday evening event, we had to prepare for General Conference. At the beginning of the week we (the Linfords and us) cleaned and restocked all the booths for conference. Friday night we had to hang up signs, help onboard last minute people, print tons of paper and pin those to the bulletin boards in each booth (these included the agendas for every session and notes the interpreters needed to be able to submit retakes), restock our mints, hard candy, and cough drops for the Interpreters (we probably refilled it at least 5 times over the weekend), and other things that needed to be done. Elder Linford and Elder Wilcox went with Eunlan to the hotel that all the out of town Interpreters and most of the Supervisors were staying at to give out per-diem envelops to our travelers. Sister Linford and I organized all the Conference tickets that we were giving to the interpreters who won our drawing. We got so many tickets this time that nearly everyone got tickets that wanted them. Curtis and I were setting up the 5 loaner laptops we got to help with check-in. We had to map our ITI program as that is what we were using for check-in. When Eunlan and the Elders got back they brought dinner so that was fun. Daniel had shown up, too.  

The other side of the table.

We went home about 10:00 pm and were back the next morning at 6:30 am. First on the agenda was finishing our setup process. For example, I had to get the check-in tables setup. We weren’t going to leave all our computers and access badges on the lower level all night, even if we didn’t expect anyone to be there. We did leave a couple of big signs that told what each table was and who was to report there. When we came back the next morning, one of the big signs was gone, including the tri-pod it was on. I think someone must have moved it, but we never found it. So, I’m glad we didn’t leave our others things down there. Our missionary helpers started showing up at 7:00. I sent them up to our prayer meeting while I was still setting things up. I think we had our first Interpreter check in about 7:00 am as well, maybe even before. They didn’t have to come until 8:00 am for breakfast or if they didn’t want breakfast, then call time was 9:00 am. I was able to get the 4 missionaries trained, as well as the staff that was helping out at our two tables. We had the first table for actual check-in. We also looked at their record to see if they need things like a picture taken, parking pass, access badge, or picture credentials. Some were also there to pick up conference tickets. If they needed anything they were sent to the second table to pick that up. We had 3 to 4 people to cover each table during the rush time. Elder Linford and I have some ideas to make it run much smoother for next conference. Let’s just say we had some bottlenecks.

Saturday and Sunday were a blur. It was so much fun to see so many of our interpreters. Many have not been in the COB for two years. I got to meet so many that I have talked to, emailed, and zoomed over the last several weeks. It was nice to finally meet in person. Those that worked the morning shifts were the busiest. We checked in over 100 people each morning and then added another 20 to 40 on the afternoon and evening sessions. Of course, about that many went home after the previous shift too. We were limited to about 138 interpreters for each session plus support staff for a total of 160 people. Everything went smoothly in spite of the bottlenecks during the rush time.

Some of the jobs we had our missionary helpers do were: check in, handing out all the stuff on the second table (we called it the B. Desk), boxing up meals and delivering them to those who were at stations they couldn’t leave (such as check-in), running revisions to all the different booths, traffic control on the 26^th floor where they were supposed to stay until it was their turn to interpret, and cleaning booths after the session was over. They did have some down time after the session started where they could watch some of the conference.

Elder Wilcox and I didn’t see much of each other. We both had our different stations, and we did a lot of roaming to check on how everything was going. We each had other stations we didn’t necessairly assign to our missionary helpers. The one I liked the best was working the window on the 27^th floor. I got to work right next to Eunlan and help her with lots of different things. I was also right there near the Interpreters so I got to help them a lot as well. I love that. I was needed more on the first level with check in so I was there probably the most for both days. I’m not sure where Elder Wilcox spent most of his time. I know he also roamed and help put out little fires if needed.

