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
Elder Holland?! I too think you have died and gone to heaven!
ReplyDelete