Lunch with Elder Richard G. Scott

June 24 & 25, 2008
Elder Scott has had a special place in my heart for many years now. A few years ago when I was working MPS, I was assigned to take care of the "room service" for the visiting Apostles-which basically meant to keep their offices stocked with sufficient food and drinks and deliver them their breakfast in the morning. Generally this was done when they were NOT in their offices, but somehow Elder Scott was always in his office when I was expecting him to be somewhere else. It became somewhat of a joke because anytime I was acting "less than professional," Elder Scott always seemed to be standing nearby, trying not to laugh (or at least that's what I've always liked to tell myself). Well after this year's Elder Scott story, I truly believe he really was chuckling on the inside at me. Here's the story:

*We have a break room at the MTC where we, the crew, eat everyday during MPS, since the mission presidents and everyone else eat in the dining room. So the MPS crew gathered their food and took their seats for what was expected to be a normal lunch in our normal break room. Someone noticed a laptop and some computer books on the table. One of the girls looked to see who they belonged to but there was no name, so they all just sat down as usual. Well, needless to say, everyone was a little surprised when Elder Scott walked in with his lunch. Everyone stood quickly to leave and to offer him privacy, however, he insisted everyone stay and have lunch with him. It was a hilarious conversation, engaging in light-hearted discussion about things. Elder Scott asked what the worst part of working at the cafeteria was, and without hesitation it was unanimous that the bad manners of the missionaries (eating contests, messiness, etc) is the most frustrating part of the job. Everyone laughed when Elder Scott responded by saying "Why do they have to act like such chonchos?!" Everyone was cracking up.

Elder Scott then went on to tell about the days when he worked in a dorm cafeteria in school. He told about one of his co-workers who really "thought she was something else" and everyone was slightly shocked, yet still laughing when he went on to tell about his mischievious days playing pranks on her (throwing her in a sink of dishwater, stealing her pants from her dorm room, deep freezing them and then decorating them to appear as a cake to give to her as a "peace offering.") Who knew Elder Scott could decorate a cake?! Seriously! I love the man and I love being reminded that even the Apostles are normal and human. It was a great time had by all, and we were beyond flattered when he asked if he could join us for lunch again the next day. He is so fun!

The next day at lunch, we asked him a lot about his professional career, his family and his time in South America. He told us about his cooking habits, and how he makes all of his meals on Monday and then freezes them to eat throughout the week. We even talked about our favorite flavor of ice cream. (Even though he rarely eats sweets because he says his wife would yell at him from the other side of the veil for doing so). I was going insane trying to remember the name of my favorite flavor from the BYU Creamery. I think he got a kick out of me pounding the table trying to rack my brain. At one point, I looked at him completely perplexed and said , "Oh Elder Scott, what is it called?!" (as if I was expecting him to receive revelation or something) and he just smiled and said "Well, I have no idea. You tell me." It was awesome to feel like I didn't have to be on my "best behavior" with him, but rather just comfortable being myself.

We were sad when we all had to get back to work and end what felt like simply a meal with a grandparent. He is seriously so personable, he even insisted on taking all of our trays to the dishroom himself. We literally (and physically fought him on that one too, with a tug-of-war with the trays, but alas, he won when he said "Let me serve you"--how do you argue with that?!) It was a blast to be with him!

*my favorite flavor from the BYU Creamery is Earnestly Chocolate...I did remember before lunch was over. I even stood up and did a little dance when I remembered. Elder Scott chuckled at my excitement

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.

Utah June 6-20 (before MPS)

I admit I am somewhat ashamed of the fact that I have gone an entire month without updating my blog. I guess it just goes to show us that I haven't been truly converted. I'll work on that.

So I left for Utah on Friday, June 6th. How do I possibly sum up those 3 extremely busy weeks? Where's my planner?-I'll hit the highlights

I had the first weekend off and pretty much spent as much time as possible with my friends before my inevitable return to working/living at the MTC cafeteria. Those first few days were filled with:
*(Fri) pizza & the park with Cody, Melissa & their boys,
*(Sat) dress shopping with Trina & Brittney, and then joining Cody & Melissa again, this time for a ward luau.
*(Sun) church in American Fork with the Bellistons, and then
*(Mon) spending the day with the always adorable and fun-
Amy Tingey, for a little swimming, Cafe Rio, and our failed attempt of a DDR rematch.

....and then it was back to work for me!

I admit I was nervous to return to the MTC. It had been almost 2 1/2 years since I had worked there and most of my co-workers had moved on to other things in life. The great thing about the MTC, however, is that there are always just enough people who stick around working there, that it always feels like home. I LOVED being back! It was an absolute blast to be around the missionaries and to honestly feel like I could just pick up where I left off years before. Not much had changed, and amazed at my ability to "pick up on the system of things" a lot of the workers would ask me when I started working there. I admit my sneaky side found probably a bit too much pleasure in saying "oh today's my first day."

