Time Flies on this Side of the World

This week went by at the speed of light. I can't  believe how fast time flies on this side of the earth.

In August the US soccer team supported by BYU will be participating in Taiwan at the University games.  This is an event that will host 12,000 athletes representing 150 countries. The team and coaches are all returned missionaries and have contacted us hoping to participate in firesides, church meetings, clinics, and maybe even a service project while they are in Taiwan competing. We are currently acting as the liaison between the team representative and the Area Seventy, Country Affairs, and Communication Directors in Taiwan. It is fun to be involved with a project that is this big and will have an affect on so many people. Next to the Olympics this is the largest most inclusive global sports event held in the world and Karen and I just so happen to be right here in the middle of it.

I am stalled out with my Opinion Leader CRM project. After multiple conversations with Salt Lake and a conditional nod to move forward I prepared and submitted (as required) the concept in writing for a more formal review. I then reviewed via WebEx the written proposal with Salt Lake and answered questions form three Church employees that are directly involved with the work that would need to be completed on their end. Everyone involved seemed resolved to move forward but cautioned that there may be some pushback on issues regarding timing and security. I did not hear anything for a while so I sent a note and received a note back that one of the key players on the previous call was now on maternity leave, so we would need to bring one of her associates up to speed before we could move forward. We scheduled another WebEx and had another positive meeting. The person new to the project is very experienced with the software and understood almost immediately what I was proposing and how it would help us. Again, I received positive feedback and a commitment that the project has merit and would not only help us in Asia but it could be implemented in other Areas as well. The employees in Salt Lake are very busy and I did not hear from them for a couple of weeks and so I sent them a note. I received a note back last week that before they felt comfortable meeting with legal in Salt Lake they wanted me to get something from legal here, in Hong Kong, opining to the project. The Attorney here is currently in Utah attending his daughter’s wedding and will not be back until the second week of July. It's  okay though, I still have nine months before I go home.

Speaking of Salt Lake, Karen has also been hung up for a week or two with her News Briefs.   We converted to some new software recently and everything was going like clockwork until the newsletters just stopped being received by the recipients. It looked as though Karen had just decided to stop sending the briefs out to those that she previously had sent them to. (i.e. the Area Presidency) When Karen realized the newsletter was not going out she was mortified and quickly began an investigation as to how she could send something out and it get lost in an abyss somewhere.   She soon found that it had something to do with the Church’s security system so she contacted Church Headquarters. She has been working with Salt Lake the last few days trying to get it fixed. (The Area Presidency is happy to know that Sister Beckstead is not on strike.)

The work in Myanmar has progressed to the point where the Area Presidency has requested a Fact Sheet. It was our first request for a Fact Sheet since we put a process in place at the end of last year with the Departments of both Humanitarian and Records/Statistics. We were able to put it together, other than photos, in less than an hour which is far less time than before the new process. The Fact Sheets going forward will now be a relatively easy process for us and for those that follow us.

Karen and I have been aware but not directly involved in a fun project for several months that is finally gaining some traction. Annie has been working with multiple organizations here in obtaining rights to an electronic Chinese edition of the Bible. She has reached the point in her efforts that she has brought Salt Lake into the process. Karen and I participated in a call recently with Annie and Salt Lake and found it ironic that the person in Salt Lake that is helping us secure the rights to a Chinese version of the Bible is a direct descendant of Martin Harris. We are very confident that this faithful member will not have the same experience of losing a few pages during this process. Although we can’t help teasing Annie about it.

We are still spending time and resources on helping the victims confined to the shelters in Malaysia. Everyone here wants to be involved in some way of ridding the world of the insidious practice of human trafficking. It is as perverse and wicked as anything ever employed in the history of mans existence. Carol Ng met with Dr. Rajah in Malaysia yesterday and sent a note to Karen that it was a good meeting and will report on Tuesday. I am sure that this is something that we will work on for the rest of our lives let alone the rest of our Mission. To become aware of something like this makes me so grateful for the gospel and a testimony that that the good guys will eventually win in the end. I am so happy that circumstances worked out for me so that I found a place on the winning team.

Relief Society in the Saturday Branch,  and the Sister Missionaries hanging out after the block for a few minutes before they head out to their next appointment.