Dear Family,
We send our love and support to Amanda and Lance and family. We were sorry to hear of Amanda’s grandmother Kenney on Saturday. She will be happier being with her eternal companion, but she will still me missed a great deal by her family. Know that we love you and are praying for you.
It seems that we stay pretty busy, but looking back over the week it’s hard to figure out what took up so much of the time.
We got to the office on Monday a little earlier than usual and that gave me a little bit of quiet time to concentrate. Then I spent the entire day trying to get some of the vendors who had changed addresses or had sold their properties to someone else approved and updated. I do the vendor approval so rarely that I still am not comfortable with the process of getting them set up and approved and then set up for payments in IMOS. I also had more calls from the missionaries about when they would be funded than I have had since I got here combined. They would ask if they were going to get their money on the 29th. I kept wondering why they thought this month would be different—payments always come on the 1st. Then I realized it was P-day and they wanted to do their grocery shopping, but were without funds. As the calls kept coming in, I finally figured out the problem—there were 5 P-days in July and they had not planned on having money for 5 grocery trips. They usually only have 4. Also, this generation of people eat out more often than I have ever done. They are encouraged to be out doing missionary work as much as possible, so they don’t like to go back to their apartments for lunch and grab some fast food instead. That doesn’t help the food budget. It will be interesting to see how the new funding will work. I wonder if they will get caught more often with an extra P-day because of getting half the monthly allotment on the 1st and half on the 16th.
Our first Persian Elder arrived in the mission today and it will be fun to get to meet him tomorrow at the Return and Report meeting. Dad went to deliver the mail to the zone we are assigned. There were no interviews or meetings where we could take the mail. President Caplin wants us to get the mail out to the missionaries once a week, so if there are no gatherings we have to get it to the zone leaders. Dad went by himself so that I could see if I could get kind of caught up in the office. It helped, but I ended up taking stuff home to work on after dinner. Actually, it is nice to have access to IMOS so that I can get some things done that I don’t need to make phone calls for or use the spreadsheets that are only on my computer at the office. Anyway, if I can get payments scheduled and reports ready, then that gives me a jump start on the upcoming day.
Tuesday we went into the office to see how much we could get done before going to the Return and Report location to get the luncheon ready. The recipe that we used for the sloppy joes was supposed to feed 100, so we made ¾ of the recipe. When we got it all together, we were a little concerned that there would be enough, so I went with one of office sisters to Coscto to buy some potato salad to go with the sloppy joes. We were able to get all of the missionaries fed and ready to back to the rest of their training. We got to meet the new Elder and see his unreadable name badge. His companions also had gotten new name badges (they also had English names on their badge) with the Persian writing.
Then it was back to the office to see what we could finish up. Dad is trying to get a couple of large bids done and turned for WES and also trying to find a broker to see about selling WES.
Derek was coming to visit us this evening, but his plane was delayed in Florida for two hours because of a thunderstorm. Now doesn’t that sound like fun to get to sit in an airplane on the ground waiting for the storm to pass through so you could get going! We finally met up with him at his hotel room in Old Town Alexandria and had a wonderful visit with him. We are glad that he has business up this way.
Wednesday I started out the day with a clogged ear. It is kind of like when you drive up into the mountains and your ears get stopped up and you just need to get them popped. But I couldn’t get my to open up. If I held my ear just right, I could get some sound to go through, but for the most part my ear was just stopped up and sometimes even affected my balance. We started the day out by inspecting a couple of apartments before going into the office. This is the first time that we have done this and we weren’t quite sure what we were doing. Actually, it was interesting that both apartments had trios in them. The first apartment were sisters and we could tell that they knew we were coming because although the apartments are pretty sparse on furnishings, it was very neat and clean. They had a little mold in the shower, but it looked like it had gone into the calking and they couldn’t get it out. Hopefully the management can get the tub recaulked. We went next to the elders place and they were in a brand new trio and things were a little unsettled. We can overlook that, but it was their shower that gave us cause for concern. They had forgotten we were coming and had to leave before we got there to go to a district council meeting. Hopefully, they would have done some cleaning in the shower area if they had remembered. Dad is thinking that maybe the elders need a cleaning check more often than once a transfer.
After dinner, we took the mail over to the Mission Home to load it into the President’s car so he could take the mail to interviews. That way the people in charge of that zone don’t have to deliver mail this week. It was fun to visit for a minute and then we were on our way. When we got home, we discovered the vacuum that was supposed to have been left with the mail. Boy, were we glad that we live so close to the mission home! We took it and the President’s car was unlocked, so Dad put the vacuum in the car and we called to let them know we had been in their car putting in the vacuum.
