Seeing The People Around Us

April 22, 2012
Mission Letter


Monday evening our social group (the missionaries that came into the mission March 4th and went through the training zone together) met to share a potluck dinner and choose a name for the group. They chose the “March Forths” and then played a game. Everyone wrote on a piece of paper something about themselves no one in the group would know (except spouses who were forbidden to give it away) and put the paper in a bowl. Our social director and moderator, Elder Morton, drew one piece of paper out of the bowl at a time and read it. Then everyone had to come to a consensus about who it described and that person was handed the paper. When everyone playing had a paper, we found out when we guessed right and when we guessed wrong. Amid much laughter we found out who spent a month on the road on a motorcycle (Sister Calandra), who took the Polar Bear challenge and dived into below zero water (Elder Sessions), etc. What does this have to do with serving a mission? It has everything to do with it, because ultimately we’re here on this earth to learn to love as Jesus loves. We have to lift our heads from our work now and again and see the people around us. And love them.


Tuesday I obtained permission to take Sister Munger to the dentist in the morning. She had asked for a blessing the night before because she was having a tooth extracted. I was the one person who had someone to cover for them at work because Sister Shelley is still coming in half days. It was a good thing I went with her. She was planning to be awake for the procedure, drive herself home, and return to work in the afternoon. As it turned out, the tooth crumbled, the procedure became more invasive, and she was really glad to be put to sleep. She was much too groggy to drive and took the rest of the day off. The next day she looked bruised and swollen, like someone had punched her in the jaw. The prompting to offer to take her was one of those tender mercies we talk about. The Lord loves Sister Munger. Tuesday night I went to dinner at Little America with Sister Shelley, Sister Bottoms, and Sister Wirth. Little America because President Monson likes to eat there so it must be good, and that group of sisters because everyone wants to take Sister Shelley out to dinner this week. April 27th is her release date. Our office is losing several people at once that day so there are lots of good-byes and a few tears. Before and after dinner I got started on the staff meeting minutes.


Wednesday was Bountiful Temple day! All the mission office staff (including me) was invited to accompany 66 young missionaries to that beautiful temple. After the session, we went to the little chapel (There is a big chapel) and were taught by the temple president, President Callister who is also an emeritus member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. I wish everyone who goes to the temple could have that talk. Then the young missionaries and most of the staff ate lunch in the temple cafeteria. Sister Bottoms, Sister Shelley, and I went to lunch at Kneader's Bakery and Cafe on the way home. We all got back to the office with about an hour before end of the day. I went home and did laundry, went to the grocery store, and worked on staff meeting minutes some more.


Thursday was a half day for Sister Shelley and I had plenty to do to keep me busy all day. This is as good a place as any to talk about our prayer meeting. We start at 7:45 a.m., sing a hymn (usually accompanied by Elder Lyon or Sister Piñon on a keyboard) and then someone gives a spiritual thought.
These spiritual thoughts are really a wonderful way to know the person who speaks as they share their testimony with us on any topic they choose. They give some really inspiring thoughts. Then we have a closing prayer that also helps us know the person who prays and we start our day on a high note. Can you see why the staff grows so close? I can’t help thinking about how it does the same thing for families. We probably should have more of a short discussion of a scripture as a family each day, rather than just read a certain amount of time or verses. And take turns acting as voice because the teacher learns the most. There was a movie where the old chief said, “This is a good day to die.” Here in Zion often I think, “This is a good day.” I spent more time on staff meeting minutes in the evening.


Friday Sister Shelley took a load of roof tiles home where her family was gathered to help reroof her house, so she didn’t come in that day. That was my first day to open, operate, and close the office myself. I stayed an hour later, trying to keep up with all the work so I wouldn’t have it spill over into the next week. That could be why I walked all the way home wearing the phone headpiece and didn’t even feel it. I worked at home that night on the staff meeting minutes.


Saturday I finished condensing eight pages of staff meeting minutes down to three pages! Hurray! I just can’t put earphones in and type minutes at work with so many interruptions. I need to wear the phone headpiece while I am working and I need some uninterrupted time to think while I condense the minutes. I hope I look back on this someday and see that it got much easier with time and practice. Like most things. I also cleaned my apartment, took out the trash, and did some laundry. I planned to also go shopping but finishing the minutes took too long. Doing physical labor like house work is a nice change of pace from sitting in front of the computer.


