Dear Family,
Well, this was transfer week and that always makes life interesting. Monday I spent the day getting all of the rent checks printed and mailed. Some of them have changed where they want the checks delivered and I haven’t been able to get them changed in IMOS yet. It is not because I haven’t tried, but I didn’t have time to worry about it this month, so I printed the checks and then typed envelopes manually with the address that needed to be on the checks. We also had missionaries coming into the office to get their exit interviews and that is fun to visit with them. These are missionaries that we have known for almost a year and it is getting harder and harder to see them go home with each transfer. It is, pretty amazing, to compare their pictures of when they came with the people they have become—both physically and spiritually. We are so impressed with the missionaries here.
Dad had to leave to go get a 15-passenger van to help pick up the missionaries from the airport and I drove him over to the enterprise place to get it. I then came back to the office to wrap up a few things, then I went to drop off the fed ex rent checks and the USPS rent checks. After that I went home to get a parking permit for the 15-passenger van at our complex so it wouldn’t get towed. That can be really expensive for vehicles that large—upwards of $250. After I got the permit, I went to Café Rio to pick up the food for the arriving missionaries’ dinner and then went to the mission home. We got everything all set up and ready for missionaries about the time the first load of missionaries arrived. President then started this round of interviews and we started the feeding of the missionaries. It is so much fun to meet these new missionaries and get to know them a little better. We have been studying their pictures/names so that we can maybe recognize them, but the sisters wear their hair differently than in the picture or cut it. They look lots different. The elders all dressed in suits and ties all look alike, so that is always challenging for me to remember names. After eating and being interviewed and pictures taken with the mission president and his wife, we sent the first van load of missionaries to the hotel with the AP’s. We got to visit with the others while they took turns getting their interviews and then Dad drove the last set of missionaries off to the hotel and I drove home. Since we had a parking permit for the van at our apartment, I didn’t have to pick him up at the mission office—he could part the van at our place. We were taking the last load to the hotel around 9:00 which is so much better than it used to be. We used to be getting them at the mission home at that time from delayed flights or missed connections. Dad arranged to have them take direct flights and get in about 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday morning we got up and returned the van, then went into the office to get the rest of the supplies in the car so I could leave for Train the Trainer. This is the meeting (starting at 9:30) where the new missionaries get their companions. The new missionaries go to a separate meeting with the APs and Sister Caplin and are trained for an hour while the trainers are trained on what they need to do to be good trainers. Then at 10:30 they all come together. We usually get their around 9 am and get the tables all set and ready. We also get the lunch ready during that first hour. Then when they all are together, we like to go in and see who gets assigned to whom. President usually shares how the decisions are made in general. This time he shared that as he picked up the folder of one of the new missionaries and looked at the name there beside that name was the name of the missionary who would be the trainer. Another folder that he picked up, he saw the picture of the trainer for this missionary and the third one of told us about was when he looked at the name of the new missionary, the name of the trainer appeared below the new missionary’s name. He wants them to know that the Lord is aware of each missionary and He is in the details. When things get tough, they will know they are where they are supposed to be. After all of the missionaries are assigned the senior couples leave to go finish getting the lunch on the serving tables and then wait for the last part of the meeting to end. We get to visit with the missionaries as they come through the lines to get their food.
The other missionaries who are just getting new companions come after the luncheon and get their new companion, mail, and supplies and then head back to their apartments. We leave to go back to the office and start getting all of the missionaries in the right houses, with the right phones, with the right form of transportation, etc. Later that night we got a call from the office elders to see if we could take them to the mission home so they could take all of the departing missionaries’ luggage to the hotel. The U-haul only had two seats in it and they had three office elders for a few more days. We went to the mission office, picked them up and went to the mission home. They would have one of the elders ride with the senior couple who were taking the departing elders to the hotel. The senior couple would then pick up their car left at the stake center earlier in the day and drive both the van and their car back to the mission office. That allowed one of the office elders to ride with the senior elder. What a confusing driving schedule. All I knew was that we didn’t have to take one of the elders to the hotel and then bring him back to the office to meet up with his other two companions.
Wednesday, our departing missionaries left and Dad assigned one of the office couples to help take them back. It is so much fun to see these good missionaries finishing up their missions with honor.