Thursday and Friday were just regular work days and I spent my time making sure that rent checks not delivered were voided and replaced. Friday morning we went and picked up our car from the repair shop and are hoping that this time the air conditioner is fixed and works. It was our turn to clean the office and then we went home to rest and relax.
Saturday Dad went on a hike down in the woods below our apartment and I did laundry and menu planning. We had had one of the sister companionships text us telling us of their baptism on Saturday at 6:30 and asking us if we would come. How can we resist such an invitation? Since it was at 6:30 pm we needed to get our chores done earlier in the day, so after breakfast we headed out to do our grocery shopping. I did a little office work in between folding clothes and then took a quick trip to a nearby fabric store to look for some ideas for baptismal quilts.
We ate a hurried dinner because we would get back too late to eat after the baptism. The fellow who was being baptized was originally from Jordan and was raised a Christian. His family had lived in Jordan for three generations and had immigrated from Armenia because of persecution from non-Christians. Amer said that he was persecuted in Jordan because they were the minority. When he went to high school he was put into a catholic school with uniforms. As he would walk home from school each he would be taunted by the non-Christian majority youth. These taunts turned into fights and Amer said that he was in a fight every day after school in high school. One day when he had had enough, he went to his grandfather and said, “I have had it.” His grandfather replied that for generations their family had stayed fast to their beliefs even against constant persecution and that he needed to keep firm to their beliefs. He needed to be able to tell his children and grandchildren what they believed and to teach them about Christ. So Amer decided to continue on. After graduation, he went into the service and climbed up through the ranks to captain. He was the only captain in the army and the persecution persisted. On one occasion the persecution became life threatening and he decided to flee Jordan and come to America. Life for him has been better here, but he didn’t feel full inside. He was raised that it didn’t matter which denomination he went to, just that he was taught of Christ. He kept looking for a Church that would fill his soul. He would do some service and feel good in side for a while, but that feeling would go. He wanted to find that feeling and have it stay with him. This last year he had some major trials hit him—his mother died and he ended up with pneumonia. He began to wonder if God was aware of him and was teetering between going wild or continuing looking. On June 30th he went to pick one of his son’s from a friend’s home. As he was backing out of the driveway, he saw some “girls” with glowing countenances (he didn’t know they were sisters at this time) and they were waving at him. He wondered if he knew them or if there was something wrong. He decided to roll down the window to see what they wanted. They gave him a “door approach” there at his car door and left him with a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets. He went home and read some of the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets and felt a good feeling. Well, from that point on he was taught twice a week and was baptized August 3rd. He says he has come to know why the sisters faces shown and he has learned how to have the good feeling his soul and how to keep it. The two sisters spoke, one on the Holy Ghost and the other on baptism. I could tell as they talked how much they had come to love teaching Amer. He was baptized by a brother in the ward who is a linguist and had spent the previous week in Jordan on business. While he was there he had someone write the baptismal prayer in Arabic so that he could say the prayer once in English and once in Arabic (Amer’s native tongue). That was a first for us to hear the baptismal prayer in Arabic.
After the baptism, President Caplin was speaking and told Amer that he was a pioneer for his family and that he had the responsibility to teach his children and grandchildren of the gospel of Christ. He told him that he was persecuted as was Joseph Smith for the Savior’s sake. If Amer would stay fast to the gospel he could be responsible for many of his culture to come to gospel. We are certainly seeing many of scattered Israel being gathered here in norther Virginia.
When visiting with the sisters after the baptism we asked them why they went up to the car and Sister Smith said that she tries to talk to everyone in a car. This particular, however, she felt drawn towards. Heavenly Father is aware of each of us and knows the timing we need for different events in our lives. He knows us individually. What a wonderful baptism and what a wonder reminder of Heavenly Father’s love for His children.
Sunday was a very good day. Fast and Testimony meeting was good and there was a good spirit there. Our Sunday School class was wonderful. Both Dad and I went away feeling “uplifted and edified” by the comments made by the members of the class and with a greater determination to continue in our gospel study. I think that this is what the Brethren had in mind when they changed up the schedule for our 2nd hour of Sunday meetings. It was fun to visit with family this afternoon and catch up on your lives a little. We really do love and admire you. Keep up the good work.
