More Missionary News

Spring has finally come to Northern Utah and we are loving it.  With warmer weather and daylight savings time we can go for a walk after work on most days and it sure feels good to be outdoors and in the sun.  Everything on Temple Square is SO beautiful with the flowers blooming and preparations for conference.  They have power washed the sidewalks and washed windows and spiffed up the lawns and flowerbeds.  We try to walk around Temple Square on a break in the morning and/or at lunch.  I've started leaving a pair of walking shoes at work.

This week was the opening of City Creek Center in downtown SLC.  It is so much fun and such a good place to walk around on a nice day.  They have tons of shopping and eating and really nice water features--one even has fire and water--haven't seen that one go off yet.  On Friday I turned 65!  Yikes!!  They had a yummy carrot cake for me at work and Brent took me to dinner at P F Chang.  So good.  Some of the GA's in the Missionary Department were traveling last week to Europe and Elder Zwick brought back a 10 poung block of Guitard chocolate that he had been given.  That is a lot of chocolate.  They were breaking it up with a screwdriver and hammer and telling everyone to go help themselves.  We only managed to eat 5 pounds of it the first day so they were really pushing it on Friday to get it out of the office before the weekend.

This is me leaving for work one morning.  Thankfully I haven't had to wear a coat for a few days.  We have sliding glass doors for a front door--a beautiful view at night of the valley and lights and we have a little deck, too.

Here I am with Gretchen (Sister Bray).  We were roommates at BYU and now here she is with her husband serving in our mission--this is their 3rd mission.  Gretchen, her husband, Ken, Brent and I were all in the same apartment complex just before we got married and we haven't seen them since.  One of their daughters was at Ricks and knew one of our girls.  So it was a pleasant surprise to find them here.  Ken has a neat conversion story.  He came to BYU just to play football and ended up joining the church.  Notice my Chico jacket--a great find at a thrift store in Phoenix!

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.

Home, Sweet Home

First, I have to include a picture of our very first visitor, our friend, Randy, who knows more than we do about computers so will be our dear friend forever.  No, seriously he is an all round great guy and the best home teacher.  Did I get that right, Randy??  So he stopped in to visit (aka work on our computer) and wanted to make the blog.

Now on to our abode.  Will try my luck at loading a few more pictures.  Here goes

The top picture is Elder Price studying his scripture in our dining area.  Yes, senior missionaries do have a more relaxed dress standard!  Center picture is our view--oh you have to love winter.  But it really is pretty to look down into City Creek Canyon and at night we have all the lights of SLC below us.  We finally made it living up on the mountain and we're in a basement.  Bottom picture is our living area.  Do you all remember when this furniture was so lovely.  I almost can.  But we're happy with the amenities we have here:  a garage, our own laundry and a real backyard.

Nancy played for the choir this afternoon and Brent was the narrator for the choir number.  He also passed the Sacrament--hadn't done that for awhile.  Usually the young elders take care of the Sacrament but when there's a 5th Sunday they have the High Priests do it.  Fortunately they could find 2 men who could kneel.  You've never seen so much hair dye and hearing aids as you do in the 2nd Branch.  But these are the greatest people, trying to serve with whatever limitations they have.

Our trainers left on Thursday so we now hope to carry on in their stead.  Wish us luck.

A Day in the Life

This is a sculpture at the MTC.

We get up at 6 AM on weekdays.  Unlike young missionaries we don't have out time laid out for every hour of the day.  We were encouraged to have personal and companion scripture study, to get some exercise, to communicate with our families and to enjoy uplifting activities:  concerts, plays and sightseeing.