I think we finally left at 10 Saturday night and were back even earlier on Sunday. Everything started ½ hour earlier because of Music and the Spoken Word. I’d like to say that Sunday went as smoothly as Saturday, but that isn’t the case. For some reason we had more revisions and more people going off script. When they go off script that usually means we have more retakes. There was one speaker, I think two before President Nelson’s closing remarks, who looked away for a moment (a telltale sign they are going off script) and then added a whole paragraph that wasn’t in his talk. The interpreters who don’t normally do simultaneous interpretation usually stumble, which translates to a retake or two. Aaron, one of our Supervisors, started listening to that portion of the talk over and over so he could write down exactly what was said. We then had to print the page it was added to (we show the paragraph before and after for continuity) and have the runners take it to all the language booths so they can translate it into their language for the retake. Needless to say, we had a bunch of retakes after that one. The languages who had a good simultaneous interpreter for that talk were just fine and did not need to do a retake. We had to wait to finish cleaning those booths before we were done for the day. Actually, we stayed even longer. After the booths were done, I had some things to do with the Russian/Ukrainian coordinator to help with her Ukrainian team. While I was helping her, we were asked to come back to Floor 27 for a prayer meeting with the team. The Linfords and Sister Petty had already gone home. I’m so glad we were there. I wish they would have stayed too. Eunlan and Daniel both said a few remarks and gave thanks to everyone. Others joined in and expressed their thanks for them, too. I love those “pat everyone on the back” moments. They are the best meetings of all. We all visited for a while and laughed a lot. Finally, we had a closing prayer. Still, no one wanted to leave just yet. Someone mentioned a group picture. Eventually we all left and went home.

I figured out that it takes 16 hours to put on 6 hours of Saturday General Conference. And it takes 12 hours to put on 4 hours of Sunday General Conference. One our sweet helper missionaries who lives on our floor left a foot massager at our door Saturday night. It was HEAVENLY.  She let us keep it for a few days. I want one. It was so great. We were exhausted at the end of the weekend, but it was oh, so worth it! Now that General Conference is over we can actually listen to the talks. I hope you enjoyed conference, too.

All our love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

1 Week and Counting

We have been experiencing the calm before the storm. We only had one event this week that we got to actually attend.

Monday morning was our Mission Conference. The entire Mission Presidency spoke to us. President Randall shared with us part of an hour long meeting he had with Elder Christofferson. One of the things he said was the instruction Elder Christofferson gave to all the Mission Presidents to go home and have a one hour interview with the Lord. President Randall said that was a very long hour and very sobering. He proceed to share with us some of the impressions he had. One of the main things he wanted us to know is that the Lord is pleased with us and all the efforts we put forth to do His work. He also wanted those whose missions are almost done that it is OK to go home. It doesn't make them any less if they don't extend. During COVID missionaries were sometimes asked to extend because there weren't as many applying for missions. For the most part, that is no longer needed. There are certain critical positions where they may be asked to extend, but the majority will not.

We had a really good discussion in our Monday evening Leadership Pattern Class. It is nice for Elder Wilcox and I to take the class again just a few weeks after taking it on Tuesday afternoon. It is helping us to evaluate how well we are keeping our commitments and really applying what we are learning.

Tuesday was busy with our General Conference prep meeting. We only have one more meeting before conference. We are on target to complete everything that needs to be done. We are getting down to crunch time. I have spent a lot of time this week working our the master schedule for everyone who is there to help. We didn't use a schedule last time because we have a lot fewer people so we all just did what had to be done. This time we not only have more interpreters, but we also have more helpers. Curtis resurrected the scheduling workbook he used before COVID. It is quite comprehensive. I have been scheduling all the missionaries. We will have a total of 9 missionaries including us for each session. I have also occasionally scheduled some of the support employees. There are about 3 or 4 supervisors that can only do certain things so I don't schedule those. Curtis will do that. We have several others who can do a bigger variety of things. I have scheduled them in a few places to fill in the gaps. Curtis may change those.

NOTE: This is only a fraction of the schedule for Saturday. There are many
more columns to the right and lots more lines below what I am showing.

After our General Conference meeting we had our Tuesday Leadership Pattern Journey class. We only have one more class to complete that course. It has been a very good experience and we have both learned a lot. I'm glad we signed up for it. Personally, I think everyone should have the opportunity to take the course. It is just as much for personal growth as much as it is for leaders.

