Discouraging Day - Monday, April 26, 2010

I slept right up until the alarm sounded -- haven't done that for weeks! Since cooler weather has set in, it feels cozy under a blanket, then I discovered that Rich has the window cracked open a little each night. We might need two blankets if he keeps that up.

We were back into our weekly routine with scriptures, breakfast, and our story, Fire of the Covenant. It is October on the trek and the bad winter weather hasn't come yet, but still there have been severe hardships and death to some. We anticipate what is ahead for these valiant pioneers and wonder if we could have endured as they have done. They will earn their reward for sure.

After making a lunch and having prayer, we were out the door to begin another week. Tomorrow it will be Friday again -- that's how our weeks go. The day was sunny and clear all day, but chilly. It only got up to about 66 degrees today. but was cooler than that for our walk to the office.

President Argyle came in about 9:30 with briefcase in hand looking like he might spend the day with us. But, he came to help Elder Hales negotiate a price increase on a contract for an apartment. He wanted to give him some tips and show him how to do it. With his expertise as a businessman who sold two businesses before coming to Argentina, he certainly knows the process. Elder Hales has enjoyed his learning experience as he has conversed with the President on several occasions regarding his responsibility in the office.

The President wanted to take the bins of mail and supplies, for the two zone conferences tomorrow, with him when he left the office -- if I had them ready. I already anticipated that when I saw him walk through the door, so I hustled and got everything ready. He wanted to leave around noon. Tomorrow is the only day that he scheduled two in one day. So the elders had quite a load to put into the van.

The afternoon proved disasterous for me on the computer. We have a spreadsheet that was developed by some missionary way back when that we use to enter data about baptisms linking them to an area and zone. It is very useful to me to keep track of who still needs to fax me a baptism register etc. Well, I kept getting an error message that would not save the information I was entering. I tried everything to clear it up. Elder Peterson tried also to correct the problem and it worked okay for a while, but after the elders left for the day, it happened again. He will be surprised in the morning to find out it is on the blink again. It was a most discouraging afternoon. I don't have time to re-enter things over and over. I was ready to drop kick my computer into the bay!

We didn't have a very exciting day at work and no new pictures to post. We left the office at 4:30 because I couldn't use my computer for what I wanted to do, and Rich was tired after calling all the zone leaders to get information and data in order to replenish their zone money. It is usually a two day job, but he got it done in one day this transfer.

We, sometimes, feel our age at the end of a day in the office. Even though it is not physical labor, we are drained of energy and welcome our nights at home.

Tomorrow will be a better day! Of course it will be -- it's my birthday!!!!