Made the trek back to the JSMB--still huffing and puffing. But it helped to go by ourselves at our own pace. The lights at the corners are LONG! We heard from so many different people and moved from place to place. I met my trainer, Sister Hutchins from California. She's very sweet. I really like her. We took pictures with the mission president, President Workman, and then pictures of the whole group. more pictures and received our security passes. I came home totally exhausted and everything became a blur. I napped awhile then called and talked to Meghan. I feel bad that I may have sounded negative. I was just so exhausted.
We had a BEAUTIFUL lunch in the Jade Room with the mission presidency. We sat at the table with President Johns and his wife. They had lived in El Paso for several years, but they live here in Utah now. The lunch was delicious--salad, spinach lasagna, melt-in-your-mouth rolls from the Beehive House, with honey butter, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. In the afternoon we went over to the Church Office Building.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Today was better. We walked through the underground tunnel/parking area to the Church History Library. We'd never figure out how to do it on our own! But we didn't get to have our training there, a mix-up on the rooms. So we were dismissed early. We were excited that our internet Jet Pack would be here, but it wasn't. We called and were told, "No, Wednesday. They should not have told you Tuesday." Bah, humbug.
Pat and Courtney surprised us today and we met up with them in the Joseph Smith Building. We had a good, but short visit. They had come up and stayed with Courtney's brother. It's fun to have people we seldom see just drop in for a visit!
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Good day of training. I'm learning a lot. So thankful for Sister Hutchins and her knowledge and her patience.
The Jet Pack was almost delivered, but we weren't there to receive it. More hassle on the phone, maybe tomorrow.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
This morning we watched the most amazing video by President Beardall, who used to be in the mission presidency. He talked about genealogy--the enumeration of ancestors and their children in natural order or succession and history--a narration, or account of circumstances and events pertaining to something, such as a family. Thus, we have Family History. He explained that we need both, the facts of genealogy and the stories of our history. Neither is complete without the other. He described how you can write the story by carefully studying the documents that make up the genealogy--much as I tried to do in my farewell talk with the census records of my gggrandmother. He told the story of his wife's aunt, who had died when she was only five. The story was so very touching, not a dry eye in the room. He told us the African proverb, "When an old man dies, a library burns." How many of us knew our grandfathers? our great grandfathers? Usually within two generations of a person's death, there will be no one left who knew him personally. If we don't write our own stories, our history will be lost.
At the end of the day a nurse from the medical unit talked to us. The unit is there in the middle of the Training Zone. There is a GP, a dermatologist, an orthopedic doctor, an ENT and several nurses on the staff. There is no charge to see any of them. We don't need an appointment to talk to one of the nurses, but we need appointments for the doctors. If they have to run x-rays or do lab work, there is a charge for those. It's amazing that all of this is available to us.
The Jet Pack arrived--glory hallelujah, but more hassle. It ate up over a gig of data in about an hour. This has to get better.
Friday, June 12, 2015
We had interviews this morning with the mission presidency and their wives. Each couple spent about ten minutes with each missionary couple. They're great people. As we were leaving President Workman he said, "We are so grateful for you. We prayed you here." I couldn't help but think, "No, you didn't. I wanted to come so very much. I'm here because I asked to come and Robert was good enough to support me and you granted my request." Later I thought, "Maybe that's why I wanted to come so very much. From last fall on, the desire just got stronger and stronger." Maybe we're here because he prayed us here and maybe because it's an answer to my prayers and maybe one goes hand in hand with the other!
We ended the day with a presentation by the Data Administration people--the folks we contact when we're having trouble with our records on Family Search. That would be a tough job. They also continually change and "improve" things on Family Search. They're above the Training Zone in the building. So Sister Hutchins says she sometimes wants to take a stick, tap on the ceiling, and say, "Hey, what are you doing up there? Why don't you warn us when you're changing something?!" She cracks me up.
My friends David and Trisha Downer were in town from Henderson. Trisha and I were born three days apart in the same hospital. Ours mothers were in the hospital together. In sixth grade Trisha and I were in the same class and became best friends. Her family was such an inspiration to me. The first time I ever had family prayer was in their home and they would talk to me about my mother. I feel I owe much of my desire to have a strong, righteous family and warm, welcoming LDS home was because of Trisha's family. They're very dear to me. Her older sister, Louise, was my Beehive leader before I was ever baptized into the church and I still remember the lesson she taught us on the Word of Wisdom. Anyway, Trisha and I double-dated in high school, we were in each other's weddings, and we've stayed in touch all of these years. We went out to eat with them tonight and they treated us to Rodizio's Grill--yummo, yummo! It was excellent. A great salad bar followed by waiters coming around with skewers of all sorts of meat and you could have as much or as little as you wanted. We tried just about everything. I passed on the chicken hearts, though not much else.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
We got some housekeeping chores done this morning and then headed to the Verizon store to return some extra things they sent us that we didn't want, need, or want to pay for. I also wanted some white shoes. The ones I brought have been eating my little toes with all the walking. Sitting in church for 3 hours is nothing like walking to church and home again. There is a difference!
We went to The Walking Store to look for shoes and they took an interesting picture of my feet and said I put all the pressure on the ball of my left foot, none on the heel--I guess because of my left ankle fusion--weird. But I decided to go to Sandy to the SAS Shoe Store and I bought a pair of white shoes there that I think will be great.
Then we came back to Salt Lake and met Dave and Trish for late lunch/early dinner at the Red Iguana. We had heard it was good. Good thing we got there when we did. We only had a short wait and when we left there was a looong line of people waiting to get in. It's Mexican food and very good.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
We met Dave and Trish at the Tabernacle for the choir broadcast. It had been many years since I had been to one of those. It was wonderful. I was thrilled that one of the songs they did was "These are a few of my Favorite Things." At the end they sang to us, "God be with you til we meet again." I cried over that one. I usually do anyway, but to hear the choir sing it was amazing. They're leaving next week for a tour back east and around the 4th of July they will sing the national anthem at a Yankee baseball game. I think that is very cool. We said good-by to Dave & Trish. They were headed home. It sure was good to see them and have such a good visit.
Later we walked to and from church (in my wonderful new white shoes) and now I have a blister about the size of a penny on the side of my right heel. So much for that good idea.
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