Tuesday evening we had the "MTC Devotional with Elder Renlund". Please note the name of this event changed again. It used to be MTC Devotional and then just before the end of last year they changed it to the Worldwide Missionary Devotional. I think that is because it was being broadcast to missionaries all around the world. I'm not exactly sure what has changed but with COVID opening up more they have changed it back to MTC Devotional. We have also dropped at least 6 languages. We are only doing it in French, Portuguese, and Spanish again. And the General Authorities are traveling to Provo to do the devotional in person. Anyway, Elder and Sister Renlund both gave great talks. Sister Renlund talked about a safari that her and her husband went on with their children several years ago. They were strongly warned to stay in the vehicle, not draw attention to themselves, not stand up in the vehicle, keep quite, and several other things. As they were going along they came across a pride of about 5 or 6 lions lying in the tall grass under a tree. Sister Renlund wanted a picture. She couldn't get a very good angle from where she was sitting. She remembered what the guide had said but thought, "surely that doesn't apply in this circumstance. I'll just stand up and take a quick picture. I need a picture of this. It will be OK. Nothing will happen." Well she stood up to take the picture and immediately all the lions became very aggressive looking. Prior to her movement they paid them no mind, but as soon as she stood up, she became FOOD. She realized by not obeying the rules she not only put her own life in danger, but her family as well. The rest of her talk was about why it is so important that we obey the commandments. It truly is for our own protection from the power of Satan.

Wednesday was our Team Meeting. Curtis shared the scheduling workbook with us. (He and I had already talked about it and I had already started working on it.) We tabled several topics until after conference, which is good. We need to all be focused on conference at this time. We reviewed all the events we have on the calendar for the next two weeks. Even though we only got to attend one event, didn't mean we didn't have any other events. Curtis has been very busy with General Authority pre-recordings. There are several General Authorities that can speak multiple languages. They like to pre-record their own talk in one or more other languages to be played during General Conference when they will speak. I think it is very cool. We supply a language coach to help them. Curtis is over all those talks and has had anywhere from 1 to 4 different talks near the end of the week and next week. That means he comes to the COB. The recordings are actually done in the Conference Center, but he comes over to the COB either before or after the talks to check in and answer questions. I suspect next week we will have other supervisors in the office more often.

Thursday and Friday were about the same. Curtis dropped in and discovered that the "conference" computers we have are getting way too old and are possibly not going to work. We couldn't even sign into one of them. The other two are splitting apart in the case. NOT GOOD. Anyway, Curtis sent an email off to IT to see if we can get 5 more laptops to use for conference. Hopefully we will get to keep them because the one I am currently using at home is one of the ones falling apart. I'm hoping to get them early this coming week because there are several things I need to do to set them up for General Conference and I want to make sure I have time to do that. We were also asked to take more pictures of the booth the Ukrainians will be using during conference so Natalia can do more training with them. We are still in the process of onboarding the newly recruited Ukrainians before conference. Natalia is our Russian Interpreter Coordinator and she is the one who went out and found and recruited 8 new interpreters. She is also the one training them.

On Friday morning we had a wonderful treat. Baptiste dropped in for a short visit. It was so fun to see him again. He said he is excited to be able to Interpret for General Conference. He was all excited to see everyone again. I then reminded him that French is doing a SLC Tieline and they won't be in the COB. He was very disappointed. So was I. He is doing some shared interpreting with the Paris team and those will be in the COB. I need to tell him that. That will make him happy. It is just Saturday evening he will be doing the SLC Tieline.

We didn't have any events this weekend. Elder Wilcox took a walk around Temple Square to look at all the construction up close and personal. The weather was beautiful. I had the window open so I could hear children playing and feel the gentle breeze. My intention to join him on the walk never panned out. For some reason the Church decided it was time to change passwords. Not good the week before General Conference. I got locked out on Friday night. I was hoping Saturday morning I would be unlocked and able to proceed. Not so. Apparently I was not the ONLY one who got locked out. I was on hold for over 2 hours to get unlocked. I had successfully changed my password, but for whatever reason I was locked out. Anyway, thankfully I kept trying periodically to get back in and finally, after nearly two hours of still being on hold, I was actually able to get back in. I hung up, never talking to anyone. So that put me way behind on the things I needed to do before I could go for a walk. Once I got connected again, I had a slew of chats and emails wanting things so that set me back even further. Needless to say, I never got my walk and didn't finish with everything until after 7 pm. It does put me in a pretty good position to start the week, instead of starting way behind and trying to play catchup all week. 

Well, we are down to the wire on General Conference. We still have lots of things that need to be done, that can't be done until we get closer so this is going to be a very busy week. I'm very excited and look forward to next weekend very much. 

