Dear Family,
Missionary Training CenterOur time at the MTC seems like a long time ago. In summary we loved it. It was even better than I thought it would be.
We were taught by Elder Neil L. Anderson, Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Jeffery R. Holland. The last two were video tapes of informal devotional talks – no notes. It seems before the internet, I heard more informal teaching from the Brethren. There is whole different experience when they speak from the heart. You get a glimpse into what they are really like.
The first week we were taught a very few concepts from Preach My Gospel. The major topic was how to invite others to come unto Christ. We were assigned another couple to work with – the Esplin’s from the Logan area. They are office couples in the Mexico Monterey Mission. Elder Esplin is a PhD physicist that knows very little Spanish. Sister Esplin has never worked outside the home and know very, very little about computers. We invited them to seek the gift of tongues – He needs to learn Spanish. She needs to learn computer-eese.
They invited us to read Alma 17 and 18 and apply the teachings there to our situation with going on a mission and running a company.
They are a wonderful couple and it was great to work with them.
The second week we spent most of the time on how to use the Church software, IMOS and other aspects of our assignments. There was some time spent on the people, spiritual aspects. My favorite was a former office missionary couple from the Madagascar Mission. They spent an hour talking about their experience. They had a wonderful attitude about their situation. They saw problems and came up with solutions. I loved their attitude and I want to have a similar attitude for our mission.
They young trainers (less than half our age) were sharp and energetic.
The part of the MTC I enjoyed most was spending time with the other senior missionaries. As you would expect from the kind of people that would volunteer or accept a call to serve as senior missionaries, they are wonderful, solid, dedicated disciples of Christ. In our district all of the brethren had served as bishops or stake presidency. Their professions were geologist, school principal, nuclear physics professor. Their wives were similar. The people we met are people I look up to. They are the kind of people we would want to be friends with and invite into our home. They were also fun to be with.
Missionary Training CenterOur time at the MTC seems like a long time ago. In summary we loved it. It was even better than I thought it would be.
We were taught by Elder Neil L. Anderson, Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Jeffery R. Holland. The last two were video tapes of informal devotional talks – no notes. It seems before the internet, I heard more informal teaching from the Brethren. There is whole different experience when they speak from the heart. You get a glimpse into what they are really like.
The first week we were taught a very few concepts from Preach My Gospel. The major topic was how to invite others to come unto Christ. We were assigned another couple to work with – the Esplin’s from the Logan area. They are office couples in the Mexico Monterey Mission. Elder Esplin is a PhD physicist that knows very little Spanish. Sister Esplin has never worked outside the home and know very, very little about computers. We invited them to seek the gift of tongues – He needs to learn Spanish. She needs to learn computer-eese.
They invited us to read Alma 17 and 18 and apply the teachings there to our situation with going on a mission and running a company.
They are a wonderful couple and it was great to work with them.
The second week we spent most of the time on how to use the Church software, IMOS and other aspects of our assignments. There was some time spent on the people, spiritual aspects. My favorite was a former office missionary couple from the Madagascar Mission. They spent an hour talking about their experience. They had a wonderful attitude about their situation. They saw problems and came up with solutions. I loved their attitude and I want to have a similar attitude for our mission.
They young trainers (less than half our age) were sharp and energetic.
The part of the MTC I enjoyed most was spending time with the other senior missionaries. As you would expect from the kind of people that would volunteer or accept a call to serve as senior missionaries, they are wonderful, solid, dedicated disciples of Christ. In our district all of the brethren had served as bishops or stake presidency. Their professions were geologist, school principal, nuclear physics professor. Their wives were similar. The people we met are people I look up to. They are the kind of people we would want to be friends with and invite into our home. They were also fun to be with.
The Trip to VirginiaThere were two strange things about our trip:
1. The only city we saw with tall buildings and a dense population was St. Louis. Everywhere else the freeways skirted the cities and/or the trees blocked our view. I had never appreciated how urbanized the US is.
1. The only city we saw with tall buildings and a dense population was St. Louis. Everywhere else the freeways skirted the cities and/or the trees blocked our view. I had never appreciated how urbanized the US is.
2. Our CD player is not working and we only listened to the radio a little bit. We did find out that there are at least 100 country western radio stations in Wyoming. Even though we were not entertained by our electronic devices, we enjoyed the time on the road – 34 hours of it. I guess I must like your mother.
We did take an hour detour to go to the Independence Visitor Center. There some 150-year-old photographs that told about some of the Church History. The sister missionaries gave us a bit of background on the history of the Church in Missouri. Nice visit.
Sunday we stopped by Ben Rich’s house at 10:30AM and went to Church with them. They gave us dinner before we drove to Pennsylvania. Their kids are cute. Ben did a nice job teaching Sunday School Gospel Doctrine. We were glad we took the time to meet them.
First WeekThe couple we replaced, Elder and Sister Beus, went home September 10. The Judson’s, who served as the mission secretary and finance secretary 5 years ago, stepped in for 3 weeks. They are our trainers.
The challenge is not that the work is rocket science. It is the 1000 details about how things are supposed to be done. None of the 1000 things are in the Doctrine and Covenants. They are legacy processes – mostly from the previous mission president. The new mission president has been here since July. He has not spent much time with the missionary secretary protocols. This means that if I mess up a little bit, he probably will not notice.
Not all of the processes are documented. Many of the processes that are documented are outdated. I will learn as much as I can before the Judsons leave on Tuesday. Fortunately, they are local and we can call them or they will come in if we really get stuck.
My responsibilities are:
Receptionist
Distribute email, mail and packages
Send the standard letters to missionaries, parents of missionaries, stake presidents and bishops. There are about 10 or so standard letters.
