Busy Missionaries

Well, I knew it had been awhile since I posted but didn't realize the whole month has gone by.  Time is truly going SO fast.  We've got a handle on our duties in the Missionary Department and enjoy the great people we work with.  The atmosphere is so great, everyone is so kind and friendly.  I feel like I'm getting more out of this mission than I am giving.  We have the opportunity to go to so many activities with our zone, our social group, the branch and just friends we're making here.  There is so much good stuff going on on Temple Square and most of it is free.  There is no visiting teaching in the 2nd Branch.  Yahoo!!  As a couple we are assigned to home teach one couple and one senior sister.  Well, you know they aren't going to dog you to come so it's pretty easy getting that done in one evening.  We're attending a lecture series on men and women of faith in church history.  The first lecture was given by Elder Nash of the Seventy and was so interesting.  Then we went to a devotional where Bishop McMullin spoke and he was so good, too.  The 3 zones of missionaries who work in the Church Office Building (COB) get together for Tri-Zone Socials 3 times a year.  The one this month was held up in the Conference Center where they do the interpretation for conference and other meetings.  They translate into 93 languages but not all of them are done on site.  They use native speakers and you have to have the ability to listen to the speaker in one ear of your headphones and listen to you saying the translation in the other ear.  Not everyone can do that and good interpreters get burned out in a couple of years.  So they are constantly recruiting people.  Anyway, we had a tour of the facilities (amazing) and then had a dinner and the speaker was William Walker of the Seventy.  Instead of giving a talk he let us ask questions.  What an interesting evening. He's over the temple committee. He didn't/couldn't answer some of the questions but would just smile and you knew there were things he can't discuss.  He told us some antidotes about President Monson and how they decided where to build temple, choose the site, etc.  We went to another fireside where the speaker was Brother DeGuilio who is in charge of the pipeline in Family Search.  He was instrumental in getting the Italian Government to let the church digitize records.  He told us that 1 million names are added to family search each day.  86,000 people are indexing and they hope to have 200,000 soon.  20% of the indexers are not LDS.  Do you know you can serve a Camera Mission?  You go wherever they call you and spend your time taking digital photos of records.  They have cameras all over the world.  China has been receptive to the church coming into their country to gather records and there is a camera in Saudi Arabia.  It's all quite amazing what is happening in Family History.  One night we had dinner with our zone at one couple's apartment.  His parents came to Canada from Germany and they made us a German dinner.  The dumplings were so good--well everything was.  For Valentine's Day we had a nice surprise at our zone devotional.  When we walked into the room there were large red gift bags for all the sisters.  Each husband had written his wife a letter and it was framed with his picture.  What a wonderful gift.  Then they each read their letters.  It sounds like it would be embarrassing or too personal but we all have gotten to know each other and it was just wonderful to share.  On the third Wednesday of each month you can go to the Floral Department in the COB and get a plant for your office--it's called Plant Day.  Then if your plant needs to be repotted or fertilized you can take it back and they will fix it for you.  Cool!  Brent and I have each had the opportunity (?) to give the devotional in the Missionary Department Devotional that is held each Monday.  I did mine on President's Day (no holiday at the COB) and did a patriotic theme.  We sang a patriotic theme, did the Pledge of Alegiance and I talked about the writing of the Constitution.  Everyone seemed to like it.  Brent did his on the Atonement.  It was good.  Once a month the whole Department has lunch together.  This month is was a Star Wars Theme and it was decorated so cute--someone had lots of Star Wars memorabilia and they played some movie clips while we ate.  Another fun thing we've done is meet up with some Wagon Train friends.  A family who lives in Centerville had a handcart in the St. George Wagon Train and we got to know them.  They invited us for lunch on Saturday and it was so much fun to see them again.  We've been to the Bountiful Temple a couple of times.  Our youngest daughter and her family came for a wedding and stayed with us over President's Day weekend.  It was great seeing the grands.  Last weekend our daughter and granddaughter from Cedar City were here.  We took Sunny to see Brigham Young's house.  Well, I feel like I have rattled on and it probably seems like we just go and do stuff--which we really do, more even than when we were at home.  But we're having fun and working hard.  I'm so grateful we can have this time to serve and to enjoy being together and doing so many things.