Normal Day - Wednesday, August 18, 2010

It happened just like it said it would -- it reached 70 degrees outside today. There was a cloud cover all day, but not the biting cold weather that we have been experiencing. It is suppose to be pleasant all the rest of the week.

I woke up a little tired and remained so thoughout the day. Between 3:00 and 4:00 I was ready for a nap. If I would go to bed before midnight, it might help. Tonight I will try for at least 11:00.

It was a normal 'get ready for the day' morning with nothing out of the ordinary happening. We arrived at the office before the elders and noticed that the kitchen garbage was overflowing with pizza boxes from yesterday. To avoid any foul odors from forming, Rich decided to take it to the garbage collection basket across the street from our office. One never knows what the elders have discarded from the refrigerator.

The elders walked in happy and with warm greetings. Elder Peterson was hoping for a calm day in the office to get the transfers entered in the computer as soon as the President gives them to him. He was hoping that today was the day. Besides entering all the changes, he has to order remises to pick missionaries up that are returning from the South, and to take ones to the airport that have been assigned to go there. He also orders remises to take the new missionaries and their trainers to their areas once they leave the mission home on transfer day. It is a lot of organizing and remembering and keeping straight! It takes a young mind to do it. I am glad it's not my job.

The Assistants popped in and stayed a couple hours working on a laptop in the President's office. The spreadsheet created by Elder Lowry for viewing the data by zone, or by area, or by missionary is a work of art. It is very user friendly and shows at a click exactly what is desired. He is so proud of his accomplishment.

Elder Paz snapped a picture of me as I was preparing my order for the Distribution Center. As I prepared my order, I was shocked that the half page of items I ordered came to just under what my last month's full page cost. There has been a significant increase in cost of most of the supplies. It will be interesting to see if this price increase affects what the missionaries

will order this time. They may feel that some of the things they have ordered in the past are just not that necessary anymore. We'll see!

After lunch, Elders Kroff and Paz went out to find 13 blankets to purchase for the new incoming missionaries. When we were at WalMart last weekend, we looked for some and found nothing. That is where we used to buy them. So after checking Carrefour and finding nothing, they went to the Unicenter to check out Jumbos. No luck there either, but they did find a store across from Jumbos that had exactly what they were looking for. When Rich tried to use the church debit card, it would not accept it. So he had to buy them with our personal debit card which is no problem because we get reimbursed. He will have to call Bonpland to see what the problem is with the card.

We had 29 baptisms last week which was a welcomed relief from the dry spell we have been having. The week before there were only 10. The President said that when leadership changes, somehow the work slows down, probably because the missionaries slack off a little until they know what the new President expects of them. But things are picking up since the missionaries are implementing what they learned in the four days of leadership training.

We left for home around 4:30 and Rich went directly to the Farmacia to try again to get the meds that we need. No holiday this time, so he was successful. Then he went to Disco to pick up bread and orange juice. I couldn't muster up enough energy or desire to make anything more complicated than tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. So that was dinner tonight.

Brother Bob Kroff skyped us and we were excited to talk to him. We haven't seen him on skype for a long, long time. The summer has been busy with reunions and traveling for him. We forget that it is summer for some.