Glad to Help - Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

The alarm never wakes me up in the morning anymore. From 5:30 to 6:00, somehow I have managed to wake up to the point that I am just dozing or resting with my eyes shut determined that I am not getting up until "Called to Serve" comes on. And Rich is completely "under" and enjoying uninterrupted sleep. I just don't understand it -- and I am the one that has gone to bed late, or at least later than him most of the time. I guess I have hit the ranks of old people that can't sleep well any more.

It was a beautiful morning and our four and a half block walk was refreshing and seemed a little short today. I guess we could have walked around the last block a couple of times to stretch it out a little. We love the cool mornings before the humidity cranks up.

After a couple medical calls, I immediately began working on entering the baptisms. I usually give the missionaries two days to get the registers faxed to me, then I start calling for those that I don't have. Plus, I never know until I start entering the data if something is missing or unreadable. I have until 11:00 to reach the missionaries to make corrections. After that they leave to go work. I didn't have too many calls to make today.

The office elders left for a couple hours to take Sister Argyle's car to get a new battery and get a tire fixed. It needs to be taken back to her since the President is home now and each of them need a car.

Then, Elder Kroff left also to pay some bills and take some printer cartridges to be refurbished and refilled. I was left to man the office by myself. In answering the phone, I have my canned phrases that I use to tell the caller when to call back if they want one of the elders. The President called and I answered, "Misión Norte", and he was taken back a second realizing it was me. He said I sounded pretty official with a good accent. That was kind of him.

At the mission home today, the new missionaries that arrived in December have training and a luncheon. Their companions come with them, of course, and this group was huge. They fed about 44 people barbeque beef on buns with vegetables and dip, chips, fruit, and Texas sheetcake for dessert. Nancy, the Argyles housekeeper/cook helps Sister Argyle prepare the food, but she had to leave early today and couldn't be there to help clean up. Smart lady! So earlier in the morning when the President learned that Elder Kroff needed to bring a check over for him to sign, he suggested that if I was bored at work with nothing to do that maybe I could come with him and help Sister Argyle clean up. Well, I most certainly would come no matter what was on my "to do" list for the day.

When we got there, the President was conducting training in the living room with every square inch filled with a chair. Furniture had to be moved to make room for the group, but it looked full as we passed quickly to the kitchen. There, at the sink, was their son, Quinn, doing dishes and Sister Argyle was putting things away. Each of her children had taken a turn helping wash, dry, or load the dishwasher.

We took their aprons and sent them on their way. Sister Argyle offered to stay and help, but we told her to go join the meeting and do what president's wives do when these training sessions are held. She was grateful.

I have helped cook and clean up two times before when Nancy was not available. One time it was another new missionary luncheon like this one, and the other was for the luncheon at Zone Leaders Council.

Rich pitched right in and dried dishes and silverware as I washed. There isn't a lot of counter space in the kitchen, so pots and pans, water pitchers, sheet cake pans, and whatever were stacked around. We worked steadily and in about two hours we finished, right when the meeting ended.

Since we brought Hermana Argyle's car back to the mission home when we came, we left at 4:00 on foot to make our way home by train. It isn't a bad walk to the San Isidro train station and we made it home by 4:30.

We, then, turned around and walked back to the office in order to fax a copy of our driver's licenses to Triple A. Our International Driving Permits expire on March 2, so before we left on our mission, we filled out new applications and had the necessary pictures with them so Marianne could get us new ones. One thing we were not aware of is that a copy of our U.S. driver's license was needed too. So we had to get them faxed quickly to Triple A so the permits can be mail as soon as possible. One never knows how fast they will come in the mail. I have yet to drive here in Argentina, thank goodness, but Rich does a lot and needs his renewed for sure.

Our time at the mission home today was a nice diversion from office work. We enjoy serving wherever we are needed.