Week 2 in the Office

It's 7:00 a.m. and we are leaving the Conference Center parking ramp and walking across the street to the Office building on the way to our work.

 The temple is beautiful every morning. the sight of it lifts our hearts and gives us courage and joy as we go forward in the work of the Lord.

 The office building is all lit up. The west wing of the building is 4 stories high, and we are on the 7th floor so you can see we are just above the dark row of "windows".

A quick backward glance at the beauty of the Salt Lake Temple. This is where Mom and I we were sealed for time and all eternity. This is where my parents and my grandparents were sealed. We also had family that worked on the construction of the temple. We never thought we would have such a special opportunity to work in its shadow.

This was a great week! We actually learned enough to venture out on our own and do it right. We have a devotional every morning with our zone. It helps us develop friendships and we have people we can ask questions and get good answers. We will join together to have multi-zone socials also.

It was Halloween this week as well as the farewell lunch for the couple we are replacing, Richard and Sharon Foster. We had a fun week, lots of candy and several luncheons. The big frustration was getting set up on the computer systems. Everything requires a user name and a password. I think we finally got all of them working for us this week. Now we have no excuses.

We are so grateful to Elder and Sister Foster for their patient training of two novices. They are so upbeat and positive it was great to see them each morning. This week their passwords were deactivated so they looked over our shoulders. The final day came and we celebrated their service, but then they left... we felt the security blanket of their presence was gone. We're on our own now. We went back to the desk and worked with no... well, only a few interruptions and got some things done. We looked back over our accomplishments this week and felt good about all that we had done. We can go home and enjoy the weekend with family and do a little yard work and come back Monday, after an uplifting Fast day, to meet the challenges of the work ahead.

Sights at the Office

Every morning when we arrive we park in the Conference Center parking ramp and walk across the street to the Church Office Building. The temple is lit and glows white against the dark sky. I'll have to get a picture of that and post it next week. We enter the building through the revolving doors and swipe our security badges to gain access to our elevators and then up we go to the 7th floor. We are in our cubicle in about 10 steps and begin our day at the computer. We meet with other Welfare Services missionaries for a devotional each morning about half-an-hour after we arrive and then return to our desks. The phone rings and we make calls all day. We search information about missions, missionaries, and the nations they will potentially enter.

We see the temple as we enter the Office Building and from our office windows.

Our office is on the 7th floor of the Church Office Building. We have access to some of the tunnels between our building, the temple, the Lion House Restaurant, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the Church Administration Building where the first presidency have their offices.

My side of the cubicle. The plants are living now... we'll see if we can keep them alive through the winter.

Grandma at her desk on the other side of our cubicle.

Welfare Training

We received Preach My Gospel training the first week and came off a spiritual high to start the second week of training. The second week started off with a tour of Welfare Square, complete with samples of the bread, honey, jams and cheese made there and we washed it down with chocolate milk. We can be very proud of the wonderful foods that are produced through the welfare facilities of the Church.

Our Welfare Services missionary group. Hazlem to Philippines, Lindsay to Salt Lake, Meinzer to Cambodia, Murdock to Tonga, Tolley to Jordan, Orton to Albania

 Missionaries gathering for a tour of the Bishops' Storehouse at Welfare Square

 Shelves stocked and ready for the patrons today.

 Fresh produce and dairy areas

 The back room is a storehouse with inventory for a month. Additional inventory is available from the main warehouse.

 Employment is key to personal well being, so there are Employment Resource Centers Worldwide. We recommend qualified missionaries to staff these facilities.

 The grain elevators are filled with millions of bushels of wheat. More than a year's supply!

 Deseret Industries provides a great training ground to prepare people for employment as well as provide affordable goods to the public.

 The Dairy building produces milk products and Atmit... a protein supplement to treat malnutrition.

 The big blocks of cheese are cut into 5 lb. blocks and wrapped here.

 This is a big vat where the milk is curdled and made into cheese.

 Milk bottling is done here and product is distributed throughout the Intermountain West.

 Our sampling table with fresh hot bread... thick sliced, butter, honey, jams, cheese and my favorite... chocolate milk!

We traveled across town to Temple Square and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for our luncheon and more training meetings.

 View of the Salt Lake Temple from the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith building.