I hope you are preparing for General Conference. Make sure you have questions in mind that you want answered. Pray about them leading up to conference. And then listen to each talk with your questions in mind. You will receive answers.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

World Report, International Easter Concert, and Sunday School!

We have had lots of events this past week, however, most of them have been on Zoom, In Studio, or Language coaching. We did each get to do two events in the COB. 

On Monday we had a very nice Mission Devotional in the morning. We heard from several missionaries in the Family Search Department. They shared some incredible stories of helping people connect to their families. Some people wander into the center not knowing why or what goes on in there. They say they just felt compelled to go in. Once there a missionary shares a bit about what goes on and asks them if they would like to know more about their family. They start inputting some names into the computer of deceased relatives. Sometimes they get so excited they start calling living relatives to get some names to enter. Then the magic happens. All of a sudden they don't just see a couple of names they have entered, but it goes back many generations. They can explore where their ancestors are from and where their decedents may be living now. It is very exciting. We love hearing about their stories.

Our events for Monday were all in studio or on Zoom. One I really wanted to watch was the "International Easter Concert 2022", but I guess we will have to wait until it is broadcast like everyone else. I also wanted to see the "World Report April 2022 - Spanish & Portuguese." Spanish was the first day and Portuguese the next day. This one was done in studio so we didn't get to see anything again. And another session of the "DRC Leadership Conference with Elder Cook, March 2022" was all done on Zoom.

Sister Checketts teaching Sunday School.

Tuesday the Portuguese portion of the "World Report April 2022 - Spanish & Portuguese" was done, however, instead of doing it in studio with our SLC team it was change to Tieline last minute so we really didn't see anything. I spent most of the day helping people and in meetings. I did to work a little on my General Conference spreadsheet. I found this week that I had to do most of "my" work after I got home at night where there were no other interruptions or distractions. It made for some late nights.

Sunday School class - small because
it decided to snow again today.

Wednesday was rather busy. Elder Wilcox and I started the morning around 6:30. We had back to back events for French. We had another session of the "DRC Leadership Conference with Elder Cook, March 2022" which was normally on Zoom. DRC is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, because the French were also doing part of the morning Tieline for the "World Report April 2022 - Europe & Asia" they had to come into the COB. We were told they would do the Zoom from the COB. So we arranged breakfast and we showed up along with the Engineer. The French did not. They did it on Zoom from their homes after all. Only one French interpreter was doing both events and apparently she lives about 15 minutes away so she finished one and arrived just in time to do the second one. We had a different engineer for the second one. I'm not sure who ate breakfast. We gave a bunch of names to the cafeteria so they could just get whatever breakfast they wanted. We didn't get to see either event broadcast to us. I was able to work on some General Conference stuff. I also had a couple of conference calls too. The event was suppose to go to noon but ended a little before 11. However, we stayed because we had a noon event to do as well. This was another "HRD Development @ Work - Quality Control." Again, it was not broadcast to us. It ended just in time for me to run upstairs for our team meeting. I take the minutes. After that meeting was my PLUNET meeting and then we planned on going home. hahahaha

The Linfords were doing the second half of the "World Report April 2022 - Europe & Asia" which included all the Asia areas. Those languages were coming into the COB so they had a dinner AND it was broadcast for them so they could watch. 😢  Around 5:00 we were ready to leave I got a call from Curtis who was supervising the World Report. He wanted us to stop by downstairs on our way home because he had a story to tell us. Curtis's stories are ALWAYS entertaining and usually very educational so we stopped by. He was just getting ready to tell the Linfords how he came to be where he is at now. We had never heard the story before so he wanted to share it with us too. It was an amazing story and very fun to hear. One thing to know about Curtis. If he is the Supervisor over an event, don't count on being able to watch the event because Curtis LOVES to talk. He always has some fascinating stories to share. (I shared the death masks of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith some time ago). He has opportunities to meet many amazing people and to become part of some incredible projects. He was helping a professor with his research for the Joseph Smith Papers and shared a very cool discovery about how they were able to finally read an original journal page from Joseph Smith that had never been read before through spectral imaging. Very cool!!! Just at that point in his story there was a segment in the World Report that talked about the Joseph Smith papers project so we got to watch that. There are NO coincidences, only tender mercies from God.

