May 2nd 2010 Dallas Texas

2 May 2010

Dear Family and friends,
Another week has passed so quickly. We hear of many of our family and friends who are going through great difficulties, our love and prayers are with you. It seems like things come in bunches so often.
As we were getting home from church today the other full time Sister missionary was just arriving. We were able to meet her and welcome her to Dallas and help unload her car for her. She seems like a great lady, and comes with Oregon license plates.
That makes 8 people in the Center full time – our two managers and 3 sets of missionaries. Of those 8 people only 2 are men. Jack is definitely a minority in this situation. Once you consider P-days and days off there won’t be very many days when we are all there together. We do have some service missionaries that come in to help several days a week. With this added staffing one of the goals is to have us spend more time out of the Center. For Jack that may mean visiting businesses and making contacts with businesses. For me that means visiting & learning about available resources, meeting people and learning what their institution offers. This will help with the Development Specialist program. Of course it also means that Jack will go out with me too. Others will be focusing on small business development and education and training programs. It will give us an opportunity to get a little more specialized instead of trying to cover everything. I think it will work out great.
At the Center Jack will continue to work with the employers and help them as they sign on their companies. I will continue to work with the job listings. We have several sources that send us job openings through the email, others that call in with a job listing etc. I make the determination if those jobs will be placed on the large data base, which can be seen globally, or the Stake Job listings which can only be seen by people in this region.
The larger jobs, that pay well, are managers, CEO’s, CFO’s, high tech, a lot of educational requirements or companies that we get frequent listings with often go on the large data base. Especially if I think someone may be willing to relocate for that job. (Everyone here (Dallas area) is very worried about relocation fees, not so much now in this economy but in previous years companies would hire you then pay for your expenses to move. Now everyone groans a bit because companies are not willing to pay relocation fees. I just think to myself, what’s the big deal, a little muscle and a horse trailer and you’re good to go!)
The jobs requiring less specialized skills we put on the Stake job list or what we call the ‘Hot Jobs’. These jobs are typed up on a word document, we print them out so people coming into the center can look through them. We also have copies made to hand out to people coming into the store house on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
There are also some jobs that come in that a person may want us to recommend a person or two for them without publishing the job anywhere. Then I try to let the other staff members know so they can recommend people they may be working with. Last week we had someone who was actually in St. George that I was emailing back and forth information to him about different candidates, then sending him resumes about the ones he was interested in. Also notifying candidates for a heads up on a call they may receive about a job.
Nathan comes in on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and he then types the information in the computer for the large data base jobs. Sister Page comes in on Tuesday mornings and types up the Hot Jobs list.
I keep track of these jobs coming in and assign them as needed. After the Hot Jobs are typed up by Sister Page, I then send them out on an email to all of the 15 Stake Employment Specialists. I usually have to send them out twice, half the time I forget the attachment or something….. but I try to use a little humor along the way and have fun with a few of them who respond back.
So the first 3 days of the week quite a bit of my time is spent taking care of this. I always try to get the Hot Jobs out before I leave on Wednesday, since Thursday is our P-day. If you wait too long, they are no longer hot jobs but would become ‘cold’ jobs. 
The last week or two I have tried to practice up on my sign language a little more. When Nathan comes in we are always at a computer so I have gotten a bit lazy and just used the computer to correspond back and forth with him. I’m afraid the vocabulary we use in the Center is quite different than the vocabulary I used in Primary songs. So I have him give me several words a week and then I try to practice them and then review them with him the next time he is in. He is a patient, kind teacher.
The new revision that was made last week has caused a lot of problems with the Ward and Stake Employment Specialists. Most of them no longer have the specialist role for one reason or another. Much of our work this week has been figuring out the why’s and the ‘how to’s’ to get them up and running again. There are many steps that have to be absolutely correct when the Ward or Stake clerk is putting their information into the MLS. If this is not correct, then they are not given the role until it is in properly. Also now the Bishop or Stake President may need to be signed in and registered on the site and mark them to have that role. I’m afraid Julie P has gotten a few more gray hairs over this the past week. Of the 6 SES we have responsibility for, one of them is up and running again.
The formal letter to the Bishops was mailed this past week and they should have gotten that in their snail mail on Friday. So now the new web site is ‘official’. We are keeping a watch out to see that Wards and Stakes are up and running with these changes. We can contact and visit but we really can’t do anything unless they invite us to help them.
It does open some doors for us however. Last week we tried and tried to make connection with one of the SES but never received any kind of response. However, a few days later when he lost his SES rites on the web site he was ready to talk.
We are here as a resource to the Wards and Stakes, it’s up to them if they want to use us.
I was visiting with one Bishop on the phone as an employer. A great man, very patient and kind. As we visited (before I turned him over to Jack) I was explaining to him about the new role of the Bishops on the new web site. He said he had seen an email from the Center and that he would pass it on to his Ward Employment Specialist (WES). I then explained that the Ward Clerk would need to take some action too, so he said he would pass it on to him too. It was a little harder to get him to understand that he has to take action also by signing on, or his leaders won’t be able to use the site. Lots of changes! But it keeps things exciting and interesting. What a great opportunity to be on the ground floor of these new programs.
On the lds.org website there is an article about it. They quote some of the managers, including ours, Julie P. There is also a sound bite that you can listen to them.