Love you lots,
Mom
We send our love and support to Amanda and Lance and family. We were sorry to hear of Amanda’s grandmother Kenney on Saturday. She will be happier being with her eternal companion, but she will still me missed a great deal by her family. Know that we love you and are praying for you.
It seems that we stay pretty busy, but looking back over the week it’s hard to figure out what took up so much of the time.
We got to the office on Monday a little earlier than usual and that gave me a little bit of quiet time to concentrate. Then I spent the entire day trying to get some of the vendors who had changed addresses or had sold their properties to someone else approved and updated. I do the vendor approval so rarely that I still am not comfortable with the process of getting them set up and approved and then set up for payments in IMOS. I also had more calls from the missionaries about when they would be funded than I have had since I got here combined. They would ask if they were going to get their money on the 29th. I kept wondering why they thought this month would be different—payments always come on the 1st. Then I realized it was P-day and they wanted to do their grocery shopping, but were without funds. As the calls kept coming in, I finally figured out the problem—there were 5 P-days in July and they had not planned on having money for 5 grocery trips. They usually only have 4. Also, this generation of people eat out more often than I have ever done. They are encouraged to be out doing missionary work as much as possible, so they don’t like to go back to their apartments for lunch and grab some fast food instead. That doesn’t help the food budget. It will be interesting to see how the new funding will work. I wonder if they will get caught more often with an extra P-day because of getting half the monthly allotment on the 1st and half on the 16th.
Our first Persian Elder arrived in the mission today and it will be fun to get to meet him tomorrow at the Return and Report meeting. Dad went to deliver the mail to the zone we are assigned. There were no interviews or meetings where we could take the mail. President Caplin wants us to get the mail out to the missionaries once a week, so if there are no gatherings we have to get it to the zone leaders. Dad went by himself so that I could see if I could get kind of caught up in the office. It helped, but I ended up taking stuff home to work on after dinner. Actually, it is nice to have access to IMOS so that I can get some things done that I don’t need to make phone calls for or use the spreadsheets that are only on my computer at the office. Anyway, if I can get payments scheduled and reports ready, then that gives me a jump start on the upcoming day.
Tuesday we went into the office to see how much we could get done before going to the Return and Report location to get the luncheon ready. The recipe that we used for the sloppy joes was supposed to feed 100, so we made ¾ of the recipe. When we got it all together, we were a little concerned that there would be enough, so I went with one of office sisters to Coscto to buy some potato salad to go with the sloppy joes. We were able to get all of the missionaries fed and ready to back to the rest of their training. We got to meet the new Elder and see his unreadable name badge. His companions also had gotten new name badges (they also had English names on their badge) with the Persian writing.
Then it was back to the office to see what we could finish up. Dad is trying to get a couple of large bids done and turned for WES and also trying to find a broker to see about selling WES.
Derek was coming to visit us this evening, but his plane was delayed in Florida for two hours because of a thunderstorm. Now doesn’t that sound like fun to get to sit in an airplane on the ground waiting for the storm to pass through so you could get going! We finally met up with him at his hotel room in Old Town Alexandria and had a wonderful visit with him. We are glad that he has business up this way.
Wednesday I started out the day with a clogged ear. It is kind of like when you drive up into the mountains and your ears get stopped up and you just need to get them popped. But I couldn’t get my to open up. If I held my ear just right, I could get some sound to go through, but for the most part my ear was just stopped up and sometimes even affected my balance. We started the day out by inspecting a couple of apartments before going into the office. This is the first time that we have done this and we weren’t quite sure what we were doing. Actually, it was interesting that both apartments had trios in them. The first apartment were sisters and we could tell that they knew we were coming because although the apartments are pretty sparse on furnishings, it was very neat and clean. They had a little mold in the shower, but it looked like it had gone into the calking and they couldn’t get it out. Hopefully the management can get the tub recaulked. We went next to the elders place and they were in a brand new trio and things were a little unsettled. We can overlook that, but it was their shower that gave us cause for concern. They had forgotten we were coming and had to leave before we got there to go to a district council meeting. Hopefully, they would have done some cleaning in the shower area if they had remembered. Dad is thinking that maybe the elders need a cleaning check more often than once a transfer.
After dinner, we took the mail over to the Mission Home to load it into the President’s car so he could take the mail to interviews. That way the people in charge of that zone don’t have to deliver mail this week. It was fun to visit for a minute and then we were on our way. When we got home, we discovered the vacuum that was supposed to have been left with the mail. Boy, were we glad that we live so close to the mission home! We took it and the President’s car was unlocked, so Dad put the vacuum in the car and we called to let them know we had been in their car putting in the vacuum.
