More Gifts - Wednesday. Jan. 20, 2010

Usually we hustle to leave the house at 8:30 each morning in order to arrive a little early to get organized and ready to begin our days work. But today it wasn't necessary because we aren't super busy this week and we are hoping to stretch out the work we do have to fill the day. This will be short lived, however, as next week is transfers and things will pick up and it all starts over again. I need to enjoy this slow time.

While I was curling and combing my hair in the bathroom today, Rich pulled up a chair to the door (Doyles will appreciate that) and started reading me a book that he down loaded from the internet. The Doyles received Gerald Lund's new book, The Undaunted, for Christmas. It is the story of the pioneers in Southern Utah and the Hole in the Rock expedition. They have talked about it so favorably on their blog, that we have become interested in reading it for ourselves. We don't have a hard copy of it, so Rich will have to read it from his iPhone.

He started right from the beginning and read the Preface today. That, in itself, held my interest to the end. If the book is anywhere near as good as the author's thoughts, feelings, and research expressed in these introductory pages, then we are hooked. We enjoyed his "The Work and The Glory" series, so this should be a treat too. We are excited.

I was able to stay busy all day working on my baptisms. I have 23 entered so far and I had to make more phone calls than usual to clear up missing information, or unreadable information due to poor fax jobs. I only have about three more to enter and I am waiting until tomorrow to hear back from the missionaries regarding these problematic ones. It is important to me that I keep on top of this responsibility I have been given. For the past several months, I have been able to have 100% of our baptisms entered before the deadline. When the report comes each month, our mission looks good. I don't see the figures, only hear about it. I may not be able to communicate well, but I can type.

Our apartment maintenance person, Silvio, took Elder Paz to have a contract signed on a new apartment they are opening for some elders. Off they went and about an hour and a half later they came back. I never know where they go, but that amount of time seemed normal. Then Elder Paz told me that he was unsuccessful because he forgot to take the contract. What??? Good grief!! How could he forget to take it? It dawned on him that he was without it when they were almost there (about an hour away) So now he has to try again tomorrow. We all just smiled shook our heads.

After Elder Paz had left, Elder Kroff needed to get a check signed by the President and it was necessary that he take a remise over to the mission home. Well, he couldn't leave Elder Coria alone with me, so he had to take him along. Elder Coria has so much work to do with the upcoming transfers and really needed to be at his computer, but he pleasantly left his work to obey the mission rule.

While I was alone, the correo (mail) came twice. Once a boy on a bike brought a large stack of letters all bound up, and about one half hour later here came a truck with about six or seven packages. We don't understand why envelopes and packages can't come at the same time with one person, but that's Argentina, we are told.

In each delivery, we were the recipients of a belated Christmas card and letter, and of one of the packages as well. so I couldn't complain too loudly. The Christmas card was from our niece and husband, Kelli and Scott. And . . . . . . . . . . .

the package was some Christmas gifts from Melissa, Nate, and Urban. She mailed them December 16, so it took a little over a month to arrive. It was fun to get Christmas in January.

Being the quilter that she is, Melissa made us two of her creations. Using silly putty, we will attach them to the walls to give some color to the place. We have one table runner that she previously sent hanging on our wall and we have a perfect place above our couch for the other one. The snowmen will be hung too because we still have winter to look forward to in a few months. Urban drew pictures that will join the collection of other cards and pictures that we have received. One is of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. The other two are a rocket ship for Grandpa and a flower for Grandma. What a doll! A magazine entitled, "Denver, An Official Visitors Guide" was among the gifts and will be interesting to read through to become acquainted with our daughters new surroundings. We were lucky ones today -- Thanks, Melissa!

First thing when I entered our apartment, I went straight to the oven to turn it on. The meat loaf I made last night and baked potatoes would taste good since it's been a while since we have had any.

As we finished eating, my phone rang and it was a missionary, Elder Urra, who cut the back of his hand pretty badly from hitting it on one of the metal wall heaters in their church. His companion told me it is long and deep and would require stitches. I sent them to the emergency room at the hospital and told them to ask the hospital if we could send the authorization tomorrow morning. They called back to say that the hospital needed it before they treated him. Okay, it only takes us about five or six minutes to walk to the office, so we were out the door and to the office in no time. The fax went through easily this time so we hoped he would get good treatment. Ouch!!

I wanted Rich to read Chapter 1 of The Undaunted, but he thought I should get this entry done first. I complied until I thought he was getting too tired waiting and would go to bed. So I stopped, and told him I only had a small amount left to write and would finish later. Let's read! I wanted to start this book and get a feel for what we were getting into.

Shortly after 8:00, Denny in Switzerland, skyped us. It was after midnight there and we were surprised he was still up. Rich and he had a nice visit and we hoped he would remember it in the morning due to the lateness of the hour for him. It was fun to see and talk to him.