Week Eighteen…Passing Me Was Really Mean.

This week’s learning was all over the place, but here’s what we learned.

Monday was Memorial Day and that’s a day all about BBQ, right? So after our shift in the library…yes the library was open on Memorial Day…we headed out to find some good BBQ, since we aren’t allowed to have a BBQ grill at our apartment building. We found a place that had good reviews so we decided to try it out. It is called R&R BBQ. We learned that it is very good BBQ and worth the stars in its reviews. The only negative was that they were out of their famous ribs and we would have had to wait around for over an hour to get some. The brisket was wonderful.

We learned that Memorial Day has a little different meaning here in Utah than other places where we have lived. Here the purpose of the day has broadened. It isn’t just a day to remember and give thanks to those who died fighting for our freedoms, it is a day to remember all those who have died. Kind of like a Día de los Muertos. One of the sisters that works in the library with us said that she passed by a cemetery and there were families all over the place having picnics and putting flowers on graves. Interesting.

Tuesday is our go in later day. So I went for a ride up the biking/walking trail to the north. I wanted a little longer ride than usual, so I kept on going and learned that they have this really cool mini railroad town called S&S Shortline Railroad Park in Farmington. Doing a little research I learned that it is family-owned and offered train rides to kids up to a certain age. Unfortunately it closed down a few years ago, but when I rode by there on Tuesday there were trucks parked there and guys looking like they were going to do some work. So maybe it is in the process of reopening and would certainly be a fun thing for the grandkids to do if they come to visit us here.  

After my ride and Mom’s walk we went in to the library and had a pretty good day. Mom got her Intermediate Dutch pin and was actually able to help someone from the Netherlands as well. The rest of our day was working on Netherlands and Sweden training, as well as ushering and other assignments. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Mom really likes being an usher. She gets to greet people and get them started at their computer and just be nice. Perfect for her! 

Nothing really exciting happened the rest of the day that I can remember except that at lunch…which is at 5pm and really should be called dinner…we sat with some fun co-missionaries. One is from Japan and knows a few different languages. One speaks Spanish and goes to Mexico every month to help rich people do their genealogy. And one is a sister who knows tons about Germany, Poland and Russian research. We learned so many interesting facts about all of them. Lunch went by quickly!

Wednesday was Pday and neither Mom nor I felt like doing a whole lot. We are learning that old bodies like more rest than young bodies. My long bike ride and Mom’s long walk the day before just made us want to sit and veg. Mom had an online doctor appointment that the doctor was late for, so we had to contact John Campbell…who we were planning to go to lunch with…to tell him we were going to be late. But then we learned that he had double-booked himself and couldn’t come after all. So we had some lunch and then watched a bunch of Murdoch Mysteries episodes. It’s a Canadian show that is on Hulu that I have discovered and I like. I’ve learned over the years that I like mysteries. It’s fun trying to figure out who dunnit or what’s going to happen next. Films like Field of Dreams and tv shows like Elementary and books like the Jack Reacher Series. Those are some of my favorite entertainment, along with movies based on real life people and events. That’s partly what has drawn me to Murdoch Mysteries, he invents things that were actually invented in real life much like he does on the show.

Thursday is our floor leader day. We go in and are in charge of everything that happens. That is also my meeting day for our training rewrite team. I was working on a completely different version of the lesson I am supposed to revamp and learned that I need to be a little more precise and slower when it comes to shutting down the tons of windows I have open. I accidentally shut the window of the PowerPoint I was working on and I guess because I was doing it via the Outlook 365 online site I lost everything that I had done. Ugh! Sometimes I don’t like the learn from your mistakes method of learning. 

After work (I call it work because it feels like we are going to a job everyday and they do call it missionary work, but it really isn’t a job so I’m not sure I should call it work) anyway, after work we went over to the COB (Church Office Building) to workout. On our way back to the apartment Mom wanted to cut through the Conference Center  to give away chocolates to the sister missionaries. We went all over the Conference Center lobby finding missionaries, and we even went into the auditorium itself where we learned what it looks like when none of the chairs for the general authorities are there. Quite a different look I thought. 

