Meeting with Zone Leaders - Thursday, June 3, 2010

We were still able to read from the Book of Mormon, eat breakfast, and get ready for the day in a timely manner to leave the house by 8:25 to drive to the mission home for the Zone Leaders Council which began at 9:00. Usually it is on Friday, but it was changed to today because of an interview that the President said he and Sister Argyle had on Friday. Perhaps it is with the Area Presidency and connected to their release this month. Nothing has been shared with us.

When we pulled up and parked inside the gates at the mission home, out came the President to talk to Elder Kroff. All I heard was, "I have something I need you to do." I walked in the house with some elders that were just arriving and took my place in a soft chair on the back row.

There is no talking or frivolity prior to the start of the meeting as President wants everyone to be reverent and reading in the scriptures in order to invite the spirit and to prepare oneself for what will take place.

I sat alone and many eyes were looking my way wondering where Elder Kroff was!! Some mouthed the words to which I shrugged my shoulders. I was curious too! Pretty soon he emerged on the scene and I learned that there was a mini transfer going on outside. It became necessary (reasons unknown to us) that two companionships be changed. He had arranged for the two sets of elders to be at the mission home at 8:00 to make the switch, but they were all late. So Rich stayed outside in the garage to wait for them and orchestrate the transfer.

By the time he came inside the house, I had already done my part and Sister Argyle had taken some time to speak to the group too. I didn't understand everything she said, but since this was the last time they would meet with the Zone Leaders, her remarks were accompanied with tears.

After Rich was given time to instruct the leaders about a couple of financial matters, we quietly left the meeting and went back to the office. I was glad to get there as I had a lot of things to do today, or should have done today. The requests for supplies were starting to be faxed in and looming over my head are all the letters and packages that need to be sorted and placed in the appropriate bins to be delivered. However, the deadline for getting all the baptisms for May in the computer is fast approaching. I am almost there, but I still need a couple more faxed in and a couple others need some clarification. So my day was filled.

The three elders in the office were busy doing what they do -- always happy and pleasant, cracking jokes throughout the day. We are a good group and have fun together.

Elder Peterson was the lucky one today having received a goody box from home. Inside were two nice looking ties which he shows off for the picture. That's one perk for working in the office -- the elders don't have to wait for zone conference to get their mail. They love it!!

Last Friday when we had an adventure getting to the huge Carrefour down by the freeway, we took Elder Hales' bolso (book bag) with us to be repaired. The straps had come off from much wear and tear, but he loves the bag. From a previous visit to the store we came across a shoe repair place which also did clothes alterations, so we left the bag to be fixed.

Since we had a car at the office, we decided to take it to pick up his bag and do our weekly shopping at the same time. We were out of quite a few things, plus we like to get an eight pack of milk which is too heavy to take in our pull cart. So having access to a car today helped make the decision to shop tonight instead of waiting until the weekend.

This Carrefour is so big and this is only our third time there, so we do not feel comfortable yet in finding things. We had to wander around up and down the isle to find what we wanted. It took us a long time. We checked on the bag before we began shopping and they had not even started it. In fact, the guy had pushed it aside not knowing what was to be done with it. We had a ticket on it, but I guess he didn't. We asked if it could be done while we shopped, and he said he would try.

Upon checking out our groceries, we ran into a snag big time. Rich carries a copy of his passport, all the missionaries do -- and we keep the originals in the office for safe keeping. Most places accept the copy, but not this Carrefour, neither does WalMart. So the clerk had to get a manager to clear it and she was on a phone for at least 20 minutes. Finally they asked if we could draw the money out of the ATM there to pay for the groceries. Yes, that's the remedy. From now on, Rich will have to take his passport when we shop at these big stores. The little guys are okay with copies.

We went back to see about the bolso and the guy was working on it, so we chose to stick around until it was finished. That took about another 20 minutes. We were glad we didn't have any ice cream in our basket. But, he did a great job on the bag reinforcing the connecting points with leather pieces. It looks really nice, and only cost 20 pesos.

After putting the groceries away, Rich checked on the oil problem in the U.S. and I worked on the blog entry. We felt good getting the shopping out of the way.