Week 35

I'm sure that most missionaries are feeling what I feel when they sit down to write a new letter. What can I possibly say that is new when we're living Groundhog Day? I guess we all feel a little bit like Bill Murray. I don't have a whole lot new to say because I'm doing pretty much the same things. 

One fun and different something I did this week was Facetime Madeline and Sister Rideout! We had a little lesson on using the Family Tree app on their phones. It was so much fun! 

This is a trick that most missionaries learn - people love to talk about their families and when you tell them you have a way for them to learn more about their families, they'll usually listen to you. I also showed them some fun tricks with reverse indexing. If anyone else wants to learn something fun to do with family history, know who to call! ❣📞

The lilacs are in bloom here. I just love the scent of lilacs because it reminds me of my home growing up with my mom.

It was her birthday on Monday. She would have been 112! Here's her page on FamilySearch. Get to know her! If the link doesn't work, search for Julia Mae Faux born April 20, 1909, in Moroni, Utah. 💕

FamilySearch

FamilySearch

I ran out of yarn, so in the evenings I have resorted to working on my twenty-year quilt! I lovingly started calling it that when I realized that it has taken me that long and counting! I started it in 2001 when a friend in my choir carpool showed me how to do it. The technique is called English paper piecing. All the little pieces are two-inch hexagons that I hand stitch together, and then join them together by hand. I might actually finish it as a new quilt for my guest room!

And thanks to Caryn for sending me some CUTE masks! I use the industrial strength from Camille with I'm worried about who I come in contact with, but it's always nice to have a cute one!

I know I've said this before, but I have come to love technology more than I ever dreamed possible. I love connecting with my mission friends in devotionals over Zoom. I love connecting with you my wonderful family through Facetime and Zoom. It means so much to me to be able to see your faces and know you're well. I have been amazed as I've experienced the sweetest technology of all in the gift of the Holy Ghost. I imagine that you have come to learn what it feels like when you're feeling the Holy Ghost. At least I hope you will learn how to recognize it if you don't already. It's amazing to feel the Holy Ghost come into my tiny space when someone opens a meeting with prayer. Or offers a family prayer. D&C 11:13-14 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy: And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive.

Week 34

I guess the best news to report this week is that I'm still here and healthy! There really isn't much to say that hasn't been said a dozen different ways. Sorry!

I did start a fun new indexing project though. I had to get approved to join a project that the Church History Department is doing by indexing church census records. Apparently there are 4.5 million of them! So I guess it will take a while, but because of the sensitive nature of the records they don't open it up to everyone. This helps me to feel like I'm still contributing in a missionary sort of way because I can do my mission assignment in an hour or less most days.

I get out and go for a walk if the weather is nice, and it has been nice most of the week. Here are a couple of pictures of an empty City Creek Mall and Main Street. 

I do wear my mask to be obedient, but it steams up my glasses! So I put my glasses on top of my head. I could actually see better that way - then I realized that my glasses were quite smudged. 🙄

I had a sweet get-together with my cousins this week. It was so good to be able to hug Kathi - she's now virus-free and can't give it to anyone or get it from anyone. Doug (her brother) and Margaret came and we had lunch at Kathi's house. It was wonderful to be together and share memories of Bob as well as other family stories. She is doing remarkably well. I hope you'll all still be connected to your cousins when you're old like me! After the parents are gone, and even some of the cousins, it's good to have memories and family connections that can carry us through tough times and beyond the veil.

There were some pretty great scriptures to study this week for Come Follow Me! Don't we all just love King Benjamin? I had a lot of highlights in mine already, but here is one set I'll share today: 

Mosiah 2: 19-22

"...O how you ought to thank your heavenly King! I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another - I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another - I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you."

I'm so grateful for your righteous examples to me, and so very grateful that we're all healthy and safe. We have definitely been blessed, and I know we're protected when we keep the commandments!

Week 33 - Easter Sunday

I've been doing a pretty good job of staying home and being safe this week. I can get to all my databases and files on my laptop, but a couple of times this week I had to go in to print some letters for missionaries going home. Here's a picture of Sister Temple and me being good and wearing our masks. Just so you know, it fogs up your glasses! I kinda have a hard time seeing where I'm going!

Working from "home" does cause me to go a little stir crazy. I try to go out for a walk every day. It's beautiful on Temple Square and still open in sections. Thankfully the weather has been beautiful. Here's one of my favorite bushes like one I have at home - it's in the walkway of my apartment buildings.

Speaking of stir crazy... Yesterday, Saturday, I wasn't looking forward to a whole day of staying in. Even though I've been doing it most of the week, Saturdays feel different. So I decided to get in my car and go for a ride. I drove to Orem and bought some flowers to take to the cemetery. With this weekend being Easter, it was a sweet time to realize that death is not permanent, and that we will be reunited with those we love. Because of Jesus Christ, we will be resurrected and live again with Him and with each other because of the blessings of the temple covenants we have made.

What was going to be a very long and lonely day became a very sweet and memorable one.

Today has been a wonderful day as well! It began with a sweet meeting with the Ashtons and Madeline (Sister Ashton) & Sister Rideout in Portugal. They invited one of their friends to join us. We were all able to bear testimony of the Savior and the reality of the resurrection and atonement. It was very sweet! I then got to FaceTime Cameron, Lori & Annabelle.

