Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission

April 6, 2014

What a glorious conference week.  The flowers were in full bloom, however it was cold and rainy most of the week.  There were many people on the Square virtually from Monday through Sunday.  Some visitors had traveled great distances to come to Temple Square.  You could see their enthusiasm and respect for this special place and they dressed up and marveled at everything.  We so enjoyed visiting with them.

We were extremely busy through the weekend, helping with food cleanup, monitoring the Square and just visiting with people.  The Priesthood Session on Saturday night was interesting because there were a large group of women protesting because they wanted the Priesthood and couldn’t go to the Priesthood Session.  They were angry because they were excluded.  President Poulsen, our mission president, didn’t want the sisters around these “ordained women” (that is what they called themselves) because of potential harassment, so they were told to stay away from the Tabernacle.  Besides that incident everything was calm but busy on Temple Square.

Our Beautiful Sisters during Conference

We were able to go to Conference on Saturday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it.  In fact, the talks we were able to hear were amazing and inspiring.  How grateful we are for these men and women who give of their time and effort to this great cause, spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Kenneth Cope

As a reward for the extended hours the sisters had to work this weekend, they had a special meeting on Sunday where the singer, Kenneth Cope, held a mini-concert.  I have heard him sing on the “Sounds of Sunday” radio program but it was a thrill to see him in person.  His performance was so uplifting and inspirational.  Hearts were touched and many tears were shed.

We received some sad news this week about our former neighbors in the condo.  Matt and Sharon Kaschmitter had come from Iowa and had lived in our condo only a year but everyone loved them.  Because she was so homesick for Iowa they left Utah and moved back to their home state.  This week they had come for a short visit to Utah to see their son and friends and she accidently fell and her head struck a rock.  She experienced extreme head trauma and was brain dead.  She was taken off life support and they are just waiting for her to die.  Our love goes out to their family and we are reminded of how fragile life really is.  We really want to make every day count and love each other unconditionally.

We were able to talk to Diane this week, however, she was terribly depressed because it appears to her that her world is falling apart.  We couldn’t teach her a discussion, but tried with all our might to uplift her.  Because she is in such a bad place at the moment, our message of the restored gospel should give her hope and comfort.  Two of the conference messages we heard on Saturday afternoon could really speak to her soul.  We are going to make sure that she gets copies of them.  

 opefully they can always stay in touch because they have very similar personalities and H