Sunday, today, Sister Munger and I went to Music and the Spoken Word. It was excellent, as always. I guess everyone goes home in April up here. They had 25 choir members and 9 temple square sister missionaries stand who were going home this week. Choir members serve 20 years or until they turn 60. President and Sister Monson were present again today. I wonder if they came to honor the choir members going home? I remember President Monson saying in a talk that he kept the Mormon Tabernacle Choir assignment for himself. The weather is so fine today. I enjoyed the rain earlier this week, too.

Good Talks and Incredible Encounters

April 15, 2012
Mission Letter

Monday began with a Full Time Missionary (FTM) Devotional. The guest speaker was David Rencher, the Chief Genealogical Officer for FamilySearch.  I took notes and wrote a thank you letter to him for President Peterson.  He spoke about how the Lord is advancing technology to advance the work of family history and genealogy (Here genealogy means names, dates, and places organized into pedigree charts and family group sheets.  Family history is learning everything we can about our ancestors, which turns our hearts to them). He talked about the places in the world where there were either no written records kept or the records were deliberately destroyed.  The Lord prepares a way for their work to be done.  They sent a team to Africa to do President Obama’s genealogy, for instance.  They have a video of an old woman in the village his ancestors came from reciting generations of genealogy as she counted them out on her hands.  The villagers had devised a system for remembering and passing down that information.  Now a pen is being developed for paper, non-record societies.  Already missionaries have been assigned to write down oral histories. Someday the villagers will be able to write with a pen that will record what they write so it can be uploaded later.

Tuesday will be remembered for the monthly staff dinner we had after work.  We all walked across the street to the City Creek Center to have dinner together at the Cheesecake Factory.  Although the food was excellent, what makes the evening memorable is that Elder Jeffrey Holland walked by, recognized that we were a group of missionaries, and stopped to greet us.  He made our day.  We pay for our own dinner, by the way.  Don’t think we make the Church pay for it.

Wednesday’s highlight was when President Peterson sent me next door to the Church Administration Building (CAB) to deliver a letter. It houses the offices for the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It also houses offices for other general authorities and their personal staff. I’m pretty sure we could have sent the letter by inter-office mail, but President Peterson thought it would be fun for me to go inside and see the building.  Sure enough, the security officer on the ground floor had me go up the elevator and deliver it myself. When I came back President Peterson asked if I passed anyone interesting in the halls.  I didn’t see a soul except the security officer on the main floor and the secretary I delivered the letter to.  You may begin to think I’m star-struck, but really what impressed me was that in the middle of the work day my “boss” would send me on an errand just for fun. It rained later when I walked home.

Church Administration Building

Thursday nothing extraordinary happened, except it rained all day.  I’ll take this opportunity to explain that all this week Sister Shelley is shadowing me.  I sit in the secretary’s chair and wear the wireless telephone headset.  Sister Shelley is bored with nothing to do, so she proof reads  my “secretary tutorials” I’m making not only for myself, but for anyone who subs for me and for my replacement when the time comes. Sister Vermillion has also been working on tutorials for the jobs she is handing over to me when she goes, like the Big Run(reports from the Access database) and greeting cards to missionaries from the presidency and their wives (condolence, get well, thinking of you).

Friday the Family History Department sponsored a celebration of the 1940 Census release and the work that has been done by all employees, staff, and missionaries in preparing for the event. They served pizza from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. and Elder Dennis Brimhall (FamilySearch CEO) gave a very short thank you speech. I didn’t need pizza but I went to keep Sister Shelley company. It was up on the 26th floor of the Church Office Building (COB), so that was fun.  The 26th floor has observation decks with amazing views of the Valley, so it was definitely worth the trip.  Friday was my Temple and Research day (T&R), so I only worked in the office half a day.  Then I went home and typed up my staff meeting minutes.  I can’t wear earphones and transcribe a recording from the digital voice recorder in the office.  There are just too many interruptions and I’m supposed to be wearing the wireless telephone headset there.