So we rise and shine, make the bed and pray. Then Nancy showers while Brent fixes breakfast. We eat together and Brent showers while Nancy loads up the dishes (yes, we have a dishwasher but no garbage disposal, go figure).  We finish getting ready and read our scriptures until 7:30 when we bundle up and leave our apartment.  Fortunately we have a garage to park in so no scraping the car.  We drive down the hill, past the state capitol and around the Conference Center and down into the parking garage.  If it's a nice day we go up the south elevators so we can walk a little.  If it's cold we walk over to the east elevators so we exit the CC and just have to cross the street to the COB.  We go into the building and use our security badges to access the west wing.  We take the stairs to the 3rd floor and there we are!! At 8 we walk down to the 2nd floor and have a devotional with our zone Tues-Fri.  On Monday mornings we stay on the 3rd floor and have a devotional with the whole missionary department.  Then to work.  Brent has a little inside office and Nancy is in a cubicle nearby.  About 12:30 we go downstairs to the cafeteria where we eat our lunch we brought from home.  Sometimes we'll augment with soup or salad or a soda.  There is a grand piano and someone plays during lunchtime.  We take 45 minutes to an hour sometimes going up to the lobby and sitting in the sun if there is any.  Then back to work until 4:30 when we head back to our apartment.  In the evenings we try to have companion study and do a little housework or laundry so it isn't all there for Saturday.  On Wednesday nights we go to the LDS Family Services office to attend a support group for early release missionaries and their parents.  Before we go to bed we pack our lunch for the next day and make sure our clothes are ready.  And that's pretty much it.

This week we had a zone activity on Tuesday--dinner at Lamb's Grill.  And on Thursday we had lunch in the Jos. Smith Bldg in the Garden with the head of Family Services and the 2 mental health employees who we work for.  On Friday night we went to the Bountiful Temple.  It is so pretty and we enjoyed doing a session there.  The downtown SLC City Creek renovation is getting done.  The grand opening will be March 22.  It is really nice with a lot of landscaping, water feature and shopping.  It goes well with the Gateway and will make downtown a very attractive place.  Today (Sunday) Nancy starts playing for the choir.  The choir director told her that they prayed her here.  Well, we'll see.  But the snow stopped last night and the sun is shining so it looks like we can make it.  The bushes in our backyard are beautiful with snow piled on the bare branches and the sun shining.  We have a view across City Creek Canyon and we really enjoy it.

I think I need blog lessons because the pictures aren't loading like they did when I was at home.  But will try to figure it out better and send some pictures of where we live.  Happy Day everyone!!

Getting Settled

Getting Settled

I started out tonight with the idea that I would add some more pictures from the MTC and from our apartment but for some reason our computer doesn't want to load pictures right now. The internet is great but it's also the source of my greatest frustration.

We thought we had out internet hooked up last week but the phone jacks in 2 of the bedrooms aren't working so, finally, last night we figured that the computer would have to go into our bedroom as it seems to be the only working jack we have. So we rearranged the furniture and move the computer and now we are hopefully in business.

Well, a little about the mission. We arrived in Salt Lake on the 6th from an amazing week at the MTC. We had lunch and orientation at the Joseph Smith Building with the other 35 missionaries who had arrived in our mission. Only 8 of us had been in the MTC because the family history missionaries don't go to the MTC. We met our Mission Presidency and our Branch Presidency and got our pictures taken. One of Brent's friends from high school is here serving at the Family History Library. We also met one of Nancy's roommates from BYU and her husband, Gretchen and Ken Bray. They are in our branch, too. We haven't seen them since we got married but we were all in the same ward and apartment complex back then.

We got our stuff into our apartment on Friday and Saturday we put stuff away and went shopping for groceries and other needs. Sunday we went to our new Branch, the Salt Lake 2nd Branch in the Salt Lake Stake. We're in the oldest stake in the church and meet in the stake center just west of the Conference Center. Behind the pulpit is a large stained glass window depicting the First Vision. It's really beautiful and not something you see in churches. We were also warned that because our church is right downtown you have to be careful about leaving your coat hanging in the hall as people wander in off the street and take coats if they need one!

