Utah Salt Lake City Mission - President and Sister Condie

  (photo of Summit/Wyoming Zone missing) Between zone conferences and stake conferences, it seems there was at least one conference every week this past transfer cycle. Following our typical format, we held two combined zone conferences down in the Salt Lake valley and one for the Wyoming zone up in Evanston, Wyoming. A wonderful spirit of camaraderie and learning was felt throughout each of the conferences. Additionally, the many stake conferences Anne and I attended and participated in were each full of the Spirit and were so uplifting and edifying. The most recent stake conference was held in the Murray North stake. Elder Matthew R. Clarke was the presiding authority. During my talk, Elder Clarke realized that we went to high school together and were in the same graduating class. Then, afterward, Lisa Nordgren Hansen came up and said hi. She too was in our graduating class from Skyline high school. It was fun to reconnect with both of them. And Tracy Burger, one of my coworkers ...

  (Replica of the Christus, an 1833 white Carrara marble statue of the resurrected Jesus Christ by Bertel Thorvaldsen located in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, Denmark. The one pictured is located in the Conference Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah) "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." 3 Nephi 5:13 It has been a while since my last post. Some of that is a function of how busy missionary life is and some of it is a function of some of the repetitive aspects of missionary life. The natural cycle of a mission is 6 weeks and I feel like Anne and I are getting into the rhythm of the 6-week cycle. We are, conservatively, working about 76 hours a week trying to plan, organize, minister, and administer to the needs of the mission and the approximately 180 missionaries currently serving in the Utah Salt Lake City mission. We received a great bunch of new missionaries from all around the world, 16 in total. T...

  Wishing you all a very happy new year!!! It was a quiet new year's eve for us.  We were blessed to be on a mission so as not to have been able to attend the Rose Bowl as we did last year. At least last year the game was close. It was hard to watch the game this year. It has been snowing quite a bit lately. Four years in Florida helped me forget how much I hate shoveling snow. But is sure is beautiful immediately following a good snow storm. We had one missionary complete her mission and leave us (see picture at the beginning of this post). Her family came to pick her up and we were able to attend the temple with them on transfer day. On the flip side, we had a group of nine new missionaries begin their missions - three of whom are awaiting visas so we will only have them temporarily. It is hard to believe we have been serving now for a little over six months. There is this weird paradox of feeling as if the time is flying by so fast - like we couldn't possibly have been out ...

  " For unto us a  child  is  born , unto us a  son  is given: and the  government  shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,  Counsellor , The  mighty   God , The  everlasting  Father, The Prince of  Peace . " Isaiah 9:6 It was the first of three Christmases we will experience here on our mission and was definitely a lot quieter than those celebrated at home. It was nice to have Christmas fall on a Sunday this year. It is so much easier to remember the true meaning when it falls on a Sunday. Our church service was exceptional. They had a full string orchestra from members of the ward - many or most of whom were youth between the ages of 11 and 17. Rachel and her husband Jake came over to open Christmas presents and we then  enjoyed a nice, quiet dinner with them and our two Assistants (two young missionaries that work closely with Anne and I in the mission leadership). After dinner we w...

  The highlight of the past few weeks (and there have been a number of highlights) had to be our youngest daughter's (Rachel's) wedding to Jake Beverley on December 2nd in the Draper Temple. She met him at church and they were friends long before he ever asked her out on a date. Though the weather was cold, the sun was out and it was a beautiful day for a beautiful bride. To make things even more perfect, we were able to be with all of our children and their spouses over the weekend and spend time with them, which was much needed. The night before the wedding, our son Dan and our two other sons-in-law Victor and Kimball went up to Park City to see Tommy Emmanuel in concert. He was his usual brilliant self and it was fun to introduce Victor and Kimball to his genius. If you ever get a chance to see him in concert, it is well worth the time and money. On the mission front, Anne and I were able to attend two different leadership conferences, one with Elder Gerritt W. Gong and anot...

 In honor of Thanksgiving ... These are some of the things for which I am most grateful: My family; A loving Heavenly Father; A merciful and compassionate Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ; The restoration of the church, gospel and priesthood of Jesus Christ on the earth once more; The Book of Mormon; Modern-day prophets and apostles; Covenants that bind us to God; The blessing of serving as a mission president with over 190 wonderful young and senior missionaries; Personal revelation; So many supportive friends; and Health. It was a busy two weeks with transfers taking center stage. We gained 16 new missionaries and lost 18 (12 finishing their missions, 4 receiving their visas and transferring to their permanent assignments elsewhere in the world, 1 going home early for health reasons, and 1 going home temporarily to work through something before returning to the field). It is such a blessing to work with and serve such exceptional young men and women! Thanksgiving dinner was had ...

  We enjoyed a couple weeks full of conferences. It started with stake conference in Green River, Wyoming November 5th and 6th. They kept us busy. We were asked to speak in the Leadership meeting on Saturday afternoon, the youth devotional Sunday morning and the general session also Sunday morning.  Just a couple days later, we started our first mission tour with Elder Hugo E. Martinez and his wife on Tuesday, November 8th. Elder Martinez is a General Authority Seventy and member of the Utah Area Presidency. Elder and Sister Martinez were so gracious, helpful, inspiring. We started our tour with a Zone Conference up in Evanston, Wyoming for our newly created Summit/Wyoming Zone. Following the conference, we were able to enjoy dinner with the Martinezes back in Salt Lake City. That was followed by Zone Conferences in Salt Lake City over the next two days and finished with a Missionary Leadership Council meeting that Friday to conclude the mission tour. The next day, Saturday, N...