Elder Millet and I are the Senior Directors of the Referral Center. It has become our home away from home. This has been our calling for 4 out of our 5 transfers. It is our responsibility to train the 5 other couples who do the work in the Referral Center each day. Not only have we trained them as a group but have worked with them individually. They will have this calling for 2 transfers and then we will train a new group.
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Our work centers on the 6 baskets on the file cabinet. The Sisters put their referral cards in whatever basket when they have checked the information and made sure the people want missionaries to visit them in their homes.
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The referral cards for mainland China are put in this basket. We scan and email them to the Hong Kong Mission where they are held until missionary work opens up in that country. The Sisters freely give a chinese Book of Mormon to guests who want one. The Church cannot send literature into China but the residents can take information home with them. We send 10-25 chinese cards each day.
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This basket is for foreign referrals - those with foreign characters, a foreign address, or foreign characters with a US or Canadian address. We scan and email them to the MTC in Provo where they are sent to whatever mission throughout the world. Many of the cards cannot be input into an English computer and many times we send the card for verification of what the Sisters have entered into Referral Manager. We send 20-40 foreign referrals each day.
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The US and Canada referrals are entered into Referral Manager by the Sisters. We Seniors simply make sure they are filed in the correct box so they can be found in the future, if needed.
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The potential referrals are put in this box. A potential is someone who is referred by a friend, usually LDS. The Sisters contact this person to make sure they want the missionaries to visit their home. We check this box and file the cards.
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Comment cards are filled out by the guests. If they do not give an address or phone number and do not want the missionaries to visit in their homes the Sisters put the cards in this basket. Elder Millet and I sort through them and save out any with US and Canada phone numbers, email addresses, or unique comments. The rest are shredded.

President Palfreyman may choose to send an email and thank the guest for visiting Temple Square. The ones with phone numbers are sent with the Senior Couple serving in Park City for a week. They are encouraged to call the guests and also thank them for visiting. In doing so they may have a wonderful conversation which results in a request for missionaries.

President Stewart reads some of the unique comments for training purposes in Zone Conferences.
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If the information on the card is incomplete or we sense a problem, the card is put in the problem basket for the Sister RC Directors to correct.
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All the cards are filed in the labeled boxes in the closet. We keep these cards for 3months and then they are shredded. We love the RC. As President Stewart says "It fits us."
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Elder Millet and I were rushing to the Legacy Theater for our assignment when we passed this beautiful bride and handsome groom taking pictures. As we passed I felt a sense of recognition and told Elder Millet, "I know that lady." He suggested I go back and find out who it was.

To my surprise it was Darlene Hall from Bellingham. She and her husband, John divorced several years ago and she moved to Florida, met Thayne Saunders, fell in love and they were married August 30, 2008 in the Salt Lake Temple. I feel bad that I did not take the time to get my camera and take a picture of the lovely wedding outfits. What a special couple. We are so happy for you.
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Becky and Wayne Tomlinson from Bellingham recently moved to West Yellowstone, Wyoming and traveled to Salt Lake for Darlene and Thayne's wedding. We spent some time catching up and sharing the news from the Bellingham/Lynden area. What fun!

This is the monument honoring the graves of the families of Heber Chase Kimball and Newell Kimball Whitney who were early pioneers to the valley. It is directly behind the Kimball Condos and the Deseret Apartments.
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This is the plaque that lists all the people that are buried in the park. The family of Heber C. Kimball are listed first then the family of Newell K. Whitney.
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Every year Zions Securities, our landlord, caters a breakfast for the different apartments. We were included with the Deseret Apartments where many of the Sisters live and also many Senior Couples who serve in the Family History Mission. It was early but worth it. The food was very good and there was plenty to take home for breakfast tomorrow. The event was held in the back yard park at DA.
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We couldn't resist snapping this photo of Sister Dean and Sister Duffles who are the Directors of the Referral Center.
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I was coming out of one of the video rooms at South Visitors Center and someone said, "I know you." It was Ryan Schindler, Carlee, Nathan, and baby Reed Tulett. What a surprise. It was good to talk of old times in Lynden. Nathan and Carlee live near Provo and Ryan was down for BYU Education Week.
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Mikel, Marci, Ebbi, and Nesse Bryta, born August 21, 8 pounds, 9 ounces. Dodi reports that mother and baby are doing well. Sister Ebbi and Dad are happy campers. She's a little doll. Congratulations!