Arriving missionaries
Prepare packets of background information for the president
Arrange lunch for the missionaries and their trainers
Departing missionaries
Prepare a packet of instructions for leaving the mission including travel itineraries.
Prepare a packet of memory items including the locations that they served and the names of the companions they served with.
Zone Conferences
Reserve the building
Work with the stake relief society presidents to provide lunch.
Prepare the mission calendar each month
Several things I forgot.
All of this sounds easy enough, but we have been spending 9 hours a day at the office and I am afraid that not everything is getting done or done “right”. Again, it is the 1000 details that make things difficult. I am sure that after a few months I will have most tasks under control.
I am not by nature a detail guy. There are a lot of details associated with this assignment. This will be a challenge.
Sunday we stopped by Ben Rich’s house at 10:30AM and went to Church with them. They gave us dinner before we drove to Pennsylvania. Their kids are cute. Ben did a nice job teaching Sunday School Gospel Doctrine. We were glad we took the time to meet them.
First WeekThe couple we replaced, Elder and Sister Beus, went home September 10. The Judson’s, who served as the mission secretary and finance secretary 5 years ago, stepped in for 3 weeks. They are our trainers.
The challenge is not that the work is rocket science. It is the 1000 details about how things are supposed to be done. None of the 1000 things are in the Doctrine and Covenants. They are legacy processes – mostly from the previous mission president. The new mission president has been here since July. He has not spent much time with the missionary secretary protocols. This means that if I mess up a little bit, he probably will not notice.
Not all of the processes are documented. Many of the processes that are documented are outdated. I will learn as much as I can before the Judsons leave on Tuesday. Fortunately, they are local and we can call them or they will come in if we really get stuck.
My responsibilities are:
Receptionist
Distribute email, mail and packages
Send the standard letters to missionaries, parents of missionaries, stake presidents and bishops. There are about 10 or so standard letters.
Arriving missionaries
Prepare packets of background information for the president
Arrange lunch for the missionaries and their trainers
Departing missionaries
Prepare a packet of instructions for leaving the mission including travel itineraries.
Prepare a packet of memory items including the locations that they served and the names of the companions they served with.
Zone Conferences
Reserve the building
Work with the stake relief society presidents to provide lunch.
Prepare the mission calendar each month
Several things I forgot.
All of this sounds easy enough, but we have been spending 9 hours a day at the office and I am afraid that not everything is getting done or done “right”. Again, it is the 1000 details that make things difficult. I am sure that after a few months I will have most tasks under control.
I am not by nature a detail guy. There are a lot of details associated with this assignment. This will be a challenge.
The couple missionaries in the office are wonderful and we will enjoy working with them. I will tell you more about them in a later letter.
The mission president called us at home at 10:00PM on Tuesday to welcome us to the mission. He had left the mission home at 7:00AM to be at an 8:00AM zone conference. He was on his way home from picking up “waiters” at the airport when he called us at 10:00PM. (A “waiter” is a missionary who was assigned to a different mission that is waiting for a visa and is temporarily assigned to our mission.)
Although the mission president has an office at the mission office, he works out of his office in the mission home. He comes into the mission office once or twice a week for a half hour to sign financial reports and other administrative tasks. He meets with the office missionaries once a month.
WES
September was a good month for shipments, but a but a bad month for expenses. We lost about $25,000 on $194,000 sales.
The mission president called us at home at 10:00PM on Tuesday to welcome us to the mission. He had left the mission home at 7:00AM to be at an 8:00AM zone conference. He was on his way home from picking up “waiters” at the airport when he called us at 10:00PM. (A “waiter” is a missionary who was assigned to a different mission that is waiting for a visa and is temporarily assigned to our mission.)
Although the mission president has an office at the mission office, he works out of his office in the mission home. He comes into the mission office once or twice a week for a half hour to sign financial reports and other administrative tasks. He meets with the office missionaries once a month.
WES
September was a good month for shipments, but a but a bad month for expenses. We lost about $25,000 on $194,000 sales.
We sold a machine we haven’t used in about a year and this has helped our cash flow. We will finally start paying down our accounts payable. I asked our bookkeepers to also start paying down our debt.
We have sufficient sales to be profitable. We did have some quality issues with some production parts. Our production processes need to be “hardened”. This takes time and process engineering. We have little of these resources. Quality is my biggest concern.
I spend about 1 to 4 hours a day doing WES work. This will probably be the case for the foreseeable future. The one company that I thought would buy us, has had a change of heart. He wants to work with us but does not want to buy us.
Home Gospel StudyThe Lord is asking us to spend more time with our children teaching them the Gospel. Changing habits is hard, but I am sure it will bring great blessings. If we take the hour that was spent in Church and spend it teaching our children, great things will happen. Is there any way we can help?
We have sufficient sales to be profitable. We did have some quality issues with some production parts. Our production processes need to be “hardened”. This takes time and process engineering. We have little of these resources. Quality is my biggest concern.
I spend about 1 to 4 hours a day doing WES work. This will probably be the case for the foreseeable future. The one company that I thought would buy us, has had a change of heart. He wants to work with us but does not want to buy us.
Home Gospel StudyThe Lord is asking us to spend more time with our children teaching them the Gospel. Changing habits is hard, but I am sure it will bring great blessings. If we take the hour that was spent in Church and spend it teaching our children, great things will happen. Is there any way we can help?
I liked Elder Bangeter’s comments about family traditions.
Life is good and we are happy.
Life is good and we are happy.
Please call us and face time. (Note face timing with parents and grandparents is not social medie!) We love you and want to stay close.
Love,
Dad
Dad
I am glad that you and Mom are doing so well! You will get the hang of it!
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