I was trying to get utility bills paid and Dad was working on phones. For some reason we had missionaries in and out of the office all day. It was probably the phones that weren’t working that was causing the visits. We finally gave up around 5:30 and went home. I figured that I had better see if I could get the credit cards reconciled in the quiet of our apartment so worked on them for an hour or so.
Thursday was a quieter day after we had our office meeting. President Caplin had asked Dad and me to meet with the Cristi’s to get to know them better and make some recommendations of where we thought they would serve well. Since we had missed our Tuesday office district meeting, Dad decided to have the Cristi’s come to our meeting and meet as many of the senior missionaries who wanted to come. Dad had them introduce themselves to us and we introduced ourselves to them. When we were through with the introductions, we had our meeting and got our schedules aligned. You know how Dad is with docketing. After the meeting, Dad and I went with the Cristi’s into the president’s office and talked to them about what they liked to do. Now Dad will need to make recommendations to the president. More good people to work with.
Friday we went into the office and worked until 10:30 when we went to the church to be with the sisters while they taught a single man. We had gone with the sisters back in April to teach this same man at his home. At that time he kind of controlled the discussion and just had more questions than could be answered. He was always very polite, but liked to let us know how much he knew about the Bible instead of listening. I was a little nervous about going because I wasn’t sure he was really interested. This time, however, the sisters were well aware of his inclination to get distracted by his questions. So this time, they picked one of his questions and tried really hard to keep him focused on just one thing until they felt like he had listened and understood what they were teaching. I think these sisters, especially one of them, was a little more confident and wasn’t afraid to say, “that is a good question, let’s finish up with this one and then we can move on to that one. They would even write down the question, so he knew they wouldn’t forget. They also didn’t let the discussion go as long. They are encouraged to keep the lessons to 20-30 minutes, so that they aren’t a burden to the person being taught. It is like a ministering brother/sister coming and staying hours at a time. We usually don’t have time for that lengthy of a time commitment. Anyway the lesson went a lot better than I had expected and it was really fun to be there and watch and feel of the young missionaries testimonies and teaching abilities.
Back at the office I had to work on funding the missionaries for the 2nd half of the month. I’m not too sure that I like this extra funding every month.
We went home around 6:30 and then had dinner and I was ready for bed by 8. However, we had teaching materials for the Spanish sisters to pick up. While we were waiting for the sisters, Dad got a phone call from President Caplin asking if we could take a missionary to the airport tomorrow morning. That added a trip to our Saturday morning schedule. I did, however, get to bed by 9:30 and I was looking forward to a full 8 hours of sleep tonight.
We didn’t even get moving until 7. We got our scriptures and then Dad went on a walk and I got ready. We had to go pick up the missionary and get him to the airport to make a 12 o’clock flight. We arrived about 10:40 and by the time Dad got him checked in and through security we had enough time to go to the only baptism of the day, but we were going to be a little late. The chapel is the one that is right on the Potomac River and from the Relief Society room/Baptismal room you can look out the windows and see the deep blue river bordered by the green trees on the opposite hillside. It was a man who had been investigating the church for 10 years and finally decided to get baptized. It will be wonderful to have their family united in the gospel.
From the baptism 4 of the senior couples went to lunch at our “friend’s” restaurant. We hadn’t seen him this past week and wanted to check up on him, so went to see him at work. He always tries to make it a special experience for us, so ends up giving us extra appetizers and ice cream desserts along with dry ice in water making the fog go all over. This time he brought each of the ladies a red rose. He has a long way to go, but he is trying and we are praying that he can make it.
We had invited McKay’s sister and her husband to dinner this evening, so we needed to get our grocery shopping done. We hadn’t planned on the lunch detour when we planned our day earlier in the week. When we got to the grocery store, we split up with each of us taking a part of the shopping list and quickly got our weekly shopping done in less than 30 minutes. Dad was so good to help fix dinner and we were ready for Ashley and Jas when they got here. We had a wonderful visit with them.
We had another full day today. Church was good. We came home and talked with a couple of you kids and got ready to go to the baptism of Sarah Peart. She is the daughter of Rachael Fredrickson and Jonathon Peart who lived in our ward in Santa Clara 4 or so years ago. Her parents, Jim and Susan Fredrickson, were visiting so we were able to visit with them and catch up on their lives. What a little world this is. After visiting and helping put chairs away, we came home and Dad got ready for Mission Presidency Meeting. I got to stay home and work on my letter.
Well, that about does it for another week. We hope that next week will be as much fun as this week has been.