I spent the first 2 weeks back at the MTC preparing for the long awaited Mission President's Seminar (AKA..."MPS"). I don't think people have the first clue about how much preparation goes into this thing. It's slightly crazy if you ask me. Here were just a few of my favorite "prep moments" (and I must credit Floyd for being at my side for most of it): Locking ourselves into a small closet to polish 20 chafing dishes with Briteboy.
(Yes! you could smell us from a mile away by the time we were done and I'm surprised we didn't asphyxiate ourselves), sorting 700 green cloth napkins into separate piles according to their shade of green, continuously rolling silverware into a little napkin set, and taking 3 days to make chicken ambassador (pounding 500 chicken breasts with a mallet, then filling and rolling them all with the pastry shells).

It was quite the ordeal and I thank Floyd for taking it upon himself to be the master of the mallet most of the time! My arm was killing me!

During those days before MPS, I was still able to manage to see a friend or two and enjoy my evenings. Here were some highlights:


1. Visiting my "little sister," Melanie and running into Christina (my other "little sister") on our walk

2. Spending an evening to myself in the Provo temple,
3. Dinner with Laura at Bajio's and then our surprise visit to see "super pregnant" Jolene,
4. Seeing Summer in her play at BYU
5. Orem Summerfest carnival with Cody, Melissa and their boys
6. "Mini mission reunion" with the Gibbs & Martins after Justin's birthday party,
7. Dinner at the Tingey's, after which Steve and I sat mesmerized on a set of bleachers watching his ward members throw softballs back & forth for quite awhile. Apparently we are easily entertained! After laughing at ourselves, We went and saw "Horton Hears a Who." I liked it.
8. Random movie making around American Fork with Steve, and his friends- Matt, Emily & Ann Marie. I'm still not sure exactly what was going on that night, but it was funny regardless.

And that leads me right up to MPS Eve....

Follow up: "Stuck in My Car"

No worries everyone. I googled the answer. So you know the button you push with your thumb to pull the gear shaft into park, drive, neutral, etc?! Well there is plastic (looks like metal) ring that goes around the button. I simply pulled it out slightly and VOILA-the key popped right out. Who knew?! The best part of the story, however, is that my car is still under warranty. So my Dad talk to the dealership about it, and apparently it's happened on other Ford Fusions, so they went ahead and replaced the entire gear shaft! Just thought I should let you all know my car is no longer sitting with the key in the ignition.

"Stuff that happens to me"-Chapter 1

People always tell me I have the most random things happen to me, and it's true-I have a lot of hilarious things that come to pass. So I have decided to start keeping track of these experiences in this ongoing comedy I call life and refer to them as "Stuff that happens to me". I could probably sell the stories to a hit comedy series and become rich and famous. (Well the rich part would be nice, but I'm not so sure I'd be too interested in the famous thing). So here is Chapter 1:
STUCK IN MY CAR

(I'm writing this in the wee hours of the night, technically already making it "tomorrow" June 5th. But I'm going to write as if it's still Wednesday the 4th.)

So until my last day of work tomorrow, June 5th, I can say that I have a job which requires me to transport clients to and from places around town. Today was one of those days I was in and out of my car about ten times with different places to go and people to see. My last appointment of the day was at 4:45pm, to meet with a client and her counselor at SRS (Social and Rehabiltation Services). We had engaged in a lovely conversation on our way over, and I admit I was happy for my day to be ending, since I knew it was getting me that much closer to my last day on the job. We pulled into the SRS parking lot, I put my car into park, turned it off and realized my key was stuck. My first thought was "Tiff, are you actually in park?!"

I looked down at my gears, and sure enough, I was in park. I tried wiggling the wheel and NOTHING. I turned the car on and off multiple times and continued to try to yank the key out, but nothing was working. I even reparked the car 3 different times. I told my client to go ahead inside for the appointment and I would join the meeting as soon as possible. She left, and I immediately called my Dad. He called the Ford dealership, where he works, and told me to hold the key with one hand, while I basically beat it to death with the other hand. This still did nothing,(unless you count bruising the heel of my hand to be something). At this point, I was led to experience a great mental debate. I said to myself, "Should I just turn the key to the off position and leave it in the ignition?"- Well of course not! The key is one of those super fancy ones where the locks and everything are on the actual key.
My next thought was "Should I just turn the car off, leave the key in the ignition and go ahead and purposely lock myself out of the car?" After all, I could ask my brother to bring me my spare key to get me back into the car... but then my client would be there when my brother arrived and that would be an unethical mix of company. I wasn't really coming up with any other options and that's when I realized I was pretty much just stuck in my car for an hour until my client's meeting ended.

So there I sat, "STUCK IN MY CAR," and making the most of my hour. I listened to Kelly Urich's "Drive at 5" radio show on mix 93.3 which brought back all kinds of memories growing up here in Kansas City. I also have hand weights in my car, (don't ask) so I took the opportunity to get some weight-lifting in, and hey I even succesfully got some sun on my face. Did I mention the key is still stuck in my ignition? If my car disappears overnight, I'll know it was you!