Week of February 26, 2017

Sunday evening there was a fireside with Paul Cardall. I had always wondered if Paul was related to a friend from childhood, so before the fireside started, I asked him if he was related to her. He is her nephew. We had a fun visit for about 5 minutes before others began arriving. He spoke about Emo’s Grave in the cemetery and we spoke about his grandma who I knew. It was a wonderful fireside. I expected him to play music most of the evening. He played 4 numbers and spoke nearly the entire time. He had a heart transplant and has done a couple of concerts in Slovenia to promote treating congenital heart disorders in children. He also collaborated with Elder Bednar to write a song and shared that experience with us.

Monday our assistant zone leaders called to tell us they had got us computers we could call our own—the first we’ve had on our mission. They called back shortly to ask us to get trained on mentoring and assessing the new missionaries. We studied the first few lessons in the morning. In the afternoon I taught Descendancy Research and really enjoyed it. The class was a good size so we were able to give a lot of help.

Tuesday we started to study the lessons again, but we were needed to do assessments so we did a couple each. In the afternoon we attended another class. We finished in time to get to the temple.

Wednesday we were going to continue training on the new student modules so we could be of help to the Zone A trainers. Right off they said they would need us as assessors. I did two assessments then helped mentor a couple of students. I couldn’t help the first lady because I wasn’t familiar with the lessons and couldn’t refer her to where to look for her answer. (We don’t answer the questions—we help them get back into the lessons to find the answer for themselves.) When we went to lunch, Elder Reed said something like they had just been told we would not have the East Wing lab at all, effective immediately. We would, however, have 2S as a “permanent” home. That thrilled me since it is my favorite room. Then he dropped the bomb. There would be no more enrichment classes after today. We would only have Capstone classes to teach.

Capstone was the easy problem. Since we have 2S that only seats 23 max and we already have 50 and 60 signed up for the next two months we would be holding multiple sessions each month to accommodate the missionaries. In March we will hold one series as scheduled and two more sessions the last week of the month. (They are held 4 days, 3 ½ hours each day.) Enrichment classes being cut really made me feel sad. I was looking forward to the teaching. I have struggled with this a little, feeling the letdown. I am sure this is the correct decision for right now, at least until the new missionary training gets more settled and stabilized. I am amazed at the number of changes we have seen in our zone during our 16 months of serving here. I know the Lord is in charge and I trust this is His will and that it will be for the best. I need to get my mind wrapped around how I can best serve and contribute.

My secondary concern is about doing the Swedish research. I know I won’t have as much opportunity to do research during the next two months, but there are some pieces I want to finish before I return home. I don’t have the access I need at my desk so I won’t be able to do the work I want to do during breaks and slow times. It will take some real diligence to get the work done I want to do.

Thursday we spent most of the day either mentoring or doing assessments. I was frustrated during the first part of the day. A missionary asked me a question and the checklist she was using didn’t make any sense to me. I helped her answer the question, which was more than I should have done, but I figured I just didn’t understand what was being asked because it was one of the lessons I had not done. I told the supervisor I would be happy to do whatever she wanted me to do, but I have to know what I’m doing. She had me go back to the desk and review the lessons. In the process I realized changes have been made since they wrote the documentation and it no longer works the way the missionaries were being told to do it. I pointed that out and also pointed out that my checklist had changed the requirements to omit the questionable section. I went back and told the missionary that the questions she was having were because of the changes and she didn’t need to do them.

I went to the library and spent time doing some Swedish research. I feel a real need to get all I can from the records while I am here since so many of them are only available at the library or a family history center. I need to hustle to finish before we go home.

Friday Ted and I decided we would attend the temple all day. We drove to Bountiful for the day. While I was waiting, I ran into a lady working there we had known for years. She was my visiting teacher when we first moved to Las Vegas and her husband was our bishop. When we finished we ran into our friend’s husband and visited with him for a few minutes.

It was a long day but one that was a real blessing. It was good to be in the temple for the day. When we got home we got a phone call from a man on the Swap Meet committee asking if we’d seen the flyer he sent. Their zone leader had sent them a flyer that had the Swap Meet time as 9 am instead of 11 am as my flyer said. Someone had done some obvious changes to the flyer that could cause confusion. I wanted to find out the source of the changed flyer. I tried to reach their zone leader but was not able to. I called the lady in charge of housing and she said they had told the new missionaries 11 am. Their tickets said 9 am due to a separate mistake, totally unrelated to the other issue, but they cleared it up so the new missionaries knew the correct time. I’m hoping the 9 am flyer only went to the one zone.

Saturday we were out early for the Swap Meet. We had put a sign on the shed posting the correct time and apologizing for any miscommunication anyone may have received. We had so much stuff! The weather was great except the wind gusted at times creating a bit of a challenge. A couple of vases blew off the table and broke and things needed to be weighted down. When it was about 5 minutes before 11 am we still did not have everything hung up because it had taken so much time to get to the clothes. We made it and the new missionaries, about 24 of them, flooded in and took tons of stuff. The other missionaries lined up outside and the line went clear to the covered parking and beyond, about thirty feet. I have never seen so many missionaries turn out. We got rid of a bundle of stuff. When it was time to close up I filled a garbage bag with bedding and linens from the shed that have been hanging around for a long time or just needed to move. It looks totally empty right now, but it will fill up and more by the end of the month. I really enjoy doing the Swap Meet—it is the social event of the month.

New missionary waiting for wife to shop!

After lunch I went to the library to do some research. I was able to find several records that were needed to finish documenting one family. I got most attached to the records. It was a good day.