English Tests Today - Thursday, November 4, 2010

Why can't we ever sleep until the alarm goes off? We both start waking up around 5:00 and never get back in a deep sleep waiting for 6:00. Will this be how it is the rest of our lives?

The missionaries are to schedule their medical calls to me from 9:00 to 11:00 in the morning and from 9:00 to 10:00 in the evening. That is how it was set up under President Argyle. But nothing has been said about that since the Gulbrandsens came. This morning a call came to me at 6:50 a.m. I'm not sure why the elder picked such an early hour, but I helped him through his problem.

There was a cloud cover that was to remain all day. No rain in the forecast, but we took our umbrellas just in case. Some people on the street had jackets on, but we left ours home and the mild coolness felt good to us.

Our elders were not there when we got to the office as they took another elder to the airport at 6:00. I swept the floor in the office, foyer, and kitchen. It is amazing how much dirt gets tracked in. The cleaning service comes tomorrow, but I had to give it just a little once over.

I worked on this and that throughout the morning, meeting roadblocks on a few things. But, I got all of the baptisms in timely, so that was a good accomplishment. Rich knew he had to have the President sign a check, so he looked high and low for it checking drawers and safes wondering where he put it. Then it dawned on him that he hadn't printed it yet. Old age is embarrassing sometimes.

Rich had two English tests to administer today. Hermana Hernandez (Argentina), on the left, goes home November 17 and she speaks English pretty well. We have several missionaries that did not come to our mission as young 19 year olds. Hna Hernandez, at 34, has been a terrific missionary whose stability and experience in life has been a benefit to her success. Her companion is Hna Moreno (Nicaragua).

Elder Frias (Argentina) with his companion, Elder Sampson (UT), waits for his turn to take the test. He goes home this month too. Elder Sampson is a computer genius and is the go to person if there is a question.

The Assistants came by this afternoon and we learned with sadness that they are having to drop Irene as an investigator, at least for now. A couple days ago, President and Sister Gulbrandsen went with them to another discussion with her and she became skeptical and a little defiant with them. She told them she needed time to think about things and she would let them know if and when they could come back. They think her son got to her and influenced her away from listening to the missionaries. She is an intelligent lady and has felt the spirit, so hopefully if she continues reading the Book of Mormon she will have a change of heart. Disappointing!!

The Schoenys enter the MTC on November 15 and soon they will be here in the mission. We have talked with them over skype, and emailed back and forth to help them get prepared to come as our replacements. The apartment next door to us that is being prepared for the office elders to occupy is where the Schoenys will camp out waiting for us to leave. Two twin beds are being moved there and a table. We will give them our two extra folding chairs and a few dishes that they can use for their breakfast.

They can spend after office hours at our place and eat dinner with us. We will spend some evenings showing them around the area so they can get to Disco, the Farmacia, McDonalds, the lavanderia, panaderia, and some fruit and vegetable markets. On the weekend, we plan to show them how to get to the Area Office by taking the train and colectivo. We will also take them to WalMart. We had to figure out how to get around on our own, so we want to give them a little head start to make things easier.

We are anxious to get the contract signed for the apartment and to get the keys in our possession. We want to bring all of our suitcases up from our storage area in the basement and lay them out in that apartment so we can start filling them with winter clothes and things that we can pack right now. Of course, when the Schoenys come we will have to move them to our apartment, but it would be so nice to have them at our disposal and not under foot all the time.

In addition to all the things I do at work, and trying to get a desk manual typed up telling about it, plus organizing things at home and starting to throw away and pack -- and keep up with the nightly journal entries, my number one stress factor is getting my talk for sacrament meeting prepared. It HAS to be done before we leave because there will be no time to prepare one at home with all that will be happening when we arrive. We speak in church three days after we return. If there is another gap in blog entries it will be because I am working on my talk.

Lucila was coming by to collect our rent and I am disappointed she never made it because I wanted to ask her about the apartment next door. Five weeks is going to go by fast.