Friday was our temple day, so we went to the Bountiful Temple to do an endowment. I took the name of a family member of one of the missionaries who has been working in the library for many years, Sister Rochon. She has a sealing day planned with her family next week and learned they had missed the endowment for one of them. I was happy to do his work. Afterwards we went to a bakery there in Bountiful. His is becoming somewhat of a tradition for Mom, and I am learning to like it. Actually it hasn’t taken her any extra convincing to get me on board. Yum!

After the temple we went in early so that we could use the computers there to work on my training team lesson and also the new SharePoint site I created for the West Temple Apartment Missionaries. It was a short day and we enjoyed an early evening off.

Saturday I got up and did my 6 mile mountain bike loop that I have previously done. Lots of switchbacks after the first mile and a half up the canyon road. However, just as I was getting to the end of the canyon road this “young man” to the left (he looked about my age) came jogging past me. I couldn’t believe he could be so mean as to pass me! He could have saved my fragile ego by holding back another minute and let me get to the top of the road before moving on past, but no, he just boogied on by. I learned when I was in Bellingham that my old legs and smaller gear ratio on my bike was going to make it harder to ride the hills, but I never thought I’d get passed by a jogger on a paved road. Crushed!

Mom’s walk took her around the COB and out to the newly opened plaza between the COB and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We learned a few weeks ago that they were planning to reopen the eastern half of the plaza on June 1st. Mom and I tried to go see it on Thursday after working out, but they had locked the doors already,

so Mom went there on her walk Saturday. We learned from a news article about this new addition to the plaza, this stone with the inscription of the verse about “the mountain of the Lord’s house” from Isaiah chapter two. Mom found it. As you read it you can see beyond the stone the actual “Lord’s house” which is being rebuilt. Very cool placement of a wonderful verse of scripture.

After our walk and ride we went into the library. It was a wild kind of day. There were a few missionaries gone on leave and one of our assistant zone leader couples that had to leave for a family emergency, so we were short-handed and had to juggle the schedule around. But we were also not very busy so everything worked out well, until….Until just about 5pm, when most of our missionaries have gone home (I counted, there were 9 missionaries and two paid staff people still there) and usually there are not many patrons, but I had just been assigned to help a couple from the Netherlands and Mom took over the steward duties and a bunch of people (well 3) came in all needing help with Russian ancestors. We had nobody with that expertise on he floor. On top of that Mom got a call from the main floor saying they had two different groups of people on their floor needing French speakers. So while I was blissfully helping the couple from the Netherlands find their family tree (which we were successful in finding) Mom was going crazy trying to cover everything else. But she learned she can do it and everyone was helped, she just had to ask people to help where they could and everyone pitched in and we had a successful night. 

Today we went to church, which was packed with people. We did learn that there was a baby blessing, but it didn’t seem like there was a ton of family members there. Maybe there were a lot of  other visitors or maybe this ward is bigger than we thought it would be, but there were a lot of people there. I think every chair but one was filled in the relief society room for the Gospel Doctrine class and the parking lot was full when we came out. We didn’t drive though, we walked the .8 mile and it’s a nice walk. 

So we headed down the hill to the North Office Building (NOB?) for our Leadership Pattern Journey class. I learned a nice lesson from our material this week. This is a great quote from Elder L. Whitney Clayton: “We do hear the word hastening frequently, and it’s interesting. Hasten, of course, means to speed up, but I’m not sure we speed things up by moving faster. No matter how fast you climb the ladder against the wrong wall and so on, you’ll still just get to the top of the wrong wall faster, right? So I think we’re better served, if we’re going to be effective, in assessing where we really are and where we really need to go, and measuring the steps that we need to take. It’s more about getting it done right than it is getting it done quickly.” I have learned that too many times I try to get things done quickly, thinking I am helping things get done better, when I should be slowing down to get things done more efficiently and right. 

On the way home, we passed by this monument in a little park. We stopped to take a look at it and learned that it was actually a headstone for the grave of Heber C. Kimball. Kind of cool, but kind of odd to have it stuck in this little park out of the way behind a bunch of buildings. 

Well we finished our day having Break-the-Fast out on the grass on the south side of our building. I hauled all the tables and chairs down there and it turned out to be the perfect day, temperature wise, to eat outside. I learned after it was all over and everything was packed back up to our apartment that nobody, including myself, took a picture of our group having a great time. Ugh, picture failing again. Maybe next week.

We love you all. 

BE GOOD! 

Sister Phillips and Elder Phillips