A chance encounter and a zone transfer ... all in one day!

It certainly has been an interesting day! Started out with a general authority telling me to slow down on my scooter. (He was joking, or at least he was smiling). We had just crossed the street on No. Temple and were blocked by a large group of people who had apparently just left the temple. I was more or less stopped, trying to maneuver around and through them, and this very tall gentleman, with a big smile, said "Slow down on that thing." I just laughed because people are always telling me not to break speed limits, etc. I thought he looked familiar and thought he might be someone I had seen in Texas, but 2 seconds later it dawned on me it was L. Tom Perry. Fun!! We were told right off the bat when we came here that if we ever saw a General Authority walking across the plaza or Temple Square we were to leave them alone and not bother them, because they're very busy men and don't have time to spare. They didn't say anything about General Authorities harrassing me, however.

But here's the real meaty news of the day -- right after we got to work today we were asked to come in and speak with a member of the mission presidency, and Bob was called to be the mission photographer. So starting tomorrow we are back permanently on days, 8-4, with holidays off (the library staff isn't always that lucky), a beautiful and large cubicle with windows that look out on the gorgeous plaza, and lots to do. Bob's main assignment will be putting together the publication called "Mission Memories," and taking all the photos of the news missionaries. Mine will be keeping track of money and ordering badges, and I'm not sure what all else. We will train with the couple presently in this position until they leave at the end of August, and then we'll be on our own.

So even while we're rather sad about leaving our friends in the U.S./Canada Zone, we're very excited about this new assignment. Bob will be wonderful, and I'll have a good time. Two great new callings in just 4 days -- life doesn't get much better.

Win some, lose some . . .

Two things of note happened today; one was wonderful and the other was just absolutely awful. The wonderful one was that I was called to be the new branch choir director, and I'm pretty jazzed about that. I won't start until Aug. 10, and you can't tell anyone from the branch (like you would!) until after 1 o'clock Mountain Standard Time. That's the good news -- here's the bad. I had some free time at the library this afternoon so I checked my e-mail and discovered that I had invited a virus into my system and it took over my entire mail box and sent this horrible sales-pitch e-mail out to hundreds of people, some that I haven't corresponded with for years. I was mortified and have been trying to send out warnings to all, but I don't know if it's reaching everyone or not. So, if you got one please accept my most abject apologies. I would never send out something like that, but hopefully most of you already know that.

No wonder it's so hard to do research!

This little nugget of humor was in one of our training manuals:

"I am a census takers for the city of Bufflow. Our City has groan very fast in resent years, and now in 1865, it has become a hard and time consuming job to count all the peephill. There are not many that con do this werk, as it is nesessarie to have an ejucashun, wich a lot of pursons still do not have. Anuther atribeart needed for this job is god spelling, for meny of the pephill to be counted can hardle speek inglish, let alon spel there names!"

I can vouch for the above, having indexed over 20,000 names before I left for SLC and looking at censuses almost every day at the library, and I can assure you that when I run across a census with clear handwriting and good spelling I pray for that census taker to have a great reward.

Speaking of Greek (oh, we weren't?), I have pretty much conquered Irfanview and love it, and am now trying to make friends with Soundex. I may manage it -- I still have 10 months left to go. I just don't have the right atribearts for some of these challenges, but thank goodness I have god spelling going for me. And the peephill are great and very helpful.

All is well in Zion.

This 'n that

It's been an interesting week. We're adjusting to the late shift pretty well, but it's helped that we've been given the week off as far as early morning choir practice is concerned. We had 2 weeks in a row of 4 early rehearsals per week in preparation for the big Pioneer Day concert at the Devotional Monday morning. As it was the Walkers' last performance and everyone was bummed about that they gave us time off for good behavior. Monday we start in again, 3 days a week getting up at 4:45 a.m., but now we can come back home and take a nap before work. For those of you who happen to be my family, no, they didn't ask me to conduct a rehearsal -- everything was geared toward the big event on Monday. Easy come, easy go, I say. Instead I will be playing a piano solo in sacrament meeting this Sunday. With no piano to practice on and very little in the way of music. It should be a real wow. I don't think.

