August-September

We got in one last trip to Park City. We love the Family Tree Center there. Of course we love the sister missionaries. We served with two different companionships during the week

We took Sister Rodriguez and Sister Stephen to Olympic Park on their P-Day

The other two sisters we served with at the Family Tree Center and the AP's. The AP's came to visit and inform the sisters of all the changes taking place in the mission at the transfer. WOW! BIG changes for our mission!!! We loved these sisters. We had so much fun with them in Park City.

We served at the Family Tree Center one last time. These are two of the Sisters we served with while we were there. Sister DaCosta returned home to Brazil last week. We were so sad to see her leave.

We have been serving as Directors of the Beehive House for the past couple of months.

One of my goals while we have been on our mission has been to climb Ensign peak. A few weeks

ago Natalie helped me reach that goal. It was a gorgeous day and it was not that bad a climb.

We even passed David Archuletta on the trail!

We Made it to the Top!

Our last Zone conference was held in the tabernacle. We met in the tabernacle choir seats.

The actual meeting was underneath the tabernacle. After our zone conference, we were given a backstage tour of the dressing rooms of the choir members and their recording room.

A close-up view of the pipes in the tabernacle!

These are the sister missionaries that are leaving to go home - they make up a farewell song to sing to the mission. This is always a sad day in our lives!

These are the sisters receiving their calls to go "outbound". You can see from the picture it was a Hawaiian theme. During the time they serve on Temple square, they receive another call to serve a proselyting mission somewhere in the continental United States for about four months to have that experience as well. It is always an exciting time to see where their calls will be to and then it is always fun to see them return to the Square.

Mitch and Cari spent a weekend with us and took a tour of the Beehive house.

Our Cute Alexa and Tanner

July

July passed all too quickly. It was not as hot as we had anticipated it would be. Our Mission President did allow the Elders to take off their suit coats if they were wearing long sleeve white shirts. That made such a difference for Wayne. I was working in Guest Services, which is the mission office on many of the hot summer days, so I had it very easy. So, our summer has been very tolerable.

Here are just a few " Off-the-square" pictures of our July activities:

We had a fun cookout up the canyon with Natalie and Justin on a beautiful summer afternoon.

The sisters enjoying a delicious barbecue lunch after an exhausting morning of fun and games

We had a mission activity up Big Cottonwood Canyon. A day filled with games, food, a lot of fun and relaxation. There are not many of these kinds of days for the sisters, so it was a wonderful day to get away from the Square. It was also fun for us to see the Sisters in a more casual atmosphere. It was such a fun day!

June

There is not a lot of variation to our days on the Square as far as our assignments. Our venues change with each transfer and, of course, each new day brings new people, new challenges, new questions, new encounters. The months continue to pass far too quickly. We are amazed with the visitors who come from around the world. Most with great respect; some with a real desire to learn, some with absolutely NO interest whatsoever, some anti's, and our role is to invite, and then to reinvite and then it may be to reinvite again. Sometimes that is a real challenge.

This is at a dinner with some missionary friends and Wayne's second cousin. He had not seen his cousin for 45 years, so it was a fun reunion.

Elder Johnson pondering in the Beehive house at Brigham Young's desk

Cari and her sister came down and we had a watch party. Now we all have these fancy watches that we love!

The mission gave us special permisssion to travel to Manti to attend the Manti pageant. Here we are with our good friends Elder and Sister Bingham

Waiting for the pageant to begin..............

Brett and Tiffany were in charge of our family reunion this year. Since we couldn't go home, they planned the reunion here in Salt Lake. This was part of the family swimming on Friday while we had to work.

On Saturday, we toured Welfare Square

The family playing games

Making a poster for Parker - Ryan's family ended up coming late because Parker was playing in a championship baseball game. His team ended up winning, so the grandkids wanted to make a special poster for him" THE JOHNSON FAMILY"

April & May

Richard and Elaine Holloway brought a group of youth from their ward to a special "Called to Serve" Program. It was so fun to see them.

Having dinner at the Garden in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

One of our last "Called To Serve" groups of sisters. This was a special program that we worked with for most of the year. Each week we would invite a Stake of youth to Temple Square. The Sisters would take them on a tour and then we would have a special program on the importance of missions. It was an amazing program and we loved working with the Sisters!












Some of the family at Sicily's dance competition held in Utah.

" Our cute Sicily"

Sierra had a clogging competition held at Lagoon. She is the cute one, second from left - a very talented clogger.

We have been fortunate to attend the Tabernacle Choir Broadcast almost every week while we have been here. We sit in the balcony by the women, so we almost feel like we are part of the choir. It is one of our favorite things here.

