It is difficult to believe that I have already been out on my mission for a month.  The time has just slipped by so fast.  On Friday I finished my two weeks of training in the Data Quality Zone and had my one on one interview with my zone leader.  Elder and Sister Roberts are from Iowa and are so kind and helpful.  The DQ Zone is called the "Happy Zone" and it truly is happy.  Elder Roberts gave me a card signed by Thomas S. Monson, with my full name typed on it,  I have "been duly called and set apart as a missionary of the Church and as such has authority to preach the principles of the gospel."  The work, for me, is very challenging and every case is like trying to solve a 1,000 piece jig saw puzzle but it is so satisfying when I am able to resolve the problems that the patrons have on FamilySearch and Family Tree.  My trainer, Sister Bignell, is from Australia and is so helpful and patient.  She offered to come to my apartment on Saturday to tutor me on Family Tree.  I won't be able to take a formal class in it until sometime in April but I need to understand it to help patrons as well as do my own family history.  Sister Bignell did come on Saturday and guided me on Family Tree for 4 hours.  On Wednesday I uploaded my own genealogy that I have been doing since 1976 on Family Tree Maker onto Ancestry.com.  The Barbara Winkie Tree is now there for the whole world to see.  There are over 1100 names and over 300 marriages.

Saturday evening we enjoyed the Saturday Night session of Stake conference at the stake center.  I am in the Ensign Stake which is called the Center Stake of Zion.  Of course, I know that I live and have my home in the "other Zion." and that my home stake, Liberty Missouri Stake, had their conference this weekend, too.  Our stake presidency here was released and a new presidency was sustained today.  We had Elder Erich W. Kopischke of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Elder Gary Crittendon of the Seventy as visiting authorities.  The first speaker was a sister who spoke on her experiences of being called with her husband to serve in the newly formed Palmer Court Branch.  It seems that Palmer Court is a place where chronically homeless and mentally challenged persons live.  To qualify the person has to have been homeless for at least 700 days.  I can't imagine being homeless for almost two years.  The sister told about taking  individual Christmas gifts to the rooms of the residents.  They each received their own homemade quilt.  It touched my heart as she told of what the experience meant to her and to the homeless persons.  There are 110 men and 47 women living in Palmer Court.  Many have never experienced any church before.  There are no rules or regulations for one of the homeless to attend church.  They are welcomed and loved unconditionally.  I had a special interest in this talk as I did a semester in college studying the homeless and their issues.  While in Korea I had a profound experience regarding a beggar woman and her two children that changed the direction of my life.

During the Saturday evening session I especially enjoyed Sister Kopischke's talk and her enthusiasm for life and the gospel.  She was so uplifting.  Elder Kopischke was a wonderful speaker both Saturday and Sunday.  No space here to elaborate with my notes but just know that I know it was truly inspirational to call him as a general authority.  Look for him as a speaker!  Oh, I forgot to tell you that our Sunday session of Stake Conference was held in the Tabernacle.  If I was a singer I could have been in the stake choir and sat in a seat the Mormon Tabernacle choir sit in.

This has been a fabulous Sabbath day.  It started out by walking to the Tabernacle to hear and see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform "Music and the Spoken Word."  This is their 109th year of performing on radio and then radio and TV.  They welcomed special visitors from Israel, Libia and a large group from China.  They sang a piece called "Gift from Him" words by Doug Stewart and music by Sam Cardon and Kurt Bestor.  It was so very beautiful.
At the very end they turned to the audience and sang "God Be With You Til We Meet Again."  I believe they do that every week.  It is a nice closing.


The picture to the left was taken last week after Relief Society was over.  It is held in a room on the main floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  This is only one of several beautiful chandeliers in the room.  Notice the grand piano on a small raised stage.  The room is full for our RS session.  The sisters in the picture at the top of the blog are three of the sisters who were in my first training group.  The sister wearing red is Sister McKnight. I will talk about her often as we really hit it off right away and we do a lot of things together when we have time off.  We don't work in the same building so we aren't walking together much anymore.

I have posted this picture of my bulletin board at home to highlight my beautiful, wonderful grandchildren.  I love them all so much and miss them.  Please kids, have your parents send me current pictures and Facetime or Skype me.  I did enjoy a wonderful visit on Facetime with Elizabeth, Ryan, Kylie, Jonah and Noah a few days ago.  Tomorrow I am going to listen to a talk by my Branch President, President Klopfer, who will talk on his experiences being a Latter-day Saint in Germany during WWII.  I will tell about that next week.