Jena And Sister Dixon Went....

to the symphony at Abravanel Hall to see "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Maestro" on Saturday.  Sister Dixon is one of the missionaries in our zone and she also lives in the same apartment complex as we do.

I can't tell you how thrilled Jena was to go somewhere with one of our missionaries--AND not us!  They had a great time.

How lucky we are to be surrounded by such great people and missionaries!

Still Recovering

This week has been a bit of an up and down week as far as recovering goes--I have been sleeping well but still get tired easily during the day.  As a result, I haven't really accomplished much worthwhile.  Read some books, answered emails, and attended meetings.....sometimes from the comfort of our apartment.

This is me watching the mission devotional from my desk chair in the bedroom--I brought in the ottoman from the living room so I could really be comfortable.  Thank heavens for Zoom although the sound was having problems throughout the whole meeting so I missed much of what was being said.  President and Sister Randall both gave excellent talks--the parts that I heard anyway!  Gary was there in person and said it was great.  He could see them trying to fix the sound throughout the entire meeting.

Yesterday I was able to get a few things done including visiting Ben and then Jena and I watched Jessica's kids last night.  (No photos which shows that I was a little less energetic than normal, but still had fun moments.)  I am hoping that means I am back to normal--whatever that means--and can get back to work.  Glad that both Jena and Gary seemed to have avoided the germs completely.

Pizza And A Visit

Scott and Chantel were in town for a few days--along with Scarlett and James.  We had had a zoo trip plan for the Saturday but I wasn't up to walking around the zoo in cool weather on Saturday.  So instead they came over for dinner on Tuesday night before they headed back to Arizona on Wednesday.

It was so fun to see them in person and to spend some time with them.  They agreed that we have a great view out our window.

James and Scarlett built different things out of our small box of blocks.

Spring is coming to the countryside out of our window!

Saying goodbye from our balcony!

Happy Easter 2022

We had a quiet Easter as I am still recovering from bronchitis.  Glad that we could watch our branch's Easter program over Zoom along with some other Easter music programs on BYU TV.

Here is the message we sent to our missionaries:

"As we take time to remember that first Easter morning, focus for a moment on the instructions given by the angels to the women who had gathered to the sepulchre to continue the preparations of Christ’s body for burial—first, “…come, see “ (Matthew 28:6) and then the direction-“go…and tell”  (Matthew 28:7).  I think that we also would benefit by following those instructions in our quest to become more holier disciples of Jesus Christ.

“Come, see” is an invitation to step into Christ’s Church—to see what is here; in our chapels, in our scriptures, in the temples, and in the hearts of our leaders and members.  For us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and missionaries, it is a renewed invitation to strengthen our personal testimonies of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the great plan of happiness, and His Church which provides the framework to return back to our Heavenly Parents.

“Go…and tell.”  Knowing for ourselves is only one step.  We must share this great news of the Gospel with the world—starting maybe with a neighbor or family member just a step away.  Maybe it means being more bold in social media about your beliefs about Christ or being involved in a community service project.  Maybe it includes writing your testimony down and placing it in FamilySearch for future generations to read.

As your zone leaders, we wish you all the sweet blessings of this Easter season and above all, the peace that the gospel brings to us and the great hope which comes because truly as the angel said, “He is not here; for he is risen.”  (Matthew 28:6)  Please “come, see” and “go..and tell” this great message!  We love you.  Happy Easter 2022!"

And The Rest Of The Story About The "Between Covid Spikes" Zone Potluck Social

To be clear--I did NOT choose the name for our social.  We (the zone leadership) had made jokes about the whole Covid thing, because we were the one zone who was able to have a Christmas social (in November) in person and did not have any problems with Covid.  Some of the other zones had to cancel their Christmas plans due to Covid or one had an outbreak after their social.  So we were pretty proud of our "success" in the winter.  We decided after the recent outbreak in January and February that we should take the current drop in numbers and try another gathering in person.  Of course, we have been meeting together for devotionals and other meetings for several months and haven't been wearing masks since the beginning of March.  It seemed like an ideal time.

Sister Dixon, when she announced the social on our website, called it the "Between the Covid Spikes" Social, so I used it in my flyers, etc.  Surprising, no one even commented about us "predicting" another spike of Covid.  It is the world we live in and we are rolling with the punches.  Everyone was happy for a chance to gather and be together.

The evening before the activity, I started getting a scratch in throat and my nose started running.  I slept fine but woke up with the general sense of a cold coming on.  However, well aware of the world we live in, I did my due diligence and took a Covid test before I headed out for the day of activity to get ready for the party that evening. It was negative so I decided I was good to go. I took some allergy medication for the runny nose and actually felt fine throughout the whole day. Did the party thing, came home unloaded the car, and piled everything up on the counter, and took a nap at 8:30 pm.

