A Week For Our Grandkids!

What a highlight week we have had in many ways. Monday, January 20, was my Moms 99th birthday.  I am sure she was celebrating on the other side of the veil, but I did think of her a lot that day.  It was also our granddaughter, Elizabeth Barton's, birthday in Mead Washington.  We sang Happy Birthday to her.  Spencer and Gaylene Call, a couple we served with at Deseret Land and Livestock, came to visit and have lunch with us.  We had a good visit catching up on the last 3 years.  They are now serving as directors at Mosida, a church property southwest of Utah Lake that does handcart treks.

Spencer and Gaylene Call January 21 2020.  We had a great visit.  Yes we Calls are related!

Wednesday January 22 we had the great privilege of picking up Joshua Barton our first grandchild missionary, at the Salt Lake Airport. He will be serving in the Dallas Spanish speaking mission.  We were able to show him around our area and he was able to see the demolition of Temple Square.  He was very interested in what was happening as he has been studying construction management at BYUI This past year.

Happy Grandparents with Josh outside the Salt Lake Temple.

Looking in on the demolition of the South visitors center.  Joshua was loving it.  Notice the Barton boys stance.

We then drove to Provo and picked up our oldest grandson, Brenan Mayhew, who is a Junior at BYU and we all went to lunch at In and Out Burgers.  It was their choice!  We all then went to the MTC to drop Josh off.  It was an amazing day.  We just have the best grandkids any Grandma and Grandpa could want.

You now drop off your missionaries in an underground parking garage at the MTC and they have MTC Elders whisk them away.  Another great missionary on his way!  What a fun day with our two oldest grandkids.

A favorite place to eat for our amazing grandsons.

Friday January 24th our granddaughter, Kyen Mayhew, competed in her first level 10 competition in gymnastics.  We of course were not there but through the miracle of technology we were able to watch her compete.  She did super taking first on floor and first for the team, Desert Devils.

Kyen First place floor routine.  Yeah!

Kyen by the pool before the meet.

First place team.  Kyen is third from the left.

If that was not enough, our granddaughter Shaylin Mayhew, a cheerleader at Mountain View High School, had a competition where they took second place.  Can you tell we are proud grandparents.

Shaylin up in the air where she usually is being a "flyer"

Shaylin high in the air

Shaylin on the far right.  Team took 2nd

The demolition continues to be speeding along.  The South Visitors center is essentially gone.  It looks like a bombed out ruin.  It changes everyday.  The best view is from the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Building.

What was the south visitors center.  January 26, 2020

South Visitors center gone.

Just one little southwest corner remains.  I'm sure it will be gone tomorrow.

We continue to be learning like we are drinking from a firehose.  Our new group of missionaries arrive tomorrow, all 22 of them. Bob will be teaching his first class Monday, "Discover, Gather, Connect".  He is ready. This week I will continue to mentor and learn.

Tonight our zone fed 10 of the young Elders.  We had to do it out in the hall on the fourth floor, as no one has a big enough place to feed 20.  We had Hawaiian haystacks and we all had a good time getting to know them better.  We will sure miss them when the young Elders leave us the end of June.

Demo days are here, more New opportunities and snow!

Monday mornings are always early days.  They start of with a 6:15 AM choir practice (I hope our ward never thinks of doing that!) to prepare for the choir number we sing in our Mission Devotional at 7:30 AM.  We spent the remainder of the day on our steep learning curve trying to be able to mentor and teach the basics of Family Search to the new missionaries as they come into the mission.  The 2nd Monday night of each month our scriptorian Mission President, President Fenn, as he interprets the Book of Mormon.  He talked about the Prophet Mormon and put him in the same class as the Prophet Joseph Smith.  His insights were awesome.

Tuesday was more learning.  We are starting to be able to help others sometimes.  This week is what we call Enrichment Week, meaning we get serving missionaries that want to learn more about Family Search and are serving in zones that they don't get to work with Family Search except on their own time.  Enrichment weeks are low pressure with missionaries that really want to learn and are nice to work with.

Wednesday started off with a snowy walk to another 6:15 choir practice for our 7:30 Mission Conference.  As we neared the JSMB (Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg) we noticed poor Brigham and Joseph were standing facing the Temple covered in snow.

Joseph Smith freezing but not for the 1st time.

Snowy Brigham Young

Our guest speaker was the Director of Family History, David E. Rencher.  He gave a very insightful presentation on the status of Family Search and an overall view of genealogy world wide. I didn't feel so good so I walked to our apartment and slept for a couple of hours.  About the time I got up it was time for another choir practice at 4:15.  All this singing is getting to me.

