Packs on a mission : Training week part two

We had a great week of training in Salt Lake. The mission headquarters are in the North Office Building, just north of the Church Office Building. One of the first things we learned was all the acronyms: COB (Church Office Building), NOB (North Office Building), WOB (West Office Building) and so on. It's a lot!

Our group of missionaries

With President and Sister Holmes

Each day we got to learn about another area of the mission. We spent time in the Church History library and got to see the displays there of first editions of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants along with pages of original translations in Joseph Smith's handwriting. Pretty cool stuff! We also spent a day in the Family Search library and learned the ins of outs of family search along with all the fun things they have on the discovery floor. We got a presentation on church security which felt a bit like an FBI action movie and was so cool! Also, a bit of an eye opener. Then on Friday we had a "Go Forth" presentation to motivate us to go and serve where we are called. There was lots of kleenex needed for that one of course. It was a great week of learning, motivation and excitement about the work of the Lord.

The moment we realized the training was ending and it was time to go to work...

In the Family Search center you can have your picture taken in front of a green screen and then choose your temple background. The other couple are the Loveridges who are leaving for their mission in South Africa on Monday but hung out with our group waiting for their Visas.

Gary and I have been assigned to the Headquarters Support Services zone (I think that's the name, the acronym is HSS). Our specific assignment is with Pathway and we will be Chaplains, helping one other couple do the Ecclesiastical Endorsement interviews for non members wanting to do Pathway. These people are mostly in Africa along with other far away places but all speak English and we do the interviews virtually. It's a really new thing in the mission because BYU Idaho had a Chaplain who handled it all up until August when it got turned over to our mission. So, the other couple has been figuring it out the past few months and are very excited to share the load with us. Everyone in Pathway needs an interview every year and the backlog gets a bit much. We're excited to get more training next week so we can get to the point where they trust us to do the interview on our own and we can actually be helpful. We've been told that we're basically building the plane while flying it so it's going to be an adventure!

We toured the Pathway building with the Johnsons, the other Chaplains

Our mission has a choir and as with most choirs they desperately need more men, so we joined the choir and had a fun practice this week. The choir sings at the devotionals and firesides. Monday morning we have a 7:00 practice for the 8:00 am devotional so we'll see how we feel about it on Monday morning.

Our ward last Sunday was so fun and we're going to enjoy attending it. It is a big mix of cultures and nationalities with wonderful people. We think the ward building is also used for institute classes for the community college with half the building.

We're excited to see what we learn this week. We're also working on some goals for our mission so that we can grow stronger in our testimonies of Christ and our ability to serve Him. This is a great place to serve!