Thursday and Friday were just regular work days and I spent my time making sure that rent checks not delivered were voided and replaced. Friday morning we went and picked up our car from the repair shop and are hoping that this time the air conditioner is fixed and works. It was our turn to clean the office and then we went home to rest and relax.
Saturday Dad went on a hike down in the woods below our apartment and I did laundry and menu planning. We had had one of the sister companionships text us telling us of their baptism on Saturday at 6:30 and asking us if we would come. How can we resist such an invitation? Since it was at 6:30 pm we needed to get our chores done earlier in the day, so after breakfast we headed out to do our grocery shopping. I did a little office work in between folding clothes and then took a quick trip to a nearby fabric store to look for some ideas for baptismal quilts.
We ate a hurried dinner because we would get back too late to eat after the baptism. The fellow who was being baptized was originally from Jordan and was raised a Christian. His family had lived in Jordan for three generations and had immigrated from Armenia because of persecution from non-Christians. Amer said that he was persecuted in Jordan because they were the minority. When he went to high school he was put into a catholic school with uniforms. As he would walk home from school each he would be taunted by the non-Christian majority youth. These taunts turned into fights and Amer said that he was in a fight every day after school in high school. One day when he had had enough, he went to his grandfather and said, “I have had it.” His grandfather replied that for generations their family had stayed fast to their beliefs even against constant persecution and that he needed to keep firm to their beliefs. He needed to be able to tell his children and grandchildren what they believed and to teach them about Christ. So Amer decided to continue on. After graduation, he went into the service and climbed up through the ranks to captain. He was the only captain in the army and the persecution persisted. On one occasion the persecution became life threatening and he decided to flee Jordan and come to America. Life for him has been better here, but he didn’t feel full inside. He was raised that it didn’t matter which denomination he went to, just that he was taught of Christ. He kept looking for a Church that would fill his soul. He would do some service and feel good in side for a while, but that feeling would go. He wanted to find that feeling and have it stay with him. This last year he had some major trials hit him—his mother died and he ended up with pneumonia. He began to wonder if God was aware of him and was teetering between going wild or continuing looking. On June 30th he went to pick one of his son’s from a friend’s home. As he was backing out of the driveway, he saw some “girls” with glowing countenances (he didn’t know they were sisters at this time) and they were waving at him. He wondered if he knew them or if there was something wrong. He decided to roll down the window to see what they wanted. They gave him a “door approach” there at his car door and left him with a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets. He went home and read some of the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets and felt a good feeling. Well, from that point on he was taught twice a week and was baptized August 3rd. He says he has come to know why the sisters faces shown and he has learned how to have the good feeling his soul and how to keep it. The two sisters spoke, one on the Holy Ghost and the other on baptism. I could tell as they talked how much they had come to love teaching Amer. He was baptized by a brother in the ward who is a linguist and had spent the previous week in Jordan on business. While he was there he had someone write the baptismal prayer in Arabic so that he could say the prayer once in English and once in Arabic (Amer’s native tongue). That was a first for us to hear the baptismal prayer in Arabic.
After the baptism, President Caplin was speaking and told Amer that he was a pioneer for his family and that he had the responsibility to teach his children and grandchildren of the gospel of Christ. He told him that he was persecuted as was Joseph Smith for the Savior’s sake. If Amer would stay fast to the gospel he could be responsible for many of his culture to come to gospel. We are certainly seeing many of scattered Israel being gathered here in norther Virginia.
When visiting with the sisters after the baptism we asked them why they went up to the car and Sister Smith said that she tries to talk to everyone in a car. This particular, however, she felt drawn towards. Heavenly Father is aware of each of us and knows the timing we need for different events in our lives. He knows us individually. What a wonderful baptism and what a wonder reminder of Heavenly Father’s love for His children.
Sunday was a very good day. Fast and Testimony meeting was good and there was a good spirit there. Our Sunday School class was wonderful. Both Dad and I went away feeling “uplifted and edified” by the comments made by the members of the class and with a greater determination to continue in our gospel study. I think that this is what the Brethren had in mind when they changed up the schedule for our 2nd hour of Sunday meetings. It was fun to visit with family this afternoon and catch up on your lives a little. We really do love and admire you. Keep up the good work.
Love you lots,
Mom
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