Saturday, November 16, 2013

1st Transfer week, starting Sept. 16th



Sept. 16 and 17
Monday and Tuesday
Transfer week.  Every six weeks are transfers, and the mission measures time by transfers.  Monday was fairly busy, getting things ready for transfers.  Sister Crawford was training me on how to do things.   We got the list from the AP’s, so we were able to get things started, though we had been told it wasn’t final and could still have some changes. 
Monday night, we finally sat in the apartment hot tub for the first time.  Nice!  We were all alone, and the hot water felt good. 
Tuesday morning, we got up and went to the exercise room.  Oh, I forgot, Gary went Monday for the first time, but I was so tired I decided I needed sleep more than exercise, so slept in.  So, Tuesday was my first time.  I did the elliptical, but could only last about 12 minutes, ½ mile.  My legs were telling me to quit!  Gary did a half hour both days on the treadmill.  The room has only the one treadmill, one elliptical, and 1 bike.  Not a large room, but fine.  There was one other person this morning and yesterday morning Gary said.
Went to work.  The office already had missionaries around first thing.  The transfer meeting didn’t start till 10.  It was quite the experience.  The outgoing missionaries were called up and honored.  Oh, before that I think it was, a couple of missionaries were called up to talk about some baptism experiences they had this last 6 weeks.  Then after the outgoing missionaries, the new zone assignments were listed off zone by zone, and as a change was announced,  the missionaries stood up, met each other in the aisle, and gave a hug to each other. They had hugged their past companions as they left were they were sitting before standing up.  When it was all over, lunch was served to all…..subway sandwiches, chips and water.  Then the President and his wife and all the outgoing missionaries left to go to the temple.  The outgoing fly home tomorrow morning, and the new ones arrive right after.  The new ones spend a little bit of time (not sure how long), on San Jose State campus, meeting people, to get some missionary experience.  Then back to the office for lunch….pizza tomorrow.  Then I don’t know what comes next.
Today was HECTIC!!!  With all the missionaries in the office, they were in our office, paying their debts, buying new name tags, scriptures, supplies, etc.  The debts included name tags, scriptures, mission sweatshirts.  So we were busy taking money, writing receipts….for quite some time.  When they finally all left, it was nice to catch up on everything.  After each receipt was written, the money was paper clipped to the receipt and put in a pile to enter into the computer in IMOS later.  So, when they left, I did that for awhile, quite awhile, then entered baptisms (a lot of baptism records were brought in while they were in the office), then we worked on finalizing the transfer data.  We even were there till about 5:30 today.  It was so busy.
Got home….still no comcast. 
Oh, I forgot…..Monday after work we went to Office Depot and got a printer.  Tuesday, we were setting it up, but apparently the wireless part doesn’t work without internet, so still can’t do it wirelessly. 
Tonight, I had to do ironing so Gary would have white shirts ready for the week.  Now doing this, and going to bed really soon….I am tired.  The rest of this week is supposed to be busy too, with missionaries in and out the next 3 days with various things going on.  I have been told that after this week and next week, it slows down again, till the next transfer cycle!



Wed. Sept. 18
We have  been having problems getting Comcast going.  Supposedly, it was delivered Sat. and activated, but it wasn’t by us!  So, the guy we bought from was supposed to have reordered, and we should have gotten it by now.  No luck!  So we called him again, and he said, just go into the Comcast service center and pick up the stuff.  So, we got up early today, they open at 8, and went in hoping that they wouldn’t have a long line being so early.  We were in luck!  Got right in, and picked up the equipment, and when we told the guy what had been happening, and he could see we were already being billed from Sat. since supposedly we were activated, so he gave us a $20 credit on our next bill.  We were told it was simple to set up and activate, he told us what to do, so after work, we tried getting things set up and activated.  I called the number, and the internet got started, but the cable box wouldn’t start.  He said there was no signal, so it must be defective and we needed to take it back for another one!  Bummer! 
I think this night we went to the hot tub again.
Thurs. Sept. 19
We had to be to the office at 8 for Transfer stuff….giving out the MSF cards and talking to the new missionaries about the cards, baptism reports, housing etc.  So, we couldn’t do the Comcast stuff before work.  By noon, the new missionaries left, so we took our lunches with us, and left the office for an hour and ran to the Comcast service center….it took a full hour there!  We returned the defective box, got a new one (the girl waiting on us was dull….what a boring employee!  And not really interested in what we had to say…she said we needed to return the extra equipment it showed we had, and we tried to tell her about the delivery we never got, but was stolen…she didn’t want to listen to us, basically brushed us off).  When we got home from work, lo and behold, a Comcast box was sitting on our porch!  The other delivery that should have come Monday apparently!  Surprised it wasn’t stolen.  We just left it unopened, to take care of later.  After work, we tried setting up the box we had picked up.  Was told it needed 45 minutes to download the stuff.  We ate quickly, as we had to get back to the office for a housing inspector meeting.  So, even though we could see the cable box wasn’t working, we didn’t have time to call at that time.  Went to the meeting, met the housing inspectors who came, came home and called Comcast again.  The girl on the phone this time was one of the most pleasant Comcast employees we had talked to, except the first guy at the service center Wed. morning.  She said it looked like things were going okay, to let it go 45 minutes for the download, and if it didn’t work this time, I needed to call a technician to come over.  I didn’t stay up to see what was happening, I went to bed.  Oh, forgot, when we got the mail today, we had our first Comcast bill….apparently that portion of the company works fine!
Friday, Sept. 20
Well, it didn’t work.  Called Comcast first thing in the morning.  The person I spoke to wanted to try the signal again, he did, still no luck, so he set up the appointment with the tech.  Sunday between 2 and 4.  So, we said sure since we would be home then.  Went to work.  When we got home, we ate dinner, then went grocery shopping.
Sat., Sept 21
Went to the temple with the Crawford’s.  It was a marriage for a young Vietnamese couple from the Branch.  It was to start at 11:30, but the couple didn’t even arrive till around then, so the ceremony was at 12:30 instead.  It was a beautiful view from there across the bay to San Francisco, even though it wasn’t very clear to see too well.  We got rain, so it was very overcast.  After the temple, we came back for a short time, then back to the Cropley building for the reception.  Oh, before the reception, we Facetimed with Kori and family. 
Either today or Friday, we received a package from Melissa…..the Wii Sports she got us since we forgot to bring ours!  Yeah Missy!
For the reception, once again the couple was late….maybe this is a culture thing??  Not sure.  The rest of the people were there on time!  We stayed the whole time till about 8:30 after they cut the cake and danced a little. We danced 1 song only, then left.  We were tired.  The decorations were oriental, and the bride dressed in a traditional costume for the reception.  A normal wedding dress for the temple.  There was food for the reception….sandwiches and other things.  Even squid, which I passed on!
Sunday, Sept. 22
Church.  Gary got a new calling, and will be put in next Sunday….Sunday School President (which Elder Crawford has been doing), so he will teach 1 Sunday a month for sure.  The Branch President said he will call me to something, but wanted to speak to the RS president first and the new Sunday School President to see where I would be needed most.  Sister Crawford has been teaching a RS lesson once a month.
After church, we Facetimed with Shelley and family, and Melissa and family. 
The Comcast tech came, fixed it up in about 10 minutes, so now it all works.  This was the first time we have had some free time.  I made cookies (some for Elder Bruggeman and Elder Hullinger), and are waiting for them to come by and pick them up.  We went for a walk around the complex today.  Nice walking areas.  We have had the slider and window opened today.  It was pleasant outside.  There was a party apparently going on by the pool….we have been entertained by some Spanish music!


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