On September 19 we had the Saturday evening session of stake conference. We didn't even know which of the three gentlemen on the stand was the stake president! It turned out he had just gotten back from China a few hours before, had been traveling for many hours, and had to be dog tired, but he is a very upbeat guy. He'd been traveling with the governor of Utah. They attended a sacrament meeting and a session at the Hong Kong Temple while they were there. I don't know what the pres. does. I think they were on some kind of a conference to build up trade, maybe.
The Sunday session was held at the Tabernacle on Temple Square and it was pretty full. One of the counselors in the stake presidency had two men step back like 13 rows in the center section and had each of the people in those rows stand up. That represented the number of prospective elders in the stake. They stepped off 4 more rows and that represented the people who once had temple recommends and no longer have them. Then he had the entire center section stand up and that was the number of homes in the stake without a priesthood holder. It was eye-opening.
The weather was so gorgeous, I just couldn't imagine coming inside for the rest of the day, so we drove up to Alta and Snowbird. As we got way up the canyons, the colors were beautiful. It makes
We headed out Tuesday morning, the 22nd, and decided to go find Antelope Island. It's an island in the Great Salt Lake. Years ago they built a causeway to it and it flooded a couple of years later, so they built it up higher and eventually the park service took it over. A man was worried that the bison were going to disappear from the country, so he went to Texas and bought 12--4 bulls, 4 calves and 4 cows and brought them back to Utah. They put them on a raft and took them out to Antelope Island. We spent several hours there and saw hundreds of bison and ONE antelope! We got so excited when we saw the first one. He was almost facing us and not far away, but was munching away, seeming to care less about us. We had to send a picture of it to Mason because he was so taken with them in Yellowstone last year. He brought home a stuffed one and we told him it might be Bessie's cousin.
Robert tells me this statue isn't an antelope, it's a mule deer, but the phone rang just as I was about to get a picture of the only antelope we saw, so this is as close as it gets!
Saturday the 26th Sister Isaacson and I had tickets for women's conference, so it was my first ever session of conference in person. It's pretty amazing to be there with 22,000 other women. There were lots of groups taking pictures of moms and daughters, sisters, etc .It was very sweet. I realized while I was there that it was just 6 months ago that we received our mission call. We got it on Saturday and that evening it was the Women's Session of General Conference. I went and got to share our news with lots of people. I was so excited. I didn't want to wait two months to leave. I wanted to go in like two weeks. I'm sure it's a good thing that wasn't the schedule. Last Sunday I saw I had a message from Tina Stock (Ellis) that she was there. I would have loved to see her. President Uchtdorf's talk about the girl going to stay with her great aunt and how her aunt had made the choice to be happy and cheerful was great. I loved it. I feel like I have a tendency to be inwardly overly critical of some people and I don't want to be that way. It's a choice and one I just don't need to make.
Fast Sunday was the 27th and several people who are leaving at the end of the month talked about what the mission has meant to them. It's so hard to see some of these people leave--the ones we have gotten to know and work with at the library. Some have said they have already put in papers to come back. I can see why. It's just not everywhere you can go and feel like you are contributing something worthwhile every day and work with great people and meet new people who are so grateful for you helping them. There's so much to see and do. And I wish the darn calendar would slow down! It's crazy the way time is flying by.
Our "social group" monthly meeting was here on Monday, the 28th. Robert had really worked hard to get ready for it. I couldn't imagine how we were going to have 15 people here in our apartment and he was convinced we could do it, so he just kept plugging away at making it happen. He found the tables and extra chairs. We bought the paper goods last week and Saturday while I was at conference, he went out and bought the last minute things--some nibbles for the tables and some extra ladles since we were having soup and salad. Of course we had plenty of food. Robert had made chicken and ham gumbo (who has ever heard of that combination? But I don't like sausage) and seafood gumbo with shrimp, craw fish and sausage. We made a BIG batch of rice and I made an oatmeal cake. Sister Isaacson made chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles (in spite of not having her rolling pin or favorite knife), Sister Birch made chicken taco soup, we had lasagne, broccoli salad, orange fluff salad, homemade rolls, fruit salad--no one left hungry unless it was by choice.
Robert even bought some cute bowls for serving-it's amazing what we don't have here that we just take for granted because we have it all at home!
In our Family Tree Class on Wednesday we learned (again!) about posting pictures in Family Search. I put all of my pictures that Reba brought to me on a flash drive (again! Are we seeing a pattern here?). I've lost two flash drives now--I can't remember to take them out of the computer and take them with me! Glen brought me pictures of Grandma Parkin's family that had been in the Tolman Library in Bountiful that they're getting ready to sell. So since class, I've been putting pictures like crazy on Family Search.
This week we also had a class on newspapers and I really need to dive into that and see if I can find any good information. Robert bought me (another!) flash drive and I managed to put all the class stuff I had lost from Sister Isaacson's flash drive onto mine, and then the newspaper handouts from mine onto hers. We were both so impressed with ourselves that we managed to do that. That's a big step for me! Now if I can just not lose this flash drive...
We stayed home ALL DAY today--I didn't get dressed, didn't fix my hair, didn't put on make up--it was glorious! We watched both sessions of Saturday conference even though we live across the street from the Conference Center. We could have gone and stood in line to get in, but staying home seemed so wonderful. I would have loved to be there today when they announced three new apostles--that's pretty momentous, but we'll get to hear them talk tomorrow. We have tickets for the afternoon session. Maybe by then I'll be tired of being inside. Maybe...
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