Dear Family,
Are we really beginning the last week of January? In some ways it seems that New Years was months ago instead of weeks and in other ways it’s hard to believe that we are finishing up January.
We had transfers this week and that always makes things exciting. It seems mission life revolves around transfers. It starts off with all of the missionaries going home rotating through the mission office so that they can have their exit interviews. Of course, their companions have to come, so they are waiting in the front office while their companion is in with the President. We love getting to visit with the missionaries and that is why we get distracted and visit with them. BUT that makes for less work getting accomplished. There are always last minute changes or things that need to be done to get ready for the missionaries flying in on Monday evening, so life on Monday got pretty exciting? I had to make sure that all of the returning missionaries had sufficient cash to travel with and that was made a little more challenging because 4 of the 8 missionaries going home were having their debit cards closed on Wednesday (their travel day). When I asked our global card people when on Wednesday that would happen and what we could do, they just said have them draw all of their money out so they would have enough to travel on. Now this transfer was happening at the end of the month and at the end of their money to travel. There was no money to pull out and I would need to put some extra money on their cards. It takes 2-3 business days to get the money on the card; I was notified on Thursday that the cards were being closed; and Monday was a holiday. All of this narrative is to explain the last minute changes of Monday—I had to get cash for all of the missionaries to travel with.
Dad had to arrange for an extra 12 passenger van because we were having 16 missionaries arriving and that would take 2 passenger vans and a luggage van. President didn’t have time to go and sign to be able to rent a van and Dad was not having any luck finding a rental place that would allow someone to drive that hadn’t come in and shown their driver’s license and signed documents. We were finally able to get one reserved at the airport that President could sign for and use. It would necessitate him leaving his car at the airport until he returned the rental.
We also found out last minute that 11 of the 16 missionaries got stranded in Minnesota and would not arrive until 11:30. So, we didn’t need the big van after all. We went to the mission home at 7:15 to help with the picture taking and texting to parents for the missionaries that did arrive on time. One of the elders that arrived on time looks so much like a young Donnie Chase that I do a double take whenever I see him.
Tuesday is the day that the trainers are trained and the missionaries are assigned to their new companions. This is one of the meetings that I enjoy the most. The Mission President is so good to remind the missionaries that their calls came through revelation and that if they don’t already know that they are supposed to be in this mission at this time, they should work on getting that testimony. He also tells them a little of the process of assigning them to their companions. I think this help the missionary to have a stronger testimony of them being in the right place at the right time so that when times get tough they will have a firmer foundation. The first missionary that was to be assigned was standing up by the president and when he told her who her new companion would be. As he said the name, the trainer audibly gasp and went up. Come to find out these two knew each other from before their missions. The greenie had helped do some teaching of the trainer’s parents before either of them came on their missions. The President was unaware of this connection, but the Lord was. There were a couple of times that the trainers stood up just before the Mission President said the name of the trainer. These trainers were in tune enough to know who they would be training.
After this portion of the meeting we went back to the kitchen to finish getting the luncheon ready for the new missionaries and the trainers. Dad has delegated this luncheon to the part time missionary that works in the office with us. She loves to cook and wants this first meal to be a little special for the new missionaries, so she does a very nice job. Often she will cook a couple of days ahead to have everything ready.
We got back to the office around 2:30 and had to switch gears to get some work done there. That is hard for me to do. Missing a lot of the day necessitated me taking bills home to input there. We were supposed to have one of the departing elders spend the night at our apartment, but the office elders took his luggage to the motel with all of the other missionaries, so he spent the night there with them and we picked him up there at 4:19 (Dad’s timing) on Wednesday morning.
It is fun to take these missionaries to the airport and get to visit with them a bit. This young elder was going back to Hong Kong. Dad asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and Elder Shek replied that he had learned on his mission that he really enjoyed teaching so he would like to do something where he could teach people something. He also said that with his gift of languages (he is fluent in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin), he would like to work for either the Chinese government or the state department in the U.S. He has dual citizenship. He would do well with either of those choices. As we visited with him the thought came to me that this may be the way that the gospel gets brought to the Chinese people—through natives who are members and do the teaching. Great elder and a fun visit for us. We came home and went back to sleep and then got into the office around 8:20.
I spent the day trying to get ready for the monthly funding of the debit cards and Dad had a district council he went to. We cleaned the office in the evening and went home. While Dad worked on WES, I did the office work that I can on my computer at home.
Thursday Dad had another district council meeting. I spent the day trying to get to the bottom of my in basket.
I was so ready for Friday to come. I spent most of the day working on funding the missionary cards and area funding. I finished up the funding at home.
Saturday we decided to take a short (couple of hours) trip into Alexandria to the George Washington Masonic Temple Memorial. It is quite an impressive building and was very interesting to see the symbols they use, the clothing they wear, and the teachings geared to make the members better people. I had been reading in “Saints” about Brigham Young and Joseph Smith being Freemasons about the time the Relief Society was organized. The book even talks about the similarities. I hadn’t realized that Shriners, Jobs Daughters, the Templar, and Eastern Star were all part of the masons.
Today was ward conference and it was a good meeting. Both Dad and I had a hard time staying awake in Sacrament meeting—maybe we haven’t caught up from our early Wednesday morning.
One of the members in our ward invited us and the other senior couple in our ward for dinner. They asked us if we eat salmon because the husband orders a freezer full of salmon from Alaska each year and they eat it quite often. I am really looking forward to having salmon and not having to cook.
We love you all lots and think of you often.
