The Days Are Flying By

22 October 2016

This past Wednesday we officially became the zone leaders for the Digital Imaging Processing Zone of the mission – and, have been trying our best just to keep our heads above water ever since. We really like the previous zone leaders, but, they weren’t particularly detail oriented, so we’ve spent a lot of time organizing files, and trying to wrap our heads around exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. . . There is much to do!

We got a special treat this last Monday. Our Happy 15 group got a behind-the-scenes tour of the conference center. It was really interesting! (They were already breaking down the stage to prepare for the Christmas Devotional.) Plus we got to see the area where they do language interpretation. Amazing!  They interpret 94 different languages for every General Conference. And they have more than one interpreter for each language, plus a back up in case there’s a problem. (A fulfillment of D&C 90:11)

You may not be able to see this well, but these are all the languages that are interpreted.

We were told that during one conference session a man collapsed and the paramedics were called, but the man only spoke Farsi. Someone went to the interpretation area to see if anyone there spoke Farsi so they could communicate with the man. (They thought he may have had a seizure.) The interpreter they went to said, “Yes, I speak Farsi and I can help. And, I'm also a trained seizure nurse.” So, she was not only able to help the paramedics understand the man, but, she could give them helpful information for his care. Truly, the hand of the Lord was there!

Once a month we have a mission conference, and this week we got to attend that. We love our mission presidency! They are wonderful! One of the messages this week was on guarding your “spiritual identity” just as much as you guard your personal identity. We need a “spiritual firewall” to protect us from the false messages of Satan. (All the ways Satan tries to make us believe we are less than we are.) We have God's DNA and its important to remember that.

On Friday we were delighted to be able to visit with some friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. Ken and Judy Malone were in the area, and they met us for dinner. It was great fun to catch up with them and to hear about their family and their plans for the future.

And . . I forgot to mention this earlier, but, since we’ve been on our mission, we’ve learned that we like persimmons! J When I was a child someone gave me a persimmon, and it was very bitter, so my whole life, I thought I didn’t like them. Then, recently, one of the sisters we visit/home teach gave us one and it was delicious!! A happy discovery!

Very early Friday morning I happened to catch a "test" of all the Christmas lights on the trees around the conference center. It made me so happy to see them, and excited to anticipate being around Temple Square at Christmas time. . .