New Beginnings!

                             ( L-R) Elder & Sister Thomas, Sister & President Workman

    Here we are, brand new missionaries entering our mission, the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission.  This is our mission President and his wife, President and Sister Workman. He is a great speaker and scriptorian; I love to hear him speak.  She is a gem.  We are very blessed to have them leading our mission.
     In our mission you spend the first two weeks getting oriented and learning all about computers (if you don't already know) and about FamilySearch, the Tree program and all other things genealogy. We would meet every morning at 7:30 for a devotional and then work with our individual trainers on our own family history between other informative presentations about the mission.  At the end of the two weeks we have what they call our "Go Forth Day" where we are given our assigned zone to serve in for the duration of our mission and then go to the temple.
    When we decided to serve another mission we both knew that we wanted to go back to Salt Lake to our previous mission field...and we knew we were needed there because the numbers of missionaries was so low.  So it wasn't a surprise when we got our call in the mail:  FCHH Mission in Salt Lake City, Utah.  We also wanted to serve with friends that we had served with before, specifically, Shon Watkins, a Church employee, and Sister Nancy Escobedo, a full time Church Service Missionary (she lives at home and serves).  They are in the Data Quality Zone which is one of about 23 zones in our mission.  There is a lot of research, working with patrons on the phone, sorting out FamilySearch problems, etc that goes on in that zone.  We were excited.  So when our names were read on our Go Forth Day and we stood expecting President Workman to say, "Elder and Sister Thomas, you will be serving in the Data Quality Zone," we were quite surprised to hear him say instead, "Elder and Sister Thomas, you will be serving in the Training Zone."  My mouth dropped to the floor.  Not only was it not what we'd asked for, it was where we had been for two weeks and it was a frightening place to serve for us.  
     Learning to recognize the Lord's will for each of us and then doing it is one of the most important things we do in this life.  Learning to trust the Lord is another.  We knew then that what we wanted was not what the Lord had in mind for us and we immediately decided to go forth determined to do our best (with shaking knees) and just trust that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves and He will help us every step of the way.  
     

Living in Salt Lake City

                                                         West Temple Apartments

This is where we live.  There aren't any leaves on the trees right now but in the summer it will look like this.  Our address is:  185 N West Temple #503, Salt Lake City, UT  84103.  We are on the left side of the entrance, five floors up, behind that tree.....We have a wonderful view of Temple Sqare from our deck...

                                                          Conference Center
                                            The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

You can see our apartment building on the far left center of this picture.  This is where our General Conferences are held but also many other programs that are both Church sponsored and community based.  Last night we attended a performance of the BYU singers in the small theater that is on the side of our apartments.  It was wonderful.  In the summer months when there are a lot more visitors to SLC the Tabernacle Choir performs in the Center every Sunday....everyone is welcome and there is no charge.  There is a garden on the top of the Center and tours of the building every day between 9am and 9pm or something like that.  You can google Conference Center, SLC to see more pics of the building.

                                                      Joseph Smith Memorial Building
                                                                       (JSMB)
This is where we work each day.  Can you see me waving to you from our break room?  It is in the left wing 1st window above the middle part....I think.  I can see our apartment building from that window...it is a bit over a quarter of a mile from the JSMB.  The walk to and from takes us past this reflection pool, gardens, the SL Temple, etc.  It is lovely; no weeding, mowing, shoveling....we just get to enjoy it all w/out the work.  This is actually the back of the building that was once called the Hotel Utah.  Right after we arrived they started putting scaffolding up in front of the building and word is it will be there for two years as they work on cleaning, refurbishing, and whatever else.                                                
                                      
                                                                 Salt Lake Temple
                                           The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

We walk past the SL Temple every day.  It is so beautiful and so peaceful...There are a lot of weddings that take place in this temple so we see brides and their families on Temple Square many, many times.  Both before the wedding day getting "bridal photos" taken and after the wedding with family and friends.  It is so fun to see. You can see pictures of other LDS temples by going to www.ldschurchtemples.com.  The SL Temple has been closed for cleaning and remodeling so we have gone to other temples in the meantime:  the Bountiful Temple, the Jordan River Temple, and the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  All just as beautiful.

We go to church on Sunday in the chapel right across the street north of our apartment building.  That is where I am headed now.  Have a great Sunday!

New Friends at the Missionary Training Center

Part of the December 29, 2014 Missionary Group @ the Missionary Training Center

Perhaps you will recognize the missionary with the red tie and the lady in front of him with the purple sweater...That's us; officially Elder and Sister Thomas at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  There were about 80 of us senior missionaries entering the mission field that week.  The couple to the left of us, E & S Evans, the two ladies in the middle, Sister Baird and Sister Dean, and the couple third in from the right, E & S Conlin, were going to our mission.  The others were going out to other "serving grounds."  The couple to the right of Sister Dean were going to serve as humanitarian missionaries in Beijing, China!  The couple third in from the left were going to serve as mission office missionaries in New Mexico, I think.  The first couple on the left are serving here in Salt Lake City at the Bishop's Storehouse with their 35 year old daughter who has Down's Syndrome.  

Here is the rest of our group:  The first couple on the left in the upper photo went to Sweden.  He had served there as a young missionary many years ago and was excited to be going back.  She was trying to learn the language from him as he remembered various words and phrases and was giving it a very valiant effort.The fourth couple in from the left are serving with us in our mission.  They are the Sandersons.  They are "live at home" full time missionaries who live south of SLC and ride the TRAX to serve each day.

In the lower photo, the fifth couple from the right are the MacCabes and they are also serving in our mission.  They are from Colorado.  In the Center of the photo, Sister Zohrabyan, is from Armenia. She is the greatest!  And what a story she has.  I will try to tell you about her later on.  Suffice to say, we, here in the United States, are very blessed to have the freedoms, working conditions and ease of life that we do.

The couple to the left of her...I can't remember their names but they were called to be "live at home" missionaries in their stake here by SLC somewhere.  It is a new program the Church is trying; calling senior couples to serve full time missions in their own stakes.  While we were in the MTC we learned about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ more effectively; in a way that those who are seeking will recognize the truths of the gospel.  We often had to practice what we were learning and so were paired with other senior missionaries where one couple acted as missionaries while the other were either investigators or members who were no longer active.  This couple played the part of a couple they knew that were the latter.  We did our best to get to know them, assess their concerns or the reason they left activity in the Church, and share a message with them.  It was perhaps one of the most spiritual experiences of my life....even though it was "play-acting."  I will always wonder about the people they were portraying and pray that they will come to realize what they have left behind and return.

Elder Thomas was assigned to be a District Leader while we were in the MTC which meant he was to watch over a group of four other couples during our time there.  We all worked each day in a group so it was easy to keep track of them and how they were doing but now, interestingly enough, we are still concerned with how they are doing in their new mission experiences.

We stayed in an apartment that was about a mile from the MTC campus, the YView Apts (BYU fans can appreciate the name...that campus was close by also).  We got up early, met as a large group, divided into our smaller district groups, were taught and roll played, broke for lunch and then finally for supper and to go back to our apartment.  I should have practiced getting up early before we entered the mission field!!  I was exhausted.  I had to stay home on Wednesday because I had come down with E Thomas's flu bug and couldn't get out of bed.  We were only at the MTC for five days and we hated to leave when it was time.

Note;  the food in the cafeteria, which was huge as there are hundreds of young missionaries there, too, was fine.  Our dentist told us it was horrible so I was worried.  It was definitely cafeteria food but it was good and we had plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to go along with the main dishes and desserts.

We left the MTC on Friday, January 2nd, at about noon, bound for our 2nd mission in the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission.