52^nd Anniversary, GC Helper Bee Tours, PLUNET, Events, Park Lane Senior Center, and NO POWER

Elder and Sister LInford with their parting gifts.

Monday was our 52^nd Wedding Anniversary. We were so busy I think we both forgot about it. We had a full day at the office and a fun Family Home evening. We did splurge and get come frozen yogurt to celebrate. Lol We commented that we will go to an exotic island for our next anniversary!!!

We started the day with our Mission Conference. With General Conference just around the corner we were not able to meet in the main auditorium at the COB so we held it in an auditorium at the Church History Museum. It is quite a bit smaller, but we all seemed to fit. We are supposed to meet there next week too, but we found out that they had a big leak and had to close the auditorium. We have been unable to secure another location, so we will not have a Mission Devotional this coming week nor the week after because they never have one the Monday after General Conference.

Elder and Sister Sapp

We continued our training of Elder and Sister Sapp, so that took up quite a bit of time. I gave two tours for our missionaries that will be helping with General Conference on Monday. If I had stopped and thought about the fact that I would be training and taking over all the jobs the Linfords had been doing, I probably would have scheduled fewer tours. 😉 I scheduled up to 6 or 8 tours per week over two weeks. Luckily not on the slots were filled so I didn’t do all I scheduled. I only had to cancel one and have them reschedule with one of the other tours. I will only have 4 tours this coming week.

Tuesday morning, we got to the office early because we were supposed to do our Costco run before Conference. Aaron had been sick, so I checked with him on Monday to see if we needed a new driver or needed to reschedule, but he said he was better and would be there. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to meet up with him, we got a text that he wasn’t going to make it after all. So, we rescheduled for next Tuesday. It was really a good thing because Tuesday was a ZOO. We had a potluck luncheon for the Linfords and Venky because they are leaving. The Linfords pretty much left after the luncheon. They had lunch on Wednesday with the Mission Presidency, but we didn’t see them again after our Tuesday lunch. Venky took a full-time job with the Family Search Department, so he is no longer part of our team. I think he may still be helping with General Conference. We had extra guests for the luncheon. It was nice to see Jeanpierre, Sara, and Daniel again. Also, Curtis’s folks were visiting from Colorado, so they joined us for lunch. Sister Petty was supposed to come, but she couldn’t make it. We were sad.

The Whiteboard Goodbye Card

Not long after the luncheon we met back on the 27^th floor for our Team meeting. At that point we got word that we could create our own PLUNET order for General Conference since the LPM that was supposed to create it hadn’t done it yet and we were already 2 or 3 weeks behind. Normally it takes Elder Linford several days to get it all set up so I was getting a bit panicky. We had an event that evening so I was able to work on it most of the evening. I went home after the event and worked a little longer.

I worked on it all through Wednesday (in between helping the Sapps and giving tours) and managed to complete it later that afternoon/evening. We had another event that evening so I was able to get send out all the notifications to all the areas so they can start populating the order. My next step was to populate all the SLC teams. (I haven’t started that yet. ☹)

Our Potluck Lundheon

Thursday started with our Zone Devotional. (We missed the Tuesday Devotional because we were waiting to go to Costco.) Most of the day was getting caught up on all the other events we have going on. We have lots of area authorities’ trainings that take place before and after General Conference. And of course, I’m still answering questions for the Sapps and helping them when needed. I think I gave one tour that day. We had another event that night. It was our shortest one of the week and we are done a little after 7:30. No Temple this week. ☹ I tried working on the 5 laptops that we get to help us with check-in for General Conference. I was having a hard time getting them set up.