On Thursday night we got to do the "EnglishConnect Webinar". We did have a dinner for French, Portuguese, and Spanish; but, once again, they did NOT broadcast the event for us. It was a short event so we got home fairly early. There were lots of left overs so we got to take home some Chicken Pot Pies....yummy! This was another late night for me as I was finally able to work on the spreadsheets for General Conference. 

Friday was the morning session of the "EnglishConnect Webinar". The Linfords covered that one. The rest of the events for the day were all zoom, in studio, or language coaching. I finally finished the spreadsheet and gave Elder Linford the next list of interpreters to add to our General Conference PLUNET order. I did a little more tweaking on it so it should work very smoothly for the next two weeks. We are in so much better shape this conference than last. Almost everyone is onboarded into PLUNET. The few that aren't yet, are very close so we should be in good shape. We have had so many areas submit names to PLUNET too. Our finance team is overwhelmed with all the work they are trying to get done. Unfortunately we have some Interpreters who struggle to get everything filled out and submitted quite the way finance wants them too. I've been working with a few interpreters for several weeks now and they are still having problems. We tried having them print it out and fill it in and take a picture and send that in; but, of course that got rejected. Some just are not tech savvy and it is very hard for them to understand the instructions. They are frustrated and I am frustrated because finance won't send me the forms so I can help them. I've tried to get them on a zoom call so I can see what they see but sometimes that is too difficult for them to do as well. All we can do is the best we can.

We didn't have any events this weekend so that was nice. I had some HawkSoft work to do and, of course, more General Conference to follow-up on. Eunlan sent a text first thing in the morning that ended up taking about 2 hours. Then Curtis asked for something too, but that was only a few minutes. He asked why I was working on a Saturday and and then said, "You should be in a hockey rink slamming opponents or skydiving or alligator wrestling or something else missionary-like." He cracks me up all the time.

Sunday was very laid back. Niiiiccccceeeee!

One very special thing that happened this week has brought tears to my eyes every time I think about it. Our SLC Ukrainian team has been inactive for I don't know how long. We have NO one in our team roster. With all that is going on in the Ukraine we realized that they will probably not be able to do General Conference in country. We, of course, wanted to give them the chance if they wanted it, but we told them we could take care of it here to help them out. They were very appreciative of the offer. Eunlan, who is the Supervisor in charge of General Conference, reached out to our Russian SLC Interpreter Coordinator (IC) and asked her if she could help find some Ukrainian interpreters for General Conference. She agreed to help and has spent several hours and days reaching out to people all over the SLC area as well as in other parts of the country and even Canada to find people to make up a team. She found 8 and we are in the process of RUSH onboarding them into PLUNET so they can do General Conference. She is managing that team and is training them with all they need to know. It only reinforces what I have believed all along. The people in both countries are not at war with one another. It is only leaders who are out of control that make it bad for so many people and is destroying so many lives. My heart breaks, but I am so touched by the love and support our Russian IC is showing the Ukrainians. Please pray for them!

One last thing. We talked about Genesis 37 to 50 today in Sunday School. It is the story of Joseph being sold into Egypt and how he rose to become the second only to Pharaoh. Joseph came to realize that all those bad things that happened in his life were turned to good in the Hands of the Lord. Heavenly Father didn't cause the bad things to happen, but He used them to help Joseph rise above his afflictions and become the second more powerful man in Egypt and put him in charge to be able to literally save the Israelites. We were then asked how the Lord has used trials in our lives for good. We shared with one another some of those times. 

The biggest thing I have recognized in my life has become evidently more clear how the Hand of the Lord was there all along. For years I struggled with being a working mom. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom so I could be there for our children. Circumstances were such that I had to work through most of their growing up years. There were a LOT of 2 income households then. I couldn't understand why the Lord wouldn't grant what I considered to be a righteous desire. I also prayed that all I wanted to do was be an instrument in the Hands of the Lord to do His will. It wasn't until we started working in this particular mission that I realized the Lord used my "trial" for my good and for His higher purpose. He has granted me the more righteous desire of my heart which is to be an instrument in His Hands to do His Will. I now know that everything I have ever learned in my entire working career has come to be of great value in this very mission at this very time. The Lord does have a plan for me and for you. He never forces; but, He will use our choices (good or bad) to further His work along in His own due time. We can either learn from our trials and trust in the Lord that they are indeed for our good, or we can fight Him all the way and be miserable. In the end Heavenly Father's plan will still turn out the way it is supposed to turn out. I choose to trust in the Lord with all my heart and let Him direct my paths.

