Visitors from the North

This week has been really busy with extra hours working on the Home and Garden Show along with extra visitors from Idaho and other states who have spring break this week.  Elder Burt and I handled 150 visitors at the Brigham Young Home in the space of about four hours.  It's been fun to have people from Idaho because they appreciate the potato story we tell in the office at the BY Home.  If you haven't heard it, we will relate it next week when you come.  The highlight of the week was having Beeg and his friends (Tony Allred, Josh Skinner, and Neal Barth) come and stay with us.  They were doing a fun golf trip.

 Next Robyn Orchard, my visiting teacher from Bountiful, came down because her daughter who lives in Mesquite is having a baby.  She came to the tabernacle with her granddaughter.  How great is that for a personal visit!  Also, the week before that we got to see Karen Capson, Cheryl Preston, and Carol Van Orman.  It's so fun to see people from home.

Yesterday Billy and Stacy Satterfield and family found us at the tabernacle.  They have a darling family.  They are behind the pulpit where Lorenzo Snow gave his landmark talk on tithing.

 Scott has been playing ping pong with Susan Easton Black Durrant.  She is going to compete in a national ping pong tournament in July against top players from other countries.

 Elder Burt has been in charge of pulling off the Home and Garden Show booth.  Elder Cleverly wanted to try it to see if we can get more people to come to the St. George Temple Visitors' Center.  Sherry designed a special banner for us.  We can't seem to pull off being missionaries without help from our wonderful children.  More pictures from that event next week.

Gearing Up for Spring Break and Lots of Visitors

Families from Arizona are visiting our sites because it's their spring break.  Next week it's Idaho and Easter week is Davis County, Utah.  We are excited because from northern Utah, our cute children and grandchildren are coming to see us.  Beeg is here this weekend with Neal Barth, Tony Allred, and Josh Skinner.   They are having fun golfing together.

Some of our training this week centered on how to handle the large crowds of people coming to the Brigham Young Winter Home and the many tour buses coming to the St. George Temple Visitor's Center.  We will have a lot of tour groups from Italy, France, and Germany in addition to some from China, Korea (get ready for a call, Rich!), etc.  This week Scott gave out two Books of Mormon to some young men who spoke Dutch.  Luckily, we have a supply of  Books of Mormon in many languages in our visitors' center closet.

This week while working at the visitors' center, I had to call security twice because a man kept coming in and was obviously mentally unhealthy.  He had come into the visitors' center the night before and was swearing, etc. at Pres. Cleverly and becoming more than verbal.  Security came and got him out.  However, he came back the next morning and then again two hours later.  I was working at the front desk during that time.  I told security it was the same guy, so they sent their same man who talked to him before.  They walked peacefully out of the visitors' center and around by the temple.  I think they got him some help.

There is a hospital right across the street, so we get people coming in that are waiting for patients, etc.  Sometimes we even get patients in wheelchairs.  This week a cute blond haired girl of about three came in with her aunt.  Her mom went into labor early so they had some extra time to visit.  It was fun because the little girl was so excited to see the Christus and play on the computers.  She was bouncing all over the place.  So I decided to show them the ten minute video about families.  It's in an enclosed room and you move along to a different area about every two minutes.  She would point out where I was supposed to sit and then she would sit right next to me and scoot as close to me as she could.  It reminded me of my darling grandchildren.  We will have to watch this film together when everyone comes.

When I was watering my flowers on the patio, I thought I heard a croak.  Imagine my surprise when this little frog jumped right out of the flower pot onto the cement and started hopping.  I ran and got my camera so I could take its picture.  It's about 2 inches long.

The next day I came home from running an errand and found this pile of broken tile from the roof.  More golf ball damage!!!  This hasn't been a good week for our houses.  We found out the water is leaking into our house in the basement again at home.

This is an engraving of Brigham Young hanging in the St. George Tabernacle.  I think it's cool.  Apparently Brigham Young was 5 feet 10 inches tall with red hair.  He had a disposition to match.  He earned the nickname, "The Lion of the Lord".

