Dear Family,
Where has October gone. This week has been full and we are enjoying life. Monday President Caplin asked Dad if he could drive and elder to the airport. This elder had been in our mission awaiting his visa for Fiji. We have 18 new missionaries coming in tonight at 6:30. Our housing secretary was going nuts trying to get apartments lined up. The thing that makes it a little tricky is that 5 of the 18 are visa waiters so we don’t know how long they will be here.
Tuesday was the big day for “Elder” Nelson. He was in charge of getting the motel rooms for all of the new missionaries for Monday night and doing the luncheon for all of the new missionaries along with their trainer companions and the old companions of the trainer companions. It added up to about 70 people. We did something different from what had been done in the past. Instead of getting sandwiches from Subway or a fancy grocery store that caters, we saw some crescent roll sandwiches at Costco that looked good and were well within the budget. As it turned out, the sandwiches were better than they had had in the past and much cheaper. Score one for Elder Nelson. While at Costco we picked up cuties for the fruit and bottled water along with some chips. Wow, that made our Saturday shopping really easy and the luncheon turned out really well.
What made the “Train the Trainer” meeting so nice was that we got to meet all of the new missionaries as well as the trainers. While eating lunch with some of the sisters, we noticed the name tag on one of the sisters and realized that her sister was a teacher for one of our classes at the MTC. We had taken a picture of the MTC trainer and were now able to show it to her sister who is one of our Washington D.C. South missionaries—small world. We were also able to sit in on some of the training and were impressed with the teachers. We also got to see the new missionaries introduced to their trainer and were so inspired when he told these new missionaries that as he had been assigning the trainers to them, that individual names came to his mind to be their trainer. He testified that Heavenly Father knows them by name and that he knows their strengths and weaknesses that that they had the companion that the Lord had chosen for them. What a great day!
Tuesday was the big day for “Elder” Nelson. He was in charge of getting the motel rooms for all of the new missionaries for Monday night and doing the luncheon for all of the new missionaries along with their trainer companions and the old companions of the trainer companions. It added up to about 70 people. We did something different from what had been done in the past. Instead of getting sandwiches from Subway or a fancy grocery store that caters, we saw some crescent roll sandwiches at Costco that looked good and were well within the budget. As it turned out, the sandwiches were better than they had had in the past and much cheaper. Score one for Elder Nelson. While at Costco we picked up cuties for the fruit and bottled water along with some chips. Wow, that made our Saturday shopping really easy and the luncheon turned out really well.
What made the “Train the Trainer” meeting so nice was that we got to meet all of the new missionaries as well as the trainers. While eating lunch with some of the sisters, we noticed the name tag on one of the sisters and realized that her sister was a teacher for one of our classes at the MTC. We had taken a picture of the MTC trainer and were now able to show it to her sister who is one of our Washington D.C. South missionaries—small world. We were also able to sit in on some of the training and were impressed with the teachers. We also got to see the new missionaries introduced to their trainer and were so inspired when he told these new missionaries that as he had been assigning the trainers to them, that individual names came to his mind to be their trainer. He testified that Heavenly Father knows them by name and that he knows their strengths and weaknesses that that they had the companion that the Lord had chosen for them. What a great day!
Wednesday the Washington D.C. North mission needed us to bring up three of our cars. So I drove our car and three other senior missionaries drove up the three mission cars that were being given to the North mission. We drove into Maryland and delivered the cars and then all four of us came back in our car. It was a surprisingly short trip up—30 minutes and beautiful scenery.
Since it was Halloween the office elders were having a difficult time getting any of the ward members to come and help them with the last lesson of a young woman. They asked Dad if we would be able to meet them at the church and be there to go over her baptism details. Probably because we were there, she asked us if we would give the baptism and Holy Ghost talks. We then went over the rest of the program and demonstration of how the baptism works. We also got a jumpsuit picked out and I showed her where she would change and told her what she needed to bring. I offered to bring towels and plastic bags to carry the wet clothing. It was fun to get out with the missionaries and see them teach and get people ready for baptism. Again, another good day.
Thursday was a day to try and get caught up at the office. It is the end of the month reports time and I’m not sure that I have been shown how to do all of them. One of the spreadsheets that my predecessor had put together wasn’t working when I copied information from the Church web page. I was sure that I was following the written instructions, but one of the columns was getting populated. I looked at the formula and noticed that the column that the formula was trying to get data from was empty. But I didn’t know what to do. The housing secretary decided he would try to do the steps (my predecessor had given him the instructions also) and see if he got any different results. He finally got all of the columns to get the data they needed. He was showing me how to do it and I discovered that the last 3 steps had been left off my instructions. When I finally had all of the directions I got all of the columns of the spreadsheets filled!!! It’s amazing what can happen when one gets all of the directions. That is one thing that I don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to worry about. Maybe that is true with life, when we have all of the information we need, we make different (better) decisions. Since we don’t always have all of the information, it is important to be tuned into the One who does have all of the answers.
