Week Twenty-eight…Book of Mormon Project...I Can’t Wait!

Welcome to what we learned in week twenty-eight of our mission.

Monday morning we went into the library as usual and got to work. I was assigned to help a couple from The Netherlands and their 3 teenaged kids. We were successful as we were able to find ancestors on the father’s side back into the early 1800’s. But what was more successful, and what I have learned I love to do most, is I was able to teach him how to search for records and attach sources to his ancestors names. After about 35 minutes of doing this they were ready to move on and he asked how he could print all of this off to save it. I told him he didn’t need to do that as he had created an account and now it was all his and would always be here for him. He was very excited about that!

A little before lunch Allegra and Cole from Hawaii came to visit us in the library. We took them to lunch at J Dawgs and then they stopped in to the sites on Temple Square while I went back to the library and Mom went to her pre-op appointment for her eye surgery that she is having next week. Later Cole and Allegra came into the library and I was able to help Allegra do some researching on her father’s side of her family. We learned some great things, including that her great grandfather was a military undercover agent and even had an undercover name registered with the military. We also found out that he had twin brothers who were his adopted cousins. Their mother died the same year they were born, perhaps when they were born, and their father died the next year. So his sister took the boys in and later adopted them. Allegra called her dad and grandmother to tell them about all of this and they were pretty excited. Grandma kept adding more info to the whole story, it was fun! 

I was a little late leaving the library, since we were having such a good time looking for people and records in Allegra’s family history, but I stopped to take the photo of us outside of the library and then headed home. I got home and decided to go to the gym to workout when I remembered that we had a mission fireside with President and Sister Holmes. So I changed back into library clothes and off we went. As you can see we learned about deepening our personal conversion. Specifically we focused on Alma chapter 5, which we were asked to study before we came to the fireside. President Holmes shared a bunch of quotes on conversion and invited others to share their thoughts about the quotes or things they had read in Alma 5. Then Sister Holmes spoke about her understanding of true conversion. Mom’s favorite quote was from someone in the audience who shared their favorite quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell…

It is one of my favorite quotes as well. I have learned and am still learning that this whole life is about becoming like our Savior, in particular, learning how to say “Not my will, but Thine be done.” and trusting that our Heavenly Father truly loves us enough to only ask us to do that which will bring us ultimate happiness and success. It’s just very hard for us to do that since we have to rely on scriptures and prophets and faith and nudges from the Holy Ghost to guide us to know what those things are what our Father wants us to do and to learn.

Tuesday morning. I went for a ride and Mom for a walk then we went into the library at noon. I was assigned to Memory Lane and since they were slow I started copying a video. I then learned that the next person who was supposed to take over for me wasn’t going to make it into the library so they asked if I could stay another two hours. I said, “Sure.” Well I helped a few people and kept copying my video. When I got ready to leave I expected the video to be done, but it still has about 1/4 of the tape to go. I looked it up and learned that vhs tapes could hold up to 6 hours of playback in certain modes. This tape might be one of those.

I then went downstairs where I found Mom had been working on her Italy training and being usher. I was asked to help a man with finding some family from Iraq. Yikes! I had no clue, so we just looked up what the Wiki page has about Iraq and I was able to show him some places he could write to there to ask for records. We were able to get off early to go to our monthly Hale Center Theater performance. This month was Newsies. I know all you kids love this one 

and Hale Center Theater did not disappoint. The dancing and singing and staging were great! We thoroughly enjoyed it. One thing we did learn, and Zoë warned us about and Mom didn’t like, was that Jack was portrayed as being older and his love interest wasn’t Davey’s sister, but the reporter…who was the daughter of  Joseph Pulitzer, the owner of the newspaper. Most of the rest was the same with a few added songs and we enjoyed it all. Afterwards we had decided if we got out early enough we were going to go get a peach milkshake from Chick-fil-A. We had learned that they were offering peach milkshakes as a summer promotion and we wanted to get one before 

they don’t offer them anymore. So I looked it up and learned there was one just 5 minutes from the theater. We got out at about 9:45 and Chick-fil-A closed at 10pm. So we hustled to the car and took off. Mom pulled up directions on her phone and somehow it located one further away. While trying to figure out the directions to the correct one we drove right past the place and didn’t even see it. By the time we figured it out it was too late. Sadness. No milkshakes!

Wednesday Mom had her class and I rode my mountain bike up City Creek Canyon to check out the picnic site I had reserved for our West Temple Apartments August activity. When I got there I learned from this sign, zip-tied to the bbq grill, that our plans for a bbq and campfire were not going to work. Sadness again! We would need to change our activity. (note: we just met with the Engstroms and decided to do a game night instead). After getting home and showered we took off to go see the last of the houses from The Parade of Homes that we didn’t make it to last Wednesday. We decided to start off at the one furthest away in Herriman. When we went to exit the freeway we learned that there was an IKEA store right there. Mom was needing some more chip clips so we decided to stop real quick to grab some. We learned you don’t “stop real quick” at IKEA. I am sure you all have been to one, but I totally forgot that you have to walk their maze of death to find anything. We walked and walked and walked and couldn’t find any chip clips. We finally found some employees 

and learned that we were on the wrong floor. So we headed downstairs and after mazing for another 10 minutes we finally found them. Then it was another 5 minutes of maze walking until we found the checkout stand. Hallelujah. It seemed like we were in there for hours, but it really was only about a half an hour, but that put us behind in our plans to be able to see all of the homes we wanted to see. 

