We're Still Here…
Yes, we are still in the Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission. Our Hong Kong manager was visiting Salt Lake City at the end of March and we were able to meet him. He told us that it would likely be a few more months before LDS Charities received re-registration with the Vietnamese government. It is difficult thinking that a piece of paper sitting on a government officials desk is all that keeps us from getting to Vietnam. We are told that our visas are ready to go once the re-registration happens.
After our HQ Mission training we were assigned to the Data Quality Assurance (DQA) Zone. We began our 9 to 5, Monday through Friday service on March 26th. DQA has several ongoing projects. We were assigned to work in Community Trees. This effort involves reading old records and adding individuals and families to the Collaborative Family Search tree. The intent is that eventually descendants of these communities will be able to easily find and connect to their ancestors who will already be in the tree.
Debbie worked at reading Virginia wills and land records from the 1700s.
John worked on Welch baptism, marriage, and burial records from the 1600s.
The handwriting looks very challenging but really is not very hard to decipher once you learn the handwriting and the small vocabulary.
We have enjoyed seeing the changing of the seasons.
We are living just west of the Conference Center in two floors of an apartment building that the mission keeps for temporary "visa-waiters''. While we aren't technically waiting on visas we nonetheless carry that title as that is what all the missionaries here are familiar with.
We had a great time with our visa-waiter neighbors but sadly for us (great for them!) they have all recently received their visas and are off to their respective countries (Spain, Mexico City, Jamaica, and Kosovo-North Macedonia). No new visa-waiters have arrived as of yet so we are a bit lonely in the evenings.
We have enjoyed attending many of the Tabernacle Choir & Orchestra on Temple Square practices on Thursday evenings with their Music & the Spoken Word performances on Sunday morning. Easter morning was an especially beautiful performance.
https://www.youtube.com/@thetabernaclechoir/streams
With the announcement of the church's purchase of the Kirtland Temple we were fortunate to have a mission fireside with Karl Anderson, the foremost Kirtland historian. He described how foundational Kirtland was for the church, much of which the general church membership does not fully appreciate. It was also inspiring to see the many artifacts that were recently brought to the Church Museum here at Temple Square.
Moroni came back home for conference.
We were grateful to have our oldest grandchildren come stay with us for General Conference. We were able to attend two sessions. We had many activities planned with them. Most worked out well and we think they actually enjoyed hanging out with Grammy and Grandad!
Their great great great grandfather's grave marker
We have also enjoyed spending time with our local family. Annalise and Steve & boys, Kathy and Otto, Cindy and Spencer & family.
Our Mission President surprised us with a reassignment to the Family Search Discovery Zone where we started service on April 8th. You can read a full description of that exciting experience in our next report.
The Headquarters Mission is a great place to serve and we are blessed to have it be part of our mission experience.
Closing with a favorite conference quote:
Elder Patrick Kearon: “Our loving Father oversaw the Creation of this very earth for the express purpose of providing an opportunity for you and for me to have the stretching and refining experiences of mortality, the chance to use our God-given moral agency to choose Him, to learn and grow, to make mistakes, to repent, to love God and our neighbor, and to one day return home to Him. He sent His precious Beloved Son to this fallen world to live the full range of the human experience, to provide an example for the rest of His children to follow, and to atone and redeem. Christ’s great atoning gift removes every roadblock of physical and spiritual death that would separate us from our eternal home. Everything about the Father’s plan for His beloved children is designed to bring everyone home…. The intent of the Father’s great plan of happiness is your happiness, right here, right now, and in the eternities. It is not to prevent your happiness and cause you instead worry and fear. The intent of the Father’s plan of redemption is in fact your redemption, your being rescued through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, freed from the captivity of sin and death. It is not to leave you as you are. The intent of the Father’s plan of mercy is to extend mercy as you turn back to Him and honor your covenant of fidelity to Him. It is not to deny mercy and inflict pain and sorrow. The intent of the Father’s plan of salvation is in fact your salvation in the celestial kingdom of glory as you receive “the testimony of Jesus” and offer your whole soul to Him. It is not to keep you out.”