Mission update 11/10/2024

 We had a bit of a lazy start to the week with no Monday morning devotional but we still managed to get to our office not too much after 9:00. We had some interviews and a Pathway meeting where we got an update on the new system roll out. Things are going as well as they hoped they would so we should start seeing more student interviews in the next week or so. 

Tuesday was just an interesting day for walking around--cold, windy, raining and some snow. It was quite the adventure to get out for lunch but hunger won out and we had an exciting walk. For lunch we can either go right across the street to the Church Office building cafeteria or another half a block to the City Creek food court. It's fun to be right down town (as long as we don't have to drive in the mess around Temple Square). Of course, we love seeing any progress on Temple Square and were very excited to see more scaffolding come down this week.

Crooked picture but you can see both towers all the way down now on the north side

We got 14 new full time missionaries this week and 9 of them ended up in our zone this time. Some working in Ensign college, some with the young service missionaries who do tech help, and some doing special projects. It's fun to meet the new missionaries and see where they end up. One year ago this week we were the new ones getting our assignment. 

This week's temple was Logan and we took Elder and Sister Ng with us. Both Elder and Sister Ng served in Hong Kong as young missionaries and Elder Ng was even Gary's brother David's companion! We met David and his wife Sandy at the temple and went to dinner at their house afterwards. The best thing was while we were in the waiting room, Gary's sister Vurvian walked in and was able to do the session with us too. 

We always find excellent "professional" photographers to take our temple pictures :)

Christmas decor is starting to go up around Temple Square and it's fun to see new things every day. We especially loved the sign by the tree in the lobby area of the Church Office Building.

In case you wondered what the church's position is on decorating before Thanksgiving....

The front of the Relief Society Building looks quite classy and festive

Yesterday we went to This is the Place Park to wander around and get some exercise. We've always gone in the summer and it was lovely to walk around and not be sweating like crazy. They are starting to get ready for the Candlelight Christmas they do every year and it was fun to see more early decorating along with some Thanksgiving/harvest decor as well.

Today we had Primary program practice part two and I think it might have been even more chaotic than the first one last week. It's going to be quite the adventure next week for the program. Hopefully the kids will quiet down a bit more when we have a chapel full of people!  In fantastic news, after we have the Primary Program in our Ward, we will be going to our Son Tyler's ward to see their Primary Program too!  Nothing better than two Primary Programs in one day!

This coming Saturday we are singing for the Church Music Festival, doing two of the songs we sang in General Conference with our Missionary Choir. We had a rehearsal for that tonight and it was so fun to sing in the Tabernacle! Sylvia gets to accompany the Choir on her violin for "I Will Walk With Jesus!" The concert will be lots of music besides our two songs and you can see it here (Saturday at 7:00 pm MST):  

broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org 

Have a wonderful week!

We love you all!

Sister and Elder Pack