Jack always seems to plan some great P-day’s for us. He is always talking to people and reading etc. This week Charlie gave us some options that we quickly accepted. He and Jack went out to White Rock Lake and went kayaking, they only went for little trip because the wind was quite strong. But they both seemed the day out. Charlie suggested that I could go with them OR stay at his home and play his organ and harpsichord. – I had a very enjoyable day of music. He has a beautiful sounding organ and really enjoyed his style of music that he has on hand. It was fun to have some time to play the harpsichord, what a fun instrument. They were gone 3 or 4 hours, everyone seemed happy with how they spent the morning. We had some sandwiches and then jack settled down with a good book while Charlie and I played recorder and harpsichord music. Very fun.
A previous sister missionary visited the Center this week. She lives in Utah but has a son that lives here in Texas. She teaches Suzuki violin and is quite involved with the workshops and camps. She knows Kristi & Jill’s teachers in Las Vegas when they were young girls – Mary Straubb and Shakeh Ghaukousian. We had a fun visit.
I worked with a young man who has a doctorate in music theory and composition and is needing a better job. It was interesting talking to him also.
Yesterday we helped with the Colleyville Youth Conference. Jack has done a write up and pictures on the blog about it. This is really a great activity. They are a lot of work however. We began set up at 10:00 am – the game started at 1:00. There were about 250 youth that participated so it was a very busy intense day. We left the building about 8:30 after cleaning up. Julie P. took us out to dinner afterwards, which was very nice of her to do. We slept well last night. We were 2 tired ‘kids.’
As we have volunteers come into the Center and help, sometimes we have them make follow up phone calls to people we have worked with. By doing this we have discovered 108 people this month who have been hired – hooray! We add a note telling about the conversation, the new job etc. This goes into the system with our name automatically attached to it. When Nathan posts jobs, he has to do it under my name. One of the missionaries commented, ‘but what if they don’t really do it right, then it looks like we have not done it right.’ Which of course is absolutely true. All we can do is give good instructions and then let them do the best they can.
This has given me reason to ponder our relationship with our Savior. Certainly as missionaries we wear the name tag with His name on it. But in reality when we are baptized and as we renew our covenants each week when we take the sacrament, we ‘take His name upon us.’ He puts his trust in us that we will use his name honorably, and when we don’t, he may be disappointed but he allows us to repent and try, try again.
Just as I hope that those who are doing work under my name are doing a good job, I hope that I am doing a ‘good job’ for our Savior and Redeemer – today as a missionary but always as a member of His Church.
Sometimes when I don’t get something right, I tease Julie P. and ask if I’m going to get fired. But she can’t fire me – only let me try again. I remind her that I believe in repentance and will try to get it right next time.
What a wonderful, beautiful plan our Father in Heaven has designed for us.
We are so grateful for our many wonderful blessings. Jack & I appreciate this time to learn, grow, work and serve together. What a wonderful family we have been blessed with and many wonderful friends. We appreciate your love and support so very much. I can’t comprehend doing this without your love and prayers in our behalf. You too are in our prayers each day.
May God be with you till we meet again and always,
Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma
Jack & Gaye
Elder & Sister Nelson
Jack n Gaye