Dear Family,
Happy Birthday Bryon!!
We were talking about this past week and both of us felt as if last Monday was at least 2-3 weeks ago. This has been a busy transfer week. Monday started out with interviews in the office. Because we love these young people so much it is very tempting to stop our work and visit with them. We sometimes have to help them get their “My Life Plan” and other documents printed up for their interviews because they don’t have access to printers and the President likes to have the documents readable. We love doing that, but we don’t get other things done. The most fun things win out. We also have to make sure that our “fruit snacks” jars are filled because they love these and are jars empty out pretty fast.
The van rental place where we usually get the van to transport missionaries from the airport and then on to the hotel only had 15-passenger vans available. Since Salt Lake says that we can only rent 12-passenger vans, Dad had to look else where to find a van. He was able to do that but instead of a 7-10 drive to the rental place, it was 30-40 minutes. Then when we got there we found that it had seats for 12, but the body of the van was a 15-passenger van. My personal opinion was that the Church didn’t want the larger body van because it is harder to drive and maneuver—they weren’t so concerned with the seating capacity. We will have to arrange for a van earlier in the transfer cycle and hopefully get a van that is more in compliance, but we did try. We got back to the office in time for Dad to do a couple of things and then leave for the airport. Shortly afterwards I left to pick up the dinner for the incoming missionaries. We get Café Rio and it is on the way to the mission home and we save a $50 delivery fee if we pick it up.
I got there in time for us to get it all set up and ready to go in time for the first batch of missionaries to arrive. President arrived with 5 of our 27 new missionaries. In that arrival was a sister that was returning to the mission. I didn’t know if she would remember me, but I was SO thrilled she was returning and that she was doing so well. She had written President Caplin every week while she was at home and had spent time working in the temple as well as attending a Spanish ward to keep up her Spanish. When she came in the door and I saw her we just hugged each other. What a joy it is to see the return of souls. The AP’s came with 10 more missionaries Dad came later with 9 missionaries and the Spanish AP’s came with the last 2 coming in this wave of missionaries. Our last missionary was to arrive at 11:30 from the Philippines and a senior couple were picking her up and keeping her at their home. We got the 26 fed, pictures taken with the President and Sister Caplin and texts sent to the parents in between their interviews before leaving to take them to the hotel. While waiting, they fill out information and we get all of the information for the MSF (money) cards taken care of and I find out how many were not issued a card. Then I have to get them ordered and the mean time find out who the companion is going to be so I can put money on the companion’s card. With the number being on the large size, the interviews take a little longer (we take the last load to the hotel) so we were a little later than usual getting off to the hotel. We got them and their luggage dropped off at the hotel and then drove the van back to the mission office because we didn’t have time to get a parking sticker for our apartment complex—we didn’t want the van towed. Dad and I drove home and we got to bed some time after 11:30.
Tuesday morning was a little rushed. We needed to get to the mission office to get the car loaded up with mail to take to transfers. Then we needed to get the van back to the rental place and then go to Train the Trainer. On the way there we stopped to pick up a birthday cake for President Caplin, ice cream for the dessert for the luncheon along with bottled water. I should have taken the table cloths out of the car and given them to someone else to take because we were a little later than usual getting to the church with all of the last minute errands we had to do. We got there about the time I needed to go into the meeting assigning the new missionaries to their companions. As part of this meeting President Caplin has each missionary stand up and introduce themselves, tell where they are from, and why they chose to come on a mission. I am always amazed with the depth of the missionaries reasons for serving and their knowledge of the gospel. When they got to the sisters/hermanas my heart melted as I listened to my friend say, “over the past 6 months I have experienced the miracle of forgiveness and I want to share that with the people here in Virginia.” What a profound testimony she has to share with others. The President then made the assignments and I needed this information so that I can get money on the right cards. As soon as I got the information, I left to go help finish getting the luncheon ready. The other senior sisters had it about done by the time I got back. We figured that we fed a little over 100 people for this luncheon. Then we had to take care of the activities for the departing missionaries from 2 to 4:30. We used to have them go on an excursion, but they never could get away from the church before 2-2:30 (they were too busy saying good bye to all of their old companions and friends) and they had to be at the mission home by 6. It was rather expensive to pay the entrance fee for a 2-hour stay. Now that the dinner time has been moved up to 5 it is an even shorter time. Travel time also shortens the time left for doing something. The area presidency discourages excursions, so it now falls on us to have something for them to do. Dad organized some activities and I think they worked out quite well.
We went back to the office to see if we could get a few of the critical things done. As we were getting ready to leave, the office elders asked what our schedule was like this evening. They have been driving the u-haul to get luggage from place to place. It only had two seats and they are in a three-some now. We either had to babysit one of the elders or drive the u-haul. We decided it would be easier to drive the u-haul. That meant we would have to go to the mission home after the testimony meeting was over and get the sisters’ luggage out and leave it there and then drive the elders’ luggage to the hotel. Because the u-haul was staying at the hotel so the luggage could be loaded in the morning to take to the airport, I drove our car so Dad could get back home. The hotel is about 30-35 minutes away.
Wednesday was another early morning. We had to be to the mission office by 8 so Dad could ride to the hotel with another missionary couple who were driving the van. I was staying at the office to hold down the fort there. I was actually looking forward to having the office to myself for an hour or so to get some missionary funding done. One of the MLS missionary couples came in to bring receipts to get reimbursed and to talk about bicycles. He has been put in charge of the bicycles in the mission and the procedures haven’t been ironed out yet, so he wanted to talk about it a lot. I have even less information about bikes than he does, so was not too interested in what he was talking about, but was getting a little antsy about the waste of time after being out of the office so much the last two days.
Dad needed to do some final things about the sale of WES and wanted to go home for lunch, so I went home with him. I took work to do and was able to work uninterrupted while he worked on WES stuff. We went back and I finished up a rent payment for a complex who had changed their name and didn’t get the information to me, so the checks they had had the wrong payee on the check. I needed to get a new W-9 and get the information updated in the church data base before I could pay them. I finally got that done and FedExed the money to them on our way home.
We now have elders living in our complex, so we took their mail home with us and had them come pick it up and gave them some left over apple crisp from the luncheon on Tuesday. We also told them that we would take them grocery shopping on Mondays since they don’t have a car. I think we will take them at 7 am on Mondays before we go to the office.
Thursday was beginning to settle down, but the phones aren’t where they need to be yet. There was a sister companionship up in the northern part of the mission that Dad needed to take a phone to, so I rode up with him to take a new phone to them. We ate our lunch on the way up and were able to get their phone working for them.
When we got home that evening we found out that John had signed the papers for the sale of WES. There are lots of things to get done to close down the business--like cancelling insurance and 401K, and getting someone to take over the lease, but one step at a time. I called the DMV in CA to see where our car stickers were. We had started this process in July, and I was finally able to find out the stickers had been mailed September 28th. Hopefully we will get them this next week.
Friday was our day to ready the Book of Mormon with Nancy. This week went a little better because we had a little more time. We read 1Nephi 3 with her and talked about Nephi listening to his prophet father and being willing to follow his counsel. We told her that conference was this weekend and that the Prophet would be giving us counsel to follow. She has watched conference before and hopefully she will do a little of it this time. If we had a tv we would have invited her to come and watch it with us.
Phone were crazy this transfer and everyone’s contacts affected. President had over 2,000 contacts on his phone and he didn’t know many of them on there. Dad called a couple of technical people from the stake and mission to come in and see if they could help determine what made the mess. The office missionaries were there and a former office missionary. We stayed until about 8:30 when president sent us home, but the others stayed for a while longer. The downloads for the phones at transfer time had been done by tribal knowledge of the office missionaries for quite a while and they weren’t too good at training the new ones that came in, so some of the knowledge was lost. Our new current office missionaries aren’t too computer savey, so that may have added to the problem. We are now going to have to figure out how to do the downloads, document the process, and then not let this happen again. Always something new and exciting to keep us going.
Saturday morning we got up and got ready for a baptism that was before conference. We drove an hour there and followed the GPS. In fact we had both of our phones going and they were taking us to the same place, but many sources don’t always make the right. There could be a talk somewhere in that last statement. Anyway, we were on a 4-lane road getting very close to our destination and were told to turn left at the next corner. We did that and followed the directions to turn left on Balls Bluff Road. When we turned onto the road we found we were on a gravel lane and were kind of surprised that the road to the church was so primitive. Then we saw a metal gate across the lane. We stopped and looked at the field to our right with a wooded shed sitting there. About that time our GPS said “your destination is on the right.” We laughed right out loud when we heard that. Turning around we saw a lady walking with her dog and we asked her if she knew where the LDS church was and she told us to go back down to the 4-lane road and cross it and the church would be on the right. She was right and we made it on time. The baptism was nice and we were able to see the two sister missionaries who taught the girl who was baptized be the witnesses for the baptism. That was pretty special.
We hurried home from the baptism so we could set up our computer for conference. It was good. Dad worked on some WES stuff while I did a bit of grocery shopping then it was time for conference again. It is hard to get used to conference ending at 6 pm instead of 3 pm. The Women’s Broadcast began at 8 and went to 10. That seems really late.
Sunday was a late start. We got up early to do our scripture and our mission family prayer at 6:30, but after that we closed our eyes a bit and opened them a lot bit later. It seems strange to have conference start at 12 and not finish until 6. A bit different from out on the West Coast.
Again, we really enjoyed Conference and are grateful for modern conveniences that make it possible to hear and see it live. There is a lot of work that we can do after listening to Conference. I will have to get on the stick.
Know that we love you lots and pray for you daily.
Love,
Mom
Happy Birthday Bryon!!
We were talking about this past week and both of us felt as if last Monday was at least 2-3 weeks ago. This has been a busy transfer week. Monday started out with interviews in the office. Because we love these young people so much it is very tempting to stop our work and visit with them. We sometimes have to help them get their “My Life Plan” and other documents printed up for their interviews because they don’t have access to printers and the President likes to have the documents readable. We love doing that, but we don’t get other things done. The most fun things win out. We also have to make sure that our “fruit snacks” jars are filled because they love these and are jars empty out pretty fast.
The van rental place where we usually get the van to transport missionaries from the airport and then on to the hotel only had 15-passenger vans available. Since Salt Lake says that we can only rent 12-passenger vans, Dad had to look else where to find a van. He was able to do that but instead of a 7-10 drive to the rental place, it was 30-40 minutes. Then when we got there we found that it had seats for 12, but the body of the van was a 15-passenger van. My personal opinion was that the Church didn’t want the larger body van because it is harder to drive and maneuver—they weren’t so concerned with the seating capacity. We will have to arrange for a van earlier in the transfer cycle and hopefully get a van that is more in compliance, but we did try. We got back to the office in time for Dad to do a couple of things and then leave for the airport. Shortly afterwards I left to pick up the dinner for the incoming missionaries. We get Café Rio and it is on the way to the mission home and we save a $50 delivery fee if we pick it up.
I got there in time for us to get it all set up and ready to go in time for the first batch of missionaries to arrive. President arrived with 5 of our 27 new missionaries. In that arrival was a sister that was returning to the mission. I didn’t know if she would remember me, but I was SO thrilled she was returning and that she was doing so well. She had written President Caplin every week while she was at home and had spent time working in the temple as well as attending a Spanish ward to keep up her Spanish. When she came in the door and I saw her we just hugged each other. What a joy it is to see the return of souls. The AP’s came with 10 more missionaries Dad came later with 9 missionaries and the Spanish AP’s came with the last 2 coming in this wave of missionaries. Our last missionary was to arrive at 11:30 from the Philippines and a senior couple were picking her up and keeping her at their home. We got the 26 fed, pictures taken with the President and Sister Caplin and texts sent to the parents in between their interviews before leaving to take them to the hotel. While waiting, they fill out information and we get all of the information for the MSF (money) cards taken care of and I find out how many were not issued a card. Then I have to get them ordered and the mean time find out who the companion is going to be so I can put money on the companion’s card. With the number being on the large size, the interviews take a little longer (we take the last load to the hotel) so we were a little later than usual getting off to the hotel. We got them and their luggage dropped off at the hotel and then drove the van back to the mission office because we didn’t have time to get a parking sticker for our apartment complex—we didn’t want the van towed. Dad and I drove home and we got to bed some time after 11:30.
Tuesday morning was a little rushed. We needed to get to the mission office to get the car loaded up with mail to take to transfers. Then we needed to get the van back to the rental place and then go to Train the Trainer. On the way there we stopped to pick up a birthday cake for President Caplin, ice cream for the dessert for the luncheon along with bottled water. I should have taken the table cloths out of the car and given them to someone else to take because we were a little later than usual getting to the church with all of the last minute errands we had to do. We got there about the time I needed to go into the meeting assigning the new missionaries to their companions. As part of this meeting President Caplin has each missionary stand up and introduce themselves, tell where they are from, and why they chose to come on a mission. I am always amazed with the depth of the missionaries reasons for serving and their knowledge of the gospel. When they got to the sisters/hermanas my heart melted as I listened to my friend say, “over the past 6 months I have experienced the miracle of forgiveness and I want to share that with the people here in Virginia.” What a profound testimony she has to share with others. The President then made the assignments and I needed this information so that I can get money on the right cards. As soon as I got the information, I left to go help finish getting the luncheon ready. The other senior sisters had it about done by the time I got back. We figured that we fed a little over 100 people for this luncheon. Then we had to take care of the activities for the departing missionaries from 2 to 4:30. We used to have them go on an excursion, but they never could get away from the church before 2-2:30 (they were too busy saying good bye to all of their old companions and friends) and they had to be at the mission home by 6. It was rather expensive to pay the entrance fee for a 2-hour stay. Now that the dinner time has been moved up to 5 it is an even shorter time. Travel time also shortens the time left for doing something. The area presidency discourages excursions, so it now falls on us to have something for them to do. Dad organized some activities and I think they worked out quite well.
We went back to the office to see if we could get a few of the critical things done. As we were getting ready to leave, the office elders asked what our schedule was like this evening. They have been driving the u-haul to get luggage from place to place. It only had two seats and they are in a three-some now. We either had to babysit one of the elders or drive the u-haul. We decided it would be easier to drive the u-haul. That meant we would have to go to the mission home after the testimony meeting was over and get the sisters’ luggage out and leave it there and then drive the elders’ luggage to the hotel. Because the u-haul was staying at the hotel so the luggage could be loaded in the morning to take to the airport, I drove our car so Dad could get back home. The hotel is about 30-35 minutes away.
Wednesday was another early morning. We had to be to the mission office by 8 so Dad could ride to the hotel with another missionary couple who were driving the van. I was staying at the office to hold down the fort there. I was actually looking forward to having the office to myself for an hour or so to get some missionary funding done. One of the MLS missionary couples came in to bring receipts to get reimbursed and to talk about bicycles. He has been put in charge of the bicycles in the mission and the procedures haven’t been ironed out yet, so he wanted to talk about it a lot. I have even less information about bikes than he does, so was not too interested in what he was talking about, but was getting a little antsy about the waste of time after being out of the office so much the last two days.