Thursday started with classes and training.  The other half of the mission had their Mission Conference at 12:30 which we being one mission choir got to sing in.  Then about half the choir escaped out the back of the chapel and went about our day.  Debra and I then got called into our zone leaders office and were called to train to take over Capstone Training when one of the two assistant zone leaders goes home in April.  Talk about a shock, anyway, Capstone is a 6 day course that is given to all departing missionaries to give them the knowledge and tools to be somewhat effective at Family Search when they go home.  We went to the Bountiful Temple and did a sealing session with 8 others from our training zone.

View from the front door of our apartment looking to the Conference Center and Temple Square.  BURRRRR!

Friday morning started out with a big snow storm, it only put down about 3 or 4 inches but it snowed and blowed pretty hard for a couple of hours.  We then braved the roads and went with our new awesome friends Dave and Sandy Briggs from Lovell, Wyoming to the Jordan River Temple for an endowment session and out to lunch.  Friday was a big day for the SL Temple demo.  They had a huge backhoe giving the south visitor center a big wacking in a big snow storm.  The north side is now open to the elements.  We expect the remainder will come down early next week.

South visitor center being demo'ed

Construction at North Gate of Temple Square.

Demo from ground level.  

cedar of Lebanon in the upper right.  They are trying to save this one.

Saturday was clean the apartment and going to the Verizon store to see what it is going to cost to replace Debra's phone.  Her battery is swollen and the back of her phone is bulging and coming apart.  Thank goodness it isn't a Samsung that starts on fire or blows up.  I could not talk Debra into replacing it, she wants to wait until it doesn't work anymore, oh well what can I say more.  We also found a Massage Envy that we now have appointments for, yeah.  On our way back to the apartment I took a detour and passed by the house my mom was born and raised in.  It has been modernized a little but it brought back many memories of my childhood watching the Friday night boxing match or Saturday night watching the bubble man Laurence Welk. Or if my grandpa tired of Laurence Welk I would go out on the front porch and talk with him and watch him smoke a big cigar (I still to this day enjoy the smell of a good cigar).  On Saturday I would often find myself in the big garage in the back getting greasy and helping my grandpa fix a car, I really enjoyed spending time with him.

Grandparents home 945 E.700 So. SLC, UT

Sunday, we have become addicted to the live performance of Music and the Spoken Word.  It doesn't hurt that we only have to walk across the street to see it, but it has become our Sunday morning habit.  We then became Ushers for 2 hours at the JSMB, that means that we guard the doors and keep everyone out but those that belong.  The JSMB is closed on Sunday except for 2 local wards and our 2 mission branches.  We had fun doing that.

Usher duty at the JSMB

We attended our Sacrament Mtg. and now we are headed upstairs for dinner and games with the Briggs I mentioned earlier.

The Snow, Lights, Trees, and Buildings are Falling

The snow has arrived and it is very beautiful but cold.  The roads have not been bad but then again we do very little driving and a lot of walking.
Monday the snow started falling during our Devotional in the chapel at the Joseph Smith Memorial b
Building. They were some of the largest flakes we have ever seen, but the pictures do not do it justice. We sing with our Mission choir called the Elijah Choir and sang "Ring Out Wild Bells" on Monday.  It sounded quite good, but not one of our favorites.

Looking across South Temple from the Joseph Smith Building

Looking from one of the windows in the training zone down onto the plaza.

Our first class of full time missionaries arrived on Monday for training.  It was a small group compared to ours and most of them were pre-assigned and knew where they were going.  Bob got to teach part of a lesson as the teacher, Sister Bott, started coughing in the middle and had to turn it over to him.  He did very well and will be a super trainer.  The jury is still out on me.  We had four couples and three single sisters.  We got one of them in our zone, Sister Raines, so we are not the newest newbies, but we still feel like it.
On Monday night we had our first MTC group gathering.  We are the leaders of the group and patterned it after our empty nester group at home. It was a fun night filled with food, games, and a nice spiritual message from Elder Barton.  Sister Kerslake is from England and we are still learning what some of her words mean and she also learned what a "pot luck" dinner is.  We all had a great time.  We had two couples and 10 single sisters attend.  We set up the year and so on we go.
After the Go Forth meeting on Friday, the training zone missionaries and the new missionaries went to the Bountiful temple for lunch (they have a cafeteria) and a session.
On Saturday we spent a few hours in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building at the Legacy Theater watching all the Book of Mormon Vidios.  If you have not seen them, it is a must!  They are so well done and the message is so clear.  It's also very nice to sit in a comfy chair and look at a big screen.  We also toured the Conference Center where most of the Young Single sisters are now doing tours while the construction is going on.  They have moved some of the displays from the South Visitors Center and more will be coming.  The Conference Center has become the main Visitors Center for now until the construction settles down.