All our Love and Prayers,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Worldwide Missionary Devotional & Volleyball

I had another eye doctor appointment on Monday. The results weren't as good as expected. My eyes are regressing again. the doctor put me back on my prescription drops. Hopefully I will see some improvement again soon.

I spent the bulk of the day helping people. That is what I love to do the most. I helped Elder Linford with the General Conference PLUNET order. He said it was a lot of work, but he thanked me for letting him do it. He is learning a lot and in the long run it will make things easier for him. I guess I'll have Sister Linford do the next big event we have. I also helped several other area and SLC team coordinators getting their people sorted out and helping them get active. I expect these things will slow way down after General Conference.

We got approval to have a lot more interpreters for General Conference. That means we get to have extra missionaries come and help. Sister Linford and I split the number in half and each found about 10 people to help. We get 4 missionaries for each session. It was so fun when I asked if they wanted to help. All of them were "Yeah, count me in." Especially when I told them there would be a meal included. lol

Monday evening we had a wonderful Mission Devotional with Sister Oscarson and her husband. They both gave really good talks. I was amazed they were called as Mission President and Companion in their 20's. Very special people. Sister Oscarson reminded us of lessons we have learned from President Nelson since he became the Prophet in 2018. He implemented so many "new" things shortly after his call. At the time we thought, 'these are cool' or 'that's interesting' or even 'why are we doing that?' Well, little did we know that everything he implemented put us as a Church and more important as families in a much better position to ride out this global pandemic. We were prepared for Church at home for nearly a year because we started the "Come Follow Me" program. We were better prepared to help our ward members and our neighbors because of the new mistering program. We were in a position to continue Seminary and other group "gatherings" because we had been doing online Seminary for several years so it was easy to move everyone to an online class. Our youth and primary groups started "meeting together" via Zoom meetings. Even Missionary work exploded because of new tools and techniques in using social media that were being implemented before the pandemic hit. The talk was wonderful.

Tuesday was fun. We had our semi-annual trip to Costco to buy snacks for the next 6 months. Do you know how fun it is to take two big flatbed carts and put chips, and candy, and cookies, and more candy, and protein bars, and anything else that looks yummy on the cart. We also got containers so we can pack up leftovers and send them home with the interpreters. What surprised me even more was Sister Linford and I were able to pack everything in our storage room with nothing left on the counter tops. We did an awesome job. We do still have to get a few more things that weren't at Costco, or they were out of, but that won't be too much.

The rest of Tuesday was normal helping, our weekly General Conference meeting, and our Tuesday Leadership Pattern Journey meeting. Aaron came in as he had the "Worldwide Missionary Devotional with Elder Anderson" event. He was the one who was in charge of Roots Tech. He asked me to help him put together a report to show how much the changes, and the rushes, and the add ons took them over budget. So, I worked on that during the devotional. Elder and Sister Anderson spoke and gave great talks. Elder Anderson introduced 5 of his grandchildren that were in the audience. Then he mentioned that he had met a President Anderson (no relation) whose son what at the MTC so he asked him to stand and be his reader for a while. A little later he asked for a volunteer to recite one of the scriptures he had on the screen from memory. A Sister Missionary stood up and he asked her name. She responded with "Sister Anderson".  He then asked if everyone was named Anderson, which brought a lot of chuckles. 

The open atrium from the underground
parking garage to the temple.

Wednesday brought another HDR event. The last of the three events we started last week. The Linfords covered the afternoon, which was good, because I take the minutes for our Team meeting on Wednesdays at 2. And I followed that meeting with the PLUNET meeting. Right in the middle of the PLUNET meeting Daniel called me with a special request for a report for Marshall. My goal was to have that finished on Thursday.  Earlier in the day, Sister Linford checked the Bountiful Temple schedule and found 4 slots for the 6:00 pm session. She asked if we wanted to go and we said yes. So we all jumped on the computer and grabbed those slots. The Temple was beautiful...especially with all the snow around. I love the underground parking so we didn't have to be in the weather at all. It was very nice.