Dad needed to do some final things about the sale of WES and wanted to go home for lunch, so I went home with him. I took work to do and was able to work uninterrupted while he worked on WES stuff. We went back and I finished up a rent payment for a complex who had changed their name and didn’t get the information to me, so the checks they had had the wrong payee on the check. I needed to get a new W-9 and get the information updated in the church data base before I could pay them. I finally got that done and FedExed the money to them on our way home.
We now have elders living in our complex, so we took their mail home with us and had them come pick it up and gave them some left over apple crisp from the luncheon on Tuesday. We also told them that we would take them grocery shopping on Mondays since they don’t have a car. I think we will take them at 7 am on Mondays before we go to the office.
Thursday was beginning to settle down, but the phones aren’t where they need to be yet. There was a sister companionship up in the northern part of the mission that Dad needed to take a phone to, so I rode up with him to take a new phone to them. We ate our lunch on the way up and were able to get their phone working for them.
When we got home that evening we found out that John had signed the papers for the sale of WES. There are lots of things to get done to close down the business--like cancelling insurance and 401K, and getting someone to take over the lease, but one step at a time. I called the DMV in CA to see where our car stickers were. We had started this process in July, and I was finally able to find out the stickers had been mailed September 28th. Hopefully we will get them this next week.
Friday was our day to ready the Book of Mormon with Nancy. This week went a little better because we had a little more time. We read 1Nephi 3 with her and talked about Nephi listening to his prophet father and being willing to follow his counsel. We told her that conference was this weekend and that the Prophet would be giving us counsel to follow. She has watched conference before and hopefully she will do a little of it this time. If we had a tv we would have invited her to come and watch it with us.
Phone were crazy this transfer and everyone’s contacts affected. President had over 2,000 contacts on his phone and he didn’t know many of them on there. Dad called a couple of technical people from the stake and mission to come in and see if they could help determine what made the mess. The office missionaries were there and a former office missionary. We stayed until about 8:30 when president sent us home, but the others stayed for a while longer. The downloads for the phones at transfer time had been done by tribal knowledge of the office missionaries for quite a while and they weren’t too good at training the new ones that came in, so some of the knowledge was lost. Our new current office missionaries aren’t too computer savey, so that may have added to the problem. We are now going to have to figure out how to do the downloads, document the process, and then not let this happen again. Always something new and exciting to keep us going.
Saturday morning we got up and got ready for a baptism that was before conference. We drove an hour there and followed the GPS. In fact we had both of our phones going and they were taking us to the same place, but many sources don’t always make the right. There could be a talk somewhere in that last statement. Anyway, we were on a 4-lane road getting very close to our destination and were told to turn left at the next corner. We did that and followed the directions to turn left on Balls Bluff Road. When we turned onto the road we found we were on a gravel lane and were kind of surprised that the road to the church was so primitive. Then we saw a metal gate across the lane. We stopped and looked at the field to our right with a wooded shed sitting there. About that time our GPS said “your destination is on the right.” We laughed right out loud when we heard that. Turning around we saw a lady walking with her dog and we asked her if she knew where the LDS church was and she told us to go back down to the 4-lane road and cross it and the church would be on the right. She was right and we made it on time. The baptism was nice and we were able to see the two sister missionaries who taught the girl who was baptized be the witnesses for the baptism. That was pretty special.
We hurried home from the baptism so we could set up our computer for conference. It was good. Dad worked on some WES stuff while I did a bit of grocery shopping then it was time for conference again. It is hard to get used to conference ending at 6 pm instead of 3 pm. The Women’s Broadcast began at 8 and went to 10. That seems really late.
Sunday was a late start. We got up early to do our scripture and our mission family prayer at 6:30, but after that we closed our eyes a bit and opened them a lot bit later. It seems strange to have conference start at 12 and not finish until 6. A bit different from out on the West Coast.
Again, we really enjoyed Conference and are grateful for modern conveniences that make it possible to hear and see it live. There is a lot of work that we can do after listening to Conference. I will have to get on the stick.
Know that we love you lots and pray for you daily.
Love,
Mom
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