Back Row: Elder Sapp, Jarod, Baptiste, Daniel,
Sister Wilcox, Elder Wilcox, Curtis, Venky, Sara,
Jeanpierre, Elder Linford
Front Row: Sister Sapp, Ljiljana, Eunlan,
and Sister Linford

Friday, I gave one tour. The other one was a no show. I spent most of the day getting the BYU Law & Religion Symposium set up. It is one of those that constantly changes. I’m glad I hadn’t had time to work on it early, because Aaron told me he had just finished the latest changes and is hoping they are done. That symposium is next weekend, the same time as General Conference. I managed to finish reviewing all the outstanding events. I wanted to start on populating the GC PLUNET order but couldn’t do that because both Curtis and Eunlan had last minute cuticle PLUNET orders that needed to get created right away. I worked until about 5:30 or 6:00

Saturday, I want to the COB so I could get some work done without a ton of interruptions…or so I thought. I had a few interruptions, so I was able to get quite a bit done. The first think I tackled was getting all the laptops configured and up and running. I don’t know why they are always such a pain to do. Curtis will have to start doing it again next conference. I think he is going to miss me. Hahaha. Aaron and Eunlan sent in a few more PLUNET orders so I took care of those. I managed to do some work for HawkSoft. Not as long as I had hoped, but it was better than nothing. I was also able to take care of some personal things like paying bills!!! I felt pretty good about all I accomplished, but I still have much to do.

Jeanpierre and Jarod at the luncheon

Sunday started with choir practice and Church. The counselor in the Bishopric that we work with when we go to the Park Lane Senior Center asked if we would be willing to go that day because they missed last week because it was Stake Conference. Of course, we said yes. We love going there and we don’t have many more opportunities. When we got back to our apartment, we found out the power was out in half the building. The elevator wasn’t working so we had to climb 3 flights of stairs. We actually had power in half our apartment. Lucky for me, our spare bedroom where we have the computers was working, in addition to an open Internet network. So, I was able to do the project I wanted to get done today. I started sending out the individual schedules for all our missionary helpers for General Conference. I managed to get three full sessions done before it was time for us go to Park Lane Senior Center. We had a wonderful time there vising with the residents. We really love doing that. When we got back to our apartment, we could see several power trucks working; however, they turned off the rest of the power to our apartment building. NOT GOOD. I had to manually open our garage door so we could park in the parking garage. We trudged up the three flights of stairs again. Because I left the programs open, I was able to que up the rest of the emails with the schedules so as soon as the power and internet came back on, they got sent. And since I was working on a fully charged laptop, I was able to work on my blog and posted it once the power was back on too.

We have a full week ahead of us. We have about 6 events this week before General Conference. Most of those are during the day, so that is nice as it won’t add to the length of our days this week. Season and the boys are coming on Friday, so that will be fun to see them.

I hope you will be able to see General Conference. I know it will be AWESOME!!!

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

 

Training, GC Preparation Meeting, PLUNET, Check-in, GC Missionary Helpers

Brasília Brazil Temple

We didn't have any events this past week except for our final General Conference Preparation Meeting on Saturday. I spent most of my time this week training Elder and Sister Sapp. Elder Wilcox did some training as well as Elder and Sister Linford. I tried to take advantage of other people's training so I could work on the other things I needed to get done.

Monday is a bit of a blur. We started the day with our Mission Conference. It was very good, but I honestly can't remember who spoke or what they spoke about. 😒 The rest of the day was jumping from one thing to the next all the while trying to get the Sapps up and running on their temporary computers. They will be moving into the Linford's cubicles this coming week, but in the meantime, I had to get them set up so we could train and have them practice. I think everything was finally working correctly by Thursday. 

Bentonville Arkansas Temple

I updated our check-in spreadsheet for Saturday's GC Preparation Meeting. We got an RSPV spreadsheet from the survey Baptiste sent out and I extracted the data I needed into my spreadsheet. Several people RSVP'd more than once because they wanted to change the day they were attending or their General Conference ticket preferences. I only wanted them 1 time in the Check-in spreadsheet. Also, I needed things like their status and email addresses which my spreadsheet would automatically retrieve. Curtis was doing the GC Ticket drawing and he kept insisting he could just use the RSVP spreadsheet for that. Well, he finally decided that because of duplicates and missing emails in that spreadsheet, could I please help him. So, I spent time adding two new fields to my check-in spreadsheet to capture if they wanted tickets and their session preferences. If they responded multiple times, I had to take the last response. Curtis will supply me with the list of winners. Baptiste will send out the electronic tickets and I will send out instructions on how to retrieve them. 

