odds and ends

Wednesday is the start of a New Transfer, new assignments for the Senior Missionaries, new companions and assignments for the sisters.  There are twenty that have finished their missions, twenty two new ones will be here, eighteen going outbound, and eighteen returning from being assigned out.  Transfers take place every six weeks and are really exciting, emotional, and tiring with every one getting new companions and moving to different apartments.  It is very hard on the Senior Missionaries seeing twenty something of their friends going home to all over the world to never see again.   Mom and I sit at the back of the room at the Transfer and Outbound Conferences and cry.

  

Thursday comes and we get to see the new Sisters come from the MTC, all excited to do the Lords work. We then welcome some of our prior friends come back from out bound, with stories to share about where they have been and the spiritual experiences they have had. 

I don't think that there is any other mission is the Church where a person can make so many friends from all over the world and then have them go home.  We then start all over again the next day. 

Sister Glad and I have some new assignments.  We are now in charge of the Senior Firesides and Socials.  We are going to have a Fireside and a Sunday Sociable each month.  We will have the curator from the Church History and Art Museum  come and talk about the  Tabernacle on the May 24th.  The Sociable is where we all get together to visit and play games.  We had the first one last Sunday it went very well. 

 We now get to sleep in as our old assignments required us to get up at 5:30 am five days a week to open the gym for the sisters sports program. 

The Senior Call Center program is being discontinued as the Seniors Missionaries are needed at other areas and the Sisters can make all of the calls.  We really enjoyed calling and had some special times so we will miss that calling.  

We were looking at our future schedule and found out that our mission will be over on the day before Thanksgiving,  all too soon.  

some stuff and other stuff

Spring is (hopefully) Here,  the weather is clear and warm, Mom has a sunburn and the tulips are in full bloom.  It snowed three days ago and now is in the 80s, this must be Utah.     

We are working in the Call center three days a week for this transfer so we have some very interesting conversations.  I called one young man about his ordering a Book of Mormon, when I asked him why he wanted it.  He said that his other one was worn our.  He said that he would be excited to have the missionaries come to his home and teach him about what he had been reading.  I talked to another man who had ordered the DVD " The Restoration".  He said that he loved the message and that his son took it to School to share it with his friends.  We get a lot of people who hang up the phone on us but is is all worth while when we talk to some one who is interested.  

We have a new Sister Missionary from Israel first time from that country.  We have had a history of not ever being asked for tours in Hebrew.   Since we have some who can handle Hebrew we have had four tours in that language.  The Lord knows what he is doing. 

Stuart won a prize in a school district wide competition involving building a programed robot to push the most paper cups down a hole in a specific period of time.  He did the programing.

Melody and Marty very proud.

Easter and "OOPS" darn, it was my spell checker

We were working at the Tabernacle when a media crew came to do a special for the "Friend Magazine".  They are doing a series about young people visiting Temple Square.  The picture above is of the young boy who is visiting, talking to the Organist.  Mom was really excited to be involved with the whole thing.  She was asked to sign a waver about her photo appearing in the magazine.  We don't know, but her photo may be in the story.

   
The Cherry trees are in full bloom the flower beds are full of color, this is my favorite time of year.
Their was a special program on Easter Sunday for "Music and the Spoken Word".  The Choir was joined by the Orchestra on Temple Square and the Bells on Temple Square.  It was a very special program.  I won't admit it to mom but the bells were really neat.

A minor Crises at BYU, a frantic search was under way to locate and destroy all 18,000 copies of the "Daily Universe" that was distributed around the campus.  The head line read " Elder Neil Anderson has been selected as the new member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates".   I always knew that the spell checker was a tool of the devil" 

April Confrence

It is conference on Temple Square.  You can see if you look carefully the people leaving the last Sunday session on the ramps in the front of the Conference Center.

We are just home from serving on Conference Sunday on  Temple Square, naturally it has been a very busy day.  Members from all over the world have been here to share in the spirit of the day.  We were able to attend the Sunday morning session along with "Music and the Spoken Word".  I went to Priesthood Meeting with Marty, Stuart and Ben.  Clay and Cody attended but had tickets for a different location.  We then all went to our apartment for Ice Cream.  Conference is and should be a time for families.  

   

Second Picture showing the same flowers that were covered with snow last week now looking great.

Lots of families come with blankets and sit on the lawn listing to the session. This is just a great time of year.