The fall slowdown at the Visitors’ Center is in full swing. This morning between the time we opened at 9am and 11:30am we had fewer than twenty people come into the Center. The afternoon is always busier than the mornings, but we had plenty of time this morning to spend with the few guests who came into the center.

One fellow came in and in talking with one of the sister missionaries, said that he sang opera. He was enticed to sing something (“It’ll be very loud,” he said. “We like loud!” replied Nina). He then sang The Lord’s Prayer. It was just delightful! He was able to fill the Christus room with his beautiful voice singing the traditional setting of that hymn. His visit was a real treat.

We’re having issues with the air conditioning at the Center. As a result we’re keeping the temple engineers busy coming down to reset the system and cool the building off again. Eventually they’ll be rather fed up with the issues and will get the contractor to fix the system!

We also had another outstanding experience this week on Monday and Tuesday. The managing director for the Church’s visitors’ centers was here for two days and gave us six hours of very beneficial training. He had a number of other meetings and other obligations, but spent some very quality time with us. He was there as the mainland Chinese tour buses made their daily appearances where the Center fills up with Chinese tourists very interested in learning a bit more about this Church. Although he knew about this phenomenon before coming, there’s nothing like seeing it first hand. One take away he had is that we need more exhibit information written in Chinese characters … a lot more! We have none at present. Everything is in English.

Time is flying by! Ta ta for now….