Church Office Building

Saturday I cleaned my apartment, did my laundry, took out my trash, got a haircut, picked up a prescription, shopped for groceries, wrote minutes from my transcription, and got ready for the adult session of stake conference at 7:00 p.m. This meeting was held in the building I go to church in, the stake center.  The percentage of attendance is so high (because of the FTMs) that we filled the stake center on Saturday night.  The talks were amazing!  They can draw on people who are coming from or going to places all over the world.  A young couple from India spoke who were so impressive.  They told about their conversions and their marriage (against the wishes of both their families) which propelled them to America.  Their parents never would have allowed them to marry in India. They have such faith promoting stories to tell.  Just one example: They decided he would come to America first, save money, and then go home and get her, and then they would be married here in the temple.  When he booked his flights (which involved 4 transfers to different planes), the flights were already nearly completely full.  He worked here four months to save enough money for her to come.  When he called to arrange flights for her, he never expected to be able to get her on the same plane with him, let alone sit by him and yet in every case he was able to get her a seat next to him.  They regard this as one of the Lord’s tender mercies. Okay, one more story. When she first saw him the Spirit told her they would marry, even though her plan was to marry someone her parents picked out for her.  They are so humble, sweet, and funny.  You could not help but love them. They are excited because the first stake in India is being organized. All the speakers were riveting; I just won’t take the space here to recount all the talks.

Sunday we had stake conference in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  That is because the attendance is so high; we can’t fit in the stake center.  This was the 165th continuous semi-annual Salt Lake Stake Conference.  Imagine that!  This session was also outstanding.  I’ll pick just one example here, too.  Brother and Sister Fenn are going to serve as mission president in Chicago.  She is the daughter of Bruce R. McConkie.  She told us that the summer she was 15 her father spent every evening out on the porch, reading the Book of Mormon with her.  He got her a new Book of Mormon, a red pencil, a ruler, and a 3x 5 card and went through every page with her.  She underlined what he underlined, wrote in the margin what he wrote in the margin, etc.  She will always keep that copy. Sister Fenn only wanted to take 5 minutes for her talk, but she talked fast and did a great job of outlining what the Book of Mormon has to offer.  I wish I could get a copy of her talk.  It would be a great way to teach your kids.  I took notes, but I couldn’t keep up.  Anyway, I went home with definite goals from all the Saturday and Sunday talks of things I’m going to do. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.

Assembly Hall

On The Job & Easter

Monday’s mission devotional was amazing!  The Elijah choir sang about 6 songs; sometimes the sister chorus, sometimes the elder chorus, and sometimes the entire choir sang.  Elder Wilkes sang a solo, and Elder Winn was the narrator.  Elder Winn has a deep Darth Vader kind of a voice.  Elder Wilkes was a professional opera singer, now a missionary. I thought the selection of songs and scriptures was just perfect.  President Peterson gave such a good talk that we had people requesting copies of it when we got back to the office. I have one. Then we floated off to work, our Easter week begun.

Tuesday is always staff meeting.  Sister Shelley told me ahead of time that I would begin doing the minutes for that meeting this week, so I have been practicing by taking minutes every where I can: prayer meetings, devotionals, and general conference sessions.  I came to the conclusion that I was not going to be up to speed in time to do a good job.   I thought, prayed, and researched and finally decided a digital voice recorder was my best option.  I purchased one, practiced using it and recorded the staff meeting Tuesday.  Then I went home that night and practiced with all the features to play the minutes back and transcribed them.

Wednesday morning I converted the transcription into minutes (a condensed version of what was reported and decided) and sent the minutes out to all the staff.  Then I waited a few days for corrections to come back.  Only one person came back with a correction.  It could be she was the only one who read the minutes.  What I wrote was what the person said.  She noticed the date was incorrect.  She also suggested I move a conclusion up to a different part of the minutes.  Once again, I put it where it was in the recording but she was right.  It made more sense there.  I’m thinking of seeing if she would like to proof my minutes every time before they go out. This responsibility is the one thing I don’t have much preparation for.  I took shorthand in college, but that was about 40 years ago.  No help at all.  I won’t transcribe it word for word again.  That was just practice using the voice recorder.  It should go faster next time. I hope.

