Mission Update 1/27

 This winter is just confusing and we keep having to remind ourselves that we are still in January. It's supposed to get in the 50s this next week. We do appreciate not having to worry about snow and ice when we're out walking though so that's good. But, what a contrast to last year's abundance of snow!

Our number of interviews picked back up this week after a bit of a lull following the start of a new semester. We also added a few new countries to our time zone list: Georgia (not the state), United Arab Emirates and Argentina. Nigeria still seems to be where the majority of the students we interview are from. It will be fun to watch and see what all this education does over the years there. 

We got to play a musical number in our mission devotional on Monday and the devotional took place in a smaller room than usual so every chair was filled, including extra chairs that filled the stage, just to fit everyone in. We played in a small corner of the stage and managed to not poke each other's eyes out with our bows--barely. It was fun!

This week's temple was the Provo City Center and it was the first time we'd been there. I love that it retains the style and character of the old Tabernacle and the stained glass is amazing! Also, the temple session was great. We love being able to go every week.

After two weeks of cancelled choir practices due to weather happening (something about senior missionaries and slipping on ice...), we had choir practice this week and it was great. We're working on It is Well with My Soul and This is the Christ, two of my favorites. Now if we can just get them learned.

Last night we had a Zone game night where we played some rather ridiculous but fun group games and had treats. It was great to get to know more of the people in our Zone (Headquarters Support Zone) and have fun. Tonight we have a party with our MTC District so we're looking forward to that as well. It's just non stop parties around here!

Playing Wa 

Our mission has been challenged to memorize The Living Christ by Easter and we're making slow progress. We're getting some picture cards to help us this week so hopefully that will help our rusty brains. We need all the help we can get! It sure is wonderful to focus on it though as we look forward to Easter in a couple of months.

We continue to love our mission and all the people we get to meet and interact with every week. Life is wonderful!

Fun art in the mission office

Mission Update 1/20/2024

 Our week started off great with several interviews and a Pathway meeting. Then toward the end of the meeting, Gary started feeling awful and ended up with a 24 hour bug that took a couple of days to sort of recover from. So, by about midday on Wednesday he returned to the land of the living and the rest of the week has been pretty much non stop. During the downtime we managed to finish a 1000 piece puzzle and get caught up on emails, cleaning etc.

This week's temple was the Ogden Temple and we loved being back there. It is such a beautiful Temple and we love all the memories we have of working there when it first reopened.  Adam had just left on his mission to Taiwan so we were able to serve on the Saturday morning shift.  We got to do that for nine months until Layton was moved out of the Ogden temple district into the Bountiful temple district. We followed that with some amazing Chinese food and it made for a great day. 

We got asked to play in church on Sunday and for the mission devotional on Monday so we're using the same song for both but with different accompanists. The two pianists have extremely different styles so it makes for a fun challenge. Good thing we're doing a piece we've done many times!

In several interviews this week I was asked why we have the rules about coffee, alcohol etc. so I got to give a brief explanation about prophets and revelation. The students, who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, were not asking because they didn't want to stop those things, they were actually already living that way anyway. They just wondered where the rules came from and thought it was pretty cool when I explained. 

Friday was my birthday so we celebrated by eating at the Cheesecake Factory and had a lovely late lunch. We didn't need food the rest of the day! Today we spent time in Logan visiting my Dad and had lunch with Blaine, Richard and families. It was a fun day and we're happy to be able to get up there to visit about once a month. 

Cheesecake Factory selfie

Driving into Logan and some not great visibility

Back to Salt Lake and so pretty!

This next week we'll hopefully stay healthy since the number of interviews is picking back up again and we have several dinners and parties to go to along with the usual number of meetings.  Gary will be adding a bunch of work helping Pathway do some computer data validation on a new software database that is getting worked on this year, so there will be no shortage of work.

We love being missionaries and working with these Pathway students from all over the world!  We see it as a great way to literally change the world with education: one person, then one community, then one country at a time!

Mission Update 1/13/2024

 It's been a busy week in the mission office with 27 new missionaries going through orientation. Then, in a week there will be 29 more who are service missionaries. And February is even more!  Thank you Elder Rasband! On the second Sunday of each month we have a gathering where we get to meet all the new missionaries and say goodbye to those who are leaving. It's so fun!

Meanwhile, in our corner of the mission, it's been a bit of a lull. The new semester started on Monday so the rush to get students in for that deadline is over. But, that means that the students we did interview are the ones who are very on the ball and getting ready for April ahead of time. One man we interviewed said that he had been chosen to be the leader of his Pathway Connect class and wanted to get his interview and registration done quickly so he could help everyone else. 

