John Morgan Returns from His Mission

On October 27, John Morgan returned home from his mission in the Philippines Bacolad Mission. We were so grateful to have been able to be at the airport when he came in.  He has grown a little and lost a bit of weight, and just looked so good.  It was nice that so many of his extended family members were able to be there - Us, Bryan and kids, Joe and Christy Nemelka and sons, Ingrid his grandmother on the other side, and a number of cousins.  Well done, thou good and faithful servant! 

A first hug for his mom!

Elizabeth's hug

Grace with the sign that they made

Us with John Morgan and Heather

John Morgan with his mom and siblings

Bryan, Grace and Clay

All the signs to welcome him!

Returning to our Roots - Part Two - Rob

One day, Rob was able to take his older brother David on a little drive to see special places in both of their lives while they were growing up.

Here is their house on 8th South and 14th East. When Rob was born, this was the house his family was living in.  He lived here until the third grade. They actually talked to the owners, and they were interested to hear about the concrete wading pool in the back that they later filled with sand because it was too scratchy, and the cave that they dug in the field in the back.

East High School was where we both went to high school.  It has changed a lot and was the set for the High School Musical movies. East was a great school to attend - one of the top in the state.  The football team took state Rob's senior year.  We had many National Merit and Sterling Scholars graduate when we attended there.    

They drove by Yale Ward, very large building located in the Bonneville Stake, just east of East High School.where they first went to Church.  You can see that there are several stories, not something that you see in newer buildings these days.  

Here is Yalecrest Ward, which Rob attended from 3rd grade until after his mission, was a poured concrete building on the site of an early pioneer silk worm farm Rob's dad was later Bishop.  

Here is a photo of the Dunford home on Laird where Rob grew up.  The new owners added a whole upstairs to the home and to the garage.  It is amazing how much that changed everything!

Their grandmother's Hazel's home where their parents lived right after they were married, sleeping together in a twin bed on the back porch.  

The is the site of one of the #14 Bakery or Restaurant Division on 9th East and 9th South where the famous Dunford donut was perfected. This site was originally United Bakery and was purchased by Dunfords.  

This parking lot at 9th East and 7th South was once the location of the #1 Dunford Bakery, the first bakery. It is now the parking lot of Planned Parenthood which is located in a building just north where their parents originally had their first home right next door.  It was pretty nostalgic.

Returning to our Roots Part One - Jill

Although we were both born in Salt Lake City and graduated from the University of Utah, we have been away for 46 years. So it has been fun coming back for awhile and remembering our childhoods here. 

It has been particularly neat to have meetings and even Sunday Church at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building which used to be the Hotel Utah. When the Hotel Utah opened, Jill's great grandfather was the doorman, greeting passengers coming in on the nearby railroad visiting Salt Lake City. Because of his influence, Jill's father became a bell boy here, then a desk clerk, moving up to Assistant Manager before he was 30.  He then went on to be the manager at the Hotel Temple Square before World War II.  My parents were married in the Jade Room, and had their 50th wedding anniversary dinner there as well.  Of course, now it is the Joseph Smith Memorial building.  Our missionary branch meets in the former Lafayette Ballroom!  

Also, a couple of blocks away is my grandparents' home where my father grew up. It has been redone, and apparently they put a bedroom in the attic, but it remains the sweet home where we would go visit my grandparents nearly every Sunday.  I loved the game closet in the entry way and the brass bed where I slept many times.  They had an old footed tub that was very deep and the perfect place to soak.  There was a garden in the back and a large pigeon coop.    

From our office on the 28th top floor of the Church Office Building (the tallest in Utah), I can see the LDS Hospital where my father was administrator and the area where the home in which I grew up was located. 

At least once during the summer, we used to make lunches, hike down through Memory Grove, and then go on up to Ensign Peak.  We would sometimes play in the City Creek water in Memory Grove, and usually eat our lunch there because it was shady. It was safe during those times to just go exploring with friends and no adults.   Now there is a gate, and I don't know how you get permission to go in. 

As I drove on up the Avenues, I drove by my first home at 411 10th Avenue.  It looks exactly the same.  The only difference is that my elementary school - Ensign - used to be across the street and there are condos there now.  They built a new school further East on 11th Avenue.


