La Hermana - Monday, July 19, 2010

It was raining again when we woke up and the forecast predicted rain all day. It was wet and bitterly cold! It is hard to believe that it is near 100 degrees back home in Utah.

Rich had to leave for the office ahead of me to get the assistants some money to give to Maria who is preparing lunch for Thursdays Leadership Training. I followed about 20 minutes later.

I really didn't know where to begin with all the things on my to do list. So, I decided to start first by putting away the supplies that were delivered last Thursday. Usually I get right to it to get the boxes out of the way, but last week my time wasn't my own. So there they sat!

I'm glad I didn't put it off any longer because I found that I failed to order my new missionary binders. I remember thinking about putting a case of them on the order, but as fast as I thought about it, I forgot about it!! It was in and out of my brain in a flash. Today I shot off a separate order to Distribution to get some here quickly. We have fourteen new missionaries arriving on the 24th of August so I will have to get started on them shortly.

I next complied with Salt Lake to get all the requests for flights sent in for the missionaries returning home to the U.S. in November and December. Holiday time travel fills up quickly, so they want seats reserved way in advance. We have a few Americans leaving during those months, but most of them are Latinos.

Elder Kroff spent the morning verifing zone leaders money registers. They are turned in every six weeks at the Zone Leaders Council.

Elder Hales and Elder Peterson are always busy -- we all are! In fact, we have had very little chit chat time since the change in leadership. There has been a whirlwind of activity trying to accommodate President Gulbrandsen and get him settled, briefed, and familiar with the resources necessary to use his multimedia equipment. He is very up to date on all this high tech stuff.

Plans were made for the Gulbrandsens to come to the office so Elder Kroff could take him to get a two step process done so that he can sign checks. Until this is completed, Rich has to take the checks to Bonpland to get them signed by someone in the finance department. Since Sister Gulbransen was with her husband, I decided to go along so we could talk and get to know one another. I had some things I needed to talk to her about and it proved to be a fun and enjoyable couple of hours. However, only half of the plan was accomplished. Now he needs to go to the bank to sign some documents. Maybe that can be done tomorrow.

When we returned to the office the President and the office staff worked on getting the internet hooked up with all the skype addresses in the South. The leadership training which starts tomorrow is involving the leaders in the South via skype. The President is using his two Apple computers and the PC the church gave him to connect to three separate locations.

While the men were busily involved, Sister Gulbrandsen and I continued our visiting and I learned about her weight lifting abilities which were included in a bio about the two of them that we read some time ago.

While in high school she was a gymnast who could do the beam, bars, vault, and whatever the sport included. She said her father is a highly competitive person and signed her up for a weight lifting competition. He knew she was in great physical shape and doing squats was just a routine thing for her as a gymnast. She was to do squats with free weights equal to her body weight of 110 pounds on her shoulders. Her dad told her to do them until she passed out if she had to, but to get her numbers high and it would psyche out the opposing champion. She did 75 squats. Unbelievable!!! At thirty, one is about spent of energy, but she kept going -- never passing out. The opponent stopped at around 35. She was 14 at the time. Then at age 16 she entered again, and won. This time it was with machine weights which she said is much easier. Her dad was her coach. Her maiden name is Skousen and her father is a cousin to Cleon Skousen.

Sister Gulbrandsen is so petite and cute, and it was interesting to hear how this tiny person could win a weight lifting competition. The elders are way impressed at her accomplishment. Some have joked that they better shape up or she might pick them up and toss them around. She is a real firecracker and things liven up when she is around. She also has a stunning wardrobe.

We didn't leave the office until 7:00 as Rich was busy getting a check ready to take to Bonpland to get signed. We are going to the Capital to get our visas extended tomorrow, and will pass by the Area Offices while we are there.

We came home and had some noodles in a sauce, plus a tossed salad. We had to get to bed at a decent hour because our day tomorrow was going to start at 5:00 a.m.