This has been a reasonably normal week. I think that's why Sister Johnson had a hard time to write. So, it's my turn. When I say normal I don't really mean normal, normal because our lives here are never really normal. It's just to say that we haven't had transfers, or missionaries sent home, or anything crazy happen.
We did have one sister who went home after a wonderful mission. Since she was the only one, the President and Sister Strong had all of the office staff to their house for dinner along with the returning missionary. It was really nice.
Sister Strong said that she is surprised how long it has taken her to realize that, although she is here to spread the Gospel in the traditional sense, she is really here to convert young men and women to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. President agreed. We have been studying a talk by Elder Holland where he says that the most important convert you make on you mission is you. This is such a critical opportunity for young men and women to set the direction for their lives.
President made a big deal of how much they appreciate all of us in the office for all we do. We all sort of chuckled because we have it so easy compared to him.
There are about 180 missionaries in our mission. They are each supposed to write him a letter (on line) every week. He says he gets about 140. He reads and responds to each individual letter. Additionally, he interviews each missionary every transfer. So that is what he's been doing this week and next. They've been traveling the mission (staying in hotels) so that he can interview every missionary. I think they wrap it up today down in Fort Smith. It's incredible how well he knows them, where they are, what their apartment is like. Wow!
The last day we were at the MTC they had a couple who had served a mission in the office in Madagascar come and talk to us about their experience. She talked a lot about coming up with some special project or service that we could do on our missions in addition to the office work. This was so that it didn't just seem like a job. I've told President Strong that he's my project. I'm trying to do whatever I can to make his life easier.
Valentine Cookies and Rice Bags
One of the Elders serving in our ward (Anderson) said he was cold so Sister Johnson said she would bring him a rice bag to church. She also wanted to take Valentine cookies to several people. So yesterday was sewing and baking day.
On Friday we were going to TJ Maxx to buy wash cloths for the rice bags. I rhetorically asked whether I could get there without the GPS. Sister Johnson assumed I didn't want to drive to TJ Maxx. So she suggested we could probably get some cheap wash cloths at Walmart. I hate Walmart but I assumed that she would rather go to the big Walmart. So we went there for wash cloths. Neither of us really wanted to go to Walmart.
And she's on a mission to find Valentine's Junior Mints (they're fresh because they're made for the holiday). So she checked Target's web site and it said they had them. So we left work a little early and drove to Target (without using the GPS). Of course they had no Valentine's Junior Mints. But that didn't stop us, we bought all kinds of other Valentine's candy. We also looked for white dipping chocolate for the Valentine's cookies. They didn't have any.
Then, since Target is by TJ Maxx we went there and bought more wash cloths.
Sister Johnson was sure that Sam's Club would have white dipping chocolate. They didn't.
So we headed back to our Walmart Neighborhood Market (grocery store) and they had white dipping chocolate.
It's at this point the Sister Johnson realizes that she doesn't have a heart-shaped cookie cutter. UGH!
So I headed back to the hated Super Walmart and found a cookie cutter.
Missionary life can be hard.
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