As far as working in the library, we're holding our own and learning a lot. I've found a few more names -- none in my direct line but some corollary lines, which was just as exciting. I've learned some nifty new web sites. It's amazing what's out there.

Our 3rd anniversary was spent working the late shift, so we just had lunch at J.B.'s and said "Happy Anniversary," and that was about it. We spent Pioneer Day in much the same quiet way and dared to eat breakfast at home instead of on a church lawn somewhere, and instead of walking down to South Temple to watch the parade turned on the TV. Then we went to the library and only worked a 4 hour shift (the library closed early today) but eschewed the fireworks tonight. So I guess we aren't really converted to Utah-ism yet. We really enjoy it when we get to relax at home. "This is the Place" for us. I will say, however, that being at the library is a very happy experience. Everyone in our zone is either nice or fun, and most of the time both at the same time. It's a great place to be. I can see us serving another mission here, after we've been home a while and taken care of some things. But I'll need a lot of family soak time before I leave again. I really get to missing our kids.

But today was the highlight of the week -- a real bonanza! This on top of listening to 2 hours of an institute class one of my sons is teaching on The Savior of the World: A phone call from a daughter, e-mails from a brother and a daughter, 2 notes with precious photos in them, and an envelope with a letter from another daughter and letters and pictures from grandsons, one of whom wrote "I love you" in "Chinees" letters. Life can hold no more joy than I had today.

For the Frisco/McKinney crowd

We had the pleasure today of running smack dab into the Copelands in the library today. "Pleasure" may be an understatement, as they were the folks who were kind enough to meet with us one evening and share their mission experiences with us, and get us in touch with the recuiter for the mission. We are so grateful for their encouragement. We see Sister Finlayson (also from Frisco 5th) nearly every day and she has invited us over for supper Sunday after church. The Copelands are nicely settled in Salt Lake and very anxious to get back to work in the library. I hope they wind up in U.S./Canada, but with all their experience they may become trainers. There is such a need for missionaries here in just about every zone.

And -- a propos of completely nothing at all -- I've been rather fascinated by the professional panhandlers here in Temple Square. I don't use the word "professional" lightly -- they have handlers/managers and make pretty good money from the tourists. The missionaries are all counseled to ignore them, as there is plenty of help available for them in the area; in fact I believe there is a special bishop called to take care of the needs of the indigent. But they aren't interested in that kind of help when they can make so much money off the tourists. We have the same 3 or 4 every single day, and I'm beginning to recognize them. It was very hard to ignore them at first but now that I know they have managers and nice houses, and one even has a boat or some such luxury, I'm finding it a lot easier. I guess they look on it as a career, just like banking or plumbing or something. Fascinating.

For Alex alums . . .

I'm sorry to keep harping on the MoTab broadcasts, but they are so incredible. This morning was another treat; however it was also great vindication for a director several of us have had the privilege of singing for: Alex Ruggieri. The choir did Tchnesnokov's "Now We Sing Thy Praise," in English. It was heavenly and made me weepy, but not nearly the way it did when we sang it in Russian for Alex. He felt all the Russian liturgical music so deeply and transmitted this love to the choir so well that it was often difficult to get through those pieces, and this one in particular. I wish I could remember the title in Russian -- all I remember is the "A-li (with a tilda, please) -lu-i-as" and the way they interwove and the way the bass section sounded. I can never thank him enough for those experiences. If you can find a re-broadcast I recommend it -- or, if you can cadge a recording from one of us (Greg, Cameron, Amy, Linda, or me), even better!

I keep remembering my setting apart blessing for the first mission Bob and I served in North Dallas. I remembering being told that I had a gift for loving and appreciating music and I was told that our Father in Heaven also loves music and that it brings him great joy when we produce it. That has stayed with me ever since, and has brought an additional measure of satisfaction to anything musical that I'm fortunate enough to be involved in.

I'm so grateful to be here.

We're Official! We're on the schedule . . .

. . . and we're working the night shift (1 to 9). We have Monday "off" but are working Saturday to compensate. When I say "off," I mean that we don't have to show up at the library unless we just really want to soak ourselves in it. What we get to do instead is get up at 4:45 (on our DAY OFF!) and attend choir practice, and sing for the 7:30 devotional, after which we get to come home and recover, and then trek back at 11:15 for another devotional for the Church Service Missionaries. Then we finally get the rest of Monday off and can get ready for a Branch picnic that evening.

