Week #3 We are "waiters" in the Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission

Yes we are waiters but it's not what you think. We finished our training at the Missionary Training Centre (MTC) last week and are now "visa waiters". We won't be serving up Salt Lake City favourites like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ice cream or Chick Fil A entrees. We are not sure how long it will take to get our visas for Mexico but hopefully it will be soon as the senior missionaries in the Mexico Mexico City East Mission have confirmed that our apartment in Mexico City is ready for us. 

We went to the MTC laundry facilities on Thursday afternoon before we moved to Salt Lake City while the bulk of the missionaries were in their classes. There are two aisles of machines like the one shown in the photo below - washing machines on the bottom (with up to 30 minute cycles) and dryers on the top (with up to 40 minute cycles) - every machine is clearly marked with a number so you can find your way back to your clothes - way down the row you can see Sister Schlachter pulling clothes out of a dryer to hang on the rod that runs along the top in front of the machines on the left - there is a white shirt hanging behind her. Missionaries do laundry on their preparation day ("P" day), which at the MTC are staggered from Monday to Saturday in part to make best use of these facilities. The chairs are there so you have somewhere to sit while you wait for your clothes, although many choose to instead run errands and come back later. The day we went it was us, two Maytag repairmen (yes they do wear out) and a handful of young missionaries doing laundry.   

During our training last week we got to play in the Latter-day Saint Charities' "sandbox" to help us better understand and practice our roles in the Church's humanitarian aid project lifecycle to effectively work with implementing agencies to help the poor and the needy in Mexico. When I worked at the Canadian International Development Agency and at Agriculture Canada I was driven by the potential of agricultural trade to help people build and live better lives. It is so exciting to be able to bring our work, life experiences and faith in Jesus Christ to where we now find ourselves. (Note the project referenced in the screen shot below is just something I made up while I was "playing" ... we are looking forward to making real impacts).

The key driver for our moving to Mexico in 1994 was to position me to find employment in a field position with an international development focused non-government agency. I had spoken to a senior official at the Canadian International Development Agency and he recommended three things to qualify me for such a position: A university degree, language proficiency, in addition to English, relevant in a developing country, and proof that our family could live in a developing country. We lived in Cholula, Mexico from December 1994 to May of 1998 while I completed my undergraduate degree in International Relations (i.e., economics and political science) to check all of these boxes.

I promised Sister Schlachter that I wouldn't ask her about our living in a developing country until my degree was finished.  After I graduated, we crossed the Mexico-Belize border to change our visas to allow me to apply for a job in Mexico. The border experience in Belice was traumatic. They are a Commonwealth country and speak English which caught me off-guard. After explaining our purpose. I was taken into a little room with the intent to extract a bribe from me (I didn't give them anything). We entered the country, had lunch and then, feeling like refugees, as quietly as we could with four small children we walked back across a very long bridge to re-enter Mexico, only to discover that we needed an exit stamp from Belize to re-enter Mexico which we didn't have.  Fortunately we were blessed with divine intervention. We had chatted with the same Mexican border officials on the way out and thankfully they made an exception for us to re-enter without the stamp ... or a bribe. I later had a job offer in Mexico City but the starting salary was significantly less than the meager budget we lived off of as students. Additionally, Sister Schlachter refused to live there because of the insecurity and pollution. To my question about living in Mexico or another developing country, paraphrasing Wendy's reply, "if we were going to be poor, let's be poor in Canada, not here". Many of our neighbours, friends and the people we served and served with in our church assignments lived in poverty. It was emotionally painful to leave them not knowing what would become of them. Returning from time to time over the next twenty plus years, most thrived. I am grateful for the opportunity to return now guided by the following humanitarian aid principles. 

"And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low ... For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves." 

One of our training presenters this past week pointed to an 1830's definition of "exalted" to be, "elevate with joy and confidence" (i.e., from the era this revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith was received. D&C 104:16 and the verses that follow set out our obligations to help those that are poor and needy. No one is free until all of God's children are free.

Our training at the MTC wrapped up on Thursday with a two-hour group session with a psychologist who spoke to us about the emotional challenges senior couples like us often encounter while serving, notably compassion fatigue, and how to pre-empt and cope with this. Additionally, as comfortable as our lodgings were at the MTC - it has been many decades since Sister Schlachter and I have lived in a 16'x16' space together for any amount of time. Part of our group discussion focused on communication skills, for example, content versus the feelings as depicted in the video, "Its not about the nail".  The first time I saw this was about a decade ago and it still makes me chuckle but now the nuances are much deeper - I see myself more often than not as the one with the nail in my head wanting to be heard.  

