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Sister Nelson - Mother's Day

Dear Family,

Happy Mother’s Day to all. Time to recap another week. Sometimes it seems that the week takes a week to go by and sometimes it is gone before it got started. This week was one of those that I worked really hard, but didn’t get much done. Just seemed to be putting out fires all week long. I guess that I have to have these kind of weeks so that when I work hard and get lots done I can appreciate being able to get things done.

Monday we spent the day at the office doing office work and trying to get the meals planned and organized for the mission tour coming up next week. When we came home, I fixed dinner while Garn called our partner to let him know that we had decided to buy him out. We had to notify our lawyer to get him to finish up the papers and we will see if they are accepted. Hopefully they will because they are essentially like the latest offer from our partner. After getting that taken care of we went over to Nancy’s home to invite her to a Relief Society activity on Thursday. I try to call her, but she won’t answer her phone. When I asked if she would like to attend this evening dealing with personal safety, she was very happy to do so. She has a daughter leaving for college next fall and I think that this will be good for her.

I came home and made some apple uglies to take to the office in the morning because one of the senior sisters wanted to know how to make muffins with apples in them. Along with the apples, I add nuts and chocolate chips, so what is not to like?

Tuesday was another day of finding more rent checks that didn’t make it to the apartment. I may find that I will have to personally deliver some of these checks. FedEx won’t deliver to a PO Box, so I will have discover how to get them there.

The discussion with the sister missionaries and David fell through, so we had a free evening. Because we didn’t shop last week end and because we don’t like the crowds of the week ends, we are going to try to do the grocery shopping during the week. Tonight became that time for us. I’ll have to admit it was nicer to be there without so many others.

Wednesday was another day of having the plans for the mission tour changed and changing our needs for the meals change. There is nothing to constant as change. We are so glad to work with people who are willing to serve and change their way of serving on a moment’s notice. After working with an apartment complex all day to determine why the late rent notice, I discovered that it was because of a once a year amenity fee that had not been paid last May. For a year they had held it on their books, saying nothing, but adding a $75 late fee to the bill until this month when they finally decided to collect it. This happened before I got here and I had no idea. Because I finally asked them for a copy of our ledger so I could get the amount entered into the system, I discovered it. They didn’t tell me anything about it as I had been talking with them. When I called at the end of the day to finalize the amount, it was up another $75—you guessed it another late fee for this month. I asked why it hadn’t been on the bill that morning and he said we hadn’t paid the bill by the 5th of the month so it was late. I asked him why if it was late by the 5th and it was late why wasn’t it late this morning since this was the 8th. He said they are sometimes slow getting things posted. I was just grateful that I called back later so that I wouldn’t have this $75 late fee on the bill that would have caused our rent payment not to cover what was owed and cause us to be late again. I did get the payment FedExed as we left for the day.

This evening my ministering sister came for a visit. I am so grateful that this sweet sister has offered to be my ministering sister because our records are not in this ward and we are not assigned any ministering people. She is in the process of emptying out her home in preparation for selling it before she leaves on a mission. I don’t envy her that job at all.

Thursday was our office meeting with the senior couples. One of the senior couples in the mission who are MLS missionaries have done a marvelous job in finding friends to teach. Garn invited them to come and share with us what they do so that we might be able to do a better job finding friends for the missionaries to teach. It was a good meeting and we learned more about this couple that makes me realize just how good the people we work with are.

Then Garn and I went to a district council meeting. The President likes us to visit the district councils to get to know the missionaries better and to show our support. It may also help them in their preparation for the meeting knowing that they will have visitors. Garn also gives a presentation on Remembering and recording these memories. These memories can become our own scriptures when we remember the tender mercies we have had from the Lord. This is always a wonderful opportunity to see these young missionaries in action. They are really wonder young men and women.

This evening I went to the Relief Society Meeting on personal safety and met Nancy there with her two children. I think they really enjoyed the meeting and the ward members are SO good to introduce themselves and welcome her. The bishop’s wife while visiting with her was able to talk about eternal families. Nancy recently lost her husband and this was a comforting thought for her. Again, the people in our ward are wonderful in their fellowshipping.

Friday was another day of paying bills and checking on lost checks. Sister Caplin came about 11 to give us the final schedule for the mission tour and we were able to finalize our preparation plans. It will be enjoyable to be able to participate in this mission tour.

After dinner, we had to stop at the grocery store to get the ingredients for Dorito dip and the chips so we could take them for our picnic with the seniors tomorrow. Then we went home and made the dip and went to bed. We were pretty tired and more than ready for bed. As I was going to bed I got a text with a 2nd notice for rent that was past due. As I checked things out it was from the place that I had FedExed the payment on Wednesday. I checked the tracking number and they received the payment on Thursday morning at 10. Someone isn’t talking to each other at that apartment complex.

Saturday morning I went into the office to see if I could get a hold of someone at the office, but they weren’t in that early. I made sure about the money owed and found that the amount is a little different than what they told me on Wednesday evening. I will have to call on Monday and see what the difference is all about.

We then left for the National Marine Museum where we were meeting 4 other couples to tour the museum. It was a wonderful museum and quite interactive. Little 2 minute movies were shown to give an overview of things, rooms were cooled down to imitate the conditions during the Korean War and heated up to make it like it was in Viet Nam. We will have to go back to get to see more, but we enjoyed what we did get to see.

From here we went on base and had a picnic down by the Potomac River where they had picnic tables under trees where we could watch the sail boats on the water.

The NCIF building was supposed to be just down the road, but our GPS didn’t take us to a place that we would be allowed to see. We ended up at a place that required a level 3 security clearance. The drive was pretty so was not a total loss. From here we drove home to change clothes for a baptism, get gas, and drive back down to a baptism. We always enjoy being at the baptisms and seeing the joy in these people’s faces as they are baptized.

It is green here in Virginia because there is a lot of rain and we got to drive home in some pretty heavy rain. We were just glad that it was daylight. We have tried to drive in the pouring rain at night (with no street lights) and it is a bit scary. After our long day, we both came home ready to do nothing, SO we finished watching the missionary safety videos. We were supposed to have all the videos watched by next Wednesday, so we have now completed all of them.

We have had a good day today. Church was good and the talks were well done. Our Relief Society lesson was also good with many comments that were very uplifting. It has been a good day.

Love you lots,
Mom

#1 Helicopter flown in Viet Nam War
#2 Famous photo of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima
#3 The 2nd or large flag flown on Iwo Jima. It flew for a month thus the tattered right side
#4 Garn outside the National Museum Marines - notice the slant of the roof represents the slant of the flag being raised.




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