Our last week has arrived, and I think we did pretty well not totally shutting down and dying on the vine. Here’s a bunch of our “lasts” for the mission…
Monday was our last mission devotional. I had awakened about 3am and couldn’t go back to sleep until almost 5am, so I didn’t get up early enough to do a ride in the gym. Instead I just got up and got ready for the devotional. We headed to the COB and Mom realized she had forgotten her access badge, so she went back to get it from the apartment. She texted me not too long after that that she was just going to watch in the library. The US/Canada Zone was in charge of this one. They talked a lot about “Elijah
Moments” with guests and then Elder Reid concluded by talking about some insights he had from all of President Nelson’s talks since he has become the President of the Church. I was amazed at how many of them I could remember. I am certain that is because I have been reading them for the 6 months after they are given in conference until the next conference comes. On my way back to the library after the devotional I took a picture of the current condition of the temple remodel. So I went and found one I took shortly after we arrived here so you can see a
before and after shot. It is definitely moving along. When I got to the library I went to work on my Abraham Phillips problem. I have found two different lines that people have attached his father to. One has him married to a Catherine and the other to a Lydia. I couldn’t find any records to prove one way or the other, so it will have to remain a mystery for awhile. Mom took off to go shopping at Costco for the salads and veggies and desserts for our Christmas social which was happening the next night. I was floor lead the last two hours and then went home to have dinner with the Ngs. They invited us as a little goodbye dinner. Tim made his signature Chinese food that he always makes and it was extremely good as it always
is. We had to take off about 7pm though because we had tickets to the Mannheim Steamroller concert. We just walked there and made it in plenty of time. This was our
last event here in Salt Lake City. We actually had tickets for the
Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert , but they were for Thursday night and we decided we wanted to start driving to Las Vegas Thursday afternoon instead of staying for that, so we gave them away to Elder and Sister Kunaka, who live in our building. The concert was amazing. They
played all of their Christmas hits and a couple of numbers from some of their
Fresh Aire albums. It was great. I was impressed with their presentation as well. They really entertained and seems to truly enjoy what they were doing. We walked home afterwards through the lights on both the COB grounds as well as the Conference Center. What a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.
Tuesday morning I got up and did a ride. After that the Carpenters came over for our last mahjong day with them. We will miss having those days. We didn’t go to the COB for lunch with them because we had food in our fridge we needed to get rid of as well as Mom needed to go back to Costco for some more stuff for the social and get things arranged for the night. I worked on more Segerstedt line people and chatted with some of the other missionaries. Then Mom texted me that she needed help at the COB to get things moved and ready, so off to the COB I went. I got there and helped get the water set up as well as the stereo burners for the warmers, and then Rob
Carpenter and I headed down to the kitchen to pick up the meat. There were 15 warmer boxes that we had to load with trays of ham, tilapia and Parmesan chicken and roll tot he elevators and up to the 26th floor. There were we arranged them by type so that we could keep the serving line constantly stocked. We had mostly chicken, and ham and tilapia were about the same amount. Meanwhile Mom and her team were playing desserts and getting the potatoes and green beans and salads and rolls ready. We started right on time and I just stayed at the meat table and kept the tilapia and chicken stocked. I was shocked that the tilapia was as popular as it was. It ran out
about 2/3 through the line. The ham was the least popular. We had a great turnout and I think everyone was happy with the food and then came the
entertainment. We had tons of fun songs and sharing of traditions. Wayne Jones played his bagpipes and did a
name that tune with them. The song I had been working on with five other guys from our zone,
The 12 Days After Christmas, turned out pretty good. Everyone laughed, which was the intent of the song. We were asked to end the night with our testimonies, which we quickly shared and then it was chatting with people and getting ready to cleanup. Some of the people wanted pictures with us, but we only got a couple done because I learned that the elevators, which can only be accessed using your access badges, were not accessible for the missionaries, only for the leaders…mission presidency and zone leaders. So I hung out at the elevators to badge people in so they could go home. Mom was looking all over for me, but I really couldn’t leave because people would have been stuck and not able to leave if I hadn’t of been there. We finally got everything all cleaned up and headed home. It was a great event, just as every
Sherry organized event is.
Wednesday was Pday. I got up and went down for a ride in the gym. I found a series of rides led by George Hincapie and the first one I did was to Akaka Falls. It was really cool. He started in Kolekole Park and every road he took I have been on. I never actually rode to Akaka Falls on my bike, but drove there quite a few times. It was fun to ride it with him on video. I also rode one he did on Maui. I then came to the apartment and we started doing last minute packing and cleaning all of the rooms super good. We got most of that done then we needed to go to have
our exit interview with President and Sister Craven at 11am. That went well. They were very complimentary and wanted to know what we had learned and if we had any suggestions for them. We really didn’t have any, they have done well. We then went back and continued cleaning and I also took my
FamilySearch shirts into the library to give away. We got everything cleaned and then I went to give my last platelets donation at the Red Cross Blood center. That went great. I watched
Hot Frosty on Netflix, which was
ehh, but at least it was a Christmas movie. I told the girl there that it was my last donation with them and she got me a Red Cross bag and an extra shirt to go along with the one they were giving away for Christmas donations. I then came home and watched
Deathly Hallows:Part 1 with Mom.
Thursday morning I had to get up at 4:30am to take Yoriko and Sharon to the airport. That went well and I was able to come home to get a little more sleep before getting up and starting to pack the car. We crammed and filled just about every nook and cranny with all of the stuff we had. Then we did a final cleaning and got dressed in
missionary attire and drove to the NOB to participate in the appreciation lunch they do for all departing missionaries. We had a great lunch and then took one last box…our down comforter and some jackets that Mom was going to ship to Bellingham…over to the COB to ship up there after all. It didn’t quite fit. Then we got on the road and headed to St. George, where we were going to have dinner with Mitch and Michele Rogers.
So we are officially finished with our mission. It has been wonderful and we have learned so much.
We shall see of I continue posting on this blog site.
BE GOOD!
Love you all.
Ex-Sister and Elder Phillips
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