Girls Weekend

We had our annual Girls weekend the end of July. I have been blessed with wonderful daughter in laws and such a sweet daughter and we have such a fun time together. We just laugh and laugh. It was good for me to have them come and spend the weekend. Natalie furnished the accommodations, as they all stayed at her apartment. I even left my mission companion for the night and spent Friday night with them since Saturday is our P-Day. We did have a GREAT time. However, we did miss Sheri this year, as she was on the Oregon coast with her family. It just wasn't quite the same without her.......................

It's Spring at Temple Square!!

Just ask us how we are loving life and the beauty of the season. As we walked to work this morning and walked onto Temple Square, we met a man from Colorado and we asked him how he was doing. He said, "I am doing great. I have a God that loves me, I live in the best land in the world, look at these beautiful, peaceful surroundings how could you not be great?" That is how we feel each day we look around us. Temple Square was not even open yet, but he was here on business just soaking in the beauty and anxiously waiting for the buildings to open and the tours to begin. We had a nice visit with him and explained in as short a time as possible what we could before we had to get to our prayer meeting. He was so impressed with the beauty and cleanliness and the spirit he felt here which , of course, is the comment we hear most frequently. We did see him later with the Sister missionaries taking a tour. One of the sad things of our mission is we never get to hear the rest of the story....We do get to meet so many wonderful ,interesting , fascinating, people everyday from all over the world!

One of the downsides of our mission is that we have to say goodbye to 24 of our dear, sweet sisters whom we have grown to love and it is hard to see them leave! One positive - we have 21 new sisters coming in from the MTC! One thing is for certain at Temple Square --- There is change CONSTANTLY!

We were serving at Family Search when our friend in the Mission Presidency called our cell phone and told us that Elder Uchtdorf was speaking to the Sister missionaries at the North Visitor Center and that if our post was covered, we could come and listen to him. When Wayne told me, it took us about two seconds to gather up our things and head over to the North Visitors Center. We knew the Sisters were having a special Mission Conference with a special speaker, but they didn't announce who it was and only the Senior couples who were not on regular schedule were able to attend. It was such a wonderful opportunity for us! After the meeting, Elder Uchrtdorf answered questions and then took this picture. Wayne had to leave to get programs for our Called to Serve program which followed the meeting. We are going to scan him in. Sister Uchtdorf gave me a hug and told me they appreciate the work we are doing.

We refer to this as the Temple at Welfare Square

We have loved serving at Welfare Square this transfer. This is when Mitch and Cari came to visit us at Welfare Square.

Wayne's first tour at Welfare Square (good practice). We have gained a new appreciation of our Church Welfare Program and the service provided not only to our members but to non-members as well and to countries throughout the world. As people come and see what our church is all about they truly are amazed. We are amazed at the humanitarian aid that is given. We can all be proud to belong to such a great organization. It is certainly worth your time to visit and take a tour of Welfare Square when you are in Salt Lake!

The Sister Missionaries we worked with each week at Welfare Square.
Sister Tew from Sacramento, California and Sister Phillips from Australia

Even with our busy schedule, Elder Johnson finds time for his organ practice

This is our "Called to Serve" group of sisters

Every Wednesday night we invite a Stake of youth from the area to come to Temple Square where they are given a tour by a set of sister missionaries. They are then brought to the North Visitor Center where we have a meeting that lasts approximately one hour. They are shown a powerful video, sisters bear testimony of missionary work and sing. The purpose is to motivate the young people to serve missions. We have been the Directors of this program for the past five months and have loved working with the Sisters and the Stakes from the area. It will continue through May but does not go through the summer months when Temple Square is so busy with tourists.

I love a bargain, and this is one of my favorites! No, this is not part of our mission assignment, but it is such a great method of stress relief . This is on our P-day and The Massage School offered a 2 for 1 special, (I could not even come close to talking Wayne into such foolishness) so of course Natalie and I had to take advantage of such an opportunity!

We had such a fun surprise this past weekend when Lorna and Keith called and said they were in town and were going to come and see us! That made our whole week! We had not seen them for such a long time and it was so fun to visit. They are our long-time traveling companions, but travel has not been on our "to do list" lately! Is the world still out there waiting for us? We hope so!

Don't you all wish you were fortunate enough to have a "Personal Designer" for your blogspot?

(Thanks sooooooooo much Nat!!!! Some day I may become technologically independent )

Where Does Time Go?

I know, I'm two months behind, but I did just post for December, so that should count for something............January just slipped in there somehow and now here it is February. I'll try to do better!