Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission

August 24, 2014

Our Beautiful Tabernacle and Temple in the Early Evening

Our week was very busy because we had two days of zone conferences.  Our responsibility was to prepare food for 200 sisters.  Sister Curtis and I went shopping on Tuesday and we filled shopping carts full of food.  We really built up our muscles by hauling those items from one place to another.  Wednesday and Thursday we prepared the meals along with a few part time senior couples who came in to help us.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to attend the conferences because of so many responsibilities in the kitchen and Taggart handling responsibilities on Temple Square.  Those two days were very full for the sisters attending but was very spiritually uplifting for them.

We have not been as faithful in the past few transfers in meeting with our district.  We are really trying to attend district meeting each Tuesday, however hospitality tours sometimes get in the way of getting there.  Sister Genster is our leader, a wonderful sister from Germany who came out with us.  Speaking of our class, we are amazed, as I have mentioned before, that our class is speaking in sacrament meetings.  These talks are reserved for those sisters who are leaving to go home.  We have only one more transfer before we will be leaving too!

This week we also had dinner with Cesar.  He is so excited because he has completed his mission papers.  After waiting so long for this event in his life, it finally is happening.  He will be receiving his mission call probably within the next month.  We look forward with great anticipation to see where he is going and can’t wait to begin writing him when he leaves.

Christmas Lights going up on the Square in August

It seems like only yesterday that they took down Christmas lights on Temple Square and now they are putting them up again.  But we reflect back to last August when they were doing the very same thing.  It will be hard for us to come back at Christmas time and see the lights but that is on our agenda when the children and grandchildren come for a visit.  We love Temple Square and will miss it so much.

We Love our Mission!!!

Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission

August 10, 2014

“Music and the Spoken Word” was especially wonderful today because our prophet, President Monson, was there.  However, we were most concerned because he was brought in with a wheelchair but when he left he was walking with the aid of his daughter.  As the audience stood he waved to the group and everyone waved back.  Of course, I was in tears.  But “Music and the Spoken Word” was terrific musically today because they had a guest vocalist, Dallyn Vail Bayles, and he was fabulous.  He sang some numbers from Brigadoon and Carousel.  All in all, it was very uplifting and inspiring.

It doesn’t appear at this moment that the mission has anyone to replace the Curtis’ or ourselves.  So, we have been personally recruiting senior couples to serve here.  We have had several couples come to the Square who have personally been interested in coming, including the Burtons from Ogden.  Because Julie and Dave Curtis will be leaving mid-September we desperately need to find someone soon.  Taggart and I will be on our own during our last transfer and it will be very difficult to be alone.

It was transfer week with several sisters leaving and eleven new sisters coming to the mission.  For the first time in a long time we had a few sisters come from the USA.  As I have mentioned in the past, it is especially difficult for me to learn the sisters’ names, particularly those from out of the United States.  It was fun to meet all of them and very sad to say goodbye to wonderful friends who we probably will never see again.

Taggart still has his pain but he is a trooper and continues to do his duties.  We really hope eventually he will be back to normal.  If he is sitting he feels better, but the walking about really agitates his neck.  Interestingly, our mission president’s wife fell and broke her arm and has been out too.  It is a joke now who will be the next senior to come down with an ailment.

As we were at the Tabernacle this week at the organ recital President and Sister Garvin from Iowa were in the audience.  He had been our stake president prior to President Jeppson.  It was fun to see them and we learned that they moved to Willard most recently to be closer to their children.  It is always exciting to see someone from the past.

We are still corresponding with Diane.  She is still in a difficult situation but continues to attend church and read the Book of Mormon and pray.  We are hopeful that one day she may be a true believer and give up some of her bad habits.  She means a lot to us and hope that someday we can see her personally, especially if she gets baptized.

 

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

Utah Salt Lake City Utah Temple Square Mission

August 3, 2014

Time is marching on and Taggart is down with his neck.  In going to the doctor this week, he found that his neck is not healing and the doctor has required him to stay home and rest.  Hopefully by next week the pain will have diminished and he will be back on the Square.  I certainly miss my companion and best buddy.

We learned this week what sisters will be going outbound.  Twenty of them will be leaving for two transfers.  Because we have only two transfers left ourselves, we will not see them again so it is bitter sweet.  We love these sisters and are so grateful to have gotten to know them.

The organ recitals have been wild this week.  Because they are refinishing many of the doors in the Tabernacle, our traffic lines have been changed and it is difficult to control the people coming and going.  There have been so many attending these recitals that the numbers are reaching the 600 range and without Taggart it is hard to do it without him.

As always we have had many hospitality tours.  This week I took a group over to the Conference Center.  It was a great tour and I enjoyed myself tremendously.  We had an excellent tour guide and there were many questions asked.  One man came up to me, apologized before he asked his question, and said, “How can you justify the expense of this building when the money could be used to help those in need.”  I explained our humanitarian efforts and welfare program and then a lady who was listening to the conversation spoke up.  She testified to this man of the goodness and charity of the Mormon people.  Apparently, she had been in need at one point in her life and the Mormons stepped up and helped her without being asked.  She said she is forever grateful to the Church.  After her comments he said nothing else.  It was great to have a non-member testify and be a second witness of what I had been saying.

Our Weber State Friends in the Park

On Friday our friends from Weber State came for dinner and a concert in Brigham Young Park.  Unfortunately, Taggart was unable to go but I enjoyed myself.  They are such good people so it was fun to see them again.  I vowed that in November I would have them all to dinner at our condo.  I look forward to entertaining again.