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.