Driving up to 685 G Street, it was neat to see how many homes hadn't changed at all.  But when I reached the home where I lived until I married, and my folks lived in for 38 years, I couldn't even see it because of all the trees. I would love to just knock on the door and ask if I could look around the yard - it was a magical place to grow up and our children would all agree, I'm sure.  


But it was fun looking back down the street - a great hill for sledding, but a long walk home from junior high which is still on 1st South and 9th East - no buses then.

Besides being able to drive by our childhood homes and the schools we attended, we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon a few weeks ago to visit Alta ski resort where I learned to ski. I made a snowball and we took a photo.  Again we love those mountains...

Autumn Day

We both love mountains, so we decided to take a trip to up the Alpine Loop which is from American Fork Canyon, through the Uinta National Forest and on to Robert Redford's Sundance and Provo Canyon. 

This 20-mile drive winds through rugged alpine canyons of the Wasatch Range with inspiring views of Mount Timpanogos and other glacier-carved peaks. Timpanogos Cave National Monument (which we will save for another adventure) is located along the route.

As we drove along we saw a sign for Cascade Springs, so we left the main path to go exploring.  

This is a mountain spring which is criss-crossed by a boardwalk.  You pass lovely natural pools and then little cascading terraces filled with fish and aquatic plants.  

Although it was a lovely autumn day, we were surprised to see mainly yellow-leafed aspens and birchs, rather than the deep reds and dark golds of the hard woods in Georgia and Virginia (where our daughter Brittany lives).  But it was still a nice break from our busy times.

The African Interpreters

Although we have interpreters in 57 booths and in countries for General Conference, not every language was represented.  For that reason, the African languages come a week later to post record Conference. The languages are Efik, Igbuano, Twi, and Yoruba. We also have Ahmaric (Ethiopia), Fante, and Malagasy (Madagascar), but those are done with the other languages. These wonderful folks come from all over the United States, Nigeria, and Ghana to do the interpretation. In addition, we also had a recent event which was for Africa West, so we had representatives from each of the teams do that as well.

Besides arranging their airfares, hotels, and food during their stay, we make sure that they have the translations that we need.They also like different snacks at the recording (fruit and cheese rather than candy and granola bars. In between their recording sessions, we were able to host them at the Lion House Restaurant which they really enjoyed.

The Yoruba team

The Igbo team

The Efik team

The Twi team

The Efik and Igbo teams

The Igbo and Yoruba team

Rob, Stewart, and other team members

They are such sweet people and most have a story to tell about how they got here to the United States - some are here because of political asylum (returning to their country could mean their death), others are here going to school and then planning on going home and helping build their country, and others have just settled here and married an American. One woman who has lived in California for some time, returned from Nigeria just a day before having attended her daughter's wedding. Although the daughter and her husband lived in the US,, they wanted to go back home to go through a traditional wedding tribal wedding.

 We again are so grateful to have rubbed shoulders with such interesting people


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General Conference

When we first received our calling and were told that we would be working with the interpreters who interpreted events for the Church, we really could only think about General Conference twice a year.  We have since learned that there are around 300 events a year that require interpreters!

But General Conference is the biggest one, with over 90 languages both from Salt Lake City and also in many countries throughout the world.   We had over 250 interpreters during the two day event

The picture shows the booth numbers with the names of the languages on the left.

The interpreters have been receiving extra training a number of Saturdays to help them practice reading with feeling and speaking clearly, Here is a link to a wonderful ABC interview that they had during the Conference which talks about how it all comes together. 

Some of the Japanese team members

On Saturday morning, as they started to come in, it was so special to know the languages that they represent.  The Arabs chose to come in their robes and keffiyehs or headdresses, and they were pretty noisy.  They were placed in a booth right by the Apaches who are very quiet, and that wasn't a good mix - not again

The Russian sisters- both Natalias!

The Asians were prompt and focused whereas the Samoans and Tongans were pretty laid back.   The Russians are very serious, and so diligent.

And the Russian brothers

One of the things that thrilled Jill was talking to the Farsi interpreters since she lived in Iran when she was in Junior High School.  She remembered some words, so was able to greet them and share where she went while she was there.  Such dear folks!

Our sweet Cebuano sisters

All of these volunteers work very hard these two days, but they also enjoy themselves a lot.  And we, of course, enjoyed just being with them. 

These are the booth signs for some of the languages that we support and are here at the Conference Center interpreting.  Our other languages are tieline, doing it from their own country.