Dear Family,
Here it another week and time to catch you up a little about the east side of our country. Much is the same, but hopefully we are getting smarter and beginning to find our way to the mission office and back home without using our GPS. We even made it to church today—a new destination—without the aid of GPS. We did, however, look at GPS and read through the directions recognizing the names of the streets they named and felt we could make it. We did!
Monday was a holiday around here, but not for the mission. We like to get into the office by 8 am thus giving us an hour before the other people in the office arrive. That gives us a little time to get organized and do a little relearning. For some reason the postal service in this part of the country is a little spotty and we have 3-5 apartment leasing companies that don’t get their lease payments each month. Once we are notified they have not received our payment, we have to check with Salt Lake to see if the checks have cleared the bank. If they have not, then we cancel that check (notify Salt Lake) and reissue the check and hand deliver the check to avoid late payments. Sometimes, it is already too late to save the late payment penalties before they notify us that they haven’t received payment. Dad and I drove out to one place last week and dropped of a check and avoided the late payment. I thought we had gotten by with just one missing check for the month. Wrong! We got two more this week. One let the late fee slide because we have a good track record, but the other place was a different story. I will need to get those two taken care of this week.
The brother that has been training me is not coming in every day this week. His son is having surgery and they are tending their grandchildren. In some ways it is good to try to do some of the things by myself to see what I remember and what I still need help with. I did spend a lot of time on the phone with Salt Lake determining how to do a couple of things and found them very kind and helpful. One of the problems was a glitch in the program that had changed, and I was not the only one calling in for help. Some things are getting easier, some things I still have to follow some directions.
Wednesday was the day I had planned to deliver the two checks on opposite sides of the mission. I was going to go a little earlier, but the other two couples didn’t get back from a zone conference until about 12:30. Dad talked with them a little and expressed our interest in getting out to work with the young missionaries so that we could get to know them. Hopefully that will happen because not many people (missionaries) ever come to the mission home. Anyway, we got away from the office a little after 1 and it was a little after 5 before we got back to the office. Dad was thinking out loud for much of the trip about a better way to take care of this monthly problem of lost checks. Fours hours lost time and gas for all of that driving was not a good solution. We did, however, get the checks delivered and I think we are good for another month. On the way home I began to get a bit of a sore throat—kind of the beginning of a cold kind of sore throat.
A silly side note: I bought shoes before I left for our mission because I had only sandals. Chelsea was a good sport and went shoe shopping with me. We looked SO hard for shoes that would be comfortable because my feet like shoes very well, especially my left foot. Well, we were finally successful or so we thought. When I got to the MTC and put on one of the pairs of shoes the right shoe was hurting my foot so badly that I had to change shoes after unpacking and before going to our first class. During our stay I would be brave and try wearing the one pair for at least part of the day, but would have to change shoes by noon even though I had slipped off the shoe while sitting in class. The left shoe wasn’t bad at all and was actually quitecomfortable and that is the foot that gives me the most problems. I was getting concerned because the weather here in VA is kind of wet in the winter and sandals wouldn’t be too practical. I sent the day walking around trying to find the leasing offices for the two checks and thinking I could hardly wait to get my shoes off. Thursday morning I decided to look inside of the shoe and see why the left shoe was so much softer and flexible. I did notice a cardboard looking substance in the right shoe with looked like some stitching on it and decided to see if that could be removed. I tried to pull on it, but it didn’t come out easy and I was afraid that I would really make a mess of the inside of the shoe. I had Dad look at it and he tried to pull on it and was less afraid of ruining the shoe. He did pull out the cardboard and we found that it was a shoe stiffener put in shoes to keep them from bending before they are bought. Needless to say, I now have a comfortable pair of shoes!!! And a red face for not removing all of the packaging put in shoes.
Thursday I was sure that I had a cold and sniffled and coughed throughout the day. After getting my inbox pretty well emptied, I was able to get the report on arriving/departing missionaries done in time for Dad to tell me he had changed the departure date of one of the missionaries. He had changed it 10 minutes before I finished up the report, but after I had taken the data from the Church website. I was able to get the numbers changed and the report redone. But by this time I was really to go home and take care of the aches and sniffles and cough. The best medicine for a cold for me is a nice hot bath and an early bed time. Hopefully, things will be better in the morning.
Friday, we were in the office by ourselves most of the morning. One of the office couples had family coming to visit, so they were not there and the other office couple were in charge of the return and report luncheon. We were left to hold down the fort. We got as much as we could do done, but the software in Salt Lake was shut down for updates ? until Sunday. That was a good excuse to clean the office since it was our turn to do it. Dad got the vacuuming done while I had some help from the brother that comes in to help. I called to tell him that the Salt Lake computer software was done, but he thought he could help me with one of the spreadsheets. He doesn’t like to help from the phone and would rather be there so he can see what is on the screen. I also think he likes to get out of the house and some reprieve from his two active granddaughters. I just have tosmile. He comes and shows me something and then while I am doing it he goes out into the lobby and sits in a chair there and talks to Dad. He likes to talk A LOT and some of the time I have to smile as I work on things and listen from afar to his stories that he is telling Dad.
