Mission Update 12/30/23

 It has been a wonderful holiday week and we've loved time with family, time enjoying the lights and some great interviews with students. 

We spent Christmas Eve first off in Tyler's ward where we got to hear Tyler and Owen do a beautiful musical number (cello and piano). The whole meeting was perfect for Christmas Eve: lots of music and a great speaker. Later we got together with my Dad and Blaine and Deanna for Christmas Eve Hot Pot (our yearly tradition) and fun with Jared and Gideon. We were so glad that my Dad felt up to coming since he was sick all during Thanksgiving and missed family time then.

Princess Mia in her Christmas finery

For the first time ever, we spent Christmas Eve night in a hotel which was kind of strange but also quite peaceful. Then we headed to Richard and Daria's and had a great few hours helping Mia assemble gifts, playing Corbin's video game very badly and getting Elliot hugs.  We also got to do a second Christmas Hot Pot with Richard's family! Christmas afternoon we were at Maria and Gordon's for a fun meal of all sorts of delicacies. Then we came home and crashed, watching a Christmas movie and being lazy. It was a fun, nomadic Christmas this year.

Christmas morning view from our hotel in Logan, we've missed those Wellsville mountains

We've had many more anxious Pathway students this week who really, really want to get registered for Winter semester but for one reason or another haven't gotten around to it till now. Everyone is working really hard to try to help them but there will still be some who have to wait till April to start. My favorite interview this week was a man, who when asked what he wanted to study in Pathway, said "I just want to learn more about Jesus, and maybe Project Management too." I like his priorities!

For entertainment this week we saw Savior of the World again (with the other cast so that was fun) and saw the movie Boys in the Boat which we loved. It's been strange having no zone or mission meetings this week and it will be good to get back to more normal over the next couple of weeks.

Savior of the World with the Johnsons

Lights at the Conference Center, we're going to miss those!

For our scripture study the past few weeks we've gone through our normal reading plus the Book of Mormon videos. We just finished the 3rd Nephi ones and they are just so beautiful and hopeful. It has been a wonderful way to finish off 2023 and prepare to study the Book of Mormon in 2024. We are excited about a new year and all the wonderful students and missionaries we get to meet.

Happy New Year!

Mission Update 12/23/23

 It has a been a great week leading up to Christmas. We have continued to go to the midday Tabernacle concerts, enjoy the lights all around Temple Square (even on the cranes working at the Temple project) and have loved reading yet again about Christ's birth. It is just the best time of year!

Nativity at the Draper Temple

Saturday evening, Blaine and family came to see the lights and we loved having them here. We had a scare for a bit when their two year old wandered off on his own to explore the very crowded food court. Fortunately he was found fairly quickly (seemed much longer than it was) and spent the next little while telling us all about his adventure. 

Sunday we went to Music and the Spoken Word before church and since it was right after the annual Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, it was extra wonderful. We loved it and are very sad that starting in January our ward switches to an earlier time so we won't be able to attend the live version. 

The registration deadline for Pathway students was this week so it was days full of interviews of course but also messages and email from anxious students wanting to know the status of their application. Lots of the students having issues are members of the church who mistakenly end up on our list, which is only non members. Some of them try to convince us that they can just go ahead and register as a non member and then fix the paperwork later. We keep telling them how it just can't work that way but they keep asking. They are all just so ready to start their education that they don't want to wait!

Both Gary and I had interviews this week with former members of the church who are working to come back. It was inspiring to hear their testimonies as they work to regain their faith or repent and come back to full fellowship. Such great people!

We had a couple of beautiful devotionals this week, one for the whole mission and the other for our zone. The mission devotional speaker works in the church history department and it was fascinating to hear about all they are doing with the Joseph Smith Papers, the Saints books and so many other projects. The Zone devotional speaker was a counselor in our mission presidency and he is just such a deeply spiritual and humble man that it was wonderful.

