Snow and Rock Satrs

Saturday was a really nice day, clear with the temperature in the 70s, this morning we woke up to a strong wind with some rain. The Snow started during Sacrament meeting, as we went to work on the Square it was really cold with a blizzard.  The photo it to show the contrast between the spring flowers and the new snow.

Friday we were working at the North Visitors Center when we were told that a VIP group was coming to watch the movie "Legacy".  They were the supporting group for David Archeleta. David was in town for a concert Saturday.  He came in later to see the rest of the Movie.  His family had been visiting with President Monson.  

The influence for good that a person like David Archeleta can have is some times not understood.  Saturday morning I struck up a conversation of a woman and her preteen daughter who was from Boston.  She said that they were in town to be at the concert and she and her daughter wanted to see what "His" home town was like, so they were at temple square. Later that same day a couple of ladies from San Diego said that they here for the same reason. 

Mom taught all 160 sister missionaries for Relief Society.  She taught about sacrifice, told the story about her father leaving the farm to go on a mission and asked the sisters to share stories about the sacrifices  they or their families have made for the church. It was a great experience for her to hear all of the stories from all around the world.

We were working in the call center and had some great conversations and referrals.  I talked to a woman about having the elders bring her a Book of Mormon and share the message of the Gospel with her.  She said yes please have them come, that she had some good friends who were members of the Church and that she lived just down the street from a LDS Chapel.  I called a other person and asked her if she had received the copy of the Book of Mormon that she had ordered.  She said yes she had and that her family was just baptised in to the Church. We have been getting something like eight good referrals for each day we work in the Call center.  We are now in the center for two hours three days a week as part of our normal rotation.  Mom loves it.  

General Conference is this coming week end.  It will be really busy we will be working on the Square for most of the sessions but will be able to attend one session on Sunday and I will be able to go to Priesthood Meeting on Saturday night.  It is so nice to be here and meet all of the Saints from all around the World.  It is great to be here doing the Lords' work. 

Spring

Spring is here!!! The Square is very beautiful.  The gardeners have been out in force planting flowers all around.  The flowers appear as if by magic.  It was snowing last week and now this week the temperature is in the low 70s.  Sister Glad and I have put away our winter coats with the hope that we will not have to use them until next winter.  

The Draper Temple Dedication was this week-end but sadly we were not able to attend because we have to be Missionaries and assist teaching the Gospel on the Square.  No! not sadly, one of our greatest joys is to be here assisting in the Lords work. 

Due to the warming weather we took some of our "P" day time and visited the Salt Lake Zoo.  

It was fun seeing the animals and "strollers", as unknown to us the Zoo was having a special Kids day where small children were allowed in for free.  This is Utah and we thrive on small children. There were strollers every where full of kids.  We were the only old guys in the Zoo that day as far as we could determine, so it was just as fun seeing all of the moms and their perfect creations getting out when dads and older school children had gone.  It was a joyful romp to be away with the strollers in the Zoo.   We ran into Julie and her kids as they were out for an outing with one of Christys Little one.  

We are preparing for General Conference, one of the busiest times of the year.  We are so excited to see all of the leaders of the Church from all over the world.  The Sisters are able to see members from their home countries who come here.  

Today was the busiest day of the year so far.  there is a Conference for people involved in the Chemical industry here this week some 11,000 of them and it looked like most of them came to see the Square Today.  It was Great!  Life is good, Spring is here!

Park City and the Family Tree

    We went to work for a week at the Family Tree at Park City.   The facility is a place for tourists to come and get acquainted with the church and find out about their family.   

We worked  with a set of Sister Missionaries who are there for their entire six week transfer.  We stayed in a really nice apartment on the third floor of the building.  

   They not only have the family search data base there but also a subscription of ancestory.com. I was able to trace the Webster Line, my Maternal Grand Mothers family, and find that there was three members of the Mayflower party that are part of our family.  A feature of the program is to find famous people who are related to you I was able to find that we have ties to Rutherford B Hayes, 6th cousin 4 times removed, Millard Fillmore, 4th cousin 6 times removed, Samuel Adams, 6th cousin 5 times removed, Gerald Ford, 8th cousin 2 times removed. Poet and Writers, Geoffery Chaucer, Hans Christian Anderson, T. S. Elliot, Louisa May Alcott, Agatha Christie, Shelley, Tennyson, and Virginia Woolf.  Painters, Thomas Gainsborough,  Euene Delacroix, and Norman Rockwell.  That is just a start I have five pages of famous people and their relationship to us.

We went to Olympic park.  and took some nice pictures. The first one is one the props that were used for the opening ceremony. 

Family tree

We are in Park City for a week at the Family Tree, which is a family search site. It is on old Main street where the visitors can walk by, come in and find out about their Ancestors. We got here on Sunday afternoon when it was quite busy. Today, Monday a large snow storm has come through so we have spent most of the day looking outside at the snow. Very few people have come in. I have been out to shovel the snow many times today. We have a great apartment that the church provides for that is on the third floor of the building. It has two jet bath tubs in two bathrooms, a large front room. There is also a smaller apartment for the Sister Missionaries, one set of Sister Missionaries stays here for six weeks.

We had a very bad experience Sunday Morning. I am in charge of getting everything ready for Sacrament Meeting on Sunday morning. We arrive to prepare the Chapel at 6:30 am, plenty of time to make sure that everything is in place. When we arrived at the Chapel we wondered why all of the cars were there. When we walked into the building Sacrament meeting had already started. Whoops!! we missed the time change for day-light-savings. The counselor in the Mission Presidency had to go home to get some bread so they could start the meeting. I had to go to the Beehive house early to open it Saturday morning so I was not able to attend preparation meeting where the change was announced. I felt so bad, I told all of the brethren in priesthood meeting that if they were hungry after the lesson, to see me because I had some extra bread.

Temple and Talk

We took the Sister Missionaries to the Draper Temple Open House last week.  We were given a VIP tour.  The regular tours are a silent walk through with testimonies at the last of the tour in one of the Sealing Rooms.  It was cool to go through and have some of the interesting things of this temple explained to us.  President Monson said that one of the main reasons that they built this other Temple is due to the demand for marriages in the Salt Lake Temple.  The Largest sealing room in any of the Temples is in the the new Draper Temple, it will seat more than 100 patrons.

The Sister Missionaries have gone to the open house by Zones with one Zone going each day of the week.  We have six Zones of Sisters in the Mission.  Stuart was helping and was  showing  a video in the Stake Center when our sisters came to view it. They all came back to the square telling us that they had run into our neat grandson.

We are working in the Call Center in the PM this transfer, our main responsibility to call and confirm that items that have been asked for have been received.  We then ask them if they have any questions about the Church or would like missionaries to bring them some other items such as a Book of Mormon.  We also get some incoming calls where people call to order free items that they see on the TV adds or on Pass-along-cards.   

We get some very interesting calls.  I had a lady call to ask if she could see her daughter that had died, in the next world.  She had asked her Priest and he had told her that we would be spirits and so could not see or be with our family.   She said that this was not acceptable to her and wanted some one to tell her what the truth was. She agreed to have the Missionaries come to her home to help her.  Mom called a lady to see if she had received her material. She said she had and was just thinking about going to a church and would like to have missionaries come and bring her a Book of Morman.  We get about 8 to 10 good referrals a night it is very productive.