Sister and Elder Lindsay

A view of the Utah State Capitol building from the Joseph Smith Building

The next three days were spent at the Provo MTC, training and learning systems, protocols, administration duties, do's and don't s of providing in the Lord's Way. We learned about the major initiatives: Vision, Clean Water, Wheelchairs, Neonatal Resuscitation, Benson Agriculture and Immunizations. We also learned how to develop working relationships with local charity organizations and develop projects together with them to meet the local needs of the people. We also learned to use the record keeping tools and how to get projects approved and funded. It brought back such sweet memories of our previous humanitarian experiences. Another great week!

MTC Week

We entered the MTC on Monday, October 6th, 2014, the Monday after General Conference. That was a great way to start out with the words of the prophets ringing in our ears and the influence of the Spirit in our hearts.

Here we go again! This time we are traveling each day to the Church Office Building in Salt Lake.

Glad to continue the tradition of missionary service. Tyler completed the first year of his mission in July and will return next July. We will be here to welcome him home.

 

 It is a beautiful fall with bright colors of yellow, orange and red.

 This is our district with our morning instructor, Sister Frandsen.

Lindsay-Salt Lake City, Robison-Netherlands, Rushton-North Carolina, Allen-North Dakota

 Alpine Loop this week

This is our district with our afternoon instructors, Bros. Gubler/Floyd

Robison-Netherlands, Lindsay-Salt Lake City, Allen-North Dakota, Rushton-North Carolina

Alpine Loop

 We are in this group. Can you find us?  Hint... look for green.

 This is the other half of the senior missionary group. There were a total of 84 senior missionaries this week.

Set Apart

We were on a spiritual high after General Conference and time to be with and talk with family, but now came the start of our mission... we were set apart by President Brinton tonight. It was a quiet time, but our blessings were specific for each of us. We look forward to our calling and the good work that will bring us closer to one another, our family, and to the Lord.

This is one of the best times of the mission. No responsibilities yet and we enter the MTC tomorrow.

President Brinton and Elder Lindsay

Opening The Call

We have tasted of the joys of serving the Lord and just could not delay any longer. It has been 18 months since we returned from the Philippines, we are healthy, the family situation is good and we are ready to, once again, enjoy the blessings of serving the Lord. We got our physicals, submitted our papers online, interviewed with the bishop and stake president... and waited for that big white envelope to arrive. While we were waiting we received a call from the Missionary Department. They said they had five assignments in mind, two domestic and three international. then they asked if we would be willing to serve 18 months... that would open up those international options. We prayed and got back to tell them that we would be happy to serve 18 months. We received another call from the missionary office... this time they wanted to know if we would be able to spend a bit more each month. Again, we prayed and let them know that we would be willing to spend more. Now came the long wait. I had mentioned to the stake president that it would be wonderful to serve in England with Marlene. That is where I served my mission as a young man. We checked the posted mission costs for couples and saw that we could qualify for an assignment in England, maybe...

The excitement of the anticipation is fun and one of the joys of a mission. You have no responsibilities and all of the shared joy with family and friends as you wait for that big white envelope.

 

  The envelope came and we alerted the family. We were all connected in person or electronically.

 Where will grandma and grandpa go this time? Lots of guesses, but none of them were even close.

 We read the letter with our call from President Monson... You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned... to labor in the Welfare Services Church Headquarters Department as a missionary coordinator while living at home.

 Yes, there was a cheer and a sigh of relief from the family... mom/dad, grandma/grandpa are not going to some far distant corner of the world, they will live at home. We are so grateful to our family for their love and support, and willingness to allow us to leave and go wherever the Lord called us. I know that the Lord heard the silent "prayers of the heart" that were offered when we announced that we were going to serve another mission. 

We are so pleased to receive this call from the Lord to serve in this very unique way.

We didn't know exactly what the responsibilities of a "missionary coordinator" were, but we soon found out when we called the missionary department. They told us that we would be replacing Elder and Sister Foster in the Welfare Services Department and that we should call them and coordinate a time to meet with them to discuss our new assignment. We called them right away and learned that we will have a role in the selection, orientation, and support of the welfare services missionaries; i.e. Humanitarian, Employment Resource Centers, and Family Services missionaries. We will meet with them on September 24th and learn enough to have a keen sense of responsibility and a healthy fear associated with our role in many missionary's lives and their work worldwide.