missionaryMum.2 (June)

I can't believe another month has flown by for Mum over in Utah. She is having such an amazing time. She is super busy working every day helping people around the world do their family history. During work hours she gets a half day once a week and a whole day, once a month to work on her own family history. 

Last week Sarra and I worked on some family history (with the help of our good friend Suzanne) that Mum is working on and we were able to find out a bit more about Granny Blacklow's line. Suzanne taught us how to use a combination of ancestry.com. familysearch.org and trove (Tasmanian newspapers - all digitised) to try and find out information. We were able to research family notices in the newspapers dated around 1857 to try and find a birth date. All from the comfort of our own computers. We really do live in an age of amazing technology.

During June, Mum has kept very busy. She works on the 3rd floor in the Joseph Smith Memorial building from Monday to Friday, 7.30 - 4pm.

Then with what time she has left, she gets to go to the temple. There are a few to choose from and this one that she visited earlier in the month is called the Jordan River temple. I love the view from the front doors. Its about 30-40 mins out of SLC on the way to Provo.

And this is the Bountiful temple.

Now that it is summer over there, the Spoken Word has moved to the conference centre which seats 21,000 people. Obviously it is much busier in summertime. How lucky is Mum to attend this beautiful building each Sunday.

A quick looking the foyer of the conference centre.

I don't know what this is but it also is in the foyer at the conference centre. It looks pretty funky.

One of the other temples right near Mum is the Salt Lake temple. From any angle it looks majestic and absolutely HUGE. No wonder it took 40yrs to build.

The temple looms over other buildings. its not hard to miss. (look at that warm summer sky) (sigh)

When Mum is not at work or at the temple, she said there are many cultural events on, especially during the warm summer months. Many of these are outdoor concerts.

The open air concerts are held here every Tuesday and Friday for 3 months.

This was a Polynesian performance.

The COB (church office building) runs for 2 blocks and is 23 stories high.

Relief Society building.

This was an example of a canyon quarry where stone was made for many homes, civic buildings and the temple.

The bronze statues are showing us how they got stone out of the quarry back in the day.

This is the Assembly Hall (the first place of worship the saints built)

It too has beautiful gardens.

Inside the Assembly Hall.

The balcony runs all the way around just like at the Albert Hall in Launceston. There is a stairway leading up to an attic. Im not sure if the Albert Hall has an attic. Could very well do.

This is the ground floor of the JSMB where Mum went to see a movie in the Legacy Theatre. The movie was Joseph Smith. Prophet of the Restoration.

So many beautiful statues.

Mum and Sister Reeve.

And look who Mum sees walking along the street. :)


Mum catching up with Jen. So lovely to see.

I still can't get over how beautiful and clean and neat everything looks.

This is an original tree from Lebanon, that was brought over when the temple was finished in 1893. It was at first just a small plant.

The COB on the left and the JSMB where Mum works is on the right.

So many nice areas to take a lovely photo.

American style hydrangeas.

There are underground car parks with vents which are cleverly disguised in this photo. They put trees and flowers around them to help fit them in with the gardens.

Water is reticulated from these wells.

I love the cobblestone.

I can't wait for clear blue skies here.

I have lawn envy!

This is the door Mum comes out for lunch. Imagine sitting in that garden to eat lunch each day!!

Looking up Main St.

Looking down Main St.

Everyone's favourite shop (Deseret Book)

Mum has got to meet some lovely people. Here they are went out for ice-cream to Farr's to celebrate Sister Graybow's birthday.

North Visitors Centre. A view of Old Jerusalem.

At the North Visitors Centre, the walls are all curved with beautiful pictures on them.

A view of the back side of the tabernacle.

the foyer of the North Visitors Centre.

The globe continuously spins around and the books are BOM in all languages.

After visiting so many lovely places, Mum gets to eat with some of the other missionaries together out in the gazebo.

And having some down time.


And go for a ride on a horse and carriage.

I'm glad Mum has enjoyed her second month away.

Hi Everyone, 8 weeks already, the time is flying. Well this week did. Work was much better. I have done 3 chats now. The first one disconnected so I was a bit disappointed, but on Friday I did two more and I was able to answer both questions, so that was good.
Once a month our zone employees put on lunch for us, it was Hawaiian haystacks on Monday. I didn't really like it. Rice, chicken in a sauce with mushrooms, noodles, sultanas, pineapple and peas???
The food has come thick and fast this week. Sister Williams in my team turned 86 so we had lunch for her on Wednesday, salad sandwiches, pie and chocolate cake, we all contributed. Every Friday morning our supervisor brings doughnuts. Our team on the floor on Friday consists of only 3 of us sisters, him and about 5 young Elders. Most people have Friday off, only the full time missionaries work. We have 8 in my aisle altogether but the rest are Church Service Missionaries and they all work part time. 
Monday night for FHE we went to a talk by our Mission President. It was very good. All about his mission as Mission president of Hawaii and the opening up of Christmas Island.
He talked. About creating our own scripture by working backwards from now.

Quotes....the place for correction is not in the electric chair, it is in the high chair!
If you are not happy with your lot then build a service station on it!

SL temple is closed for 5 weeks which is a pain, we have become used to just slipping over the road. You will see from the photos on Thursday night we went to bountiful. It was raining. It still lovely. The car park itself is huge, above ground and underground. The temple is very large and they run sessions every half hour. It is set way up on the mountain, about half an hour drive away. We had Chinese for tea afterwards. I have also been busy this week doing my Branch assignment. Editing bios for those who came in May! putting their photo on and getting the brochure ready for publication. I have to do it at work at the end of the day as I can't do it on the IPad. I type a lot on the IPad and then email it to myself at work.
Today, Saturday we went to a concert by BYU Idaho choir and orchestra. It was based on Mosiah chapters 12-16. It was beautiful, they had 2 tenors and 2 sopranos as well. This was the only concert I did this week as I was too tired. This one we had to have tickets for, they are free but we still have to get them. I ordered them online and they post them. 

Sister Graybow was walking home yesterday and a young Korean woman was sitting on the wall, she motioned Sister G over and asked her what was special about this place, what was it she was feeling. Sister G bore her testimony and they chatted, the woman cried and they hugged.
Isn't that neat? Last week another sister was approached as she walked home by a Korean gentleman and he asked her how he could be saved!

I better hurry up and get onto July as that too is nearly over.