A Night with la Hermana - Wednesday, April 7, 2010

It is a good thing my internal clock was working and woke me up at 5:45 because something happened during the night to our iPhone alarm clock. The screen was dark so the time was not displayed, and that means the alarm is off as well. I got up and went to the front room to look at the wall clock there and then went back to bed for fifteen minutes hoping I wouldn't fall back asleep.

When we got to the office, the elders were already there and announced that both of them would be going to Immigrations this morning. They were meeting four missionaries up there, and since there were no others going that would be leaving from our office, Elder Peterson had no one to travel with. So, Elder Hales had to go with him.

But that all changed in a blink of an eye. Calls came from Bonpland and from President Argyle for Elder Hales regarding an apartment issue that he has been working on. The sister missionaries have to move from their apartment as soon as possible due to needed repairs that prevent them from living there, but there are contract issues with the new apartment found for them that need resolved. Elder Hales now needed to go one direction and Elder Peterson another.

It was decided that Elder Kroff would go with Elder Peterson and Elder Hales would call a ward member to go with him. But, Elder Hales' errand didn't materialize. Phone calls were made and things were being resolved over the phone. Then, President Argyle came to the office to work for a while, so the ward member wasn't needed any longer and he left. President Argyle and Elder Hales discussed some ongoing problems and solutions about the landlord problems that exist in the mission.

All this time, I was grateful I wasn't involved with those issues, and just kept working on some medical problems I had, plus preparing the packets for the four elders that are leaving in two weeks.

I cleared up a lot of things on my desk and fear I will not have much to do tomorrow. This time shortly before transfers is my down time and a good time to catch up on small stuff, but sometimes it is hard to get motivated when things are not pressing.

Elders Kroff and Peterson came back around 1:00 and were successful in getting the four missionaries legal. It's good to be legal in this country.

The President stayed all day, and after the elders left at 4:00 he pulled up a chair to chat about the future -- meaning the transition of when he goes and President Gulbrandsen comes. He wants everything in place and knows we will be a vital part in helping them adjust and will be the glue to keep things running smoothly and efficiently. Wow, hope we can do it!

He checked with Salt Lake and this mission is number 12 down on the list of receiving a senior couple with Spanish abilities, which is almost a necessity because of the amount of Latin elders we have in our mission and the fact that English is not commonly heard or used on the street, in stores, or at church. So it looks like we will be training elders to take our place. He hasn't heard if the new president is trying to recruit a couple to replace us.

Sister Argyle called Rich and asked if he was serious when he volunteered to help her make DVD's of the six tournament basketball games that her son played in a couple weeks ago. Each team member wants copies of most or all of the games too. She took movies of all of them, mainly so the President could see the ones he missed, and so Austin could have a remembrance of the games. Well the monster is growing and she is overwhelmed, mainly because her computer keeps crashing on overload. She just wants the project done. Another reason why she is buying a Mac as soon as she gets off the plane.

So tonight she came over with her computer and video camera and they proceeded to transfer all the movies she took to our computer. It took Rich only a short time to tweak everything and line it up and get it ready to burn a master copy of each game. Now all he has to do is copy onto discs the number of each game that is requested. Simple!!

She was here about three hours because it required that she transfer all the games on her computer back to her camera and then on to Rich's computer. They couldn't be transferred from a PC directly to the Mac. It was workable and she was thrilled. We had a great time talking to her and I picked her brain about Tierra del Fuego and the southern part of the mission as we want to go there before we come home. We are encouraged that flights down south are not as costly as we imagined. It might be doable.

I intended to just work on this entry and keep out of their way, but the chattering never stopped and we all had a good visit and fun time. It was too late to start writing when she left.

She was impressed with my quilted wall hangings that create a homey atmosphere made by my talented Melissa.