Well, here I am again. It's another weekend and the weeks are flying by. My work load on apartments has lightened up a lot, so now I'm having time to do some other things that I've been putting off. One is lining up people to inspect missionary apartments. In our mission, some towns are really far apart so I have to get someone separate for each town. Thankfully, some towns have several apartments and I can get someone to do all of them. Senior missionaries do some, ward mission leaders do some, and then there are some ward members that agree to do it. We want apartments inspected every 6 weeks around transfers. It's a lot of phone calling and I'm not finished yet. We have one man way out in the boonies who inspects the missionary apartment. He's retired Navy and when I called him we talked forever. He's hilarious. He says, "I know how to clean an apartment. I tell those Elders to slide their hand across the tub. Is it smooth? If not, it's not clean!" I told him some of the senior missionaries inspect several apartments and it wears them out. He says, "How old are they?!!!" I say probably about 65. He says, "Well, I'm 79 and they just need to buck up and quit whining!" He was FUNNY!
Oops!
Friday a ward mission leader called me and he let me have it. He lectured me for several minutes. Every time he said, "Why would you do that?" I tried to explain, but he just interrupted and kept going. He's mad at me because I got the missionaries a new place to live and he thinks it's unnecessary. They've been living with a member and every time the member has company, they have to move out and into another member's house for a week or two weeks or a month, depending. He told me he's always been in charge of the missionaries and pretty much I had no right to move them. I told him I was really sorry, I didn't know he'd been so involved, and I'm new and I thought I was in charge of housing. (I've been moving missionaries all over the mission and no one has ever said it wasn't my job.) I just kept telling him I was so sorry. (But those missionaries are moving on Monday.)
He called me. He called the missionaries. He called the new landlord. He called the family they had been with. I just told everyone to blame me. I'm new. I don't know what I'm doing. I have a funny life!
Keys!
One evening about 4:00 some sister missionaries called me. They had just moved into an apartment and they got in ok but there weren't any keys. So I called the missionaries that had been in there before them. I talked to the elder and he told me they'd never had keys. I said, "And it never occurred to you to go ask the landlord for a key so you could lock your door?" He said, "No, I never even thought of that." So I called the landlord and she said the girls could come pick one up and go make a copy. A lot of funny things happen, but I don't know how funny they are on paper.
Everything takes longer than it should!
The craziest things happen while we are trying to do our jobs. Our rents get paid automatically by the church. One guy has called Chris a couple of times because they didn't get their rent. Chris says our rents go out automatically. But they have a weird address so if there's a new mailman he has no idea where to go so he sends back the check. Chris has tried and tried to get them to add "leasing office" to their address but they won't so it will just keep happening. Simple things sometimes take forever and 15 different phone calls. Probably anyone who is used to working in an office is used to that. I just say, "Well, this is why I have a job! Otherwise I'd be in the street without a job and no way to pay for my food! This is why I make the big bucks!" haha
ARKANSAS
There are lots of dead Armadillos on the road. Once our son in law came here for a business trip and he commented on that. It's true! They say here that no one has ever seen a live armadillo. They are born dead on the road.
MISSION CARS
The missionaries complain a lot about the tiwis in the cars. I think I already explained what that is. One set kept telling the vehicle coordinator that theirs didn't work. It had all kinds of problems. So Chris and I took that same car on one of our long Sunday drives to visit missionaries. Funny thing, the tiwi worked fine the whole time.
TECH ELDERS
We have Tech Elders that come in the office a lot. Chris loves them cause whenever I ask him to fix something on my phone or computer he says, "Go ask the Tech Elders." So I do and they fix it. This is the best life! And they don't roll their eyes at me. I say, "Look at what my computer is doing." Wow, I've never seen that happen. Can you fix it? I have no idea. Mess around with it and behold it's fixed. Missionaries are magic.
MISSIONARIES
Missionaries are so cute. They are so resilient. They are so resourceful. They don't have a bed? Oh, they'll figure it out. Give a couple of girls a bunk bed....Can you put it together? Sure. Do you have tools? No, we'll find some.
Missionaries work hard, they ride bikes in the rain, they battle their insecurities and fears, they clean toilets (well, some of them do), they think of original ways to start conversations about the church, they are always tired. Always tired. They are kind and considerate. It's really fun to be around them. I'm in awe of them. They are amazing! I wish I could be there to watch our own grandchildren be missionaries. But we are here for someone else's grandchildren and we love them!
We have missionaries coming and going constantly. I don't know how the Mission President keeps it straight. That means we also have to have somewhere for them to live. We get missionaries who are visa waiters. As soon as they get their visas, they leave. We have missionaries here from temple square doing their 3 month proselyting requirement. We just got 4 missionaries from Nauvoo. They'll be here till spring. Chris and I are so lucky that we get to drive to the airport once or twice a week and pick up missionaries or drop them off. On regular transfer week, the mission president and his wife always go too. Sometimes when we take one to the airport, it isn't a happy occasion. But it gives us a chance to remember how grateful we are for the Savior and for his atonement and for his great love for all of us. And we get to remind the missionary of that too.
LATE NIGHT MERCIES
I pray all the time that I won't make a big mistake that will ruin something for a missionary or cost the church a million dollars. I'm thankful for the little reminders I get in the middle of the night. I wake up for a second and a thought comes, "President Strong is putting 4 missionaries in the Centerton 1 apartment. Hmmm, I wonder if there's 4 beds in there?" I go right back to sleep. The next morning I actually remember (which is a miracle in itself). I call the missionaries and sure enough there's not 4 beds. Then we really start scrambling trying to figure out how to get 2 more beds in there on time. I say "we" because it's a joint effort between Chris and I.
The office staff is in charge of lunches for Missionary Leadership Council. This is chile and corn bread day.
I hope my friend Shalisa isn't reading this today, but this is a truck full of chickens, not an uncommon sight here. One of them might be your dinner on Sunday.
Free hot chocolate at the lake, from the missionaries. They had people right what they are grateful for on colored paper leaves and put them on the little green "tree" on the right. The missionaries in our mission have been challenged by the President to find new and innovative ways to start gospel discussions with people.
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