Wednesday was the birthday luncheon held once a month.  All the mission office staff bring their lunch and eat together in the conference room where we have staff meetings.  President Peterson was coming up to our floor in the elevator, cake in hand, when President Henry B. Eyring stepped onto the elevator.  He asked about the cake and President Peterson explained what it was for.  President Eyring wished the young elder (assistant to the president and the only birthday this month) a happy birthday.  Elder Lyon was delighted by that.  He said, “You mean I can write my mom that Elder Eyring saw my cake?”  He was being funny, but this same Elder brought everyone to tears this week in prayer meeting (also held in the conference room) with a video about the Savior he set up for us and the mood he set for the day when it was his turn to give the spiritual thought this week.  Did I mention yet that I love this place?

Thursday I’ve got nothing.  I’m going to start making notes on my calendar at the end of the day so I can remember better.  I’ll use this space to answer a question Tami had about what the mission office secretary does.  I answer the phone, set up appointments with the president (there are a lot), keep the president’s calendar, take minutes at staff meetings, make files for incoming missionaries, archive files for outgoing missionaries, make phone calls for the president, write letters to speakers for our devotionals, write letters for missionaries being released (to the missionary, the bishop, and the stake president), handle notices of change (extensions, callings, changes of zone, contact information, etc.), print and distribute a lot of reports from the access database on the last day of the month (called “the big run”), write address get well, thinking of you, and birthday cards for missionaries, take out the mail twice a day, distribute the incoming mail, restock office supplies from the “store” (underground route to a supply room), ring the bell when it’s time for prayer and staff meetings(I set my phone alarm for these and the mail), feed the appointments into the president (keep track of the people in the waiting room), and send people back to see other staff members (call and see if the staff person can see the visitor).  I think that’s most of what I do.  I like serving in the hub of the wheel.  I’ll like it even better when I’m an old hand at it.

Friday Sister Shelley took her temple and research ½ day, so we tried to get as much done as possible in the morning before she left.  We made a “to do” list for the afternoon and she left at lunch time.  Hardly anyone was in the office that afternoon, either because they left or because they were in meetings and assignments in other places.  So naturally all kinds of visitors streamed in or called with all kinds of questions and problems that afternoon. One was a brand new missionary who was home in her apartment wondering if there was some place she was supposed to be.  She was supposed to be where I was, in the Joseph Smith Memorial building, but at the orientation luncheon for new missionaries.  She couldn’t lock her door, didn’t know where to come, etc.  Just the right person came walking in to my area of the office about that time. Elder Kuchar was able to go down to the first floor and wait for her and show her where to go.  We told her just to pull her door shut and come.  She lives in the same apartment complex I do and that is one place I would consider doing that.

Saturday was my “get the work done day”.  I cleaned my apartment, did some laundry, and took out the trash as fast as I could.  Then I worked on my mission secretary tutorial notebook (something I’m making for myself so I can keep track of all my responsibilities and refer to how to do them) until it was time to meet Sister Calandra and Sister Munger at 2:00p.m. To kick off our Easter celebration we went shopping for spring clothing and then out to dinner at the Blue Lemon, all in the City Creek Center just south of Temple Square.

I started Easter Sunday with Music and the Spoken Word in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.  So did President Monson and his wife and Elder Richard G. Scott.  Lloyd Newell took a simple little story and made an inspiring message out of it, as always.  The Choir sang several beautiful songs and ended the program with the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.  Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m here.

General Conference and Easter are always around April 2nd, the anniversary of Bruce’s death.  They always remind me of the Savior’s atonement and the hope we have because of Him.  I have felt that was one of the Lord’s tender mercies from the beginning.  I often think how much I would love to share all of this with Bruce.  I was touched and pleased to see the things our children did to commemorate the day, posted at our family website.  I love my family.

Sunday night after Church I had a Skype visit with all ten of my kids and their families at the Nally’s.  That was so great!  It was so much better than just the phone.  I loved seeing everyone “face to face”.

