Spring in November - Monday, November 1, 2010

The weather is perfect!! We are so glad to be here one more spring. Today the forecast is for mid to high 70's, and sunny. Rich is in short sleeves so it has to be warm and pleasant.

Getting ready in the mornings we have been listening to a book on tape called, The Brothers. It depicts the war in heaven in the pre-existence and the struggle between good and evil. Of course, totally fictional, it brings to mind what it could have been like with Satan trying to persuade the Father's children to follow him, and how the valiant ones resist. Interesting!

It seemed strange not to have Elder Davis with us today in the office. Over the weekend, the President transferred him to the Capital area to be a companion to Elder Hales -- not the Elder Hales that was an office worker, this is another one. A switching around of some elders was necessary due to a medical condition of one of them, so Elder Davis got mixed up in that switcheroo. I was glad I took his picture on Friday. I called him this morning to tell him goodbye and wish him well. I hope we see him before we go home.

I didn't have to look for things to do this morning, I just had to decide what to do first. Now that we are a couple weeks before transfers, I have to get my carpetas done for the new ones coming and I am so glad that there are only five to do. Yes, that is a small number of new missionaries coming, but this time I am so grateful. Usually I have all the binders done by now, or at least a good start, but I haven't even started. Hopefully, I can get all five done in one day. Just which day!!

As we were all working along, the Gulbrandsens came, and after a few minutes he told us all to come into his office for a staff meeting. The Assistants were there too, so we all brought pens and paper to take notes if needed. Both of them wanted to share with us special things about the Mission President's Seminar that they attended last week. Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve was there and they learned so much from him and loved the instruction given and the spirit they felt being with an Apostle and the other mission presidents from the area.

The President shared with us what needs to be accomplished in order to move the mission forward and asked for input from the elders and from us. It was nice to be included and to feel of his genuine love and committment for this work. I had to smile when he said that now they have been here four months and the honeymoon is over and he needs to get to work. Oh my gosh!! They never stop! He has a good rapport with the missionaries because he is so approachable. The missionaries seem to appreciate that.

Our meeting lasted close to two hours -- it was 1:30 when I looked up at the clock. Rich and I ate our sandwiches at our desk and continued working away. My focus is on the baptisms because now that we are in a new month, all the baptisms done over the weekend need to be entered by Thursday or they won't be counted in the October report, and we had 24 baptism last week. I'll give the missionaries today to get them faxed to me, then tomorrow I'll have to start calling. I'm up against the clock on this one.

We came home around 5:30 and I had an easy dinner planned. I would put toppings on a pre-made pizza crust that we bought on Saturday and pop it in the oven. As I grated the cheese that Rich picked up at one of our neighborhood kiosco/grocery stores it didn't seem like mozarrella cheese to me. It tasted a bit sour and grating it was hard. It was so soft and clumped together in an unusual way. But that was all I had, so I put it on the pizza anyway thinking it would melt just fine and at least it would satisfy our hunger. However, it didn't melt very good, it had a sour flavor, and Rich thought it was grainy. I know it was not mozzarella!! We ate a slice or two but didn't enjoy it and tossed the rest in the garbage. So much for that meal!

It's the night before elections and on the Fox News channel we have been following some of the election hype, just to keep abreast of what is going on in the U.S. Then it dawned on us that we should have had absentee ballots sent to us. What were we thinking?? We would at least know the Tooele candidates, and should have been casting our votes for family member, Bruce Clegg. For Pete's sake!!

I said to myself, "One more day, and I'll be caught up with my journal entries." It has taken me two weeks to enter almost three weeks of daily happenings. Entering none while the girls were here is what put me behind. But it was worth it not to have to worry about keeping up while entertaining and traveling.