I have to admit it's been fun working the floor this week, and we've actually been of help to more than one patron. There's still a lot I don't know, but I have enough to squeak by, and the Spirit of Elijah is alive and well and very active. One lady today came in with a name and a lot of frustration but found 127 (!) pages of information, and all I said was "what happens if you click on this heading?" I certainly didn't know what I was doing -- someone else was the co-pilot. We were both pretty thrilled, and it made my week. I'm even being helped with my fatigue factor, and even though we turn the lights off by 9:30 at the latest I'm still not getting more than about 4 hours of sleep a night. Maybe working the night shift for a few weeks will solve that particular problem.

We do love it here and we do enjoy what we're doing. But we also love and miss our family a terrific amount and think of you often and pray for you constantly. I'm so grateful that we've been promised blessings for our family members while we're serving here -- we feel deeply for your worries and frustrations but have confidence that everything will come out right. Amy and Matt might even get their furniture before August!! And also -- I don't know if anyone from the ward ever reads this, but I do miss my friends in the ward and particularly the Frisco 4th Ward Choir; an awesome group of people. However, we're making friends here that we truly love and will miss an awful lot when we go back home. But it's amazing who you meet in SLC -- yesterday (and again today) I ran into a lady I knew back in Simi Valley, Sister Bishara from the deaf ward. We hadn't had contact with each other for years and years, but there she is serving a mission in the FHL, I would imagine in the deaf zone. What a delight that was! I have yet to run into an unpleasant person here -- even the tourists are great. It's a lovely place to be.

I'll tell you a little secret and it isn't anything I ever thought I would say: sometimes I miss the babies crying in sacrament meeting. It's lovely that everyone in our branch is old and tired (and quiet) and you do feel the spirit a lot more during sacrament meeting, but on the 4th of July weekend we had a lot of visitors, and someone brought a baby to church, and it cried a little bit. I was delighted, and felt like I was back home. Occasionally we get a baby in the library and wish I could pick it up and cuddle it.

Life is so good!

Oh my --

I don't know how other missionaries feel, but I feel very inadequate right now. We've had our last day of training and I have a pile of material and lots of scribbled notes, but if someone asked me for my name, I feel as though I'd have to ask for help. And they're going to turn us loose on the library floor?! As tough as it was, I almost wish I could turn around and go back into training. We had our last class this afternoon, and got our schedule for the rest of the week. We're going to be doing a lot of shadowing and reverse shadowing, a kind of Siamese Twin patron assistance team. It should be very interesting, and probably rather scary.

On the bright side, I've been asked to conduct the Elijah Women's Chorus for one of their rehearsals. Our lovely director is leaving the mission on the 23rd and they're scraping around in the bottom of the barrel for a replacement. I don't think I'll be the replacement, but it will be fun to direct such a good choir, with such fabulous accompanists. I plan to have me a real good time before I fall off the podium into oblivion. Such chances don't come very often.

On a brighter note, it is incredibly beautiful here and I'm going to put in some photos to prove it. I don't know which ones they'll be yet, but chances are they'll be in the Plaza, around the Church Office Building, or Temple Square. Or, if Bob hasn't yet shown his gorgeous night shot of the valley from his brother-in-law's house, I might put that in. Enjoy!

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Addendum: I obviously have a lot to learn about uploading photos. Sorry about the mish-mash! Just do the best you can with them.

Serious Deprivation (or is the word depravity?)

This is how sad things are when you don't have a piano available. We're not complaining -- we have adapted. I'm sorry the red lights in the keys don't show up. They really help me to know where to put my fingers. Pretty soon I'll be able to play a real tune.

Matt! This is for you!

Sorry about that last one. My pinkie twitched!

I finally saw the Monastery/Monk video (about tech support). I loved it. As soon as I can get it on my flash drive (the guy promised -- all I have to do is find him and hold him to it) I will put a link in the blog so you can all appreciated what the underpaid pre-medieval monks had to go through. So some of our classes are actually a lot of fun.

Hope everyone is having a pleasant 4th of July. We are.

Matt! This is for you!