Stressful Days

We don't know what has happened, but the last two days have been full of problems to solve and deadlines to meet.  Both of us have experienced pressure and set backs relating to our individual responsibilities.  We thought it would get easier once we knew what we were doing. No way!! When we didn't know much, things would just go over our heads.  But now that we understand more, we realize that the "buck stops here," and we need to fix it.

One problem Elder Kroff was having that affected Sister Kroff is that way back last year, the budget was set up wrong.  The fund from which missionary supplies should be deducted was way less than the fund from which office supplies should be deducted.  Those amounts should have been switched.  So the missionary supply fund is overdrawn and we have oodles in the office supply fund.  So Rich has been battling that problem for two weeks.  That has delayed me from ordering supplies that we need for the next transfer in three weeks. President Argyle has been involved in working out a solution with the Area Offices, and now I have the green light to place my orders.  That problem will be rectified next time for sure.

There are several different orders and computer driven ways of obtaining them.  I ordered 960 copies of the Book of Mormon today which had a deadline date attached.  Whew -- that had me worried.  How do we convert without the Book of Mormon in hand? Tomorrow, for sure, I need to order the multitude of other things that go in our supply room that the missionaries order before the next zone conferences start.  Then, there is always a large order for placas (missionary badges).  I guess they get lost, or the missionaries want one to keep on every suit jacket, or coat, or shirt pocket.  We get a healthy order for them every six weeks.  I have to type up the order and make sure the name is spelled correctly, accent marks and all.  That is on my list of "to do" things tomorrow.

The most stressful thing I have been dealing with the past few days is two Latin missionaries, from Uruguay and Paraguay, that do not have airline flights scheduled to return home. They leave in three weeks. The airline flights are ordered 5 months before missionaries leave. The Latins don't require that much time, but we still order them way ahead.  For a few weeks I have noticed that we didn't have copies of their itineraries yet. Elder Clegg said to keep emailing Silvio (the one who schedules them) and tell him we need them.  I did this three times with a little more stern request the third time.  He finally responded with, "Sister, I don't have a request for them." Oh my gosh!!!  When I went into the computer program to see if I could resend the request, it said "Request Sent".  There was no way to resend it. Well, it was sent, (before my time), but he didn't get it. So we worked it out with Silvio and I'm sure he can get them home.   

A couple days ago, Sister Argyle came by the office to talk to me about the tablero cards.  These are the bulletin board cards that the missionaries pictures are attached to that shows where the missionary is located and who has been assigned to be his/her companion. They are made of card stock, and the last ones made are not thick enough.  Rich and I purchased that card stock and thought it would be okay. . . . but apparently not.  Then she altered the format a little to better suit what she needed it to be.   She wanted us to find thicker card stock, and have the changes made for the new ones that are needed in three weeks.   My stress level is rising!  But my dear companion went on foot last night to a shopping area about 10 blocks from here and miraculously found exactly what we need at a computer store.  He was also looking for a place near by to have our toner cartridges refurbished and filled.  At that store, they also sold this type of card stock.  What a blessing!  I put Elder Nelson, the computer whiz, in charge of making the changes to the format of the card. That is way beyond my abilities.

Elder Kroff has been having printer problems all week. A few days ago someone from the Area Offices came to pick up our old check printer which was broken, and formated one of our other printers to take it's place and become a check printer.  Making that switch created a couple of problems for it's operator, so most of Rich's hours in the day have been spent trouble shooting things dealing with the printer.  

Now, on top of all of this, I have not had time to enter one. .not one. . baptism.  I have at least 20-25 stacked up. I just have not had time to focus on them. Hopefully, I can start on them tomorrow.    

And then the main thing that plagues us is that we have to do things over three or four times before we get it right. Doing things accurately the first time is beyond us.  Sometimes we feel the young elders in the office must be shaking their heads at how long it takes us to accomplish anything.  

BUT, we enjoy being here and serving.  Not all days can be a "piece of cake".  We'll get it together shortly.  At least we can laugh at ourselves.

Tomorrow, the President and one of his assistants leave for the South to Tierra del Fuego to hold two zone conferences down there.  He came into the office to do a few things before he leaves early in the morning.  He always visits with us for a while after the other elders have left to go to appointments, and that is fun.  We learn a lot from him, and he speaks in English when talking to us.