A Wonderful Week

21 April 2018

We were thrilled by a special phone call on Sunday, as well as some letters and photos from family that arrived Tuesday! It made our week!

Elder Crenshaw and I spoke in our mission devotional on Monday. We were assigned to speak about what our zone does. There are 18 zones in our mission, and each has a different function. (The tasks performed by Digital Imaging Processing [our zone] are more varied than most.) We thought we’d be able to just brush up the talk we gave about the zone last summer, but, ended up having to rewrite most of it because things change all the time. Also, we took pictures of the missionaries who work on six of the eight different projects in our zone - and we used them to create a PowerPoint presentation - to make it a little more interesting.

We had a wonderful Mission Conference on Wednesday. President Fenn spoke on the last week of the Savior's life, and on His resurrection. Then, Sister Fenn shared some sweet memories of the final days of her father's life, and that last talk he gave in general conference. He had been very sick for weeks, and the doctors didn't expect him to live as long as he did. But, for the family, it seemed as if he needed to stay alive long enough to give that one, final talk, and then he felt free to leave this life. You can listen to that talk by going to www.lds.org/ensign/2011/04/the-purifying-power-of-gethsemane?lang=eng and clicking on the headphone icon. No matter how many times I hear it, I am moved to tears by Elder McConkie’s final testimony.

On Wednesday, we also had a special zone brunch. Twice a year we’re allowed to spend a little money to do something extra for the zone, so we had our brunch catered by the cafeteria in the Church Office Building. We did a little extra with table decorations, etc. as well – and we combined this with a farewell for Sister Marlene Bollinger, who goes home this month. We LOVE Sister Bollinger and will hate to see her go. (She’s the one who instigated having everyone sing “Zip-a-dee-do-da” to Bob that one morning, not long after he became zone leader.)

Elder Crenshaw teases Sis. Bollinger a lot. He’s left notes by her desk about how old she is, and messes with her about her name (calls her Sister Bowling shoes or Bowling alley, etc.)

Another sister in our zone, Sister Tilley, works near Sister Bollinger. Sister Tilley’s husband is in security (and is a former drug enforcement officer from Montana.) Recently, Sister Bollinger called Elder Crenshaw and told him she needed to see him right away. Once he got there, they had Elder Tilley handcuff him – for “stalking” and harassment. J

Sister B. intentionally looks very stern in this photo, but she’s lots of fun!

Bob and I got our 23andMe DNA results back. Most of the findings were similar to what we learned from the ancestry.com test – as far as our genetic ethnicity, but, 23andMe also does a health risk report. They test many variants that can predict if you might be at risk for some diseases (like certain types of breast cancer; late-onset Alzheimer’s; Parkinson’s disease; and, a long list of others.) I was interested in what they would tell me.

Happily, I don’t have any of the variants that would indicate I am genetically prone to any disease or condition on their list. That doesn’t mean I can’t contract those diseases – just that I’m not predisposed or at a higher risk to do so. (It’s surprising what they can tell from one vial of spit!)

The report did say that I’m genetically predisposed to weighing more than average, and, that my current weight is lower than they would have expected it to be. Hmmm.

But – here’s the best part!! I have the genetic muscle composition that is common in elite power athletes!! Clearly, I’m an underachiever in that category! (Oh, wait! That’s what all the extra weight is – it’s muscle!) Hahaha!

We finally had our photo taken in front of the Salt Lake Temple the other day, and I’m including it below. Although it was windy the day we took it, we had sunshine and blue skies. Good thing we did it then, though, because the next day we had snow!