Mid December

This month does seem to be going by fast. We have now been here for 5 months. In January our current director and his wife will be leaving and we will be getting a new one. I can't remember the new director's name right now. With all of the changes that are going on in the Church right now, I am not sure if things will be changing at historical sites too. As with any change that is coming, there has been speculation on whether things will be different here or not. So far we have had quite a few Sister missionaries go home recently. Last month 7 went home and tomorrow 9 more will be leaving for home. Farewell to Sisters Mather, Goodrich, Hamner, Uffens, Peugnet, Jones, Oswald, Thompson, and Kay. We will miss them greatly. So far I don't think any new Sisters are scheduled to replace them, but then I'm not exactly the first to find out these things. For the rest of December the Senior Missionaries will be doubling up to work at the Trail Center. Maybe I'll be leading some tours after all.

Amy wanted to know about some of the groups of visitors who come through the Trail Center. Since I don't get to know any of them from being at the front desk, I asked a few Sisters to tell me about some of their experiences. Sister Jensen recently had a woman come through who was high on drugs. She said the woman kept making strange comments and pointed at all of the artifacts and said "Thats my Grandma's".
Sister Woudin said she led a tour with 4 men and women who were from a rehab center. At the first of the tour they weren't interested in learning more about the Church, but by the end of the tour all of them accepted Books of Mormon.
Sister Baker had a man come through who was from New York City. He had been laid off four months ago and decided to travel the USA. He has been traveling about 2 months now and when he read the "Things to do" in Omaha he saw the Mormon Trail Center. He said to himself, I have a friend who is a Mormon, I think I'll go there. Sister Baker said he was an agnostic. She offered him a Book of Mormon, but he refused it. Then at the end of the tour he "self referred" (gave a referral on himself), and asked for a Book of Mormon.

Yesterday while I was at the Trail Center, a man and his wife came in. I asked if he wanted a tour, but he said he doesn't understand English well so he would just go through on his own. (He is from China and speaks some English but sort of broken English). I thought I would just start him off on the tour and explain what the tour involved (all of the sisters were busy at the time). As I was talking to him I mentioned that the pioneers were going to Salt Lake City and he said he had been there a couple of times and he wanted to know more about the Church. In the mean time Elder Dawson found a couple of Sisters and told them what was happening. They had an app that could help translate into Chinese. So they took over the tour. They taught him about the apostasy and restoration of the Gospel. We didn't have a Chinese Book of Mormon at the time so they told him how he could pull it up on his smart phone. It would be interesting to see what happens.

The Trail Center has been crazy busy because of the Gingerbread Festival that is going on in the basement of the Center. Many people come in the front doors instead of the basement doors and we always invite them to go on a tour of the Center as well as go to the Festival. Also, many people come upstairs after seeing the Gingerbread and then go on tours. I'm not sure how we will handle it all when the Sisters go home tomorrow.

We love you all.