We were able to actually meet the fifth member of our Chaplain group, Elder Rowe who is a service missionary and does a few interviews each week. We had dinner with him and his wife and it was so good to get to know them. They both serve in so many ways and have a wealth of life experiences. I am so impressed by all the full time and service missionaries I meet!

Yesterday we got to hang around City Creek again, this time with Tyler and family. The high point of the visit for them was the escalators and they rode up and down them while they waited for us to show up. I think they were rather disappointed that we weren't later in coming :)  

We finished the week with a session at the Draper Temple and it was beautiful. Such a great way to prepare for Christmas weekend! 

We hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful Christmas full of love and family time.

Mission update 12/16/23

 We have had a wonderful week full of fun new people to meet in our interviews, lots of Christmas music,  and visiting family.

City Creek Mall giving machines, Santa hangs out here and choirs stop and sing. It's such a fun place

Another midday Tabernacle concert, we love that our middle of the day is generally free

We made it to Music and the Spoken Word before church on Sunday and loved it. We would love to go every Sunday but then we found out that our ward will change to 9:00 am so there goes that idea. But, we can go tomorrow so that will be great. We also had a mission gathering on Sunday where the incoming missionaries introduce themselves and the outgoing missionaries bear their testimonies, say goodbye and everyone cries. It was great to not be the new ones this month!

On Monday our mission choir did their Christmas concert and it was amazingly better than we had sounded before which really helps when you're dealing with a whole lot of old people singing. We also had a few solo numbers and it was all together a wonderful, spiritual evening. 

The registration deadline for next semester's Pathway classes is getting close and so the stress level of the students we interviewed and messaged this week was rising. We only deal with the one part of their process but because we have talked to them and been helpful and nice, they tend to contact us when they run into problems with other parts of the process like straightening out their paperwork for enrollment. We keep leading them to the next step but toss in some confusion with English and it takes a while and lots of patience on their part. 

We were able to attend a student gathering in Nevada (virtually of course) and loved getting to see the student who led the gathering do such a good job. She got everyone involved and had learned (through Pathway) how to put together a beautiful power point presentation that added to the lesson. 

Jeremy (our oldest son) came to visit for a couple days this week so he could spend some time with Grandpa. It was great to see him and fun to have another visitor (my sister came the week before). Grandpa (my Dad) is doing great. As far as we can tell, hospice seems to be just what he needed. He's eating more and so much more alert and with it when we talk to him. For however long it lasts, we're enjoying it!

My Dad and me, he's pretty amazing

Wednesday night we went to one of the Tabernacle concerts and ran into my best friend from high school. We haven't seen each other in 30 years and it was amazing! She and her husband have been involved with Pathway in one way or another for years so it was fun to let her know that we're following in their footsteps. 

We graduated from Robert E Lee High School in Alabama several years ago...

This next week we have a few things scheduled but hopefully we'll also have time to actually get Christmas cards out and maybe even do Christmas baking. 

Mission update 12/9/23

We've had a good week, starting off with the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and ending with a new Apostle. Life is good!

All the missionaries got to go to the Devotional and it was so fun to be there in person. The music was beautiful and the talks were great. Now we can officially begin the Christmas season. We especially loved seeing President Nelson come in person, he is such an example to us of a lifetime of service.

With our fellow Chaplains, the Johnsons

Monday we spent part of the day in Logan, visiting my Dad who is living in an assisted living facility and starting on hospice this week. Being my Dad, he is very matter of fact about the whole life and death thing so he's very much okay with whatever happens and ready to stay or go, whichever the Lord wants him to do. I really appreciate his attitude because it makes it so much easier for me to face it as well. He isn't suffering any particular illness, just wearing down. 

Monday night we went to the Millennial Choir and Orchestra concert and had fun speculating on how much work it was for so many people to corral all those kids and keep them where they needed to be. My favorite was the littlest group of singers who reminded me very much of a primary program. 

Tuesday we got to do sealings in the Bountiful Temple with several other missionaries from our Zone. Some of the sealings were for families with several children and that was just wonderful! I love being able to help families have the chance to be eternal.