Love you all,
Mom
Well, this was transfer week and that always makes life interesting. Monday I spent the day getting all of the rent checks printed and mailed. Some of them have changed where they want the checks delivered and I haven’t been able to get them changed in IMOS yet. It is not because I haven’t tried, but I didn’t have time to worry about it this month, so I printed the checks and then typed envelopes manually with the address that needed to be on the checks. We also had missionaries coming into the office to get their exit interviews and that is fun to visit with them. These are missionaries that we have known for almost a year and it is getting harder and harder to see them go home with each transfer. It is, pretty amazing, to compare their pictures of when they came with the people they have become—both physically and spiritually. We are so impressed with the missionaries here.
Dad had to leave to go get a 15-passenger van to help pick up the missionaries from the airport and I drove him over to the enterprise place to get it. I then came back to the office to wrap up a few things, then I went to drop off the fed ex rent checks and the USPS rent checks. After that I went home to get a parking permit for the 15-passenger van at our complex so it wouldn’t get towed. That can be really expensive for vehicles that large—upwards of $250. After I got the permit, I went to Café Rio to pick up the food for the arriving missionaries’ dinner and then went to the mission home. We got everything all set up and ready for missionaries about the time the first load of missionaries arrived. President then started this round of interviews and we started the feeding of the missionaries. It is so much fun to meet these new missionaries and get to know them a little better. We have been studying their pictures/names so that we can maybe recognize them, but the sisters wear their hair differently than in the picture or cut it. They look lots different. The elders all dressed in suits and ties all look alike, so that is always challenging for me to remember names. After eating and being interviewed and pictures taken with the mission president and his wife, we sent the first van load of missionaries to the hotel with the AP’s. We got to visit with the others while they took turns getting their interviews and then Dad drove the last set of missionaries off to the hotel and I drove home. Since we had a parking permit for the van at our apartment, I didn’t have to pick him up at the mission office—he could part the van at our place. We were taking the last load to the hotel around 9:00 which is so much better than it used to be. We used to be getting them at the mission home at that time from delayed flights or missed connections. Dad arranged to have them take direct flights and get in about 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday morning we got up and returned the van, then went into the office to get the rest of the supplies in the car so I could leave for Train the Trainer. This is the meeting (starting at 9:30) where the new missionaries get their companions. The new missionaries go to a separate meeting with the APs and Sister Caplin and are trained for an hour while the trainers are trained on what they need to do to be good trainers. Then at 10:30 they all come together. We usually get their around 9 am and get the tables all set and ready. We also get the lunch ready during that first hour. Then when they all are together, we like to go in and see who gets assigned to whom. President usually shares how the decisions are made in general. This time he shared that as he picked up the folder of one of the new missionaries and looked at the name there beside that name was the name of the missionary who would be the trainer. Another folder that he picked up, he saw the picture of the trainer for this missionary and the third one of told us about was when he looked at the name of the new missionary, the name of the trainer appeared below the new missionary’s name. He wants them to know that the Lord is aware of each missionary and He is in the details. When things get tough, they will know they are where they are supposed to be. After all of the missionaries are assigned the senior couples leave to go finish getting the lunch on the serving tables and then wait for the last part of the meeting to end. We get to visit with the missionaries as they come through the lines to get their food.
The other missionaries who are just getting new companions come after the luncheon and get their new companion, mail, and supplies and then head back to their apartments. We leave to go back to the office and start getting all of the missionaries in the right houses, with the right phones, with the right form of transportation, etc. Later that night we got a call from the office elders to see if we could take them to the mission home so they could take all of the departing missionaries’ luggage to the hotel. The U-haul only had two seats in it and they had three office elders for a few more days. We went to the mission office, picked them up and went to the mission home. They would have one of the elders ride with the senior couple who were taking the departing elders to the hotel. The senior couple would then pick up their car left at the stake center earlier in the day and drive both the van and their car back to the mission office. That allowed one of the office elders to ride with the senior elder. What a confusing driving schedule. All I knew was that we didn’t have to take one of the elders to the hotel and then bring him back to the office to meet up with his other two companions.
Wednesday, our departing missionaries left and Dad assigned one of the office couples to help take them back. It is so much fun to see these good missionaries finishing up their missions with honor.
I was trying to get utility bills paid and Dad was working on phones. For some reason we had missionaries in and out of the office all day. It was probably the phones that weren’t working that was causing the visits. We finally gave up around 5:30 and went home. I figured that I had better see if I could get the credit cards reconciled in the quiet of our apartment so worked on them for an hour or so.