Monday evening, we had a wonderful, fun Family Home Evening. Steve was in charge of the lesson and did a very good job. We talked a lot about personal revelation. It was a great discussion. Then we played Pictionary. We laughed so hard. The Sisters won!!!

Tuesday started with our Zone Devotional. The Sapps joined me in my cubicle for the devotional. I got them set up so they could join on Thursday. I spent all morning working with them and didn't think I was going to get anything done. We had our Team meeting in the afternoon. It was shorter than usual. I think Elder Wilcox spent the afternoon working with the Sapps, so I was able to work on my to-do list. I finished updating the PLUNET check-in order so those who attended on September 9th could get paid. I also sent out invitations to all my General Conference Missionary Helpers for tours if they want. I will give several tours over the next two weeks. It is one of the things I love to do.

Moses Lake Washington Temple

On Wednesday I was able to pick up my new work laptop. The battery on my old laptop was swelling so badly that the case was splitting open. Not good. I did a lot of busy work for Curtis, Baptiste, and of course continued working with the Sapps. 

When I got home, I connected my work laptop to my hub so I could use my multiple monitors and keyboard. The keyboard worked, but the monitors didn't. I was very frustrated. I can't use my personal laptop because the power cord won't stay in a position to actually charge my computer. I am planning on getting a new laptop before we go on our next mission, but I wanted to wait until we get back to Oregon to avoid taxes. So, I've been using my work laptop at home. Without monitors it is a pain.

So, on Thursday after our Zone Devotional and my morning tasks, I finally took my laptop to the ICS center to see why my monitors wouldn't work. After the tech installed about 20 or 30 updates, we got the monitors to show up. When I got my laptop, I fully expected it to be all current and up to date. I knew it wasn't a NEW laptop but was told they had provisioned it, so it was good to go. I figured that meant the latest and greatest. Not so. Anyway, it is all better and I am a happy camper. After work we went to the Temple. I don't think we are going to make it next week because of several events, so I'm glad we went on Thursday.

Friday was a good day. I got caught up on many little projects. The Sapps are able to work independently for a time now. We are still training but trying not to overwhelm them with everything at once. In the afternoon we went for our final checkup at the Dentist. Of course, Elder Wilcox has some cavities that he will need taken care of before we go home. We went back to work so we could get things set up for our GC preparation meeting on Saturday.

Saturday was a very long day. It was the final day of our General Conference Preparation meetings. Again, we had two sessions. One from 9:00 to 11:00 and the second one from 1:00 to 3:00. We didn't have any technical difficulties this time so that was a relief. We didn't have quite as many people for either session, but we still had a good turnout. Aaron was sick, so Curtis had to conduct the meeting as well as do his presentation and cover Aaron's training. It all turned out well.

I had Elder Wilcox drop me off at home so I could finish up the hours for the GC Prep meeting event. He went grocery shopping. We needed ingredients for our potluck dish for Tuesday. We are having a farewell luncheon for the Linfords and Venky. Several of our other team members who are no longer on our team are coming too. It will be fun to see Jeanpierre, Sara, and even Sister Petty again.

Sunday was an historic day for the Church of Jesus Christ: 3 Temples were dedicated on the same day. We had the privilege of supporting two of them, the Bentonville Arkansas Temple and the Moses Lake Washington Temple. 

The following is a short article from LDS Daily.

"The Brasília Brazil Temple, the Bentonville Arkansas Temple and the Moses Lake Washington Temple were all dedicated on the same day, Sunday, Sept. 17. This marks the first time that three dedications have been scheduled for the same day. 

