Church Hosting Service Expands to Meet Demand

A Church program initiated in 1965 to host visiting dignitaries has now grown so large that two couples, Brother and Sister W. Stanford Wagstaff and Brother and Sister A. Palmer Holt, have been called to assist the Church hostess, Sister Irene E. Staples.

In addition, Sister Phyllis Sandberg has been named chairman in charge of hostesses for the new General Church Office Building.

Sister Staples has hosted many thousands of people since her call eight years ago, and last year she assisted some 22,000 official visitors at Church headquarters.

Many of the European guests to Salt Lake City have been invited to attend the area general conference in Munich in August, as well as special receptions and Tabernacle Choir concerts in Munich, Paris, and London. Sister Staples will be traveling with the choir as she has done on their previous concert tours.

“With the contacts I make here, I send thousands of referrals to the missionaries. I don’t know what happens to all of them, but often I receive reports of people joining the Church because of the work we have done here.”

Sister Irene E. Staples, Church hostess