Temple Square At Night

We love to walk around Temple Square whenever we can so last night before the storm moved into the city we walked over after dark and took some time exposures - it's such a beautiful sight. I can't get over how a bunch of poor exiles found the energy to build one of the country's premier pieces of architecture in a wasteland. Only their deep faith in the Savior could have helped them through all their trials and tribulations during the 40 years that it took to build such a marvelous place of worship....and they did it by hand and without modern equipment of any kind. Oxen pulled sleds of raw cut granite for two days to get it from the quarry to the building site where it was cut to shape and hand finished to specification. We can't get over its beauty and never tire of looking at it - day or night. We can't wait for the Christmas lights to be turned on the day after Thanksgiving.

Stake Conference

We belong to the Salt Lake Stake, the original Stake that was organized when the pioneers began arriving in the valley. Our Stake Conference Sunday morning was held in the Assembly Hall - we arrived an hour early so we could get good seats, and we did.

Office Cubicle

Here we are in our cubicle for two - Sister Porter on the left and Elder Porter on the right. We're beginning to make it a bit more homey with a few family photos.

Language Interpreter Teams

On Oct. 1 7 and 18 we worked with teams from Korea and Vietnam for a stake conference broadcast to 109 South Salt Lake Stakes. When we arrived at the Conference Center about 1 1/2 hours before the event began people were already lining up at the entrances to get Plaza Level seats

5th Mission!!

The couple we got closest to at the MTC was Dr. Merrill and his wife who are beginning their 5th medical mission - this time to south and eastern Africa. Previously they served in Tahiti and twice in other African regions - they love serving young missionaries as well as the native populations. In one of the major hospitals in Nigeria there hadn't been running water for TWO YEARS! Makes you wonder where all our foreign aide goes doesn't it?!

New Friends Gained

The Abneys from Spanish Fork (seated) were assigned to Turkey and the Burkes from Payson are going to Chili - both couples will be serving Humitarian missions.

A Missionary's World

The mandatory photo for everyone is standing in front of the large world map and pointing to where you will be serving. Here we're pointing that we're traveling ALL THE WAY from Denver to Salt Lake City...........

Missionary Sculpture

Our favorite sculpture - it conjured up visions of our missionary sons riding their bicycles on their missions in southern France and northern Tokyo for two years. Matthew wore out two during his mission.

Missionary Training Center

Before reporting for duty in Salt Lake on Oct. 19 we spent five days at the Missionary Training Center in Provo. Both our sons had spent the same week plus two months learning French and Japanese before leaving for their missions. It was fun imaging that we were standing, sitting, eating and experiencing the same things they had just a few years before us. Those five days were full of spiritual experiences and we used lots of tissues listening to wonderful stories. A young man going to Anchorage, Alaska sang a hymn on our first day and there was not a dry eye amongst the 34 senior couples in the room.

Conference Center Seating

The new Conference Center seats 21,000 and it's full for every General Conference with hundreds outside hoping to get a seat. I'm told that the floor is so large that a 747 could fit with room to spare.

Conference Center

Our interpreter booths are in a secluded room right beneath the mezzanine floor - no windows or public entries so no one knows it's there. But what a bee hive of activity - the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference was interpreted into 92 languages including Navajo, Apache, most European, middle eastern, Asian and some I've never heard of. Most teams have four people for each broadcast session - two in the booth and two outside getting ready for the following speaker. There are thousands of volunteers working behind the scenes to facilitate each broadcast.

Temple Square

Our office is right next to Temple Square so we can walk around the beautiful grounds during lunch and after work. Right now there are hundreds of volunteers taking out this year's annuals and planting new pansies, tulips and daffodils - the spring gardens will be gorgeous - as always.

Church Headquarters Building

Our office is on the 21st floor of the Church Office Building. Everyone is so nice and willing to help out a couple of new arrivals. We're beginning to get our minds wrapped around the workings of the various computer programs that we are expected to use every day.....we just need to remember how to access them when we try to use them at the beginning of each new day.

Brigham Apartments

We've moved into our new apartment now and Mom is all but finished with her nesting activities. We have a nice indoor pool, hot tub and workout room that we can use to unwind in after a hard day's work at the office.

When you come out to visit we have free parking tokens for the lot next door so you won't have to hunt for a parking space - everything is nice and convenient from our apartment.