The first house was humungous. We learned that it was over 25,000 square feet and had its own indoor basketball court and a theater with enough seating for about 20 people.  It also had an indoor golf simulator screen and workout room. Every bedroom had its own bathroom and walk-in closet and they all looked like they could be the master bedroom. Outside they had a pickleball court and basketball court, a swimming pool and an in-ground tramp. They also had a casita that was as big as our apartment with a gourmet kitchen. Next to the casita was an RV garage that could fit two 60’ RVs. Out in front of that was a helipad. Mansion! 

We then moved on to see other homes. One of them was a home that was called The Copper House and was built by Holmes Homes for Extreme Makeover-Home Edition. We learned that they added a fun addition to this home, a slide that takes you from the bedroom down to the basement. Mom and I did it!

After Parade of Homes we found a Chick-fil-A and got a peach milkshake. Wahoo. We got home just in time for me to change clothes and go with our neighbor, Jeff, to help him move a shed at one of his friend’s house so that they can access their trailer which they had parked there. When we got there we learned that the shed was not what I was imagining it to be. It wasn’t a built shed, it was one that they had bought and was brand new, and was in three large boxes in the driveway. Each box probably weighed about 500 pounds or more, so we decided to open them and move the contents piece by piece to the backyard and then repackage them back into the boxes. It worked out well. We also helped the friend move some 4x8 sheets of pressboard as well. There was my workout for the day, even though I had already had one with my ride up City Creek Canyon. 

After I got home it was time to relax and eat and enjoy some tv.

Thursday Mom woke up and wasn’t feeling well. We had learned the day before that one of the missionaries has COVID, so Mom was worried that she might have it so I headed to Walmart to buy some COVID test kits. I got home and she took the test and learned that she doesn’t have COVID. But since she had a headache and a sore throat she decided to stay home. So I went off to the library alone and mom stayed at the apartment and rested. Mom was supposed to do the Escape Room and I thought I was going to have to do it for her, but they found someone else. Meanwhile our floor was super busy and we were all filling in in different assignments all over he place. It was a crazy day, but I survived. 

Friday was our temple day and Mom got appointments to do sealings at the Jordan River temple. When we went to our first session we learned that the sealer was Spencer J. Condie. He is an emeritus General Authority Seventy and was very kind and efficient. He commented on Mom’s lovely thick hair, pointing out that he had lost most of his hair. The second sealing session was led by a sealer named Lyle Shamo. I was certain that I knew him somehow, but couldn’t figure out how. Then one of the other sisters in the room asked him how his Book of Mormon project was going. He said that it was keeping him up at nights. He then explained to the rest of us that he had worked for the Church for 30 years in their media department making movies and then served as a mission president in England. After that he retired and then was asked to work on this project. We learned that they are making new audio recordings for the Book of Mormon that you can listen to on Gospel Library that are voiced individually for each character. There would be a Mormon for the narration, a Nephi for his book, a Sariah for her part, etc. they have been working on it for 4 1/2 years and are almost finished. Pretty cool. Afterwards I asked him if he had worked for S&I and learned that he had. That’s where I had heard of him. I’m sure I was in some meetings somewhere where they had mentioned his name and his team. 

After the temple we went into the library and worked for a few hours then came home and sent a text to see what the Ramsden’s were doing. We learned earlier in the week that they were coming to our mission as visa waiters. Elder Ramsden texted back that they were at Harmons getting groceries. I asked if they wanted a ride home and they said “yes”. So we drove over there and picked them up and brought them back to their apartment, which is in the building just west of us. So we got to see their place and catch up on what is happening with them. They are hoping their visa comes within two weeks so that they can be in Thailand for the Temple open house and dedication.

Saturday was Roxy’s birthday and Mom sent her this memory from many moons ago…9 years is many moons right?! We went into the library at 10am and worked until 6pm. The best part of the day was when Mom went to help a couple with their FamilySearch account. She learned that they were having trouble getting into their account, so she had to call Guest Services to come recover their account. Then she started looking at their trees and stayed there for almost two hours helping hem fix problems in their tree and add sources to different people and teaching them how to do all of those things for themselves. She said it was so much fun because they were so grateful for every little thing that she did. 

After getting home we got a text from Tim asking if we wanted to go out to dinner. We said sure, so we walked over to the City Creek Mall and decided to try the Cheesecake Factory. When we got there we learned that they had an hour and 45 minute wait, so we decided we would go somewhere else. We chose Kneaders and we got a sandwich and salad. (Actually the above picture is with the Ramsden’s there.) I have to admit, the sandwich was sub par. 

Today we walked to church. It was a little bit warm so I took off my jacket for the uphill walk. We got to church and I spoke with the SS President, Brother Wickham about my assignment to help with the Teacher Councils and visiting the teacher’s classes. I learned that he is excited for someone to help him out with his assignment. Sacrament meeting talks were good. Elders quorum class was good. Relief Society lesson was good. Church was good. We then walked home and I started this blog post. We took a short break to discuss our change in apartment activity from bbq to game night and we are now awaiting the imminent arrival of the Ramsden’s for dinner. Mom has talked to a few of you and it has been a relaxing afternoon.

We love you all. I hope you had a marvelous sabbath day.

BE GOOD!

Elder and Sister Phillips