A Day in our Life - Thursday, September 23, 2010

My hope for today was that we could break away from the office this morning and make a quick trip to WalMart. Half of the trip was personal and half sort of mission related. We wanted to check out their luggage department to see if there were two inexpensive suitcases that would make the trip home back to the States. We have no room in the four large ones that we brought with us to take anything extra. And in the eighteen months we have already been here, we have purchased things we want to take home, plus gifts for others. Our girls will each take a full suitcase back with them. They don't have an extra large size piece of luggage that they can bring down here empty that we can use, so we are buying something that will work for them to take back home.

Then, since we would already be at a grocery store, I wanted to purchase what we will need to feed the elders on Saturday. Elder Lazo's going away lunch needs a bunch of things that I don't have on hand. We didn't go shopping last weekend, so our fridge and freezer are quite bare. My shopping list is sizeable and too much for our pull cart. Having the car would be convenient and a necessity in transporting the groceries to our place.

When we got to the office, we could see that there would be a small window of opportunity for us to use the car. When it returned from being used by Elder Peterson and Elder Lazo, we were getting ready to go when we found out that the Gulbrandsens were leaving late tonight to fly to Rio Gallegos. Eeek! Elder Kroff needed a check signed and we didn't want to be gone when the President came by to sign it.

As we were discussing and planning with the office elders how best to accomplish this, the Assistants overheard us from the President's office. Sheepishly, Elder Lazo appeared and said that something came up and he had a problem with the lunch on Saturday. He needed to go on divisions and work with a couple elders that have a baptism scheduled for Saturday night. He will stay overnight on Friday and would not be here on Saturday until the late evening. Ohhhhh! Well then! He apologized and felt bad that he suggested having the farewell lunch and then had to bow out. We brainstormed as to when we could fit it in before he goes home, and came up with Monday. We can't do it next Saturday because of General Conference as we will be with the other senior couples at Bonpland.

So Monday it is, and I will prepare the food and bring it to the office. It's close quarters in the kitchen, but it is adequate. Having that piece of information about Saturday altered our plans for today. No longer did we HAVE to go to WalMart which solved a handful of problems. Maybe we can fit the trip in tomorrow.

Elder Kroff worked on calling all the zone leaders to get the breakdown on what they spent this last month so he will know how much to send them next month. He is calm and patient as he works with them explaining what he needs and helping them through the process. Some are new leaders and it is all new to them. This took most of his morning.

I ran off the materials needed to go in the packets for the leaving missionaries. There are seven elders and three hermanas going home this next transfer, only two are from the U.S. Included in the packet are a letter from the President, passport, flight plan, goals sheet, spiritual experience sheet, and talks by general authorities. They get the packet on their last day at the mission home before leaving for the airport. They write up a spiritual experience that they have had and it is left with the mission.

Needing a picture for the blog today I found Rich helping Elder Paz with something at his desk and Elder Peterson was in the background. Clever how I got in front of them for the shot, and I wasn't sitting on the desk.

Later in the afternoon, the President came by to sign the check and other things in his signing tray. His flight to the South was leaving at 11:00 p.m. He wasn't sure how this would work out with Sister Gulbrandsen taking the red eye special.

We left at 5:00 and while dinner was cooking, Bob skyped us and reported on the siblings outing at the Tetons last weekend. They had a great time!

After dinner, Rich left to take the colectivo to meet Ezequiel to finish up their hometeaching. While he was waiting for the bus to come, Ezequiel called him and said his wife had to work tonight and he would have to tend their little girl. He was sorry he didn't get a hold of Rich before he left home. It was a surprise to have Rich come back so soon.

Paul and Denise skyped us too tonight and after a nice chat with them, I finished this entry. We talked about our family Christmas party on the same weekend we arrive home, and also speak in church. It will be a busy time.