I slept okay during the night but was aware that I was getting a sore throat and woke up the next morning with literally NO voice at all.  A definite cold had arrived!  I headed back to bed, Gary headed out to the Go Forth Meeting to meet our new missionary from Peru.  Fortunately, the Deckers were in town and we had arranged for them to provide translation for us for the day of training for our new missionary so it would work out for Gary to go somewhat solo for the day.

Then things got interesting.  Saturday night, a missionary from my table called to say he had tested positive for Covid.  He had had a raspy voice on the evening of the party, but had assumed that it was allergies. We sent out a notice to all who had attended the party and on Sunday four other missionaries were also positive---his wife, another missionary who rode with them to the party, and another couple---all five of them sat at my table at the social!!

I tested for Covid again with a home test on Sunday but it still came back as negative.  I went three days with no voice and all of the fun symptoms of a bad cold and sore throat.  No fever until Tuesday morning when I decided that I should see my doctor and try a more accurate Covid test.  How could I not have Covid when five of the other seven people at my table did?  The other couple at my table had Covid in January of this year.  All of us have been immunized and boostered as well. 

He diagnosed me with bronchitis and started me on the usual treatments.  He also redid the Covid test--the rapid one again came back negative, but they also did the more sensitive one that should come back on Monday.  It has not been a fun week of coughing, not talking, and not sleeping!  Poor Gary has had to manage all of the missionary stuff by himself.  He has been a great sport.  Jena is a champ taking care of me and we have watched a lot of movies and TV shows over the past week.

Still coughing but able to talk now without too much trouble and getting better sleep.  Not sure when I can go in "public" again--coughing in public seems almost against the law these days!!  Google tells me a cough from bronchitis can last up to 4 weeks.  I might have to get a shirt that says "I don't have Covid!"

So, that is a long story to say that unfortunately, we did "create" our own little spike in Covid numbers as a result of our social!  Prior to this, 3 missionaries at the same time with Covid was our highest number and there had been no known transfer of Covid between our missionaries in our zone.

Life in a pandemic!!! Or maybe, "Pride go before the fall...."

"General Authority" Sightings!!

This is backtracking a bit to a day around General Conference.  When we headed over to the cafeteria in the COB for lunch one day, we saw a missionary we knew coming out and she said, "Have fun spotting all of the general authorities!"  I turned to Gary and said, "well, maybe if you knew them all."  Otherwise, it is just lots of people in suits. (Side note: some missionaries in our zone actually saw Elder Soares and Elder Gong near the lunch room that same day so there were some familiar faces around.)  

Entering the lunchroom, it was noticeable how many more people were around than usual.  And then, I DID see someone I knew.  Actually two people, Elder Taylor and Sister Carol Godoy.  We had interviewed them as part of our oral history assignment for the library.  They had served as mission leaders in the Nevada Reno Mission.  We debated about saying hi, but decided to later after we had gotten our food.  I was so glad we did.  They were happy to see us and we were able to talk briefly about the oral history which we did on Zoom over a year ago. And he shared about their ongoing support of Church History projects in Central America where they now serve.

picture from the Church Newsroom

"Between Covid Spikes" Zone Potluck Social

On Thursday, April 7th, we had our second in person social for the Zone.  Again we held it in the evening at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Relief Society Room.

Again, our event is listed downstairs in the lobby of the building.  How official is that?

We shared the building with an important crowd as people met earlier in the day with the Presiding Bishopric according to the sign.  The past few weeks have been filled with "sightings" as the General Authorities gathered for meeting surrounding General Conference.  (Which reminded me that I forgot to post about one of our personal ones.  That will be the next post-slightly out of order.)

After setting some things up early in the day, I headed down to wait for Gary to drop something off and got this fun picture of the reflection of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in the office building to the south.  The sky and the sunlight were perfect for it!  The old and the new.......

Simple, simple decorations......

When you are in a truly beautiful place to begin with, that is all you need---

Not your usual Cultural Hall backdrop---

Delicious food is arriving---

Playing a Getting To Know You Bingo game.  They might look like original "old" people, but these are all outstanding wonderful missionaries who are so dedicated to serving the Lord.  It is an honor to be with them--working or playing!

And Jena jumps right in as part of the group.

Time to eat a variety of yummy food-----

After we settled in to eat, we each took turns introducing ourselves and telling something unusual about us that others might not know.  Although we all are in the same zone, we work in different areas of the building and work closely only with a few other missionaries, so it was great for them to learn a bit about each other.  When it was Jena's turn, she stood right up and did a great job introducing herself.