Thursday night we had a mission fireside with Elder Rasband. He referred to his conference talk asking for more senior missionaries and sort of apologized for all the extra work he was causing the zone in our mission who works with senior missionary applications. It was a wonderful fireside and the choir sang so we had seats up front which is always good.

Our interviews for Pathway this week have continued to teach us how amazing people are. We've heard so many of them share their gratitude for their Savior, and how much they appreciate being able to learn more about Him through their Pathway classes and gatherings. We attended a Zoom gathering in Ghana this week and actually got to see what happens in the program. We were so impressed with the young returned missionary who was leading the group. It is also quite humbling to realize how much these students need and desire this education. 

The registration deadline for the next semester is coming close and we're doing pretty okay at getting through our interviews but then the students get stuck by other issues, like getting in the right portal (member, non member, continuing student, new, etc). All the normal things students go through but add in the random power shut downs, trying to find a place with internet and having English as their second language and it becomes quite a challenge. We just want to hold their hands and walk them through the whole process, knocking down all the obstacles in their way, but all we have is our small piece of the process so we pray for them.

Yesterday we got some lunch in the City Creek food court on our way to the daily Tabernacle concert and it was so good. We ran into nephew, Reggie Pack, daughter in law Marie (Tyler) and grandson Jason. It was the best lunch break ever!

Last night was our Zone Christmas party, planned by our new Zone leaders of less than a month. They did a great job, delegating lots of it to capable people and doing lots of work themselves. It was fun to see who all is in our zone. We are not a normal mission with only senior couples and sisters but it sure is fun to get together.

We're looking forward to meeting more wonderful people in our interviews this week, more great music in the daily concerts and more time spent with fantastic, dedicated missionaries.

Happy December! Mission update 12/02

 We have had a wonderful start to the Christmas season this week and downtown Salt Lake is a fun place to be this time of year even with all the construction on Temple Square. We got to attend two of the daily lunch time concerts at the Tabernacle and hope to go to many more over the rest of the month. The first one we went to was a Jr. High School bell choir. It was amazing! We loved watching how intent the kids were on their parts and how hard they had worked to learn those parts. The other performance was a choir of Temple Square missionaries and it was beautiful. My favorite was a soprano soloist singing "Jerusalem". So gorgeous and clear! 

Lehi Jr. High Bell choir

We love how beautifully decorated the Tabernacle is this time of year

We did also get lots of interviews done and continue to be so impressed with these students and their desire to learn and improve their lives. I got to interview one lady who has 4 year old twins and those two children were so adorable! Another lady talked about how going to Pathway Connect classes (the classes they take before starting their degree or certificate program) taught her that marriage is something to be honored and treasured. From that, she had made the decision to try and work on the relationship with her husband so that they could keep their family intact. She loved the concept of eternal families. 

Keeping track of time zones and we keep adding to this list

We had a monthly Pathway meeting for the whole group of Pathway employees and missionaries and it was great to hear about the goals moving forward and President Ashton's (Pathway Worldwide President) vision for the future. It is so exciting to do our small corner of such an amazing program.

On Thursday night we went to Savior of the World here and loved it. Years ago our stake in Layton put it on and Gary and four of our boys got to be in it. I loved it then, especially the song "Come Lord Jesus Come". When that song started on Thursday I was immediately overcome with emotion and if we go see it again there will definitely be more kleenex involved!

Last night we had a great evening with Gary's Hong Kong mission president and another Hong Kong missionary and his wife. Gary has been blessed to have President Mitchell around for so many years and he continues to be an influence in our lives. Such an amazing man!

Elder and Sister Decker, Former Hong Kong mission president Garry Mitchell, and us

We enjoyed one of the best benefits of serving in Salt Lake this morning: proximity to grandchildren. We got to see Thalia (Tyler's daughter) in her dance recital and it was fun. She did great of course!

We are no longer the newbies in the mission. A new set of missionaries arrived yesterday and we are now the veterans. Or something like that. We still have so much to learn but still feel like we are doing good work and making a difference in people's lives.