Ground level view of the construction.

They have so much equipment on the square and so many workers going constantly.  They have taken down trees and are busting up brick walkways and concrete, and others are taking down Christmas lights.  It is quite a sight and all of this going on in the snow!

Bushes, trees down and the fountain being filled with broken up brick pavers.

From the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building onto Temple Square construction.  Trees and bushes down and concrete broken up.

We received pictures of our sweet grand daughter going on her first date, Winter Formal  She is such a beautiful young woman inside and out.  We love the pictures.

Aubrey Sue Peterson ready for her first date.  Winter formal 2020 in Snowflake Arizona.

Aubrey Sue Peterson and Winter Formal date?

We even got facetime hooked up thanks to Heidi and Weston so we can see and talk with Bobs Mom, Evelyn and her husband Warren Steffey.
We attended Music and the Spoken Word this morning and all the Christmas decorations are out of the Conference Center.  I guess 2020 is really upon us.

Ring Out Wild Bells

Happy New Year! We wish you all a great year as we "ring out the old and ring in the new". It has been a busy week as we continue to learn and prepare ourselves to mentor and teach the new missionaries that will arrive on Monday.  We have had an unseasonably warm week, which is a good thing since Debra ordered a warmer coat that has not yet arrived. It snowed about 3 inches on New Years Day but by mid afternoon it had all melted off.  The mountains are gloriously WHITE and just glow when the sun hits them.
Best kept secret in the church is the New Years Eve celebration on temple square.  I guess it is not too much of a secret to the thousands that were here to celebrate but it was to me.  The square was rocking from 5 PM to midnight.  They had concerts going in the Assembly Hall, The Tabernacle, and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  We just picked the ones we wanted to see and went to them.  The musical talent was unmatched.  We heard violin groups, singers, the Nashville Tribute Band, and an amazing dance band called the Stratford Street Big Band.  The Sugar Sisters sang with the band.  The Lobby of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building was turned into a dancefloor, and Bob and I even danced a few dances.

New Years Eve 2019 Dancing in the lobby of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

On January 2 They began putting up the blockades around the Temple and removing things and working like crazy.  It was and still is a beehive of workers.  The sidewalks on North and South Temple next to the temple and the East side of  Temple into the Plaza are completely barricaded off.

January 5, 2020 Tents and fences around Salt Lake Temple.  The work has begun.

North Gate to Temple Square all closed off.

The most needed port a johns on North Temple.  Bob feels right at home now.

 The Temple Square tours are now all done from the Conference Center.  They have moved a lot of the displays from the South visitors center to the Conference Center as that visitors center will be the first to be demolished.  It is going to be a sad year seeing all this happen, but we have been assured that the finished product will be amazing.  We do have a bit longer walk to Church and our assignments, but it will be good for us especially after I get a warmer coat.
We learned on New Years day that our water heater had sprung a leak, not good news but thankfully we have great children watching out for us.  Thanks to Wynn, our super son-in-law, all things are back in order.  It seems that missions and water heaters don't go together too well as it was while we were in Nauvoo that the water heater went out the last time.
Friday, January 3, Bob and I went to the Bountiful Temple to do a session.  We ran into Kris Anderson, a missionary we served with in Nauvoo.  She is an ordinance worker there.  It is always good to see a familiar face and renew former acquaintances.  It was a beautiful clear day and the snow on the Oquirrh mountains to the West was glowing.  We love the Temples and the beautiful spirit we feel as we serve there, but most of all is the great love we feel for those we do the work for.  We both understand better that as President Nelson has said, missionary work is happening on both sides of the veil.  We are blessed to live in such a time as this when we can actually participate in that work for our brothers and sisters on both sides of the veil.

Bob and Debra at the Bountiful Utah Temple looking West to the Oquirrh Mountains

Saturday night we went to Abravanel Hall and listened to the Utah Symphony. Sunday found us at Music and the Spoken Word.  Just some of the perks of being a missionary in Salt Lake.
Today at church Elder Ricardo P Gimenez of the 70 came and shared his testimony with us.  He will be talking in conference in April.  He was very nice.  He talked about how our affliction are covered with the atonement.  Speaking about the atonement, we passed Tad A Callister on our way to lunch last week.  We smiled and walked on.  That is what we are suppose to do.  During church the snow began to fall in beautiful fluffy flakes.  It did not last long but I did get a picture out of the window at the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

Looking onto North Temple.  Beautiful huge snowflakes. The picture does not give it justice.

We are so excited to be studying the Book of Mormon this year.  It's going to be a great year, 2020, the year of clear vision.