Fund Raiser -Thursday, Jan 21, 2010

Not a cloud in the sky, but that could be dangerous. Immediately, I have to ask Rich to look up the weather for the day on his iPhone. Okay, so now we are back to another hot one. The temperature will register 86, but feel like 96 with the humidity. I don't know why I have to know because I only have so many summer outfits or combinations thereof, and I will for sure wear something cool. But, I always ask just to be prepared mentally.

We were able to read the first chapter of The Undaunted this morning while I did my hair. If we plan it out right, we may be able to start the day and end the day with the story. Rich is wondering if he should have downloaded the audio version of the book rather than the text so we both could have listened. We enjoyed the Work and the Glory that way with the reader's voice changing to reflect different characters. This book starts with a family in England and the Yorkshire dialect thrown in makes for difficult reading at times. But Rich will get used to it. He does pretty good.

On the way to the office this morning as we rounded the corner for the final one half block, a gentleman came across the street towards us. He got our attention so we stopped to see what he wanted. He said he was a retired barber and would cut the hair of all the missionaries in the area for 15 pesos instead of 20 pesos. He had a shop down a block or so and around the corner. Just then our office elders and two others came along so they were able to talk directly to him. They took his number and said they would call him if and when they needed a cut.

Our morning was filled with elders coming and going from our office. On days when Elder Coria takes missionaries to Immigrations, today being one of them, the companions left behind pair up and go teaching. They check in occasionally to see if the group has returned -- and probably to cool off since our air conditioning feels wonderful. It wasn't too much of an interruption for us and our office work today because we are still in a slow time waiting for transfers next week. I kept myself busy all day even though nothing was absolutely pressing. I welcomed the chance I had to clean up some of the stuff on my computer that I don't use and is not needed to accomplish what I do. I will be careful not to delete anything that a future office worker at my desk might find helpful.

Elder Kroff started his project of calling all the zone leaders and finding out the balance in their zone money account so he can replenish it for next month. It usually takes him two days to get in touch with all of them before the 11:00 hour when they are suppose to leave their apartments for the day. Of the ten leaders, he only has four left to call.

Over in the church, the youth and leaders of the San Fernando ward were meeting for the second time (that we know of) to work on their fund raising activity to earn money for a Youth Camp that they are scheduled to have. They are making pizzas to sell. They make the crusts and put a tomato sauce mixture on them and bake them. Then we add the toppings we want plus cheese and warm it in the oven. We buy these shells in the store all the time and add our own ingredients. We like them for our dinner occasionally.

These freshly made ones looked wonderful and we are sure they will taste better than the ones we purchase at the store. We bought two of them - one to freeze and one to eat -- probably tomorrow. We would have bought more, but our freezer is small and we don't have much room left with the other things we have in it.

We felt bad that they were charging next to nothing for them. They were only charging two and a half pesos per pizza. That is 64 cents. Rich tried to give them 10 pesos and requested no change, but they wouldn't let him. They gave him five pesos back. How can they make any money? They are practically giving them away. Rich said he is going to give the Bishop 100 pesos ($25) as a donation to the youth fund. We hope he takes it!

Since San Fernando was our ward before going to Tigre, we still know a lot of the people and do see them from time to time when we attend baptisms or see them over in the church doing projects like this or other activities. They all remember us and seem genuinely excited to see us whenever we meet. In fact, today, Sister Mansilla was there and she invited Elder Kroff and I to dinner on Sunday, February 7. We have eaten at her house once before and the food was wonderful. We remember the time well, because it was the Sunday that we walked to and from their place with Elders Valente and Nelson for a total of 64 blocks. Then two days later, Rich's knee went out on him. He had previously, before that weekend, lifted the heavy box of copies of the Book of Mormon which damaged and weakened his miniscus.

We had the President's van at the office and were sure he was coming to get it any minute. During the last couple of days, we has emailed me requesting a couple things to be place in the van that he needed. I, too, had the packets for the leaving missionaries that needed to go to the mission home. Today, Elder Coria needed to take the van to Immigrations with two of the missionaries that were from our area. Some he was meeting there. The President gave him permission to do that. I didn't want my packets and small stack of things for the President to be scattered around during the trip, so I took them out and would put them back on their return. Wrong decision!! Elder Coria called the office on his way home and said that the President called him and wanted him to drop the van off at the mission home on his way back. Then, the elders would take the train back to San Fernando. YIKES! The things that should be in the van are now at the office. Now what?? Well, the obvious solution is to call a remise and hand carry them to the President. That we did, and when he opened the door and saw what we had, he asked, "You didn't make a special trip to bring those, did you?" That was kind, but he was, in turn, grateful.

The afternoon went quickly and while Elder Kroff went with the office elders over to the church to teach a woman a discussion, I walked home. After dinner as I ironed white shirts, Rich read from The Undaunted. Working in coal mines in England in the 1860's was a miserable existence, to say the least. How depressing! This family must be coming to America and to Utah. I can't wait to find out!