Thursday was a quieter day after we had our office meeting. President Caplin had asked Dad and me to meet with the Cristi’s to get to know them better and make some recommendations of where we thought they would serve well. Since we had missed our Tuesday office district meeting, Dad decided to have the Cristi’s come to our meeting and meet as many of the senior missionaries who wanted to come. Dad had them introduce themselves to us and we introduced ourselves to them. When we were through with the introductions, we had our meeting and got our schedules aligned. You know how Dad is with docketing. After the meeting, Dad and I went with the Cristi’s into the president’s office and talked to them about what they liked to do. Now Dad will need to make recommendations to the president. More good people to work with.
Friday we went into the office and worked until 10:30 when we went to the church to be with the sisters while they taught a single man. We had gone with the sisters back in April to teach this same man at his home. At that time he kind of controlled the discussion and just had more questions than could be answered. He was always very polite, but liked to let us know how much he knew about the Bible instead of listening. I was a little nervous about going because I wasn’t sure he was really interested. This time, however, the sisters were well aware of his inclination to get distracted by his questions. So this time, they picked one of his questions and tried really hard to keep him focused on just one thing until they felt like he had listened and understood what they were teaching. I think these sisters, especially one of them, was a little more confident and wasn’t afraid to say, “that is a good question, let’s finish up with this one and then we can move on to that one. They would even write down the question, so he knew they wouldn’t forget. They also didn’t let the discussion go as long. They are encouraged to keep the lessons to 20-30 minutes, so that they aren’t a burden to the person being taught. It is like a ministering brother/sister coming and staying hours at a time. We usually don’t have time for that lengthy of a time commitment. Anyway the lesson went a lot better than I had expected and it was really fun to be there and watch and feel of the young missionaries testimonies and teaching abilities.
Back at the office I had to work on funding the missionaries for the 2nd half of the month. I’m not too sure that I like this extra funding every month.
We went home around 6:30 and then had dinner and I was ready for bed by 8. However, we had teaching materials for the Spanish sisters to pick up. While we were waiting for the sisters, Dad got a phone call from President Caplin asking if we could take a missionary to the airport tomorrow morning. That added a trip to our Saturday morning schedule. I did, however, get to bed by 9:30 and I was looking forward to a full 8 hours of sleep tonight.
We didn’t even get moving until 7. We got our scriptures and then Dad went on a walk and I got ready. We had to go pick up the missionary and get him to the airport to make a 12 o’clock flight. We arrived about 10:40 and by the time Dad got him checked in and through security we had enough time to go to the only baptism of the day, but we were going to be a little late. The chapel is the one that is right on the Potomac River and from the Relief Society room/Baptismal room you can look out the windows and see the deep blue river bordered by the green trees on the opposite hillside. It was a man who had been investigating the church for 10 years and finally decided to get baptized. It will be wonderful to have their family united in the gospel.
From the baptism 4 of the senior couples went to lunch at our “friend’s” restaurant. We hadn’t seen him this past week and wanted to check up on him, so went to see him at work. He always tries to make it a special experience for us, so ends up giving us extra appetizers and ice cream desserts along with dry ice in water making the fog go all over. This time he brought each of the ladies a red rose. He has a long way to go, but he is trying and we are praying that he can make it.
We had invited McKay’s sister and her husband to dinner this evening, so we needed to get our grocery shopping done. We hadn’t planned on the lunch detour when we planned our day earlier in the week. When we got to the grocery store, we split up with each of us taking a part of the shopping list and quickly got our weekly shopping done in less than 30 minutes. Dad was so good to help fix dinner and we were ready for Ashley and Jas when they got here. We had a wonderful visit with them.
We had another full day today. Church was good. We came home and talked with a couple of you kids and got ready to go to the baptism of Sarah Peart. She is the daughter of Rachael Fredrickson and Jonathon Peart who lived in our ward in Santa Clara 4 or so years ago. Her parents, Jim and Susan Fredrickson, were visiting so we were able to visit with them and catch up on their lives. What a little world this is. After visiting and helping put chairs away, we came home and Dad got ready for Mission Presidency Meeting. I got to stay home and work on my letter.
Well, that about does it for another week. We hope that next week will be as much fun as this week has been.
Love you all,
Mom
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