Temple Devotional & General Conference

At the Monday Missionary Devotional they had the outgoing missionaries stand while we sang “God Be with You Till We Meet Again.” Every month they welcome a new group of missionaries and say good-bye to an old group with a series of events.  There is a lot of eating involved. The outgoing missionaries speak of leaving “the Bubble” and how much they have loved serving here.

Tuesday this week Sister Calandra, Sister Munger, and I were invited to dinner by the Wards, a couple in our social group.  They live in the West Temple apartments just east of us and even closer to the Conference Center than us (north of our parking lot). Anyway, it was nice of them.  We all brought something and put it together to make a pretty good meal.

Wednesday after work (at 5:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake City temple chapel) I went to my first temple devotional.  Elder Marlin K. Jensen was the speaker, his last time with our mission.  He will soon receive emeritus status when he turns 70 years old. He spoke of his upcoming transition to emeritus status and said all of us experience transition.  The one constant is that there will always be change.  He reminded us that the temple is the place to go to get our bearings.  Heavenly Father’s plan for us gives us our context for everything we do.  Elder Jensen has been pondering “what would be of most worth for him to do next?”  He always speaks with humor, humility, and good stories.

It was my assignment to take notes on his talk and then write him a thank you letter the next morning for all the times he spoke at our mission during his term of service.  I work in a place where you can bow your head and pray over your assignment.  I have a great job. 

Thursday Sister Shelley (the secretary who is training me to replace her) wasn’t feeling well so she went home and left me on my own for the rest of the day.  Everything worked out.  I was able to figure out what to do and where to find information.  I worked on tasks I already know how to do and I did things I’ve never done before.  At the end of the day we got one phone call from some incoming missionaries that needed some information after the people who take care of that department had gone for the day, but a few of us put our heads together and came up with an answer for them. Every time President Peterson walked by he would point at me and say, “You’re doing a great job!”  See what I mean about my job?

Friday was supposed to be my T&R ½ day (Temple & Family History Research), but I have only two opportunities to train with Sister Vermillion who is going home.  She does “the Big Run” so I decided I’d better stay for the whole process.  They have decided to give that job to me when Sister Shelley leaves.  It is a series of reports that go out on the last day of the month.  It takes a good part of the day to do, and that’s with doing some parts of it ahead of time.

Friday after work Sister Munger and I walked over to the Church History Library and invited Sister Calandra to eat dinner with us at the Blue Lemon in the new City Creek Center.  While we waited for her to get off work, we went across the street and explored the Brigham Young Historic Park.

At the City Creek Center there was a holiday atmosphere, partly because the place is brand new, partly because there are so many people in town for conference, and partly because the weather was so fine.  It was very pleasant to stroll around and talk to people.  We went in to the Deseret Book store and had a free evening of entertainment.  Mindy Gledhill was there singing “Anchor” and Stephanie Nielson and her husband were there being interviewed and signing her new book. People were walking around with silver platters passing out cake bites (cake balls dipped in chocolate bark).  I love living in downtown Salt Lake City!

Yesterday and today we went to conference, of course!  I had tickets for the Saturday and Sunday afternoon sessions.  Before and in between sessions I hustled to do loads of laundry and went to the store. Saturday night we gathered at Sister Munger’s apartment.  We just rehashed the talks like you would a movie after you got home.  It gave me a chance to test my digital voice recorder (My solution to taking minutes in staff meeting every week). I can just put on earphones and type every word.

The thing that struck me most about the Conference Center (beside the incredible edifice) was the large number of Mormons gathered in one place.  When we all stood up to sing “Called to Serve” together I couldn’t get the smile off my face. I took notes and enjoyed all the talks. I especially enjoyed Elder Holland’s talk.  He does have a way with words.  

Training Begins and Visit From Shana

I began training with the outgoing secretary right after the Mission Devotional held every Monday morning in the chapel on the Mezzanine level of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Afterward I just get on the elevator (or more often, walk up the stairs) to the third floor, where the mission office and Training Zone are located.  The outgoing secretary is Sister Shelley and everyone is grieved that she is leaving.  I have big shoes to fill. She is kind and patient and assures me I have plenty of time to learn everything she does before she leaves.  But I think perhaps not everything she knows by then.

I often feel I was prepared for this assignment in a particular way and have felt calm even though I should be apprehensive. I have yet to be asked to do anything that was completely foreign to me, all things I have done before, either at school or on the job or at home.  If I had come sooner or later, I would not have been here at the right time to train with Sister Shelley.  I think the Lord knew I was going to have this responsibility and was kind enough to prepare me.  A little.

I was able to reassure President Peterson that I had considered serving in a mission office before I requested the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission.  He seemed relieved that I would not be too disappointed that I would not be directly involved with family history research and training.  I realized pretty quickly that no missionary spends their day working on their own family history.  We are all trained to serve others all week.  Then we are given ½ a day per week and one full day per month to do our own family history research or attend the temple.  I’m very happy to be here.

Monday night we had our first social with the group of new missionaries we came into the mission with.  We met in Elder and Sister Session’s apartment social room, like a big family room with leather couches in front of a large fireplace.  We all brought food and went around the room and told about ourselves and what we were doing in our new zone assignment. It was a chance to catch up with each other.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings this week I attended a brand new training course at the Church History Library. We were the first class to take it. It was intended for the new missionaries training in the Church History Library Zone, but someone thought the new mission secretary could benefit from it, too.  That was an inspired decision.  I got an overview of what they do in that zone (which is good for the secretary to know) and some of the classes just what I needed.  And as an added bonus, I got to attend them with Sister Calandra and eat lunch with her afterward.  She was separated from Sister Munger and I who were both assigned on the mission floor while she was assigned to the Church History Library.

Tuesday morning we met at the Lion House Restaurant for breakfast instead of prayer meeting.  At what other job would you get to do that?  The mission ten (pounds) everyone talks about is no joke.

Thursday night my youngest child, Shana and Zana arrived after about 10 hours of driving to spend the night with me.  Friday while I was working, Shana took Zana to the train station (Zana grew up in North Ogden) to go visit her old friends while Shana spent the morning poking around Temple Square.  At noon she came up to the mission office so she could see where I will be serving and so Sister Shelley could meet her.  Then Shana and I went to lunch on the 10^th floor (which has amazing views) in the Garden Restaurant.

After lunch we embarked on some serious sightseeing.  We watched the new version of the Joseph Smith movie in the Legacy Theater.  We both loved it. We spent a lot of time at the Church History Museum (see pictures).  They had a special display of artwork by members throughout the world.  We also spent some time in the South Visitor’s Center listening to President Monson speak on the family.

Saturday we tried to tour the Conference Center (it was closed because of the Young Women’s Conference that night), but visited the Church History Library instead. Then we walked to the other side of Temple Square and checked out the City Creek Center across the street.  It had its grand opening a couple of days before.  Pretty impressive.  It has a creek running through it, fountains, ponds, waterfalls, a retractable glass roof, a sky bridge over Main Street that connects the upper level of the stores on both sides of the street with incredible views, and 90 stores.  The pictures are of Flat Gramma with a living statue (a girl dressed in and painted gold) and Shana with a bear.  I have no idea why, but Shana just wanted a picture with him…or her.

We went next door to the Deseret Book store to get an Ensign for April and then walked back to my apartment for lunch and to rest our feet.  After we got our second wind we went to Wal-Mart to transfer my prescriptions there.  Even Wal-Mart is unique in Utah.  It had an escalator for shopping carts.

Then we drove to the Salt Lake City Cemetery where 120,000 people are buried, including quite a few of the presidents and apostles of the Church.  The headstones date back to pioneer times.  We found as many of the presidents as we could and took pictures.  We both were very interested and spent a lot of time walking among the graves reading inscriptions.

Then we decided we still had time to go to Heritage Park and see the “This Is the Place” monument.  We left our map at home, so that took a little longer than we had planned for.  Shana swears she enjoyed the adventure of exploring Utah.  We finally got there and enjoyed a beautiful setting sun behind the various statues (more pictures).

At about 11:00 p.m. we picked Zana up at the train station and went home and to bed.  In the morning the girls went to Church at 8:30 a.m. across the street at my building.  Then they came back to the apartment to change clothes, quickly pack, and head home for Arizona.  They took my Church cds with them for the drive home and arrived safely in good time with no trouble.  Another blessing!