A New Elder - Friday, July 2, 2010

We did a replay of yesterday morning leaving a little early to get to the office so we would be there when the new elder arrived. Elder Hales and Elder Kroff were decked out in their suits ready for the training, but Elder Peterson had a group of missionaries that he was taking to Immigrations today. He left the office around 9:30 with a car load of elders and was meeting a couple more there.

Around 10:00, President and Sister Argyle arrived with Elder Taylor Neuffer, from Chicago, Illinois. After a month in the Provo MTC, he fractured a bone on the side of his foot playing volleyball in the sand and had to undergo surgery to have it pinned. He remained at the MTC a month longer than scheduled to aid in his recouperation. He said it feels great now and he has no pain. He came with doctor's orders to only walk -- no running, playing sports or doing anything that would re-injure it. This restriction lasts until October.

Sister Argyle, Elder Kroff, and Elder Hales conducted the training in the President's office, while President Argyle stayed in our office area and worked on Elder Peterson's computer. Then he met with Elder Neuffer to have his interview with him as he enters the mission field.

Meanwhile, we enjoyed chatting with Sister Argyle and being updated on the mission home remodeling, the children, and family at home who are waiting for them. We learned that President Argyle has not seen his parents for four years. They had been on a mission themselves for a year when the Argyles left for Argentina. What a glorious homecoming it will be for him to be reunited with his parents.

What a treat for Elder Neuffer to have an assistant as his first companion. He will be in good hands with Elder Lazo and hopefully will have an opportunity to baptize in the next couple of weeks as they serve together while waiting for Elder Lowry to return from exchanges. At the next transfer in a couple weeks, Elder Neuffer will probably receive a new companion.

Our new elder is having a chance to show how resilient he is as he came without his luggage. He had a short layover of about 30 minutes before he boarded the flight to Argentina and his luggage didn't make it. Luckily he has one carry on bag with him that contains an extra shirt and pair of pants.

I wonder if the Elder Neuffer in the Larson's mission in Switzerland is related to our Elder Neuffer?? I'll have to ask him.

President Argyle had an interview at the office with another elder who was on his way, so Sister Argyle took off for home. After the interview, he waited for Elder Peterson to return and then drove his car back home. Awwwww -- we were hoping for the car to remain here overnight so we could take it to WalMart tonight. We had a couple things to look for that were mission related, then we could do our usual Friday night shopping also. Oh well, we are resilient too, so we had to come up with plan B to get our shopping done.

I got 99.9% of my supply order ready to send off today, but got hung up on two things that I need to call some missionaries about on Monday. That, along with the new missionary activity this morning, comprised my day.

Elder Kroff was completely caught up and out of work, so he started writing down instructions on what he does as Financial Clerk. We all need to do it -- but I am ahead of all of them.

When we got home from the office, the Uruguay vs. Ghana World Cup game was on. Rich watched it for a few minutes while I made my shopping list. We decided that the weather looked threatening and we chose not to walk to Disco with our shopping cart. So we called a remise to take us to Carrefour -- the one by the freeway. Then we would use their remise service for a ride back home.

As we entered the store, there were two areas that had crowds of people gathered to watch the soccer game on the TV's for purchase. We had to laugh because Argentina was not even playing. They are really into this sport. They were rooting for Uruguay who eventually won.

We ate at McDonald's there in Carrefour before we came home. I was hungry for rice pudding before we went shopping, so immediately upon our return I made some. Now it is after midnight and I am just finishing this entry. Umm, but the pudding was good!