Our Branch is senior missionaries and 65 young elders with disabilities that would keep them from serving a proselyting mission. They work up the canyon in the vaults and in the FH library. They are an interesting bunch but bless their hearts for wanting to serve missions. They jump right up to bear their testimonies and the Branch President finally had to get up and close the meeting even though everyone hadn't born their testimony.

Monday morning we reported at 7:30 to the devotional and were introduced with all the other new missionaries. Then a short orientation and off to the COB to begin our training. The first 2 days were a bit overwhelming as we did some work and also had to get our security badges and parking permits. Because we have to drive to work we have parking privileges under the Conference Center. After 3 PM and on weekends we can also park under the COB.

On Monday night our Branch had a "Hail and Farewell" potluck dinner. They have this every other month to say good-bye to the missionaries who are leaving and welcome the ones who are new. Our Branch President does magic tricks so he dressed up in his clown outfit and put on a magic show for the program. He's really pretty good!

Time to sign off and write more later.

First Day at the MTC

We have been here for 24 hours and it has been the  most amazing experience.  Everyone needs to go on a mission and come here.  We arrived in time to go to the Sunday night fireside.  Our nephew, Mason Price, was sitting just 3 rows behind us so we got to visit with him and met up this morning for breakfast.  We had wondered how we might find him and there he was!

 Sitting in the auditorium and singing with all the missionaries was a thrill.  We have a nice room in a new building, very comfortable bed and our own bathroom.  They make it very comfortable for the senior missionaries and are concerned that we take care of ourselves and work at a pace that we can.  There was a large group of senior missionaries who came in today--about 100.  After orientation we had our first meeting and everyone introduced themselves.  Most of the couples and some single sisters are from Canada and the US but they are going to the whole world:  China, Cambodia, Jordan, Croatia, Moscow, Africa and the US.  And there are a number of different things that they are going to do from welfare and humanitarian services to a controller in the church office building and a water rites specialist in the church real estate section.  There are a number of nurses going to the West Indies and S. America and one nurse going to the Navajo Reservation to teach CNA and LPN classes, hopefully leading to a RN program down the road.

 We have an exercise room just down the hall along with vending machines and an ice machine--just like a hotel.  The food is good and there are several choices at each meal.  Still some of the elders eat cold cereal for dinner!!  It's interesting to watch what they pick to eat. One elder at breakfast had a plate of eggs, sausage and hash brown, a plate with 2 bagels and another plate piled with some pink stuff--finally figured that it was cream cheese--on it's own plate.  LOL  Well, I'm tired and we have a long day tomorrow with classes using Preach My Gospel.

Preparations continue

We're working our way through our list of things to take care of before we leave.  This week we finished our immunizations, emptied the freezer, and got clothes ready.  Our daughter gave us this "recipe" to get your white clothes really clean"  1 cup Tide, 1 cup oxy-clean, 1 cup Finish dishwasher detergent.  Mix these together, dissolve in hot water and soak clothes over night.  We tried it on Brent's white shirts and they do look better.

Brent took his suits and our winter coats to the cleaners and we sorted through his ties--some to DI, some stay home and some get to go on the mission.

Nancy put together a mission cookbook of all the random recipes on cards, scraps of paper, clipped from magazines that we love.

Who ever came up with the packaging for men's dress shirts???  It seems that some tree-hugger person would be protesting this copious amount of paper, plastic and metal.  A woman buys a blouse and it's on a hanger (which the store reuses).  A man buys a shirt and it's wrapped as if it were a treasure.

We also visited with the Bishop and Stake President, got new temple recommends, went to the temple, worked at the DI for 3 hours, went to the Ward Christmas Party and took a load of stuff to the DI.  A pretty good week all in all and a little closer to the BIG DAY.

Nancy has been sewing and has made some great finds at thrift stores.  A dress and jacket (Coldwater Creek) for $15 at my Sister's Closet along with a Chico's jacket.  The wool blazer is a DI find for $7.  So, clotheswise we're ready to pack.  Looking forward to marking off some more items this week.