Conference with Litoral - Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009

We woke up anticipating a busy day with our zone conference beginning at 9:00 a.m. in the church. I wanted to get to the office by 8:30 so I could call a couple of missionaries before the meeting started regarding their baptismal registers that I had questions about.

I had to repent about not wanting to go to the conference today due to all the work on my desk. I really do enjoy being there and feeling the spirit of all the missionaries and listening to President Argyle. Elder Kroff interprets what is being said (when he remembers), but I am surprised that I can follow some of what is going on. I can understand Sister Argyle the best. She talks slow and clearly pronounces her words. The Latinos leave me in the dust. I can sometimes even understand a sentence or two from the President, but he speaks rapidly like the natives.

President Argyle has been conducting these zone conferences a little differently. Instead of dispersing information and teaching all day, he decided to follow the format that Elder Bednar suggested in the conference we had with him two weeks ago. He told us that he was here to serve us and wanted to know what questions we had for him. He had previously emailed the missionaries telling them to come to the conference with an inspired question. He was going to "get out of the way" and let the spirit teach us. His focus was on the importance of the Holy Ghost in our lives. He then spoke of a problem in the mission that he had to deal with a couple weeks ago and how the spirit helped in the decisions he had to make. He ended the conference by inviting all of us to bear a 30 second testimony of the things we know to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost.

After the conference was over, it was interesting to see the missionaries hover over the bins hoping for something from home. If only it took as long to organize and put together as it does to disperse. It was handed out in no time. Some were happy and some disappointed. I hope everyone receives something for Christmas, or I will feel like giving them a gift to open on Christmas morning. Historically, most Latinos don't receive anything for Christmas. It's sad. One elder in our mission had 14 packages to carry home from his zone conference--all from his mother. Excessive? Could be.

We couldn't resist taking a picture of our cute Tigre sisters Cano and Collinwood carrying their supplies to the train station for their ride home. Sister Collinwood is packing a carton of copies of the Book of Mormon on her shoulder. It contains 40 books and weighs a ton. Lifting a box like that is what injured Elder Kroff's knee.

By 1:00 we had to have our Christmas packages to the Correo so they would go out in the mail today. It is a good thing they didn't weigh over 2 kilos each or we would have been dividing them into more boxes. We will be interested in seeing how long it takes for them to reach Utah and Colorado. The gal said that sending them airmail takes 12 days. Wow! We wonder what route they take.

This post office is small, but only about two blocks from our office. It has only been open a couple of months and will be a convenient location for us to patronize.

Back at the office, I took a deep breath and dove into getting the mail and supplies packed up for the remaining two zones, Escobar and Zarate, that will have their conferences on Thursday. Tomorrow is P day so we skip a day. For my peace of mind, I had to get these last two done and out of the way so I could concentrate on other tasks that need my attention. Pending on my "to do" list are the following: enter baptisms by the CDE deadline, order more supplies, order placas (name tags), order copies of the Book of Mormon for December, make one more binder for a sister coming early from the MTC in Provo because she already knows Spanish, put together 10 packets for the missionaries leaving in two weeks, email parents of missionaries leaving in April for information needed to prepare for their departure, print release certificates and various letters for those leaving in January, send Dr. Peterson and Sister Argyle info on November illnesses, box up packages for those in the South and send them before Christmas. I'm tired already!

We left the office at 5:00 and had pizza for dinner. Then I started on the journal entry, had it almost ready to publish and lost it. Rich needed to use the computer so I saved it and was going to finish it later. But it didn't save. It is somewhere in outer space. This is the second time typing it, trying to remember what I said the first time. I get so discouraged when that happens.