I LOVE TECHNOLOGY! Then Coray, Mindy, Will & Sarah came by to see me. Abby was on the phone too, so I got to talk to her. We didn't hug so don't worry! But they brought me chocolate and some puzzles - so grateful that I don't have to start over on the ones I've finished! Not to be excluded or forgotten, Jonathan texted me Easter greetings!

I also got to FaceTime the Wengreens in Seattle. Since Adam is home from Peru, he shared his testimony with the family today. Not sure you can call it a homecoming talk because he will hopefully be able to go back out, so maybe a midcoming. I'm grateful to have heard this firm testimony from him. So with that, I've heard from or seen each member of my family today. What a sweet blessing it is to be able to connect in so many different ways!

One of the sweetest blessings of the day is getting to partake of the Sacrament. I'm so grateful that the mission presidency has provided a plan for the sister missionaries to receive the sacrament from the young elders. They come to our apartment building and reverently and safely provide this ordinance for us. This will be one of my favorite memories.

I'm so very grateful to have had more time to reflect and study the meaning of this Easter week. I'm so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, for the reality of the atonement for me. Most of all, I'm grateful for the sure knowledge that His resurrection gives me that I will also be resurrected to live again with my precious family.

Week 32

What an interesting and crazy and wonderful week! At the Mission Office we have resisted working from home because frankly we believed that it wasn't possible for us to get what we needed at home. The rest of the mission was ordered home a couple of weeks ago and there have been some amazing projects for them to work on. Some missionaries don't have those types of responsibilities so they're asked to index or work on their own family histories. I must admit that I have been a little wary of the crowded nature of the mission office, especially later in the day when the young elders come in. They tend to congregate around the office, and they weren't very good about keeping six feet away from us at the front desk. I mentioned this to President McKnight and he said they would discuss it at their presidency meeting. Thankfully they agreed with my suggestion that they be asked to go around and avoid the front desk unless they had a reason to be there. Here's my sign. It works! This was Monday morning.

On Tuesday after their meeting the mission presidency came out with a pretty strong directive that we need to figure it out. They really want us to work from home when at all possible. So on Wednesday I stayed home and got help from global and missionary support to be able to log in to the databases and files I need to do my work. Well it's not possible to do all the printing of files and letters from home. So I did have to go in to the office on Thursday. Elder Drummond had made signs  telling everyone that we're working from home. Except when we're not. 😄 I was able to get all my April letters out, so I hope there will be few times I actually have to go in.

The Church Office Building cafeteria is really cracking down too. Last week, we could go in and get a selection of meals - still pre-packaged or served by the staff, nothing self-serve. And they weren't allowing us to eat there. But this week they changed their system. You have to pre-order before you go to the cafeteria. They have it ready for pick-up. There is blue tape on the floor so that people are reminded to stay six feet apart, and the sweet cashiers are seated at desks by the exit.

One of the things that the CDC has still recommended is that we get outside to exercise. So I went for a walk Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful spring day. Here are some of my pictures. 💕

This is the courtyard between the buildings where I live.

We have to look for the sweet tender mercies through all this darkness. Yesterday was the first day of this historic General Conference weekend. In Elder Andersen's talk Saturday morning he told us to look for the "spiritually defining" moments in our lives which tell us of God's love for us. Here's one for me: I have been feeling lonely the last couple of days and especially this morning as I started to watch conference by myself in this tiny apartment. Today and tomorrow are historic sessions of General Conference because only those speaking and praying are in the small auditorium where conference is being broadcast. All the music is pre-recorded by the Tabernacle Choir. To my surprise the recording of Joseph Smith's First Prayer was from April 2008, and I was singing. There were a couple of glimpses of me. After the song I got texts from friends and family saying they saw me. I also got texts from dear friends now who didn't know me then asking if they were seeing me. My kids and grandkids spotted me and like old times Nathan pointed me out. They took a picture and sent it. I no longer felt lonely.

Here's a picture of the street today taken by my missionary friend who lives across from the Conference Center. This usually very crowded corner is empty as we're all watching conference from home.

Even though I couldn't be at the Conference Center today, I have a ticket for this historic event. It's taped in my journal.

This conference was also historic and memorable because it is one of the few occasions where members of the Church participated in the Hosanna Shout and Anthem. This is usually done only at temple dedications, but it was also done at the dedication of the Conference Center where I was blessed to be. They used that recording today.

President Nelson reminded us in his talk today - What does it mean to me that the gospel has been restored to the earth?

• That me and my family can be sealed together forever
• Because I have been baptized and confirmed, I can enjoy the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost
• I will never be left comfortless or without access to the power of God to help me
• Priesthood power can bless me as I receive essential ordinances and make covenants with God and keep them

I'm so very grateful today for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through His prophet Joseph Smith. I'm grateful that my ancestors received the missionaries and accepted the invitation to be baptized. I'm grateful that they all remained faithful and that my mother took me to church when it would have been so much easier for her to stay home. I'm grateful for my celestial marriage to a worthy priesthood holder, and for the righteous and faithful lives of my children and grandchildren.