Elder Mike Elder took the "table shots" for the evening:

Starting at the left:  Sister Debra Dixon, Sister Sukja Lee, Elder Bai, President Mike Parker, 

Sister Barbara Burwell, Sister Marcia Horrocks, Sister Janet Newbold, and Jena

Starting at the left:  Elder Steve Dinger, Sister Alene Dinger, Sister Vera Winn, Sister Joan Young,

Elder Mel Young, Sister Iris Decker, Elder Robert Decker and me

Starting at the left:  Elder Mike Elder, Sister Susan Parker, Elder Carl Johnson, Sister Sherrie Johnson, Sister Shirley Cox, Sister Joyce Forman, Sister Aolipa McClure, and Sister Joan Elder

Starting for the left:  Sister Janice Barrus, Gary, Sister Ann Collet, Elder

 Bruce Collet, Sister Kathy Evans, Sister 

We enjoyed being with each other.  We did a "Would You Rather" game at the tables but mostly enjoyed just talking together and getting to know each other in a more casual way.  What a privilege to serve with them.

Clean up is a breeze when you are working with missionaries.  They all jumped in and things were cleaned up in a flash.  I had to return a cart to the mission office on the third floor and took a minute to take pictures out the west window towards the temple.  Quiet as the sun is setting from all of the construction of the day....

And then out the north window toward the Relief Society Building and the Church Office Building with the Church History Library in the middle back!

And the work on the Plaza to the east with the Church Administration Building on the right hand side.

You can see why this massive project will take about five years to complete!

It was a busy day--but everything turned out great!!  I love watching people enjoy being with other people!!! It makes my heart happy!

Computers Still Down

and with snowfall on Monday night, the interns in the US/Canada team got creative with their many boxes of annual histories which they couldn't process and built a snowman couple!

Jena and I went to Smith's to do some shopping and got these photos a few days later.  These are not covered in snow, but in blossoms. Utah likes to mix up its seasons especially winter and spring!

There is beauty all around............
 

Spring Break And Some Grandma/Aunt Time In Syracuse

Jena and I spent Monday, April 4, hanging out in Syracuse with Jessica and Elessia's kids for the day.  It was spring break and we were all in for a day of play.

We did puzzles.......

Painted rocks for the garden

Built a fort----this was Liam's and Zander's creation!

Then Liam and Zander decided to "play hotel" and Liam made some signs for different rooms of his hotel----

These is the bedroom of the hotel---see sign below.  :)

Then we tried to get a picture at the table of all five kids looking to send to Jessica and Elessia...but no one was interested in that plan!  The ice cream snack was much more interesting!

We then made chocolate chip/plain or blueberry pancakes for DINNER because if grandma is there, anything goes! They liked the plain and chocolate chips ones but not the blueberry ones at all.  They like their blueberries cold and NOT in pancakes.

We had a fun day!  Until next time, young ones!

General Conference April 2022

For 10,000 people per session--it was in-person again!  And we were included in that count.  As full-time missionaries in the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission, we were able to attend 2-3 sessions in person.  We attended the afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday and I attended the women's session on Saturday evening.  How sweet it is!!

And we got to walk to each session.  No worry about traffic or parking.

Somewhere in that crowd is my nephew, Duncan, who sang with the BYU-I choir on Saturday afternoon.

Below is the actual view from our seats---we were actually on the fourth row back but the first row of seats with people sitting in them.  We were able to watch the First Presidency and 12 Apostles and others enter and leave through the door right in front of us.  Jena especially would get waves from them as they noticed her.

Then a missionary from our zone asked us if we had seen the pictures on the KSL newsroom site from the Saturday afternoon session.  You can see Jena in the blurry background in the first picture....

and Gary and Jena in the second one.

Then on Sunday as we were heading to Conference again, we got a message from one of our missionaries that she was saving some seats for us.  You guessed it....same seats and another photo---this is harder to see but if you look at the ksl site for the Sunday afternoon session--photo section you can see all three of us in the blurry background!

https://www.ksl.com/article/50375790/sunday-afternoon-session-summaries-from-latter-day-saint-general-conference

Many of the missionaries in our section took lots of pictures as the General Authorities were coming and going especially on Sunday afternoon when many of them came into the sections beside us where their families and many of the Area Authorities and their wives sat to hug and shake hands with family and friends.  It was very sweet to watch their interactions with others and each other.  You can clearly see the love that the leaders have for each other and their wives.

Sister Gong noticed Jena as they were walking past and she tugged at Elder Gong to step closer and to wave at Jena.  It was fun to share with Jena that Elder Gong is also Chinese and lived in Hong Kong at one point.  We share mutual friends from there although we don't know the Gongs personally.  The missionaries around us loved it when they noticed Jena get extra attention.  It is life being around Jena!  She glows and the world responds to her!

We loved conference and the messages about Christ and hope for the future.  We need to become day by day better disciples of Him and to love God and all men!  My life and my eternal goal in one sentence.