Tons of Mail - Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Another cloudy, chilly, rainy day greeted us as we awoke this morning -- just as predicted. I only had the liner to my coat out for one day and now it is zipped back into place. It wasn't raining as we walked to the office, but was quite misty, and our umbrellas showed an abundance of moisture. Glad we had them!

Leaving our building today we met Andrea who cleans each day and she told us about another robbery that happened. Broken glass pieces were still evident next to a car in our "secured" parking area. Two nights ago someone sprung the gate where the cars are parked, broke the window of a car, and took the GPS. The car happens to belong to our neighbor -- a man who lives right next door to us. We haven't seen him to speak to him about it.

This makes us nervous to park the mission car here, so we don't do it very often. This is the second car robbery we have heard about since being here. Secured??? Don't think so!

No Assistants came to the office today as they were involved with the Zone Leaders Council over at the mission home. So, it was just the four of us milling around the office getting things done.

My phone rang all morning long. If it wasn't a medical call which did comprise most of the calls, it was questions regarding the list of supplies that I emailed to all the District Leaders. Some leaders were verifying that the prices had gone up -- sometimes double and triple what they were last time. I knew it would be a shock to the missionaries and that probably the requests for supplies would be cut way down this time. Sure enough, the few forms that were faxed back to me today were pretty scarce with requests.

I love days like this when I have a big project to do because of the satisfaction I feel when it is done. Now that transfers are over and the lists are updated as to where all the missionaries are serving for the next six weeks, it was time to sort all the mail that has been stacking up. Zone Conferences start in about a week and a half and I wanted to get all the mail organized so it can be delivered to the missionaries at the various conferences. The supplies will be taken along with the mail.

I had to line up the bins in the outer office instead of my supply room in order to accomplish this task. I almost couldn't turn around in there due to all the packages sitting on the floor because there was no shelf space left. For some odd reason, we had several really large boxes this time. What in the world could the parents be sending that would take up so much room?? One large box cost $91.00 to mail. If fact, there were a couple with pretty pricey postage stickers on them. I hope whatever is inside is worth it.

After sorting and organizing everything, then Elder Peterson carried the bins and large boxes back into the supply room and placed them on the shelves at my direction. They all fit!!! Next, I took the letters and envelopes which were separated only by an alphabet letter -- sorted them, and put them in the proper bins.

It took about two or three hours with interruptions, but -- Oh what a sense of relief to have it done and behind me now. We all felt that this was probably the most packages we have seen in a long time. We thought it ranked right up there with Christmas.

I spent the rest of the day entering a few baptisms and making my lists of the ones I haven't received yet. I have nine that still need to come in so I will be checking with those missionaries tomorrow morning.

Elder Kroff worked with money all day. He got a check ready to be approved by the President, went to the bank to make a deposit, and on the way stopped off to pay our rent. He had the car today, so it took him less time than walking or taking a bus -- and it kept him dry.

Around 4:00 the Assistants returned from the mission home and a few zone leaders were with them. The Gulbrandsens also popped in and they had the two Zone Leaders from Zarate with them. They were taking them back to their area because the President had some interviews out that way. There was so much commotion that we really didn't understand who was going where and why. After about seven minutes everyone was gone again, and we really never understood why the two car loads stopped off at the office.

At 4:30 both Rich and I were at good stopping places, so we packed up and started for home. There was a bitter cold wind whipping around us -- as cold as we have felt this whole winter. It was hard to remember the almost two weeks of pleasant weather we have recently had.