Since it was Halloween the office elders were having a difficult time getting any of the ward members to come and help them with the last lesson of a young woman. They asked Dad if we would be able to meet them at the church and be there to go over her baptism details. Probably because we were there, she asked us if we would give the baptism and Holy Ghost talks. We then went over the rest of the program and demonstration of how the baptism works. We also got a jumpsuit picked out and I showed her where she would change and told her what she needed to bring. I offered to bring towels and plastic bags to carry the wet clothing. It was fun to get out with the missionaries and see them teach and get people ready for baptism. Again, another good day.
Thursday was a day to try and get caught up at the office. It is the end of the month reports time and I’m not sure that I have been shown how to do all of them. One of the spreadsheets that my predecessor had put together wasn’t working when I copied information from the Church web page. I was sure that I was following the written instructions, but one of the columns was getting populated. I looked at the formula and noticed that the column that the formula was trying to get data from was empty. But I didn’t know what to do. The housing secretary decided he would try to do the steps (my predecessor had given him the instructions also) and see if he got any different results. He finally got all of the columns to get the data they needed. He was showing me how to do it and I discovered that the last 3 steps had been left off my instructions. When I finally had all of the directions I got all of the columns of the spreadsheets filled!!! It’s amazing what can happen when one gets all of the directions. That is one thing that I don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to worry about. Maybe that is true with life, when we have all of the information we need, we make different (better) decisions. Since we don’t always have all of the information, it is important to be tuned into the One who does have all of the answers.
Friday was a catch up day or so I thought. I spent the entire morning trying to figure out what apartment some of the utility bills were for. They usually come in with an account number and the amount due. From that information, I am supposed to figure out what utility company the bill is for, what apartment is being billed and then figure out how to figure out the user ID and password that allows me to get a copy of the bill. I am starting to make charts of account numbers so that I can speed up this process. I did get a chance to reconcile the four credit cards, the IROP accounts before it was time to go home.
We went home, ate dinner and then got busy taking care of California financial stuff. I worked on our personal finances and Garn worked on WES stuff. I won and got done before he did (not the usual) so I spent the rest of the evening baking cookies for the baptism as well as my talk. I discovered that we didn’t bring copy paper from California, so I had to wait to print things I needed for the talk.
Saturday was a slow start for us. It did feel good to be able to sleep in a little. I did a little shopping for things we needed and then came home and printed what I needed for the talk. We decided to get out and see a little of the country. There is a lake close by that the Sister Caplin recommended to us when they were in the office on Wednesday. It is beautiful with trees going clear down to the water’s edge. The path went through the trees so I didn’t have to worry about getting sunburned and getting hot and sweaty. It was beautiful and we walked about 3 miles before we came home to get ready for the baptism. It went well and there was a sweet spirit there. I was so impressed with the number of ward members who showed up to support this sister. She is quite shy so doesn’t know too many people, but the ward was there to support anyway. We stayed and helped the elders clean up a bit and then took the wet clothing home to wash and dry. What a good day/evening!
Thank heavens for the end of daylight savings time. We got to sleep in a little longer this morning—not too late since church begins at 8:30 a.m. Church was good today with wonderful testimonies about the Book of Mormon and the Savior.
We had signed up to feed the missionaries, but since we don’t live in the ward boundaries it would require them to break mission rules to come to our apartment. They can’t leave their areas (ward boundaries). We can’t go to their apartments, so we decided to meet them at the mission office (in their ward boundaries) and have dinner.
That about does it for another week. Again, we love you lots and have you in our prayers daily.
Love,
Mom
Saturday was a slow start for us. It did feel good to be able to sleep in a little. I did a little shopping for things we needed and then came home and printed what I needed for the talk. We decided to get out and see a little of the country. There is a lake close by that the Sister Caplin recommended to us when they were in the office on Wednesday. It is beautiful with trees going clear down to the water’s edge. The path went through the trees so I didn’t have to worry about getting sunburned and getting hot and sweaty. It was beautiful and we walked about 3 miles before we came home to get ready for the baptism. It went well and there was a sweet spirit there. I was so impressed with the number of ward members who showed up to support this sister. She is quite shy so doesn’t know too many people, but the ward was there to support anyway. We stayed and helped the elders clean up a bit and then took the wet clothing home to wash and dry. What a good day/evening!
Thank heavens for the end of daylight savings time. We got to sleep in a little longer this morning—not too late since church begins at 8:30 a.m. Church was good today with wonderful testimonies about the Book of Mormon and the Savior.
We had signed up to feed the missionaries, but since we don’t live in the ward boundaries it would require them to break mission rules to come to our apartment. They can’t leave their areas (ward boundaries). We can’t go to their apartments, so we decided to meet them at the mission office (in their ward boundaries) and have dinner.
That about does it for another week. Again, we love you lots and have you in our prayers daily.
Love,
Mom
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| The street out in front of our apartment. |
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| Garn on the bridge by Burke Lake. |
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