Actually, I just want one Database to rule them all!

I went in early on Thursday because I had a meeting with Marshall. He is our manager's boss. Ten minutes before the meeting he asked if he could postpone it to after lunch. That was probably for the best because during the morning I had several meetings with Curtis and we ended up talking about what I was going to share with Marshall. Curtis asked if he could join the meeting. At 1:00 we had our meeting with Marshall to discuss the "one database to rule them all" plan. Marshall said they were already working in that direction; however, Curtis and I both brought up some of concerns which he took notes on. Hopefully that means it will actually make it into the bigger picture. I feel better but I'm still concerned. Both Curtis and I asked to be involved before the final decision is made.  

Aaron preparing to venture into the snow.
He doesn't like snow!

We spent much of Thursday trying to sort out another large project that is taking place over 9 days with 9 different sessions. Some days have 2 sessions and some don't have any, but the total period covers 9 days. The first three sessions take place this Saturday and Sunday and still they hadn't decided who was going to do what. The event is the "DRC Leadership Conference with Elder Cook, March 2022 - French".  DRC stands for Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is only French. With so many sessions, Curtis wanted Paris and SLC to share. So Antoinette in Paris and Alexis in SLC talked for two days deciding who was going to do what. We finally got people for Saturday and Sunday on Friday. By that time it was a RUSH rate. It ended up with SLC doing all but one of the nine sessions. The next decision was HOW were they going to do it. Originally SLC was supposed to come into the COB. Then Paris asked if they could do Zoom. Next SLC wanted to think about doing Zoom, too. We were trying to decide if we needed to arrange breakfast for two days or not. Finally we got notification about noon on Friday that they are going to do Zoom for all the sessions. Kind of a BUMMER because we don't get to see any of the events that way. However, it is a blessing with NO early morning breakfasts. hahahaha

Later, Thursday evening we had an event that doesn't happen everyday. It was the "BYU Pathway President's Inauguration Broadcast". It was one of the few events we have actually been able to see in weeks. We only had three languages; French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Elder Wilcox ordered Prime Rib and everyone loved it. We also got huge slices of Cheesecake with Whipped Cream and Raspberry Sauce. Delicious.  The event was supposed to be 2 hours long; 7 to 9; however, it ended in an hour. It was in person, I think at the Conference Center, but they were also on Zoom. The choir numbers were on Zoom. People from all over the world watched, which made me wonder why we only did three languages. Anyway we heard from Elder Christopherson, President Brian K. Ashton the new Pathway President, Elder Holland, and very, very, briefly from President Oaks. The main gist of the talks was how BYU Pathway had really become a worldwide organization meeting the educational needs for people all over the world. They had a video presentation that shared several stories of how BYU Pathway has changed lives. It was all very good.

After the event we headed for the Salt Lake Airport to pick up Sara and Brooklyn for a volleyball tournament that was being held in the Salt Palace. Another team player was with them. It was so fun to see them. We dropped Brooklyn and her friend off at their hotel and then headed to our place because Sara was staying with us.

Brooklyn's games didn't start until 3:00pm on Friday so we had the morning to show them around. We gave the grand tour of the 26th, 27th, and 28th floors where all the Interpretation things go on. They met the Linfords, too. Then we headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for a brief tour. We took them to the Mission office on the 3rd floor. President Randall was in the reception area so they got to meet him and, of course, get some treats. We also took them to the 10th floor for another spectacular view of Temple Square. Then it was time to head to the cafeteria for lunch. Our piano guy showed up just as we were finishing so we hung around a while to listen. By then it was time to take Brooklyn back to the hotel so she could get ready for her games. Sara borrowed the car to take several girls to the Salt Palace as their hotel was not in walking distance. When she got back we all walked to the Salt Palace which is not too far from our place. We watched Brooklyn play a bunch of games both Friday and Saturday. We couldn't make the Sunday games because of Church. She is really good. It was so fun to watch. 

Brooklyn finished her games on Sunday. They did very well. We didn't see them because of Church. We have had a very nice visit, mostly with Sara because Brooklyn was with her team most of the time. We love having family come and visit, hint, hint!

Love and Prayer to All!

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox