Dear Family,
Happy Birthday to Maggie!! Where did February go? It seems like just yesterday we were looking at all of the activities for February and wondering how we would get them all done. We may not have gotten everything done, but we did get a lot of them done.
Monday was the day the auditor was scheduled to come. We got to the office a little early so that I would have a chance to get a few things done before he got there because I knew it would be an all-day project. I got going and was really impressed that I was able to get so many things done by 10—probably because I didn’t look at my email. Then I got a call from the auditor saying that he had had the cold with the bad cough that has been going around. He had gone to the doctor and gotten medicine and felt that he was no longer contagious, but was just really tired and lacking in energy. He asked if he could come on Wednesday instead. I told him that President Caplin would not be able to be there at the beginning as was the plan for today, but I would go over the questions he was supposed to answer and get the answers. The auditor said it would be all right, so I told him I would see him on Wednesday. It was nice not to have to do the audit, but sad that I would not be getting it done today. Oh well, there were lots of other things that I could be doing. I was able to go through all of the apartment contracts to see what if there was a security deposit listed and how much it was. Then I matched it up with what was recorded on the books. For those that had a difference, I did a journal entry to get the books to match the contract. Luckily, I didn’t find any differences with the apartments that we had gotten since I have been here. There were about 10 changes that I had to make for the apartments leased before I got here. I also went through and made sure that there were no closed apartments that still had security deposits on them. It felt good to have that clean-up task done.
We got notice this morning that we were getting two new missionaries. They were coming from Hong Kong because all of the missionaries were being evacuated (non Hong Kong missionaries). They had been quarantined for 1 week due to riots, then 2 weeks for the corona virus, then they went to their homes for two weeks and then we got them. One of the elders spoke Mandarin so went with our Chinese elders here. The other one spoke Cantonese so he will be with the English elders.
In the morning, we replanned the luncheon for Return and Report. Since it had been such a busy week last week with the mission tour, we had opted for pizza, salad, and bars for the luncheon. But Sister Caplin reassessed the left overs from the Stake Presidents’ dinner last Wednesday and decided there was enough to use for this luncheon. The only thing we added to the luncheon was another pan of macaroni and cheese. That was easy and economical because we got to use the left overs. I came home that evening and after dinner made blonde brownies for the luncheon tomorrow.
Garn had made an appointment to go to a district council meeting on Tuesday not thinking about Return and Report. The sisters in the office were planning on going to take care of the luncheon, one of the senior elders has a safety presentation he does, and the other senior elder was going to do some apartment/furniture changes. There had been no arrangements to have someone come and watch the office, so I had to do that. It was really quiet in the office being the only one there. I found that it is amazing how much easier it is to concentrate when there are no questions that I am asked, and not even conversations or activities of others that I am aware of. I did get a lot done, and they brought back a couple of buns and some pulled chicken that we could use for dinner.
Derek flew into Reagan airport for business and came and ate dinner with us. We had some white bean soup and pulled chicken sandwiches. It was really fun to get to visit with him. It’s a little sad to think this is the last time we will get to visit with him here.
Wednesday was the audit and it did take all day. It went well. The only thing left to do is get it signed. The auditor filled out the signature block, but didn’t sign it because he couldn’t figure out how to electronically sign it. He didn’t even want to wait and have me print a copy and sign it. I think he was tired and wanted to go home, so I told him I would print a copy, get President Caplin to sign it, then scan it and have him sign it and send it all in to Salt Lake. I need to fill out the portion of how we will correct the things that were exceptions. The problem with that is that we don’t plan to change. We aren’t trying to be disobedient; it’s just that we have a big office staff and if we got rid of the computers to get down to the number we are told we should have, we wouldn’t be able to get the work done. If I had to share a computer, I would have to spend most nights at the office when I could have access to a computer. Another was asking if we ever put mission purchases on personal credit cards. We do. Not everyone has a church credit card, so when they go buy things for the office, they buy it on their own card, bring in the receipts and get reimbursed. I think most of these problems are caused because our staff is larger than most offices.
I came home and didn’t feel like doing anything. Pretty lazy evening.
Thursday I went with Garn to a district council meeting today. I felt like I had done more than my share of babysitting the office, so I went with him. We took all of the mail with us for the missionaries. I should get used to how well the missionaries teach each other and their comments, but I get newly impressed each time I watch/listen to them. Garn teaches a little section about conversion stories of the newly baptized friends and he does such a good job. The missionaries are really doing a good job of getting these stories turned in. They give one copy to the friend so that they can have a record of what converted them, how they felt on their baptism day, and what they believe. When life gets tough, they will have this record to turn to for a reminder and a support. The missionaries will get a copy so that they can remember these moments and the other copy goes into the mission history to be turned into Salt Lake as part of the mission history.
When we got back to the office we found out we were getting two missionaries who were on their way home to be quarantined for two weeks. President has asked us if we could pick them up and take them to the airport on Friday morning. Later in the afternoon we got a call from President Caplin saying he had received a telephone call from the mother of one of the elders saying that they had missed their connecting flight in Turkey. He asked Elder Nelson to check with travel and find out what the story was. He called travel and they didn’t know anything about it and went checking. They found out that the missionaries were in deed in Turkey and would be staying the night. They would arrive Friday evening. Glad that the mother called or we would have been waiting at the airport for a long time.
We went to the mission home in the evening to get the president to sign the audit and to deliver the going home packet to a missionary going home on Saturday. He had extended as long as he could and would be going home on Saturday. For this last transfer he was on special assignment to work with the YSA missionaries and has done a good job. We got the audit signed and left the going home folder with them.
Friday I got the auditor’s signature and then sent the audit into Salt Lake!! Glad to have that done. I was able to get some of the 2019 files put into storage which makes filing so much easier not to have the drawers so full. I had wanted to get everything cleaned up a bit before leaving. We left a little early to go to dinner at David’s restaurant, but found that he would not be there until 5 and it was now 4:30. We could eat slowly and still get to see him. The waitress recognized us from having been there with David before, so she brought us complimentary edamame beans, then brought us miso soup while we waited for our order. After our dinner she brought us complimentary ice cream. David got there as we were finishing up and told us he was working the dinner hour. We should have called him. We did get a call from President Caplin while we were waiting for our dinner asking us if we could pick the elders up at the airport and bring them to the mission home. We had kind of planned an early dinner just in case we were needed for the pick up.
We got to the airport and went down to the international end of the terminal and waited for people to come through customs. We finally saw a young man in a suit and white shirt and assumed that this was one of the missionaries. It was. There was also a young sister who was another missionary who was coming home for quarantine and she was going to Salt Lake in two weeks. We asked the two missionaries where the other elder was and they didn’t know. He had apparently been dressed in everyday clothes and we had not noticed him. None of the missionaries had sim cards in their phones so we couldn’t call to locate him, but the sister had messenger and called him through that ap. Luckily she found him upstairs at the united counter trying to check his bags. Someone had told him to do that even because he was changing airlines. The problem was that it was about 20 hours before his flight. I went with the sister to go get him and bring him back down to the baggage area. President Caplin had called us just about the time we realized we were missing an elder and was getting a little nervous. Everyone was found and all was well. We drove them to the mission home and let Elder Yorke change into a suit and then they had dinner. We found out that when the non native missionaries left Mongolia some were told to wear suits, some native dress, and some every day dress. They didn’t want too much attention drawn to the 30 missionaries leaving all at once. We had a wonderful time hearing about their mission and how different it was from what we have become accustomed to. Their winter temperatures could be as low and -30 to -40 degrees. One of the elders said that his native companion said that they needed to buy a whole sheep because it was cheaper. We asked if they had room to store a whole sheep and he said they put some of it in their freezer in the house and left the rest of it outside. It was cold enough out there that it didn’t spoil. They couldn’t talk about the church at all. They didn’t wear name badges and nor dress pants or white shirts. If anyone asked them is they were Jesus people they answered “no, we are English teachers”. That is what their visas said. If people came into the church they could teach them, but they could not mention church at all when teaching English.
The IFR (in field representative) wanted President Caplin to do a video of these elders telling the missionaries that you never know when your mission will be over, so make the most of every day that you have. We took Elder Perry to our home for the evening because he had to be at the airport at 7:15 and we were taking him. Elder Yorke was flying out at 2:30 and needed to be at the airport at 1:30. The Caplins were taking the departing missionary from our mission to the airport around 10:30, so they took the later flying missionaries.
We came home and did a few chores and then left for a baptism. When we got to the baptism we saw the Caplins and Elder Yorke. The baptism was wonderful and the testimony of the young woman being baptized was wonderful. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got items that we needed for the senior dinner on Sunday. Then we went home, at lunch, and worked on taxes most of the evening. We are almost done and are so grateful for that. That was something we wanted to do before leaving and not having our information where could find it.
Today was a bright sunny day, but cold and breezy. The chapel at the church was cold. Believe it or not, even I was chilly at church. I told Garn that he needed to sit close. We went home and wrapped up in blankets to try and get warm. Church was good and the testimonies were uplifting.
We cut up fruit for a fruit salad and got the vegetable ready to take to the senior get together. It was fun to get to be with everyone and say good-bye to two couples taking off in the morning.
We felt a little strange participating with the departing stuff because emotionally we are not prepared to think about leaving. We have too much to get done to think about going. Associating with good people is a wonderful blessing of serving here.
We love you lots and pray for you always,
Mom
Happy Birthday to Maggie!! Where did February go? It seems like just yesterday we were looking at all of the activities for February and wondering how we would get them all done. We may not have gotten everything done, but we did get a lot of them done.
Monday was the day the auditor was scheduled to come. We got to the office a little early so that I would have a chance to get a few things done before he got there because I knew it would be an all-day project. I got going and was really impressed that I was able to get so many things done by 10—probably because I didn’t look at my email. Then I got a call from the auditor saying that he had had the cold with the bad cough that has been going around. He had gone to the doctor and gotten medicine and felt that he was no longer contagious, but was just really tired and lacking in energy. He asked if he could come on Wednesday instead. I told him that President Caplin would not be able to be there at the beginning as was the plan for today, but I would go over the questions he was supposed to answer and get the answers. The auditor said it would be all right, so I told him I would see him on Wednesday. It was nice not to have to do the audit, but sad that I would not be getting it done today. Oh well, there were lots of other things that I could be doing. I was able to go through all of the apartment contracts to see what if there was a security deposit listed and how much it was. Then I matched it up with what was recorded on the books. For those that had a difference, I did a journal entry to get the books to match the contract. Luckily, I didn’t find any differences with the apartments that we had gotten since I have been here. There were about 10 changes that I had to make for the apartments leased before I got here. I also went through and made sure that there were no closed apartments that still had security deposits on them. It felt good to have that clean-up task done.
We got notice this morning that we were getting two new missionaries. They were coming from Hong Kong because all of the missionaries were being evacuated (non Hong Kong missionaries). They had been quarantined for 1 week due to riots, then 2 weeks for the corona virus, then they went to their homes for two weeks and then we got them. One of the elders spoke Mandarin so went with our Chinese elders here. The other one spoke Cantonese so he will be with the English elders.
In the morning, we replanned the luncheon for Return and Report. Since it had been such a busy week last week with the mission tour, we had opted for pizza, salad, and bars for the luncheon. But Sister Caplin reassessed the left overs from the Stake Presidents’ dinner last Wednesday and decided there was enough to use for this luncheon. The only thing we added to the luncheon was another pan of macaroni and cheese. That was easy and economical because we got to use the left overs. I came home that evening and after dinner made blonde brownies for the luncheon tomorrow.
Garn had made an appointment to go to a district council meeting on Tuesday not thinking about Return and Report. The sisters in the office were planning on going to take care of the luncheon, one of the senior elders has a safety presentation he does, and the other senior elder was going to do some apartment/furniture changes. There had been no arrangements to have someone come and watch the office, so I had to do that. It was really quiet in the office being the only one there. I found that it is amazing how much easier it is to concentrate when there are no questions that I am asked, and not even conversations or activities of others that I am aware of. I did get a lot done, and they brought back a couple of buns and some pulled chicken that we could use for dinner.
Derek flew into Reagan airport for business and came and ate dinner with us. We had some white bean soup and pulled chicken sandwiches. It was really fun to get to visit with him. It’s a little sad to think this is the last time we will get to visit with him here.
Wednesday was the audit and it did take all day. It went well. The only thing left to do is get it signed. The auditor filled out the signature block, but didn’t sign it because he couldn’t figure out how to electronically sign it. He didn’t even want to wait and have me print a copy and sign it. I think he was tired and wanted to go home, so I told him I would print a copy, get President Caplin to sign it, then scan it and have him sign it and send it all in to Salt Lake. I need to fill out the portion of how we will correct the things that were exceptions. The problem with that is that we don’t plan to change. We aren’t trying to be disobedient; it’s just that we have a big office staff and if we got rid of the computers to get down to the number we are told we should have, we wouldn’t be able to get the work done. If I had to share a computer, I would have to spend most nights at the office when I could have access to a computer. Another was asking if we ever put mission purchases on personal credit cards. We do. Not everyone has a church credit card, so when they go buy things for the office, they buy it on their own card, bring in the receipts and get reimbursed. I think most of these problems are caused because our staff is larger than most offices.
I came home and didn’t feel like doing anything. Pretty lazy evening.
Thursday I went with Garn to a district council meeting today. I felt like I had done more than my share of babysitting the office, so I went with him. We took all of the mail with us for the missionaries. I should get used to how well the missionaries teach each other and their comments, but I get newly impressed each time I watch/listen to them. Garn teaches a little section about conversion stories of the newly baptized friends and he does such a good job. The missionaries are really doing a good job of getting these stories turned in. They give one copy to the friend so that they can have a record of what converted them, how they felt on their baptism day, and what they believe. When life gets tough, they will have this record to turn to for a reminder and a support. The missionaries will get a copy so that they can remember these moments and the other copy goes into the mission history to be turned into Salt Lake as part of the mission history.
When we got back to the office we found out we were getting two missionaries who were on their way home to be quarantined for two weeks. President has asked us if we could pick them up and take them to the airport on Friday morning. Later in the afternoon we got a call from President Caplin saying he had received a telephone call from the mother of one of the elders saying that they had missed their connecting flight in Turkey. He asked Elder Nelson to check with travel and find out what the story was. He called travel and they didn’t know anything about it and went checking. They found out that the missionaries were in deed in Turkey and would be staying the night. They would arrive Friday evening. Glad that the mother called or we would have been waiting at the airport for a long time.
We went to the mission home in the evening to get the president to sign the audit and to deliver the going home packet to a missionary going home on Saturday. He had extended as long as he could and would be going home on Saturday. For this last transfer he was on special assignment to work with the YSA missionaries and has done a good job. We got the audit signed and left the going home folder with them.
Friday I got the auditor’s signature and then sent the audit into Salt Lake!! Glad to have that done. I was able to get some of the 2019 files put into storage which makes filing so much easier not to have the drawers so full. I had wanted to get everything cleaned up a bit before leaving. We left a little early to go to dinner at David’s restaurant, but found that he would not be there until 5 and it was now 4:30. We could eat slowly and still get to see him. The waitress recognized us from having been there with David before, so she brought us complimentary edamame beans, then brought us miso soup while we waited for our order. After our dinner she brought us complimentary ice cream. David got there as we were finishing up and told us he was working the dinner hour. We should have called him. We did get a call from President Caplin while we were waiting for our dinner asking us if we could pick the elders up at the airport and bring them to the mission home. We had kind of planned an early dinner just in case we were needed for the pick up.
We got to the airport and went down to the international end of the terminal and waited for people to come through customs. We finally saw a young man in a suit and white shirt and assumed that this was one of the missionaries. It was. There was also a young sister who was another missionary who was coming home for quarantine and she was going to Salt Lake in two weeks. We asked the two missionaries where the other elder was and they didn’t know. He had apparently been dressed in everyday clothes and we had not noticed him. None of the missionaries had sim cards in their phones so we couldn’t call to locate him, but the sister had messenger and called him through that ap. Luckily she found him upstairs at the united counter trying to check his bags. Someone had told him to do that even because he was changing airlines. The problem was that it was about 20 hours before his flight. I went with the sister to go get him and bring him back down to the baggage area. President Caplin had called us just about the time we realized we were missing an elder and was getting a little nervous. Everyone was found and all was well. We drove them to the mission home and let Elder Yorke change into a suit and then they had dinner. We found out that when the non native missionaries left Mongolia some were told to wear suits, some native dress, and some every day dress. They didn’t want too much attention drawn to the 30 missionaries leaving all at once. We had a wonderful time hearing about their mission and how different it was from what we have become accustomed to. Their winter temperatures could be as low and -30 to -40 degrees. One of the elders said that his native companion said that they needed to buy a whole sheep because it was cheaper. We asked if they had room to store a whole sheep and he said they put some of it in their freezer in the house and left the rest of it outside. It was cold enough out there that it didn’t spoil. They couldn’t talk about the church at all. They didn’t wear name badges and nor dress pants or white shirts. If anyone asked them is they were Jesus people they answered “no, we are English teachers”. That is what their visas said. If people came into the church they could teach them, but they could not mention church at all when teaching English.
The IFR (in field representative) wanted President Caplin to do a video of these elders telling the missionaries that you never know when your mission will be over, so make the most of every day that you have. We took Elder Perry to our home for the evening because he had to be at the airport at 7:15 and we were taking him. Elder Yorke was flying out at 2:30 and needed to be at the airport at 1:30. The Caplins were taking the departing missionary from our mission to the airport around 10:30, so they took the later flying missionaries.
We came home and did a few chores and then left for a baptism. When we got to the baptism we saw the Caplins and Elder Yorke. The baptism was wonderful and the testimony of the young woman being baptized was wonderful. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got items that we needed for the senior dinner on Sunday. Then we went home, at lunch, and worked on taxes most of the evening. We are almost done and are so grateful for that. That was something we wanted to do before leaving and not having our information where could find it.
Today was a bright sunny day, but cold and breezy. The chapel at the church was cold. Believe it or not, even I was chilly at church. I told Garn that he needed to sit close. We went home and wrapped up in blankets to try and get warm. Church was good and the testimonies were uplifting.
We cut up fruit for a fruit salad and got the vegetable ready to take to the senior get together. It was fun to get to be with everyone and say good-bye to two couples taking off in the morning.
We felt a little strange participating with the departing stuff because emotionally we are not prepared to think about leaving. We have too much to get done to think about going. Associating with good people is a wonderful blessing of serving here.
We love you lots and pray for you always,
Mom
 |
| Senior Goodbye get together |
Comments
Post a Comment