Mission Presidents Seminar 2008 (June 21-25)

So I last left off with MPS eve.

I can't think of the best way to sum up those 5 exhausting days, but here is my hopefully entertaining attempt:

A typical day of MPS includes a continental breakfast at 7am for all the mission presidents, their wives as well as any general authorities (about 425 total), a morning break at 10:45am of snacks in the hallways, Lunch at 12:30pm made by us and preset on the 52 tables, an afternoon break at about 2:30pm of snacks in the hallways, and then at 5pm, a buffet style dinner. As I type that, it doesn't sound like much work, but in a single day, a table would be covered by 4 different table cloths...and multiply that times 52 tables..yeah my back is starting to hurt all over again thinking of how many times we changed and set tables in a day.

Luckily the MPS crew of about 15 is usually made up of the cream of the crop, best of the best cafeteria employees (or people who have just been there forever), so things generally run pretty smoothly. We are like a well oiled machine once we start going. There are a few added bonuses to working MPS. First of all, the food is rather fantastic and we get to eat it all week long. The highlight of the week is the Quorum of the Twelve dinner on the last night of MPS. We all get to dress up in "penguin suits" and serve the mission presidents and General Authorities as they are invited to dine with one of the Apostles. It's a rather crazy busy night. The set up is chaotic and we are all running around folding linen napkins, perfectly setting tables, preparing the appetizers and doing our best to triple check the counts for each room. It seems like without fail, we are always short something; a glass of water, a knife or scrounging for a piece of missing cheesecake, but in the end, it all seems to work out. We have about 15 extra cafeteria crew join us for the night and the 30 or so of us all split into the 12 different rooms. That sounds confusing, but basically-It's a lot of work and we love having the extra help! On the topic of "extra help," it was no surprise that my years of working MPS made it super easy for me to get permission to sneak some "extra help" in for the night. I promise Steve really did run around and help us, even though this picture makes it look like he just sat and took advantage of the "pondering tables" in the hallways. (I don't think he had any idea what he was getting himself into when he volunteered to come help me. HA!)

So aside from getting to work non-stop for at least 14 hours a day with my friends, I must say the best part of MPS is definitely being able to interact with the General Authorities. This is always an interesting situation because you get to see a whole different side of these incredible men. I've actually learned a lot and had my testimony strengthened throughout the years by serving them food...how is that possible?

Here are some of this year's fun stories:
President Thomas S. Monson

*The First Presidency has a Sunday luncheon every year where the prophet gets to choose the menu. This was the first year without our dear Pres. Hinckley so it was interesting to see what things Pres. Monson would do differently. Rather than the luncheon being a somewhat small, family event, Pres. Monson invited the entire Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and their wives...and they pretty much all showed up. That was unexpected!

*One of Pres. Monson's assistants approached me before President Monson was to speak on Sunday and requested a mug of warm sugar water for the Prophet. Well, I knew the MTC doesn't have mugs on hand, so I went on the hunt of my life to find President Monson a mug. I searched all over the place and it was probably a good 10 minutes later that I finally found a BYU mug in an office with all kinds of pens & pencils in it. I figured that was the best we were going to get, so I scrubbed and scrubbed that thing until all the marks were gone. No one has to know. (The thing that made me laugh the most was when I later realized Pres. Monson went to the U, oh well , hope he didn't mind the BYU mug)

*Some fun food facts-For the Sunday luncheon President Monson requested that the carrots with the meal be OVER cooked and he personally likes to have a cold glass of milk with every meal. After the luncheon, as he was leaving, President Monson walked past the piano in the room and told everyone he would leave them with a song. He bent over and banged out the cutest version of chopsticks I've ever heard. Everyone laughed.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
*First of all, may I just say he is an incredibly handsome man! He was always out and about in the hallways with his wife. We're always pretty speedy in the way we hustle around the hallways with things and I am embarrassed to admit that as Christina and I rounded a corner one day, we nearly took both Pres & Sister Uchtdorf out with one of our giant carts. Oops!



*Tuesday was a rather fun day for all of us. Elder Robert D. Hales spoke to all of the missionaries at the fireside that night and as I sat there watching it in our break room, enjoying my filet mignon and carrot cake, I just kept thinking how lucky I was to be working at the MTC again!




Elder D. Todd Christofferson
Being a newly called Apostle, there were some employees who didn't recognize him right off. He took advantage of the "pondering tables" more than anyone else I noticed. In fact, he was on the couches on his phone almost every afternoon. He would always give us a friendly wave as we'd walk by. They all have such busy schedules! Sister Christofferson was often in the hallways as well, usually when we were cleaning up from the breaks. She was kind, expressing appreciation and always wanted to chat with us, and to be honest, it was a couple of days before we even realized she was Sister Christofferson.

This year for the Quorum of the Twelve dinner, I had the opportunity to serve in the dining room of Elder Quentin L. Cook and Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin.


Elder Cook seems to always be smiling and I heard the most hilarious story about him that had me laughing for days. Ask me about it sometime!







Elder Wirthlin was accompanied by his son this year. He is just so polite and gentle. His presence brings such a peace to a room.


I don't tell these stories to brag, but mostly just because I love being reminded that these men are normal people, with an extraordinary calling! And just like any of us some of them have food allergies, some hate seafood, some are lactose intolerant, some don't eat sugar, some absolutely love chocolate. They are on Earth, experiencing mortality just like the rest of us, yet they are truly called of God to serve His children and to testify of Christ.