Elder Neil L. Andersen was in Brazil with his wife Kathy to dedicate the Brasília Brazil Temple. He presided over what was the Church’s Brazil South Area in the early 2000s and has accepted many assignments to visit the people in Brazil since. 

Elder David A. Bednar dedicated the Bentonville Arkansas Temple. He and his family have a special connection to the area as they lived in Bentonville for almost 20 years during the 1980s and 1990s. 

Elder Quintin L. Cook presided over the dedication of the Moses Lake Washington Temple. 

Scheduling overlap shouldn’t be a surprise as we go forward. The Church has 315 total dedicated, under-construction or announced houses of the Lord."

I loved the talks for each dedication. It was a very special experience.

Next week marks the beginning of 3 weeks of 19 different events/sessions, including 5 sessions for General Conference. It is possible a few more may be added between now and October 8th making it even more events. 😵

I hope you have a wonderful week. We officially start fall this week. YAY!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder and Sister Slack

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sister and Elder Sapp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tour of the Capital, Lots of New Events Coming, and Park Lane Senior Center

We got up very early on Monday morning to head home from our quick trip to Oregon. The trip was long, but uneventful, so that is good. We arrived home just in time for Family Home Evening. The Ipson's covered for us and held it in their apartment. We dropped our luggage off and ran down the hall just in time for the opening prayer. We had a wonderful discussion and delicious dessert. We were so tired we didn't hang around too long. We both slept really good Monday night.

Tuesday morning started with the Wellness Center. I made it to my cubicle in time for our Zone Devotional. The Linfords were giving their last devotional. It was really good on how we Hear Him. unfortunately, one sister on the Zoom meeting forgot to mute herself and was carrying on a conversion for the second half of the devotional and through the prayer. Sister Johnson tried to tell her to mute, but she couldn't hear. Sister Johnson also texted her and someone even tried calling her. Anyway, the Linfords did an amazing job in spite of the disruption. The other sister felt so bad once she knew what she did. She came up to apologize to the Linfords and brought them a beautiful plant. However, the Linfords had already gone to lunch. I think she must have called to finally connect with them.

Tuesday afternoon we had our weekly Team meeting. It went pretty well and ended on time. We covered some of our events, a little about General Conference, and other relevant information.

Tuesday evening was fun. We met out TIPS (Tuesday in Person Social) group at the Capital Building for a wonderful tour. It is not far from our apartment. A lot of braver people than us walked there. It is almost straight uphill from our place, so we didn't even consider walking. We have enough trouble getting up our hill to get home. 

On Wednesday morning, we got a message from the Linfords that they were going to be out for the rest of the week. They said they had to make a quick trip to Casper, WY, where they live. We headed straight to the office to get a handle on things I don't normally do anymore. We had our weekly General Conference Preparation meeting. We are in pretty good shape for being one month out. I need to start working on the missionary helper's schedule. I was kind of holding off so I can show our new missionaries how to do it. We should be getting new missionaries this coming Friday. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Sometime after that meeting I started getting requests from Eunlan to create a whole slew of PLUNET orders. Some were further out in the calendar, and I thought they could wait until the Linfords got back, but she told me they were needed now for various reasons, so I got busy. It was kind of fun to create PLUNET orders again. It is odd, because the LPM employee that is going to be taking over creating PLUNET orders was supposed to start taking it over on the 14th, but that didn't happen. So, we are still doing it until further notice. 

Thursday started with the Wellness Center and the Zone Devotional. It went better with no disruptions this time. I had another slew of PLUNET orders to do. We went from 11 events to 26 events in three days. We are gearing up for all the different events that surround General Conference. We tried to leave right after lunch to go to the Temple but didn't make it until after 2:30. We had a very nice session and got to see our previous Mission President and his wife. They work the Thursday afternoon shift which is why we always try to go on Thursdays. We had a nice little visit with them after our session ended. They were both in the foyer waiting for two new people to attend to their needs for their first time.

