15 November 2006 – We had an interesting morning and lunch today. We headed towards Salt Lake at about 9:30. Our first stop was the cleaners to drop off the suit I am taking to Indonesia. Then we got gas at Costco, where we pulled right up to the pump. Gas there is down to $2.03 a gallon – about $1.00 less than we were paying a couple of months ago.

Next was a stop at Mike’s office to pick up some new glasses for Mary. From there we drove down State street and Mary remembered we should stop at the CostCo there and get toilet paper or we would have to start using old newspapers. While there I found some nice lightweight black dress pants on close out for $10 and amazingly they had 4 pair in my size. Continuing down State, we came to the Sears store and I remembered I still needed some white short sleeve shirts. A quick trip inside bagged me 4 shirts and that finished off my clothing needs for the mission.

 We got to park under the Church office building. The security there is really tight but the men are very curteous. When we got into the building and reached the security desk, they already had our temporary passes ready to go.

We had a great lunch with Elder Carmack. He had salads waiting for us and so we sat right down and ate. As we ate we talked about our families, shared experiences, and then about Indonesia. I took the opportunity to check two stories about his experiences as mission president that I have used in a number of talks and lessons. I was glad to know that I got the main points correct.

The important thing that I heard was that we should feel free to find new ways to be effective missionaries. He said when he first arrived as the Asian Area President, there was little going on. He said about all they had to do was answer 4 or 5 letters a week. He soon changed that around by visiting all of the areas, opening new ones – including Mongolia where the Carlson’s from our ward went – and in other ways magnifying his calling. I am hoping that we can do the same kind of thing. I am just wondering what our travel budget will be.

The trip home and the rest of the day was very normal. In the evening I went home teaching and then we went to Albertson’s where we bought drinks for the family gathering for Thanksgiving.