When he left, I cleaned the bathrooms and emptied the garbagesand we left a little early—4:30 ish. It felt good to be leaving while it was still light outside. The past two Fridays it has been 6:30 or 7 before we left. Dad worked on WES stuff after dinner and I did grocery shopping. It was a good day and the end of a good week.
Saturday is our P day and we did things around the apartment until about 11 when we went to Arlington National Cemetery. It was as beautiful day with clear blue skies—something we haven’t seen much. It was cool enough that we both took jackets. Dad wore his all day, and I mostly carried mine. I did, however, put it on a couple of times for a bit. The weather was perfect with a crispness to it and when the wind blew a bit that crisp wind blowing in my face was just wonderful. The cemetery was certainly larger than I expected and more spread out. I was thinking it would be more like the military cemeteries in San Francisco. This cemetery, however, had the tomb stones a little more spread out and also had different sections. Some sections just had the little white markers and some had huge, elaborate stones. It seems the older the graves, the bigger and fancier the grave stones were. We were able to see President Kennedy’s eternal flame and grave stone alone with his wife and two of his children. From there we went to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It happens every hour, on the hour, and the ceremony we watched took over 20 minutes. It was very solemn and dignified and gave pause for thought. Many people have given their lives so that we can have freedoms. It’s just bad that just a few greedy individuals can cause so much heart ache for so many people. We walked many stairs, and lots of miles, but had a great day.
We came home and baked cookies to take to our neighbors so that we could introduce ourselves. That was really fun and will be nice to be able to say hi as we come and go. Our ward is having a chili dinner and an afternoon trunk-or-treating next Saturday. One of our neighbors likes to string lights on his balcony rail and enjoys barbequing, so we think we will invite him to go with us to that. The previous couple gave him a Book of Mormon on their way out with verses marked. Tom says he hasn’t read it yet, but he will. “I’m not a joining person, so don’t expect me to join.” It will still be fun to see if he would like to go and eat chili and enjoy the kids.
We had a call about 1 am from someone on the single adults committee wondering about an upcoming activity. When they found out we were not in CA and it was after 1 am, they were more than apologetic. I felt a little sorry for them. I checked the BYU score and found that BYU was still doing well, so life was good.
Church was good this morning and will be nice to be in a ward again. We have been at the MTC or traveling or listening to Conference for many weeks, so it seems really good to be back in a ward where we can get to know some people. They seem like really good people and very welcoming. A good reminder of what I need to be.
Love you lots and think and pray for you daily,
Mom
Here it another week and time to catch you up a little about the east side of our country. Much is the same, but hopefully we are getting smarter and beginning to find our way to the mission office and back home without using our GPS. We even made it to church today—a new destination—without the aid of GPS. We did, however, look at GPS and read through the directions recognizing the names of the streets they named and felt we could make it. We did!
Monday was a holiday around here, but not for the mission. We like to get into the office by 8 am thus giving us an hour before the other people in the office arrive. That gives us a little time to get organized and do a little relearning. For some reason the postal service in this part of the country is a little spotty and we have 3-5 apartment leasing companies that don’t get their lease payments each month. Once we are notified they have not received our payment, we have to check with Salt Lake to see if the checks have cleared the bank. If they have not, then we cancel that check (notify Salt Lake) and reissue the check and hand deliver the check to avoid late payments. Sometimes, it is already too late to save the late payment penalties before they notify us that they haven’t received payment. Dad and I drove out to one place last week and dropped of a check and avoided the late payment. I thought we had gotten by with just one missing check for the month. Wrong! We got two more this week. One let the late fee slide because we have a good track record, but the other place was a different story. I will need to get those two taken care of this week.
The brother that has been training me is not coming in every day this week. His son is having surgery and they are tending their grandchildren. In some ways it is good to try to do some of the things by myself to see what I remember and what I still need help with. I did spend a lot of time on the phone with Salt Lake determining how to do a couple of things and found them very kind and helpful. One of the problems was a glitch in the program that had changed, and I was not the only one calling in for help. Some things are getting easier, some things I still have to follow some directions.
Wednesday was the day I had planned to deliver the two checks on opposite sides of the mission. I was going to go a little earlier, but the other two couples didn’t get back from a zone conference until about 12:30. Dad talked with them a little and expressed our interest in getting out to work with the young missionaries so that we could get to know them. Hopefully that will happen because not many people (missionaries) ever come to the mission home. Anyway, we got away from the office a little after 1 and it was a little after 5 before we got back to the office. Dad was thinking out loud for much of the trip about a better way to take care of this monthly problem of lost checks. Fours hours lost time and gas for all of that driving was not a good solution. We did, however, get the checks delivered and I think we are good for another month. On the way home I began to get a bit of a sore throat—kind of the beginning of a cold kind of sore throat.
