Week Eleven…Trying Out New Leaven.

 Aloha everyone! What did we learn this week?

We learned that traveling and getting home at 1am makes you tired the next day! Actually we already knew that, but it was confirmed on Tuesday. Luckily, that is our “go in at noon and get off at 8pm” day, so we were able to sleep in. When we headed into the library we were greeted with Spring! Wow, it can “Spring” here. These are photos in the same spot one week apart.

The weather seems to be a bit bi-polar here, but I think Spring has finally come to stay (although I did see in the weather report this morning that there is a 38% chance of snow overnight on Wednesday night. Ughh. I hope the odds are correct and that it’s less likely to happen.)

Wednesday was our Pday, although we felt like we had just had a Pday. I decided to go for a bike ride, since the weather is nicer. I have decided that if I ride the Jordan River Parkway Trail, I like going north rather than south because there are less streets I have to cross and the trail is less turny and hard to follow. But the wind was blowing from the south so if I started out heading north I would have to do my whole return trip against the wind. So I debated for about a minute and then decided to head south. Wrong choice! I learned that my reasons for not liking the southern route were validated…it was a lousy ride…and on top of all the things I already mentioned before about what makes it lousy they did a detour at 39th South and sent me east along that busy street for over a mile and then turned me south along another fairly busy street. I assumed they would bring me back to the trail pretty quickly, but my assumption was wrong. I got all the way down to 53rd South and still saw no signs heading back to the trail. So I turned around and headed home. I was bummed that I didn’t have the trail to ride on and that I had made that poor decision, so bummed that I forgot to take a picture for this blog. Ugh! I was almost home when Mom called and she told me we were supposed to be going to lunch with John, our friend from Hawaii, at noon…which was 15 minutes from then. Ugh again! I forgot. So I picked up my pace and hurried home, showered and headed to the COB.

As we went out the front doors of our apartment building we were greeted with this lovely display of flowers. We learned that our apartment management believes Spring has come and they’re able to back up that belief with this planting of flowers. We hope they’re right!

We were only 1/2 hour late for lunch. Lunch was great and then we went home to wait for the Xfinity guy…yes another Xfinity guy. We were told last week by a customer service rep that I could pay $39.99 and they would have an installation guy come out and install a cable to our apartment. I explained three times to him what our situation was but he assured me their guy could do it. I said, ok…send your guy…not believing for a moment that he could do it. I learned I was right. The guy came and knocked on our door and said, “Do you need someone to set up you internet?”. I said, “Nope.” He looked kind of puzzled, so I smiled and then told him our saga. When I was done, he verified that there was no cable and that he was pretty sure it was sitting up in the ceiling in the hallway. He left with a promise that he would escalate and expedite our case with his supervisor. I’m not sure what that will do, I am not expecting much at this point. 

After he left we headed out to the Draper Temple to meet Eve Nagareda for a sealing session. We chose the Draper Temple again because of their policy of letting us do more than just a couple of sealings and because Eve was coming up from Provo to meet us. We had a wonderful session where we were the only ones that brought names so we were able to do them all! Wahoo. We also were able to do some sibling sealings, where they had both of the siblings sealed to their parents at the same time. We learned from the sealer that they can do up to 8 siblings at a time if they have enough proxy people. That would look pretty cool. The spirit was pretty strong when we did those sibling sealings and I’m pretty sure they were feeling it on the other side of the veil just like we were. After the session we found a Mexican Restaurant and had some good Mexican food for dinner. Yum! I learned that when they put “Super Burrito” on the menu they mean it. I should have taken a picture, but I promise it was huge!

Thursday was a normal day at the library, but before we headed out Mom had to feed her baby. Her baby sourdough starter, that is. While we were in Vegas on Monday Brittany shared some sourdough bread with us. It was great. She was excited to show us that she has figured it out and her bread was coming out better and better. Mom told her she wanted to learn, so Brittany gave her a small baggie of starter to bring home with her. She has to “feed” it flour and water everyday and then when she gets enough she can make bread. Thus the title for his blog…trying out new leaven. Sourdough leaven. It has grown pretty quickly and fairly easily. 

Mom had her sewing class Thursday night and then we got news from Julie and Chris that Julie would probably be induced early. She was going to the doctor the next day and let us know. That was exiting news. Mom celebrated by getting her load of bread started.

I was surprised Mom was doing it that late, but I learned that sourdough bread needs anywhere from 3-12 hours to rise. Mom’s plan was to let it rise overnight and bake it in the morning, since we didn’t have to be into the library until 10am. That is exactly what she did and it worked…sort of. Her oven was a little hotter that she planned on it being and her dough a little wetter than she’d hope for, but the bread that came out was plenty yummy, even if it was “burnt!” on the top a little. I had some right away with butter and then made a cheese sandwich with it as well. I could get used to having this around, but I will need to increase my rides to keep the extra pounds off. 

