Monday Sept. 9th

Monday Sept. 9^th:

Last night we went to bed early….around 8:30, and got up earlier today.  We planned on getting up 15 minutes earlier, so 6:15 today, so that we could stop at the pharmacy on the way to work for me to get some cough medicine.  I’m not getting better yet, but that is to be expected.  Every time I get a cold, it always settles in the chest, and the cough can last a month or so.  I just hope that this time it can go a little faster.  I may need to get a humidifier after we get moved this weekend.  It was actually nice getting up earlier, and getting to work a little earlier, instead of at the last minute like usual!  Our office hours are 9 to 5, and we usually arrive just at 9 or maybe a little before.  When we get to work, we have a devotional Monday through Thursday morning.  The reason for this is with the 2 office couples, each couple takes 2 days, taking turns who gives the thought and who gives the prayer, and the song goes along with the thought (it is the CD’s we listen to and sing along with), and now we are here, they are still going the same, as we will just take the Crawford’s spot.    Oh, let me tell you the office people:  The Clayton’s, who are from Idaho Falls.  Sister Clayton is the Mission secretary, and Elder Clayton is over vehicles and cell phones.  The Crawford’s, who we will replace, live in San Jose.  Sister Crawford is the Financial Secretary, which I will be, and Elder Crawford is over housing and supplies, which Gary will be over.  By the way, the Crawford’s names are Bob and Linda, which Gary pointed out is like the Gunnell’s.

After work on Monday, well, actually a little before the end of work, we decided to take off early so that we could go and check out internet for our apartment.  We had been told the apartment was wired and the choices were AT&T and Comcast.  So, we figured we could check out both places to compare.  We went to Comcast first, and when we got there, the room was FULL of people, and we saw you took a number to wait.  Our number was 524 I think, and they were on 478 or something like that!  We waited a bit, to see how fast the line was going, and then I remembered that at Walmart on Saturday, we had walked past a table set up by a guy selling Comcast.  So, we decided to just bag the idea of standing there, as it wasn’t moving fast.  We drove to Walmart, found the guy, asked some questions, and then told him we wanted to go and talk it over before deciding, but pretty sure we would be back, as we preferred the no-wait to talk to him that at the Comcast store!  He gave us his number, but we decided we would just go back and sign up, rather than over the phone.  We ran out of time to see AT&T, as the Senior Missionary FHE was to start at 6 at the Mission President’s house.  So we headed south to that.  I will have to put the addresses in here later so we can remember where everything was located. 

Heading south, we got in traffic, and at one point, on the freeway/highway, it came to almost a stop.  When we finally moved over to the carpool lane, which was the only one moving, we found out why…..a guy was actually walking across the road!!  As we got closer to where we were going, we had one point where the GPS said keep left, which we were, in the far left carpool lane….then in like 60 yards, it says, take the next exit…..so we missed it and had to take the next and have it say Recalculating!  We made it fine, though.  It was a wonderful dinner that Sister Watkins put on for us.  We had, I think it was pork, rolled up around something, in a swirl type roll, like cinnamon rolls.  We had twice baked potatoes.  Peas and carrots, a type of bread/roll, and a salad with vinegar over tomatoes, cucumbers and some other vegetables…I know onions was in it too, because I could taste it later!  But, it was yummy!  For dessert, it was pound cake with strawberries and blueberries over it with whipped cream.

After the dinner, we all went into the living room, and the President had a slide presentation showing some of the stats of the last year of the mission.  It is going up at a fast pace!  This took longer than expected, apparently, because the Clayton’s, who were supposed to be over the activity, didn’t have time and were told to just do next month instead.

At the once a month FHE, they always have a dinner put on by the mission President’s wife, and the mission presidency serves, and then an activity that one of the senior couples is in charge of.  It was a long evening, so we got home late and to bed late.  So, I was tired all day today (Tuesday).  Oh, at the FHE, the president had Sister Cattron introduce them, and me introduce us.  The night was a fun time to meet the other senior couples and senior single sisters, who work in this mission at various callings. Some are MLS (member leadership support), some are CES (church education system)…..that was the Wilde’s…and they are from Northern Idaho.  They work at the institute.  One couple, the Cardon’s, are over family history with the Spanish wards and branches…..helping them to find their ancestors.

The couple we are staying with temporarily, the Cattron’s, are MLS.