Utah Salt Lake City Mission - President and Sister Condie

It seems impossible that Anne and I are celebrating one year as mission leaders! (The picture above shows our first day feeling very inadequate to fill the shoes of David and Lisa Prier who preceded us as mission leaders of the Utah Salt Lake City mission.) One-third of our mission experience is over. So much has occurred over this past year that giving a summary will not seem like a summary. Therefore, some of the highlights of the past year include: being set apart for our assignments by President M. Russell Ballard, the presiding Apostle of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles and Elder Kevin W. Pearson, the Area President of the Utah Area of the church; going to the ER on my first day because of an episode of Transient Global Amnesia. attending four days of training at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah with entire First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (the senior leaders of our church); starting our official service on June 28, 2022 and so began the adventure of s...

  Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I'll spend part of the day at my father's gravesite with my mom and siblings. Anne took flowers to her parents' gravesite today. Memorial Day for me has historically been just a national holiday where I got an extra day off from work. Maybe it's because I'm "retired" and no longer employed that it has taken on a different feel and meaning for me this year. It seems the focus on Memorial Day is generally directed to the remembrance and honoring of our fallen military personnel and the sacrifices they made to protect our freedom. That, and the many sales. It is also a day, however, to remember our deceased ancestors and others who sacrificed so we could enjoy the blessings and comforts we do. I'm grateful for my father, who taught me through his example the importance of a good sense of humor, patience and charity, humility, honesty, and most importantly a knowledge and testimony of a loving Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. ...

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. ... And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for his is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Matthew 28:1, 5-6 With the Easter holiday behind us, I add my testimony to that of the angel, that He lives! He is our Savior and Redeemer. That by Him and through Him we may receive forgiveness of our sins, strength to overcome them and any other weakness we may have, and healing from all diseases and infirmities, sadness and discouragement of every kind. The week preceding Easter, Anne and I were blessed to be able to attend General Conference at the Conference Center for the Sunday morning session in which the prophet Russell M. Nelson spoke. What a wonderful talk - as were all of them over the entire Conference Saturday and Sunday....

  (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...