On Friday we moved from the MTC to downtown Salt Lake City to a simple but very nice one bedroom apartment which is across the street the Conference Centre and kitty corner to the Tabernacle, Assembly Hall and the Salt Lake City Temple which is undergoing extensive earthquake proofing rennovations, the latter is quite the engineering feat. There has been considerable visual progress since we were here in June. The photo below is from our apartment balcony at night. 

Much to my delight, the two senior missionaries that helped us lug our suitcases up to the third floor of our apartment building used the rocks by the fire door to prop them up to not have to unlock the door with a key. The fire door on each floor had its own little pile of rocks ready for this use. You wedge the tile fragment under the edge and then put a rock under to make a wedge. Very pragmatic folks here in the USA.

As senior missionaries we have access to the gym in the Church Office Building that is about a block from our apartment. On Friday evening we got a tour of the facility from a very kind security guard - we had hoped to use the gym on Saturday morning but found that it is not open on weekends so we instead took a stroll to a find and check out a place that has BJJ classes near there.  As luck would have it we arrived just as a kids' class was ending and in time for an open matt no-gi session. Wendy patiently waited on the sidelines while I rolled with with my new Salt Lake City BJJ friends.  In the evening we went with another senior missionary couple to an Italian festival within walking distance to our apartment. Our attire and tags drew positive attention and conversations. The food was also excellent!

We went to the Tabernacle Choir's Music and the Spoken Word rehearsal on Sunday morning at the Tabernacle and then to our stake conference that was held at the Assembly Hall. The video clip gives you a taste of the exquisite faith inspiring noise we heard. Our stake (i.e., geographic boundary) includes a branch of deaf members and their families. All of the talks and the music were translated into American sign language - the stake choir presented by singing and signing to the members of our stake.  I had meant to take a video but only got a photo of them practicing about 30 minutes before the conference started.

When we were here in June to visit our son Alex and his girlfriend here in Salt Lake City I lost the hearing in my left ear. About a year ago the same thing happened (i.e., sudden hearing loss) to my right ear and my hearing came back within a week - this time it didn't. I was able to get appointments with a specialist in Lethbridge before we left on our mission - no one knows why it happens and there is no cure - about 50% of the time people regain all or a portion of their hearing. This time I regained only the lower frequencies which thankfully allows me to confidently still sing bass parts in church and in choirs.  However, I have a persistent ringing and cannot hear most women's voices in that ear - some have joked that I now have a medical reason to claim I didn't hear Sister Schlachter.  If this were to happen again in my right ear, and it might - I may be learning how to sign. For those that are familiar with my dad's family, his dad (Joseph) and his dad's brother (Uncle John) were born deaf as a result of their mother contracting German Measles when she was pregnant with them. This was before the days of vaccines. Today's music experience was a bit of a sad and confusing shock, as I have not yet grown accustomed to my new hearing reality, and I contemplated the possibility of my world going absolutely silent at some point. Just before our visit in June, Sister Schlachter and I were talking about whether being deaf or being blind would be more challenging. I said at that time that if I had a choice I would rather be blind because being deaf would isolate me from the world as I know it.  The talks given during the conference were faith building and strengthened my resolve to accept President Nelson's 2020 invitation to "let God prevail". 

Our Stake President (a stake is a geographical boundary that includes several wards and branches i.e., congregations) introduced himself as a professional potter.  I shared with him that my mother was a potter and that she was ever perfecting her craft. We had an opportunity to chat with him before the meetings started. His message during the conference was that "love" was the answer to most of life's challenges. In his talk he referenced the "prayer rocks" made popular during the 1970s and 1980's encouraging people to put one on their pillow to remind them to pray when their head hit it a night, then placing the rock on the floor so that they would step on it to remind them to also pray in the morning and then put the rock back on their pillow etc..  He said he devoted the past two weeks to making a prayer rock for every member of his stake that we picked up after the conference. He encouraged us to either put it on our pillows or to carry in our pocket. He explained that the blue Forget Me Nots on the bottom were to remind us of the gift of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ to relieve us of the effects of sin and its enabling power which are accessible to everyone if they use their agency to accept it. The colourful heart on the top is to remind us to treat everyone we meet with love and compassion and to also apply this to ourselves (i.e., selfcare) - not unlike holding the door open like the rocks at each of the fire doors of our apartment.

The two brethren that helped us and the Berretts move in (another senior missionary couple that were at the MTC and going to Mexico that are also visa waiters) left us a welcome package that included tickets to one of the upcoming sessions of General Conference. Sister Schlachter and I have only participated in General Conference virtually: This will be our first experience going in-person, assuming we are still here.

After church we had delightful interviews with our Mission President and his wife and then with his two counsellors and their wives.  Our temporary assignment joins our efforts with those of over 800 missionaries currently serving in the Salt Lake City Headquarters mission. We have task specific training this coming week to prepare us to get to work here. It is going to be a great week!