Schoenys are Here - Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Each of us had a fitful night's sleep from 4:00 on in anticipation of our replacements coming today and all the training we have to do this week and next. Each of us was unaware of the other's anxiety during the night.

After getting ready for the office, I vacuumed the floor and tidied things up a bit because we knew we'd be showing our apartment to the Schoenys when they come today.

At the office, I cleaned up the kitchen and swept the floor in the office and outer foyer. It is amazing how much dirt is swept up that can't be seen. But, I wanted it to look nice for our newest missionaries.

Today was District Meeting, so the group wanted a picture taken with us in it, since we do belong to this district even though we don't attend the meetings. The missionaries include Elders Sargetis and Peterson, Hermanas Bray and Romo, Elder Kroff, Hermana Kroff, Elders Magaña, Paz, Rodrigues, and Hansen. The only ones not in the picture were the Assistants who were off on mission business.

The Gulbrandsens called from the airport telling us that the Schoeny's plane was a half hour late. They would be arriving around 11:00. Then, they invited us to meet them at Kansas for lunch. Well, that would be fun! A welcoming meal for them and a going away treat for us. We had just ordered Chinese food to be delivered for the office elders and ourselves, but we told them to invite someone from the District Meeting that doesn't have any lunch plans today.

We waited for the call to tell us when they thought they would be to Kansas which is very close to the mission home. We took a remise and got there at the same time and following them in. It was fun to meet the Schoenys and they were in pretty good condition for have been up since 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning.

This picture of Kroffs, Schoenys, and Gulbrandsens proves that our mission is really over in a week. The elders took care of getting the Schoeny's luggage to their apartment, and after showing them the office and introducing them to the elders, we walked them to their new home for the next 18 months. The President told them they could choose which apartment they wanted to occupy and they, of course, chose the two bedroom one. They were pleased with it and the preparations that had been made to make it comfortable for them until we give up our belongings to them.

They cleaned up and rested, then came over to visit. We suggested going out for ice cream, so we walked up Constitucíon only to find the first two places closed. We decided to continue and did find another ice cream parlor open. We made our purchases that we ate sitting on benches over in the plaza. We learned more about them and they are a nice couple. The night air was warm and we all enjoyed the walk up and back.

We hope we all get a good nights sleep because tomorrow starts our marathon of training. We are sooo glad everything worked out with their visas and that they arrived on time.