Friday was a little slower. I only had two PLUNET orders to do. Lol. I spent much of the day working on the Check-in spreadsheet for our General Conference Preparation meetings that are coming up next week and the week after. Between the four different sessions we expect about 300 interpreters. Probably 200 will attend in person and 100 on Zoom. Hopefully I will be training some new missionaries by then. The Linfords will finish up their mission the week after our last preparation meeting.

Just before 4:00 I met with a small group of Sacred Materials Music personnel that were just starting their new jobs. One of the Team Leads happens to be one of our Interpreters. He likes to bring his new people around for a tour of Interpretation. We had a good time. After that we went home.

I spent all day Saturday working on the Check-in spreadsheet for our General Conference Preparation meetings. I had some additional information to update as well as add an additional 30 plus people. We are only up to about 200 interpreters who have responded so I'm expecting an additional 100 or so before next Saturday. I also tried to do some HawkSoft work but ran into a problem when an icon disappeared from my dashboard that I need to be able to process the downloads. I reached out to several people, but being a Saturday I didn't get much response. I'm hoping someone will check in this weekend, so I don't lose the whole weekend. We have a holiday on Monday, so I still have time to get the certifications done before Tuesday.

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day. The weather was so nice. There was a bit of a breeze. It was supposed to rain sometime during the day, but it was dry while we were at Church and then again when we went to the Park Lane Senior Center. I enjoyed our meetings and especially our visit to the Senior Center. It is a special treat to go there on the 1st and 3rd weeks of the month. We missed last time because we were in Idaho with Baby Ruth's baby blessing. The next two times are cancelled. Next time is the Stake Conference so they won't hold the meeting. Then the time after that is General Conference so they won't hold it that Sunday either. I will miss it as I sure love our time with them. We are making friends.

And, to finish out the week we got to have our Break the Fast with our apartment floor. Several people were gone for the holiday weekend, but it was still a lot of fun. We have made so many good friends here. Someone has already moved into the Durrant's old apartment. They moved in this weekend. I'm glad we have neighbors again. We are hoping they will come to our Family Home Evening group. We met the Slacks at our potluck and had a wonderful visit with them. I even tried recruiting them to our department. They will go through training next week and get their assignment on Friday. I told them if they were interested, to mention it to the Mission Presidency. I think I may mention it to President Jackson too. I think they would be perfect. Elder Slack sounds like he as all the computer skills necessary to cover what will be needed. 

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

Lots of Meetings, Presenting to New Missionaries, Farewell Dinner, and a New Bishop 

Our Family Home Evening Group

Monday morning, we packed and straightened the rental house. We all left around 10:00 AM. Our kids headed to Coeur d'Alene for a nice little vacation and we headed back to Utah. We got home early enough to get everything unpacked and laundry started before our weekly Family Home Evening. Elder and Sister Walters gave a wonderful presentation on Temple symbolism. It was really quite fascinating. It was the Durrants' last Family Home Evening with us. We will miss them so much.

On Tuesday morning we had a meeting with Baptiste and a guy from security named Mike, to talk about General Conference logistics. We thought we were talking with the guy in charge of food for GC because he is in the Events department. Normally we go through COB Catering for food, except for General Conference. Events take care of going through COB Catering. However, Mike wanted us to talk directly with Josh, who is over COB Catering. Our biggest concern is if the changes to the access badge stations are going to be done before General Conference. We couldn't get a definitive answer. We are not sure how that is going to affect us for check-in. I have a feeling we won't know until General Conference weekend!

Elder and Sister Durrant

In the afternoon, we had our Team meeting. We weren't going to talk about General Conference because we had a General Conference Preparation meeting on Wednesday morning. Curtis mentioned how we weren't going to talk about conference and then proceeded to have a 45 minute discussion about General Conference. We scrambled to cover everything else in less than 15 minutes because Baptiste had another meeting, he needed to attend at 3:00. After our meeting, I put together a slide show that we needed for a presentation we were doing for our Zone to show new missionaries at one of their last training meetings before they get assigned in the mission. This particular group were all Service Missionaries with a few Visa waiters. We need new full-time missionaries. We will be doing the presentation again in September to the full-time missionaries.