Sending our love and prayers,
Mom
Are we really beginning the last week of January? In some ways it seems that New Years was months ago instead of weeks and in other ways it’s hard to believe that we are finishing up January.
We had transfers this week and that always makes things exciting. It seems mission life revolves around transfers. It starts off with all of the missionaries going home rotating through the mission office so that they can have their exit interviews. Of course, their companions have to come, so they are waiting in the front office while their companion is in with the President. We love getting to visit with the missionaries and that is why we get distracted and visit with them. BUT that makes for less work getting accomplished. There are always last minute changes or things that need to be done to get ready for the missionaries flying in on Monday evening, so life on Monday got pretty exciting? I had to make sure that all of the returning missionaries had sufficient cash to travel with and that was made a little more challenging because 4 of the 8 missionaries going home were having their debit cards closed on Wednesday (their travel day). When I asked our global card people when on Wednesday that would happen and what we could do, they just said have them draw all of their money out so they would have enough to travel on. Now this transfer was happening at the end of the month and at the end of their money to travel. There was no money to pull out and I would need to put some extra money on their cards. It takes 2-3 business days to get the money on the card; I was notified on Thursday that the cards were being closed; and Monday was a holiday. All of this narrative is to explain the last minute changes of Monday—I had to get cash for all of the missionaries to travel with.
Dad had to arrange for an extra 12 passenger van because we were having 16 missionaries arriving and that would take 2 passenger vans and a luggage van. President didn’t have time to go and sign to be able to rent a van and Dad was not having any luck finding a rental place that would allow someone to drive that hadn’t come in and shown their driver’s license and signed documents. We were finally able to get one reserved at the airport that President could sign for and use. It would necessitate him leaving his car at the airport until he returned the rental.
We also found out last minute that 11 of the 16 missionaries got stranded in Minnesota and would not arrive until 11:30. So, we didn’t need the big van after all. We went to the mission home at 7:15 to help with the picture taking and texting to parents for the missionaries that did arrive on time. One of the elders that arrived on time looks so much like a young Donnie Chase that I do a double take whenever I see him.
Tuesday is the day that the trainers are trained and the missionaries are assigned to their new companions. This is one of the meetings that I enjoy the most. The Mission President is so good to remind the missionaries that their calls came through revelation and that if they don’t already know that they are supposed to be in this mission at this time, they should work on getting that testimony. He also tells them a little of the process of assigning them to their companions. I think this help the missionary to have a stronger testimony of them being in the right place at the right time so that when times get tough they will have a firmer foundation. The first missionary that was to be assigned was standing up by the president and when he told her who her new companion would be. As he said the name, the trainer audibly gasp and went up. Come to find out these two knew each other from before their missions. The greenie had helped do some teaching of the trainer’s parents before either of them came on their missions. The President was unaware of this connection, but the Lord was. There were a couple of times that the trainers stood up just before the Mission President said the name of the trainer. These trainers were in tune enough to know who they would be training.
After this portion of the meeting we went back to the kitchen to finish getting the luncheon ready for the new missionaries and the trainers. Dad has delegated this luncheon to the part time missionary that works in the office with us. She loves to cook and wants this first meal to be a little special for the new missionaries, so she does a very nice job. Often she will cook a couple of days ahead to have everything ready.
We got back to the office around 2:30 and had to switch gears to get some work done there. That is hard for me to do. Missing a lot of the day necessitated me taking bills home to input there. We were supposed to have one of the departing elders spend the night at our apartment, but the office elders took his luggage to the motel with all of the other missionaries, so he spent the night there with them and we picked him up there at 4:19 (Dad’s timing) on Wednesday morning.
It is fun to take these missionaries to the airport and get to visit with them a bit. This young elder was going back to Hong Kong. Dad asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and Elder Shek replied that he had learned on his mission that he really enjoyed teaching so he would like to do something where he could teach people something. He also said that with his gift of languages (he is fluent in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin), he would like to work for either the Chinese government or the state department in the U.S. He has dual citizenship. He would do well with either of those choices. As we visited with him the thought came to me that this may be the way that the gospel gets brought to the Chinese people—through natives who are members and do the teaching. Great elder and a fun visit for us. We came home and went back to sleep and then got into the office around 8:20.
I spent the day trying to get ready for the monthly funding of the debit cards and Dad had a district council he went to. We cleaned the office in the evening and went home. While Dad worked on WES, I did the office work that I can on my computer at home.
Thursday Dad had another district council meeting. I spent the day trying to get to the bottom of my in basket.
I was so ready for Friday to come. I spent most of the day working on funding the missionary cards and area funding. I finished up the funding at home.
Saturday we decided to take a short (couple of hours) trip into Alexandria to the George Washington Masonic Temple Memorial. It is quite an impressive building and was very interesting to see the symbols they use, the clothing they wear, and the teachings geared to make the members better people. I had been reading in “Saints” about Brigham Young and Joseph Smith being Freemasons about the time the Relief Society was organized. The book even talks about the similarities. I hadn’t realized that Shriners, Jobs Daughters, the Templar, and Eastern Star were all part of the masons.
Today was ward conference and it was a good meeting. Both Dad and I had a hard time staying awake in Sacrament meeting—maybe we haven’t caught up from our early Wednesday morning.
One of the members in our ward invited us and the other senior couple in our ward for dinner. They asked us if we eat salmon because the husband orders a freezer full of salmon from Alaska each year and they eat it quite often. I am really looking forward to having salmon and not having to cook.
We love you all lots and think of you often.
Sending our love and prayers,
Mom
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| Altar with Bible, square, and compass. |
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| View from Monument |
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| Bastille key. |
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