I made the discover this week that I actually can understand the students with not great English skills better than the ones who are really good at it. The ones who are good speak at a normal, fast speed and when you add in an accent it is pretty hard to keep up. The ones who aren't so proficient speak more slowly and it's much easier to understand. Sometimes we just have to make sure we get the yeses and noes at the right time and just smile and nod for some of the other, more long winded answers. It's a fun adventure.

We had a fantastic devotional on Monday evening. Steven Sharp Nelson and his wife spoke, played and sang. Steven is the cellist with the Piano Guys and his wife sings and plays the violin. It was such a beautiful and inspirational evening! Not only was the music amazing but the messages in between were just what we needed as well. When we posted the picture to our kids, Tyler pointed out that the daughter of the Nelson's is his daughter Jaina's best friend, so that was fun!

We went to the Jordan River temple on Tuesday with the Johnsons (other Chaplains) and only got slightly lost trying to find our way in and out. Another dozen or so times there and we may actually be able to find our way around that temple. 

View from the entrance to the Jordan River Temple, so beautiful and so cold!

We got to visit Dal and Julie Coleman this week. Dal was one of Gary's counselors when he was Bishop in Layton and they are both just amazing. It was so good to visit with them and catch up their lives and what it going on with their children and grandchildren. 

On our way back to Salt Lake, we drove past the Layton Temple and we are so excited that there is finally a date for the open house and dedication!

Last night we got to go to a Jazz game with Cheryl Gerstner from Rochester New York, one of the sisters who was in the MTC with us and now serves in the Family Search library. It was a very noisy but fun evening and the Jazz won quite nicely so that was a bonus. 

Gary is getting some extra work over the next few weeks helping out with the data validation for the new Pathway student portal. It's up his alley, doing what he did the past few years of his career so he's right at home. Meanwhile, the students keep getting interviewed, we keep trying to stay organized and on top of our lists and life is great.

Mission Update 1/6/2024We had

 It only took five days for my journal to catch up to the fact that it's 2024 so we're off to a great start this year. Also, we managed to stay awake until 11:00 pm on New Year's Eve so that's a huge accomplishment. I see great things ahead for the two of us!

It has been a bit of a strange week. We started off with a fun New Year's Eve: lunch with another missionary couple followed by sight reading string trio music (violin, viola and cello). That was lots of fun and we found some pieces we quite liked and others that were okay. Then we had fajitas for dinner with a senior missionary sister from our MTC group. It was a very delicious end to 2023.

New Year's Day got off to a lazy start but we had fun visiting some Asian stores and eating a fun bento box lunch. Then we got back to work, scheduling student interviews for the following day. We also put together a fun puzzle we borrowed.

The rest of the week we had interviews each day along with lots of emails and messages to help students figure out the registration and application process. We're not sure how much we're helping as it's a tad difficult to fix what's on their screen when they're in Africa and we're here but we try. We also know who to send them on to for more advanced help. It's tricky to take all the normal confusion of registering for classes and then add in that it's completely online and in a language that may not be their first language. Some days I'm amazed any of them actually figure it out. 

When we ask the students the basic Word of Wisdom questions we can pretty much predict two things: when asked about smoking and tobacco use, 99% of the time we hear "oh no, I would never do that, it's very bad!" and when asked about tea there is always some sort of tea that they drink like cocoa or herb that is just fine so we always have to clarify that one. And then, if they do need to quit something, like coffee, in order to do Pathway they are quick to want to do whatever they have to to get their education. These students are just so eager to learn and grow!

One of the greatest things we very constantly hear when we ask them about their experience with Pathway Connect is that they loved the religious emphasis!  We often have them tell us how wonderful it is to learn about Jesus while they are also learning other things like job skills!

We went for a walk in the Avenues (we live right on the edge of that neighborhood) and had fun seeing great old houses. It will be fun to spend more time walking when it's a bit warmer. We actually got snow yesterday so winter has arrived, sort of.

On our tour of the temples in our allowed boundaries, we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple this week. It is fun to see how the different temples are laid out and how some are so much smaller (like Oquirrh Mountain) than others (like Jordan River). However, no matter the size or location, the feeling is still the same and it is such a wonderful place to be. 

We had a lunch meeting in the Pathway building this week and I was amused at the placement of the fire alarm on this map:

So, we'll keep praying for peace in the world and do everything we can to at least promote peace in our small corner of it. 

Happy 2024!