The Packet!

We received our missionary packet today, the one that lays out all the details of the mission.

It turns out that the mission is divided into the two main divisions, Church History and Family History, and then each of them is divided into many many subdivisions. We read their descriptions as soon as the packet came, and we already have clear preferences. More on this as time goes by.

In general, there are the outer, public areas that everyone knows about, such as the Family History Center, and the Church History and Art Museum, and work among the patrons there. Within these divisions are areas pertaining to parts of the world, such as Chinese, or Scandinavian, where specialization is possible. There's a Deaf specialty, also.

And then there are areas where archives are handled. For example, there is a facility in Orem that is just opening, which when up and running will work 24/7 to digitize vast amounts of church-related printed material.

In the Church History section, journals are often sent to the church which have to be analyzed for authenticity and relevance (my words, actually); also summarized and passed on to the professional historians.

There are teaching assignments also. And more you will hear more about shortly.

We learned a few things about our apartment and our branch, too. We don't know which apartment we'll find room in, but the map we were sent shows various complexes surrounding Temple Square, all within 1/4 mile. We need to take cooking and eating tools, linens, and of course personal care items, and there were a few comments that suggested the apartments are only incompletely furnished and we might need to buy some furniture - too bad given how much we'll have in storage here! We'll call for more details.

Our branch meets at the Salt Lake Stake Center at 143 West 200 North. It is made up of half of the missionaries working in this mission, and our class of November 2008 entering missionaries all attend together. (The other branch meets in the JSM Bldg.) We meet at 1:30 with RS / P first.

Our cohort of 20 (those entering in November) are to do activities together at least every 3 months. In other words, we are a 'family' or a team, regardless of our assignments. We had something a little less structured but similar when we were in Beijing, and it was quite satisfactory.

We work 8 to 4 every day, with the exception of about 20% of the assignments, which have Saturday hours and shiftwork during the week. We are given 4 hours a week during work time to do our own family history research, and are required to bring our PAF files for 4 generations plus names and dates for the 5th generation, along w/ our Patriarchal Blessings.

That's a quick overview. It's exciting and I've left a lot out. I'll tell you more about our favorite areas soon.

One delightful development: the mission has 3 choirs, general, men's, and women's. We'll be there!

It is possible to be invited to extend. I hope we qualify...