Meeting with the President - Friday, June 9, 2010

Is it really Friday again? This has been such a full week that it has just flown by. Each day was packed with important and memorable things and now the week we had been preparing for for months was just about to come to an end. We are so glad we have it down in print.

Our morning preparations at home were calm and routine and our usual arrival time at the office is about ten minutes before 9:00. Today was no exception.

I knew what I had to do first thing. About a week ago, one of the zone leaders in Rio Gallegos called needing about five boxes of Book of Mormons sent to him -- one for each of his five companionships. I checked with the other two zone leaders down South to see how they were fixed for books too. So today, I prepared the order to email to the Distribution Center. They send them directly to the elder whose name I submit. That was a load off my mind.

The AP's had gone to the mission home to work with the President on some matters, so Elder Neuffer stayed with us in the office. He is such a great young man. He has done well in a trio with the assistants, but I am sure he is anxious for transfers to come so he will be in a normal companionship of two and in an area of his own for working. I was so glad he was with us today because I had 125 apples to wash for the Meet the President conferences we were having. He washed, dried, and repacked them for transporting to the conferences. He also helped me separate the oranges and figure out how many we would need for each conference. We only bought the number of bananas we would need for Saturday. We'll buy more for Monday later. Bananas ripen really fast down here. We can't figure it out, but they go brown much faster than in the states.

Blanca and Gabriel Saracho's wedding reception/fiesta is today at 12:00 over in the cultural hall. Preparations were going on all morning. At church last week, those helping her were having people sign up to bring food. They asked me if I could bring a dessert. I readily agreed and was glad I could help. I knew I would probably not have any time to make something but most people bring tortas or facturas from a panadaria. I would follow suit. Problem was -- with the Gulbrandsen's coming yesterday and getting home so late from the fruit shopping last night, we completely forgot to stop and pick up something. It didn't dawn on us until late last night. So this morning I had to whip up a box brownie mix for my offering. It worked out okay and wasn't too hard.

Blanca and Gabriel dance together at their reception. There were a ton of people there to support them -- lots of family and friends from outside of the branch, plus a lot of branch members. They had white balloons grouped and hung all over, and a purple sign on the stage curtain that said Felicidades. The was music sooooo loud that conversations could not be heard. Every friend, family, or acquaintance had their picture taken separately with the bride and groom. It went on forever.

We congratulated the couple and ate some finger foods. The real stuff hadn't made it's appearance, but we couldn't wait for it. We had work to do and the President was coming around 2:00 for a meeting with all of us. So, after greeting members and enjoying the festivities for a little while, we slipped back into the office.

President and Sister Gulbrandsen came around 2:00 and when he heard the music coming from within, he opened the cultural hall door, which is right by the door to our office, to see what was going on. The AP's told him it was a wedding reception and he and his wife went directly in to join the party. They went around talking to people and meeting the branch members and they scored big. When President found out it was Elder Smith's birthday (he and his companion are the ones baptizing the groom tomorrow) President Gulbrandsen went up on stage, stopped the music, announced the elder's birthday, and led the group in singing Happy Birthday to Elder Smith. We watched in total amazement!!! Never seen that before! The President is really a people person!

Pretty soon everyone consisting of the Assistants with Elder Neuffer, the office staff, and the Gulbrandsens were sitting in a circle getting better acquainted. The President has six children, one daughter and five sons. However, emotionally he told us that a few years ago, they lost a seventeen year old son, and expressed his feelings about his passing. A kleenex was handed to both of them. They said at a later time they would tell more about it. Wow!

The President is a trial lawyer by profession mainly dealing with civil matters, malpractice cases, accidents, etc. No divorces because they are no win situations, and he dropped them some time ago! We can tell he has come well prepared and with purpose to the mission knowing what he wants to accomplish and what the brethren want him to accomplish. He said he is not an administrator, but is a teacher and loves working with people. He depends totally on the spirit leading the way and sometimes flys by the seat of his pants. His wife said he is known to make last minute changes as directed by the spirit and so we better "hang on." They are both vivacious and engaging. This should be interesting and fun.

Our meeting was mainly to discuss the conferences and see if we were all on the same page. President suggested taking all the packages and mail to these conferences and distributing what we have now instead of the at the regular zone conferences which are set for the first two weeks in August. After finding out what is involved in sorting and packing the packages and envelopes, he suggested we pull out the bins and get right to it so those present could help me. My organized mind was in a state of confusion and panic for a few minutes fearing mixed up mail and chaos with so many hands in the pie. But, it turned out okay and it was separated and done in a short time.

While this was going on with me and a couple elders, Sister Gulbrandsen and others were running off a packet of things and collating them. These were things that the President wanted distributed to the zone leaders during the conferences. So our office was a hive of activity not pre-planned or expected for the afternoon. The "hanging on" phrase started to surface.

After work, Rich and I needed a few things at the store, plus we needed to buy liters of water to take to the conference tomorrow. After last nights experience with the traffic, no way were we going any farther than our Disco. We did take the car because we couldn't carry 12 liters of water. But on the way there, we discovered that the GPS unit was not in the car. We called the President to see if both were in the car he had, and indeed they were. Now, how did that happen?? So after shopping, we drove to the mission home to get the GPS so we could find out way to the Belgrano chapel in the Capital tomorrow morning.

We planned to just meet the President at the door, conduct our business and leave. We know they need time to themselves and to rest. But, when they opened the door, they ushered us to a seat in the front room and we had a good hour visit with them. He said they were preparing their conference addresses tomorrow and asked for our input as to what the missionaries would like to hear about them in the way of an introduction. What should they tell us tomorrow? So, we told them the things we would like to hear and possibly what the young missionaries would like to know.

They told us that they want us to feel free to give suggestions and input when we see a need. They want us to be included in the activities with the missionaries that are going home, so we are included in the lunch with them and to hear their testimonies. So on Wednesdays of transfer week, we will be spending the whole day at the mission home, instead of just an hour or two like we have done in the past. That will be fun because we like being able to see the missionaries on their last day and tell them goodbye.

We ended our visit, came home around 9:30 again, and had toast again for dinner. I have not cooked a decent meal all week. This was day two of a full and busy day. Tomorrow will be another of the same.