Dodi is a very beautiful grandma.

We heard from our wonderful missionary in the Philippines. He is doing well. Time is flying for Curtis. He has been on his mission just over 1 year and is loving it.

He recently had 5 baptisms and has 4 people near setting their baptism date. He has had many wonderful experiences. His testimony is strong and he is working very hard. We love him and are proud of the work his is doing.
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This is our new schedule for our 5th transfer. Our mission is now 1/3 over. Time has flown by.



We are the Senior directors for the Referral Center so we are there 2 days a week. We work the early shift on Sunday and will miss Music and the Spoken Word for 6 weeks. We have been so lucky and I guess it is time to sacrifice that special pleasure.

It's that time of year again. The trees on Temple Square are being prepared for Christmas. It takes from now to Thanksgiving to get all the millions of lights in place. Of course, the leaves will be gone by then.
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The lights are plugged in so the workers can see to position them. Click to enlarge the pictures to see the lights. It was a bright sunny day and who would think of Christmas in August?
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We met Maggie, Lizzie, Marla and Tom Jones at "Music and the Spoken Word". They were on their way to BYU Education Week. The program was marvelous and we talked about how fortunate we are to have Mack Wilberg and his creative genius conducting the Choir. Perhaps, just for Tom, they sang "Simple Things", Tom's favorite.
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Maggie and Lizzie (we called her Elizabeth then) were my nursery girls. Every Sunday I would go to nursery for music (and dance) time. For many years I had a Jones girl in the group and loved every minute of it. And, yes they remembered nursery.

Amy and Amber Anderson from Lynden stopped in on their way to BYU Education Week. What fun to see them. It was ladies week out for them and they were excited.
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We live next to Brigham Young Park and hear the "Concerts in the Park" from our living room every Tuesday and Friday nights. What a surprise to find out that Barry Hansen was performing on August 15. We marked the date and went to the park to hear him. What a great concert. Lots of his songs were original and all were very, very well done.

I haven't seen Barry for years but he recognized me right away and luckily I had on my name tag.


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I told the other Senior Couples who attended that I watched Barry grow up and he really did grow. What a fine young man.
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We got a card from Dave and Sylvia Hammond in which they mentioned a couple serving here on Temple Square from Sylvia's hometown of Rolla, Missouri.



We love Elder and Sister Ownby. At first, Elder Ownby said, "Sylvia Hammond???" As soon as I said "Sylvia Hammond" to Sister Ownby she said, "Sylvia Law" and Elder brightened up and said, "We have known Sylvia Law all her life, we watched her family grow up."

Small world - and it gets smaller every day.
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The weather has been so HOT - in the high 90's for several weeks. Today the wind was blowing and the sky was full of fluffy clouds. The temple looked so beautiful with a halo of clouds that I couldn't resist another picture.

We have air conditioning in our apartment and in the areas we serve. The exceptions are when Elder Millet is outside with his suit coat on at South Gate and the Tabernacle. We really get warm walking to and from Temple Square every day, especially coming home up hill.
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Wow! The 4th transfer is almost over and I am finally getting our schedule on the blog. Can you believe 1/3 of our mission will be over on August 20. The time is flying by so fast.

We love serving and sharing our testimony with the guests. We have had so many wonderful, wonderful gospel conversations. Every day is a new adventure. How can we stop time from going forward? If you have any ideas, please let us know.