One Month Completed ~ Eleven to Go

March 9, 2015 marked one month finished on our mission.  We are doing pretty well remembering what to say at our historical places.  It's really important to have the spirit, so you know what to say to certain individuals.  Our hope is to help everyone have a good experience that will promote faith and gratitude if they are members of the church.  If they aren't, we hope to introduce them to the gospel of Jesus Christ and plant a desire to know more.  There are many wonderful people we would love to see join the church.

Elder and Sister Cleverly are our St. George Temple Visitors' Center Directors.  They are from Woods Cross and have only been here two and a half months.  Their call is for 2 years.  We didn't know them before our mission.  They are doing a good job even though it's been exhausting taking over the position.

The moon was full this week, and when I got up one morning, there it was as seen from our backyard!

Scott is busy putting up the flag at the Jacob Hamblin Home.  When you are the first or last missionaries at the different locations, there are certain things you have to do like put up the flag,  hang or place the open sign in front, turn on the lights, unlock the doors, etc.  We had to give the opening and closing prayers in the tabernacle at the Richard and Linda Eyre fireside because we worked the last shift there.

On Monday we had our preparation day so Scott went golfing with the ward mission leader from our ward.  They went to Bloomington Hills and had a good time.  Since Zions National Park is starting its shuttle system on March 15, I decided to drive there while I still could when Dad golfed. I walked to the Narrows entrance.  It was pretty boring without cute kids along with me throwing footballs to each other.

The St. George Temple Visitors' Center is gearing up for the new mormon.org video.  This one is called "Because He Lives".  It is going to be shown at our center at the end of March.  We are also going to put on a musical program as part of the event on Easter Sunday night.  I have been working a little on the Facebook publicity.  With Sherry's help, I was able to get text on my photo so that we can submit this advertising to the church for posting on our St. George Temple Visitors' Center Facebook page.  It might not get posted, but I think it turned out good.

While working at the visitors' center, I have been at the front desk answering phones, etc. while Scott works at the other end in the annex.  He gets to show people how the temple was built and answer  their questions.  He is good at helping visitors.  Someone thought he looked like a general authority.

Week Two and still standing

Something is always happening at the St. George Visitor's Center Mission.  This week all the young sisters went to training in preparation for getting new i-pads.  They are the ones who usually take people who come into the visitors' center on tours.  While they were gone, we had to man the visitors' center by ourselves with one other couple from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m.  About 30 minutes into our time there, a Chinese tour bus showed up with 15 Chinese men wanting to do a tour.  No one could speak Chinese; luckily the guide spoke some English.  The other couple took them to an exhibit while I ran around trying to find anything written in Chinese.  I finally found some Books of Mormon and a flyer on Family Search, the Proclamation on the Family, and the page about Christ written by the 12 apostles. Amazingly enough, our Jesus Christ statue is programed to speak Chinese. We can also play our darling video on the family in Chinese.  So we did those things and let them walk around in the room with the Christ paintings.  In the end, we gave out 8 copies of the Book of Mormon.

Most of the tour buses that come are filled with people from Germany, Italy, and France.  They will start coming in May to see Zions National Park and surrounding areas.

 I thought this was such a lovely setting for an LDS church building in St. George.
While at home in Bountiful, it snowed a foot, we got rain for 3 days and then it cleared up to beautiful blue skies for the next 7 days.

Meanwhile at the St. George Tabernacle,  Scott has discovered that his cousin, William Burt, was the head plasterer at the St. George Temple, Manti Temple, and the St. George Tabernacle.  His name is on the plaque on the front of the building.  It was also his son, John, that was miraculously saved after he fell 85 from the scaffolding while working plastering at the St. George Temple.  Brigham Young had promised in the prayer dedicating the beginning of the temple construction that no one would die while working on it.

 Plaster grape bunch molded for decorating the inside walls of the St. George Tabernacle.
They were painted after being cast.  Cotton blossoms were also made and attached to the ceiling.












Scott attended the Chamber of Commerce luncheon this week at the Courtyard Marriott and felt right at home.  He is working to get some cooperation between the chamber and our sites to help improve attendance at the visitor's center.

Pam bought an annual pass to Snow Canyon in preparation for cute family members to come see us.
Everyone is busy with the opening of Shrek at Centerpoint Theater.   It runs through March.  Amy, Em, Will Hoagland and Sarah Cutler are the cutest and best performers in the show.