One of the Slides from our Presentation

On Wednesday, we started with our General Conference Preparation meeting and basically continued from where we left off the day before. It is hard to believe we have 5 weeks left. After lunch, we had a section meeting. We met on the 27th floor. We were in charge. Baptiste had each team present what their team does and introduce their team members. They were all good reports. 

Sunrise on the way to Oregon

After our meetings, we stopped at the Missionary Medical department to ask some questions about what is needed for our Visa application. They didn't know all the answers, so they sent us to the New Zealand Visa section in Missionary Travel. They gave us some good answers but couldn't answer all our questions. They are going to reach out to others and try and get us our answers. I'm glad we have lots of time to get all our questions answered.

On Thursday we basically played hooky. We met with Baptiste at 9:30 for our one-on-one meeting. He wanted to know what we needed for General Conference. I told him we were in pretty good shape, but as soon as we know the logistics, we may have more questions.

After our one-on-one meeting, we headed to the NOB (North Office Building) to do our presentation to the new missionaries. We were second to last. I think it went pretty well. After the presentation, Sister Bauer wanted a copy of our PowerPoint presentation and the "script" that goes along with it. We don't have a script! So, we are going to be creating a script and sending that to her by next week sometime. After our presentation, we went to lunch and then to the Temple. 

Dinner with the Durrants and the Jacksons

After the Temple, we went home and took care of a few things before we met up with the Durrants for dinner. Elder and Sister Jackson went with us too. It was all kind of funny. We invited the Durrants to dinner. They said that they owed us dinner and did we want to go out to dinner. We said that would be great. Then the Jacksons asked if they could take the Durrants out to dinner. So, we all went together. We went to Zupas. We had fun with the cashier with each of us trying to pay for some else's dinner. It ended up with us paying for the Durrants, and the Durrants paid for ours, and the Jacksons ended up paying for their own. We all had a wonderful time.

We were up very early on Friday as we threw in the last few things into our suitcases before we hit the road again. This time we headed to Oregon. We got a call a couple of weeks ago inviting us to Oregon so we could be there with our son-in-law was sustained as our new Bishop. It was a long trip, but everything went smoothly. We arrived about 15 minutes after our kids got home from Coeur d'Alene. It has been a crazy weekend.

We watched a movie and ate Pizza Friday night. On Saturday, we went to the Classic Car show in downtown Canby. That was fun to see so many cool cars. I loved all the vibrant colors. After walking around for a while, we headed to an ice cream shop to cool off with some delicious ice cream. Once we got home, I think everyone managed to doze off for a while.

Bishop Sean Hawkins

On Sunday, we were there for our son-in-law's sustaining as the new Bishop of our ward. We were also able to surprise some of our other family members as they didn't know we were coming. We couldn't tell them because the announcement of the Bishop was a surprise, although I think most of the ward had already guessed who it would be. 😊 We knew it was going to happen soon as our Bishop had been in just over 5 years. The Stake President waited until after all the youth activities this summer before making the change. We suspected it would either be our son or our son-in-law as both men are outstanding. However, at the same time they called our son-in-law to be the Bishop, they moved our son from the High Council to be a Seminary Teacher. He will be an AWESOME Seminary Teacher. He has worked with the youth his entire adult life. It was very fun to see our ward members and share in this glorious day. We relaxed Sunday afternoon. We packed the car so we wouldn't have to do it so early in the morning. We will leave dark and early Monday morning to head back to Utah.

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

Baby Ruth and my Amazing Grandchildren

Alyx named my Blog post today. 

Alyx and Baby Ruth

Monday morning started with our Mission Devotional. The Elijah Choirs sounded exceptionally good. We heard from four missionaries. Two of them are our good friends. Sister Last and Elder Ipson. It is such a wonderful way to start the day and the week.

