A Busy Week - Friday, June 4, 2010

I am amazed that getting up each morning at 6:00 a.m. is not a problem when I get to bed so late every night. I try for at least 11:00, but it ends up being more like midnight. It would probably be sooner if I wouldn't sleep at the computer while entering the days activities. It just happens!

Last week sometime we finished listening to Fire of the Covenant and can't believe the impact it has had on our lives. The word "pioneer" has a whole new meaning to us now. How revered these early saints are!! Children of the Promise has become our new "book on tape" that we are listening to now. It is a historical fiction novel that shows how World War II put general church membership in Utah to a test. So far it has held our interest.

After shopping last night we parked the car in our apartment lot, so we had transportation to the office this morning. The President's van is a silver Toyota Sharan and is roomy and fun to drive. Well, not so fun in this traffic, but it is a good car.

Now that this week of transfers and Zone Leaders Council are over, I was anxious to get to the office to get started on my supply room. As the door is closed all the time, it becomes a cold room. In anticipation of that, I dressed for the occasion so I could wear my warm black sweater while I worked. I opened the door for a couple of hours to let warm air in hoping to take the chill off the room. It may have helped, but not much. I also took my warm house slippers to wear, mainly for comfort as I would be on my feet all day. I was prepared!

Since this is the last time the President will meet with the missionaries in conferences, he has changed things up a bit. He usually has interviews the same day as zone conference, but this month he is having two zones together at a time for interviews, at which time they will receive their mail and supplies. Then, the next week he is having two or three zones together for the final zone conferences where his whole family will come and participate in the conference. All the kids will speak to the group (they all can speak Spanish) and say their goodbyes, and I think the family is doing a musical number. It should be a good meeting, maybe emotional.

So my focus today was to get started on the mail. Most of the missionary packages this time have been in the flat rate 9 x 12 envelopes which do not stack very good so they slide off the shelf. I purposely pulled everything off and onto the floor so I could put the bins in place to load with the packages and letters now that I can locate the whereabouts of each missionary. It looked unorganized and messy for a while until I had everything picked up and in it's proper place. Sorting the letters received into the proper bins is time consuming, but I managed to get it all done in one day. I needed to.

Elder Kroff took a big deposit to the bank this morning of all the money he collected on Wednesday from the leaving missionaries. The air was chilly, and since he had a vehicle sitting outside, he opted to drive to the bank instead of take the bus and then walk home. He would walk both ways, but carrying a lot of cash on him makes him nervous . . just in case! So he takes the bus one way and then walks back to the office.

The elders get a meal brought to them on Fridays by the Relief Society President, Hermana Aguirre. But they decided to save it for their Saturday meal and asked if we were interested in an order out of Chinese food. Oh yes, absolutely!! And we will buy! That sounded so much better than our sandwiches we brought. They didn't ask us to join them so we would pay, but we insisted. It isn't expensive food, and we have more money than they do. We know what missionaries live on. So we ordered four favorites and had a great lunch.

Elder Hales left with Silvio for a couple hours to inspect a problem with an apartment. It didn't take them long and they were back in good time.

Elder Peterson was busy organizing which missionaries needed to start working on or continue the process of getting their temporary residencies done. A lot of copies are needed of various documents for each missionary, so he was busy at the copy machine, plus he was cleaning out records of missionaries that had gone home.

How cute is Elder Kroff in his sweater vest? He has a navy blue one and a grey one and forgets to wear them. He needs an added layer in our chilly office. Usually we find him in his rust colored fleece vest.

During the day, Eileen Fuqua called to let us know some of our senior friends were having a movie night at their place tonight, and invited us to come. Since we had our grocery shopping done and no other Friday night obligations, we jumped at the chance to join them. We left at 5:45 to get to the train stop as usually a train comes by near the 6:00 hour. Our timing was perfect, as it was the remainder of the evening. We even found seats this time, although not together. After getting off the train thirty minutes later and walking across the street to the bus stop to continue our journey, here came bus #29. We couldn't believe it!! We usually have to wait several minutes for this one.

Gathering for movie night, we were Kroffs, Grieves, Fuquas, and Andersons. The movie chosen was Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. When it was over, Rich said he preferred more action in a movie, but this one was okay. That brought a round of laughter. We enjoyed treats of popcorn, apple slices in Dulce de Leche, chips and veggies with guacamole dip, banana cream pie, orange cake, and drinks. Very tasty!!

A parting shot as we all leave.

Our luck continued as we decided to take a bus back to the train station instead of taking a remise like we usually do. We asked a bystander at the bus stop which bus would take us to the Belgrano station and right then the bus pulled up. Three for three!! Now could we be so lucky when we get to the train? Yup! We walked up on the platform and here came the train. Unbelieveable!! It just doesn't get better than that in taking public transportation. We made it home in an hour, from their door to ours.