Friday in the library was great. I had a wonderful interaction with a guest from Canada whose whole family, mom and dad’s side both, emigrated to Canada from the Netherlands. I was able to help him find a whole bunch of lines on both sides so that he 

could print out a pretty full 7 generation fan chart to take home to show his family. He was very excited. I learned that the Spirit of Elijah (as we call it in the library) is very strong. The guy had come in about 2 hours before I started working with him and had only intended to stay for about a half an hour. But when the missionary on the main floor told him that there were specialists that could help with his Dutch research he said he felt like he ought to see what they could find. Another missionary helped him for about an hour and he thought he was done and ready to go, but then felt like he’d like to find a little bit more. He really hadn’t found a lot. When I sat down with him and asked what he’d like to accomplish he said! “I really think I’d like to do one of those fan charts, but I’d like it to look a little fuller than it does right now.” I looked at him and the words, “No problem.” came out of my mouth, so we went to work and sure enough, an hour later we had a pretty full fan chart AND he learned how to search the records for himself. The Spirit kept telling him to stay and He also told me “No problem.”…and it was true.

Yesterday was another good day of work in the library. Mom and I got a visit from these wonderful people! Katherine and Josh and baby Tyler came up from Provo to check out the library and to visit with 

us a bit. I was helping a guest when they came, so Mom took them up to the Discovery Floor and did a bunch of the fun activities with them. Then I finally was able to meet up with everyone and it was great to see them and get caught up with how things are going for them and then to help them get a fan chart printed off. While they were doing that, I took Tyler and we wandered around looking at stuff and playing. He’s a cute kid and I learned that he was totally comfortable hanging out with me for awhile (I know you’re jealous Kimberly and Scott, but you can go hold Leo if you want to get some revenge. 😋) We then learned that unfortunately the big printer that does the fan charts wasn’t working, so they did some smaller 11x17 versions and then we went and took this fun picture together. Sure do love these folks! They promised to come back again and bring Alex next time. 

This morning we went to the Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square broadcast again. I learned that the Primary song that I used to love to sing, Give Said the Little Stream is more than just a fun song to sing. As I listened to the choir sing it the words started to sink in…give away, oh give away. I used to always think (and it is) that this was talking about giving to and serving others. But the choir kept singing give away and the words of King Lamoni’s father came to me. “I will give away all my sins to know thee.” (Alma 22:18). I wonder if I am willing to give away, oh give away all my sins to know Him. I hope I am. 

We then had a Leadership Pattern Journey class that we just started today. We will be learning for the next 11 weeks about this. In the circle are the Core Talents and 

Operational Talents that when developed will help us to lead like the Savior led. I am familiar with this program because when I was with Seminaries and Institutes they started this, but they hadn’t developed the course yet. The best part of it is what is called The Leadership Enrichment Series. It is a bunch of sit down, question and answer sessions with many of the apostles and other general authorities of the Church where they discuss each of these talents individually. They are marvelous. Unfortunately we are not able to share them with you, but we can share what we learn from them, which we plan to do here and in person if you remember to ask us when we see you. One of the best things we learned today was The Learning Pattern, which begins with asking yourself, “What lack I yet?”. That should lead to you asking, “What must I do?”, and ending with, “Therefore what?”. But that leads us back to the first question and the cycle continues and continues as we become more like the Savior. 

We ended today by going down to the Henkel’s Columbus Adult Education Center to help put together 200+ sandwiches to go into lunch sacks with water bottles and granola bars and chips and other stuff for the homeless people around the area. We were able to put them together in about 20 minutes because so many came to help, and then we waited around for the people to come get some. We learned that they had previously handed out flyers in the area and at the local homeless shelter to invite the homeless to come get a free meal. Unfortunately nobody came. So we decided we would take the meals to them. We loaded boxes of them into a bunch of different people’s cars and headed off to deliver them to the homeless center, or to any homeless we might see on the way, Mom and I (especially Mom) wanted to find actual people to give them to. We did! We met some wonderful homeless people who blessed us and thanked us and wanted to pray with us and even one who taught us about our Heavenly Father and His goodness. It was awesome! We gave away most of our 5 boxes of about 10 bags each before we got to the homeless shelter. Wahoo!

This was the message that one of the missionaries wrote on the chalkboard at the Columbus Center.  Then some other crazy missionary drew the cartoons next to it!

Love you all!

BE GOOD.

Sister and Elder Phillips

PS We learned that Julie is being induced on April 21st, so Mom will be heading there that day and spend a week with them to help with everything after the new baby boy comes.