After normal Monday morning stuff, we went down for lunch a little earlier than normal. I had a phone call from the blood pressure study project I was asked to participate in. I wasn't exactly sure what the call was about. My contact, named Sierra, called a little after 1:00. After some brief chit chat, we were ready to get started. I didn't realize we were going to do some testing with the new blood pressure machine they sent me, which of course, I didn't have at work. So, I told her I would run home and she could call me back in about 10 minutes. When I got home, I settled down at the table with the machine and waited for her phone call. Nothing. I checked my phone and saw that she left me a message about 5 minutes before saying she tried calling but received no answer. I couldn't call out either. I rebooted my phone and finally got connected again.

Baby Ruth

She then proceeded with about an hour and a half of different tests. Most of them were memory tests. Some of them I did just fine and others I think I failed miserably. Anyway, I was very glad when they were done. About a half an hour later I received an email with what group I would be in. The two groups are: 1) controlled where they monitor blood pressure every morning and night at set times for two weeks and then as directed by the pharmacist in charge. 2) not controlled or placebo where they can pretty much take their blood pressure whenever or even if ever they choose. They will not be monitored. However, they will be contacted every three months for two years to check in. I was put in the second group. I suppose that is good for me as set times each day to test my blood pressure is not practical. Also, I'm not even sure I will be able to continue since we will be in New Zealand in six months. 

Our TIPS Group

We had a wonderful Family Home Evening. It seems like it has been a long time since we were together. The Durrants were in charge, and we had a great discussion. The Durrants are ending their mission in a couple of weeks. We will be sad to see them go. Sister Durrant decided to clean out her refrigerator and cupboards, so we had a wonderful variety of refreshments. We technically ended a little before 8:00 but no one wanted to leave. I think people finally started to leave around 8:30 or so.

Our whole team back together again

On Tuesday we started with our Zone Devotional by President Jackson. He had asked that we come prepared with invitations that we have received from President Nelson since he because President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In particular, he wanted us to share what invitations or advice really touched and changed us. It was a wonderful devotional and lots of people participated. I loved hearing about how President Nelson has touched everyone's lives in so many different ways. 

Elder Nicholls and others from TIPS

I had the Spiritual Thought for our Team Meeting, so I used my research about President Nelson's invitations as my basis for my Spiritual Thought. I think it went well. One of the invitations that touched me the most was how to find Joy in Daily Repentance. I always felt "repentance" was for big sins such as theft, burglary, or murder. I have never been guilty of such serious sins that I didn't feel I had anything that I had to repent of. WRONG. Oh, I would repent from time to time when I felt guilty about something I had done, but it wasn't every day and I didn't necessarily find joy in doing it. I was intrigued by the words "find joy in daily repentance." So, I undertook an in depth study of repentance to see what President Nelson meant. 

Elder and Sister Wilcox at Gilgal

 I increased my understanding of repentance. Repentance basically means CHANGE. In my studies I have seen all the different ways I can change to become more like Jesus. I am finding joy in that. Each day I can identify one or more things I can work on to become a better person. I am actually excited about repenting now. I am evolving into someone I really want to be and someone I hope my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I challenge you to find the joy of daily repentance.

The Sphynx at Gilgal

Since we hadn't met as a team in over three weeks, we had a very long Team Meeting. It was hard to take minutes because the conversations were all over the board. It was so fun to be with everyone again. Over the last three weeks all but Aaron has gone somewhere out of the country. 

After work we joined our TIPs (Tuesday In Person Social) group for dinner at Hires Big H restaurant. I think we had about 28 missionaries. It was lots of fun. Then, after dinner we all walked over to Gilgal Park to see the monuments there. It is a small park in the center of the neighborhood. There are about 15 different stone monuments, most depicting scripture scenes or Church History. It really is quite remarkable.

On Wednesday I had an hour-long video call with Curtis and Baptiste. We talked about things we need changed or added to Event Central to make it a more complete program for Interpretation. We really want it to do everything! If we can add some additional detail about each interpreter so we can have the system be "Team Aware" then we can get lots of useful information to help the missionaries know who is going to be at the COB (Church Office Building) for events so they will know which ones, they need to support. We also want to add an invoicing to Event Central to take the place of PLUNET. We don't want to just use a different invoicing system, but we want to use only ONE system that will do everything. I'm sure it is several years away, but at least they recognize it is something they need to do. Curtis and I have been plugging the changes for two years now. I think at last it has quit falling on deft ears. After work we went to the Temple.

On our walk to the Idaho Falls Temple

Thursday morning started with an in-person Zone Devotional. Sister Last (piano) and Elder Thompson (viola) presented a beautiful concert. I was very touched by it. After the devotional we headed to the Wellness Center for our daily exercise. Then we went home to pack for our trip to Idaho Falls for the Blessing of Baby Ruth. 

Just as we arrived in Idaho Falls, we received a text from our daughter asking if we could go to Costco for them since they were stuck in traffic and running behind schedule. So, instead of going to the rental house, we headed to Costco. Since my daughter is feeding an army this weekend, we bought a ton of food. They also went to the grocery store to get another ton of food that was in smaller containers than what Costco covers. Djeryd, Eva, and Baby Ruth came over for dinner and the evening. It was so much fun to visit with everyone and to hold our precious great granddaughter. I think we finally shut down around 11:30 PM. 

Alyx, Anna, and Elle
at the Temple

Friday started with a nice walk to the Temple and then to the Idaho Falls. It wasn't too hot but was warming up a bit as we headed home. Then we went to the store to pick up a charger for my laptop. I can't believe I forgot to pack it. Since I used my laptop in the car on the way to Idaho Falls the battery was dead by morning. By the time we finally got back, Sean's parents, (Paul and Carol) were at the house. To my surprise Baby Ruth was there too. Djeryd and Eva dropped her off and took Anna out to lunch. I think it may have been the first time Baby Ruth was without her mama. She did good for the most part, but there were a couple of times she really wanted her mama. Grandma and two great grandmas and three different aunties all did their best to keep her entertained and happy. By the time Djeryd and Eva arrived back at the house the second time, Baby Ruth was happy and sleeping in great grandma's arms. I couldn't have been happier. Then they left to meet up with Eva's family for dinner and the evening with them and we started cooking dinner. We had another enjoyable evening visiting and playing games before Paul and Carol left around 10.

Four Generations of Hawkins and Wilcox

We went to the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday morning to do baptisms. What a beautiful experience that was. Anna and Alyx were each baptized for four ancestors a piece. Sean accidentally printed 4 brothers so he was baptized for them. It was wonderful to be in the Temple with my family and watch our beautiful granddaughters be baptized for their kindred dead. I felt the Spirit so strong. MyLiege took lots of pictures outside when we were all done.

At home we all changed into casual clothes and just lounged around all day. Paul and Carol came over after they napped a bit. I started working on this blog and the girls went shopping.

Great Grandma and Ruth

Sunday was a fun filled day with family and friends. We woke up to Oregon style of drizzle all day. We headed to Church around 10:00. It was so fun to be in a ward with so many young families. Lots and lots of babies. There was also a good group of youth. Djeryd gave Ruth Talei Hawkins a beautiful blessing. We had lots of family and friends come over to the rental house for lunch and visiting and of course holding Baby Ruth. We took several different multi-generational pictures with Ruth. We had four generations on the Wilcox side and the Hawkins side. Those are both our grandson's side. There were three generations on the Poff side. Ruth was an angel through it all. No fussing through all the pictures and being passed around to so many people. After all the pictures she was tuckered out and fell asleep in grandma's arms. I got to hold her through most of the four generation pictures. 😊

Grandma MyLiege and Baby Ruth

It has been a wonderful few days. I am one lucky great grandma!

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