A silly side note: I bought shoes before I left for our mission because I had only sandals. Chelsea was a good sport and went shoe shopping with me. We looked SO hard for shoes that would be comfortable because my feet like shoes very well, especially my left foot. Well, we were finally successful or so we thought. When I got to the MTC and put on one of the pairs of shoes the right shoe was hurting my foot so badly that I had to change shoes after unpacking and before going to our first class. During our stay I would be brave and try wearing the one pair for at least part of the day, but would have to change shoes by noon even though I had slipped off the shoe while sitting in class. The left shoe wasn’t bad at all and was actually quitecomfortable and that is the foot that gives me the most problems. I was getting concerned because the weather here in VA is kind of wet in the winter and sandals wouldn’t be too practical. I sent the day walking around trying to find the leasing offices for the two checks and thinking I could hardly wait to get my shoes off. Thursday morning I decided to look inside of the shoe and see why the left shoe was so much softer and flexible. I did notice a cardboard looking substance in the right shoe with looked like some stitching on it and decided to see if that could be removed. I tried to pull on it, but it didn’t come out easy and I was afraid that I would really make a mess of the inside of the shoe. I had Dad look at it and he tried to pull on it and was less afraid of ruining the shoe. He did pull out the cardboard and we found that it was a shoe stiffener put in shoes to keep them from bending before they are bought. Needless to say, I now have a comfortable pair of shoes!!! And a red face for not removing all of the packaging put in shoes.
Thursday I was sure that I had a cold and sniffled and coughed throughout the day. After getting my inbox pretty well emptied, I was able to get the report on arriving/departing missionaries done in time for Dad to tell me he had changed the departure date of one of the missionaries. He had changed it 10 minutes before I finished up the report, but after I had taken the data from the Church website. I was able to get the numbers changed and the report redone. But by this time I was really to go home and take care of the aches and sniffles and cough. The best medicine for a cold for me is a nice hot bath and an early bed time. Hopefully, things will be better in the morning.
Friday, we were in the office by ourselves most of the morning. One of the office couples had family coming to visit, so they were not there and the other office couple were in charge of the return and report luncheon. We were left to hold down the fort. We got as much as we could do done, but the software in Salt Lake was shut down for updates ? until Sunday. That was a good excuse to clean the office since it was our turn to do it. Dad got the vacuuming done while I had some help from the brother that comes in to help. I called to tell him that the Salt Lake computer software was done, but he thought he could help me with one of the spreadsheets. He doesn’t like to help from the phone and would rather be there so he can see what is on the screen. I also think he likes to get out of the house and some reprieve from his two active granddaughters. I just have tosmile. He comes and shows me something and then while I am doing it he goes out into the lobby and sits in a chair there and talks to Dad. He likes to talk A LOT and some of the time I have to smile as I work on things and listen from afar to his stories that he is telling Dad.
When he left, I cleaned the bathrooms and emptied the garbagesand we left a little early—4:30 ish. It felt good to be leaving while it was still light outside. The past two Fridays it has been 6:30 or 7 before we left. Dad worked on WES stuff after dinner and I did grocery shopping. It was a good day and the end of a good week.
Saturday is our P day and we did things around the apartment until about 11 when we went to Arlington National Cemetery. It was as beautiful day with clear blue skies—something we haven’t seen much. It was cool enough that we both took jackets. Dad wore his all day, and I mostly carried mine. I did, however, put it on a couple of times for a bit. The weather was perfect with a crispness to it and when the wind blew a bit that crisp wind blowing in my face was just wonderful. The cemetery was certainly larger than I expected and more spread out. I was thinking it would be more like the military cemeteries in San Francisco. This cemetery, however, had the tomb stones a little more spread out and also had different sections. Some sections just had the little white markers and some had huge, elaborate stones. It seems the older the graves, the bigger and fancier the grave stones were. We were able to see President Kennedy’s eternal flame and grave stone alone with his wife and two of his children. From there we went to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It happens every hour, on the hour, and the ceremony we watched took over 20 minutes. It was very solemn and dignified and gave pause for thought. Many people have given their lives so that we can have freedoms. It’s just bad that just a few greedy individuals can cause so much heart ache for so many people. We walked many stairs, and lots of miles, but had a great day.
We came home and baked cookies to take to our neighbors so that we could introduce ourselves. That was really fun and will be nice to be able to say hi as we come and go. Our ward is having a chili dinner and an afternoon trunk-or-treating next Saturday. One of our neighbors likes to string lights on his balcony rail and enjoys barbequing, so we think we will invite him to go with us to that. The previous couple gave him a Book of Mormon on their way out with verses marked. Tom says he hasn’t read it yet, but he will. “I’m not a joining person, so don’t expect me to join.” It will still be fun to see if he would like to go and eat chili and enjoy the kids.
We had a call about 1 am from someone on the single adults committee wondering about an upcoming activity. When they found out we were not in CA and it was after 1 am, they were more than apologetic. I felt a little sorry for them. I checked the BYU score and found that BYU was still doing well, so life was good.
Church was good this morning and will be nice to be in a ward again. We have been at the MTC or traveling or listening to Conference for many weeks, so it seems really good to be back in a ward where we can get to know some people. They seem like really good people and very welcoming. A good reminder of what I need to be.
Love you lots and think and pray for you daily,
Mom
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