June 29, 2014.....Changing of the Guard

June 29, 2014

The end of one era of our mission and the beginning of the next.  Yesterday, June 28th, was the “changing of the guard”…….old mission president left and new one arrived.  We haven’t met him yet, but are guessing it will be tomorrow at the office.

Let’s see, what happened this past week?

Monday, I went with Gary to Redwood City.  We are getting 2 apartments there, and they required 2 signatures, so we both needed to go.  Usually, most places just require his signature on the papers.  I told him Monday was the best day for me to go, since that is the day we have the least number of missionaries in the office.  Each apartment required cashiers checks for the first month’s rent….most apartments do….so we had a total of $3600 in cashiers checks that we had to take the funds out of our own account and get reimbursed for.  There is no other way to get the cashiers checks than for us to go to our bank and withdraw our funds to get the checks issued, then get reimbursed and put the money back into our account.  On Wednesday, Gary was in Livermore getting another apartment, with another cashiers check, this time it was $3198.  So we had nearly $7000 out of our bank that week, then put back in when we got the reimbursement checks.  I told one department in Salt Lake that when they call people to an office mission, they need to be aware that they will need to have funds they can draw from for things like this, and a bank locally they can deal with.  It was a shock to us when we first arrived here and learned that.  Luckily for us, we had a credit union here that was a share branch with our local credit union back home.  Otherwise, I don’t know what would have happened!

Tuesday and Wednesday, if I remember right, was the end of the interviews.  Thursday……quiet!  It was so nice to have the office back to normal after the last few weeks of interviews and missionaries constantly in the office.  And that isn’t to say we never have missionaries in the office.  We do all the time, but with the interviews it was lots of missionaries hanging around bored, waiting for their turns.  Which made it hard for all of us to get our work done well.

Gary had some time in the office this week, and he was organizing his supply closet with missionary literature.  He found lots of things that were hidden either behind or under other things, so now he knows of several items he does not need to order for awhile!

Friday, President Watkin and Sister Watkins were in the office.  President signed papers that needed signing, signed off on the credit cards on the bank website, and they both cleaned out his office.  They took the office staff to lunch at Chile’s, including the AP’s and a set of sister missionaries who happened in at the right time.  Also, Sister Withers was in the office picking up boxes, so she got invited to lunch too.  It was a nice, relaxing lunch time.  We had a set of sister missionaries man the phones while we were gone.  At 5 as we were getting ready to leave, we went in and said our good-byes to Sister Watkins.  President was visiting with the AP’s in another room.  We came home, I changed and left right away.  I had another Apple class—this time on iPhoto.  I absolutely loved this class and the things I learned to do!  When I got home from the class, which was from 6-7, we got our grocery list and headed to go grocery shopping.  By the time we got home from that and got the groceries put away, we just heated up a can of soup for dinner, and called it a night….it was about 10 by then.

Saturday, we were told that the change took place like this:  10 am both the old and new president met at the office, to spend 1 hour going over things that he needed to know about the office.  Then they spent 1 hour at the mission home going over things.  You know, basic things like sprinkler systems, how things in the house work, alarms system (both the home and the office one), etc.  The things you need to know when you move into a new home.  So just 2 hours, then the Watkins were on their way and the Mella’s were settling in.

Saturday morning we got up and cleaned and did laundry like usual.  Then we headed to Penney’s….Gary needed a new belt.  After that we headed over to the office to wash our car.  We had talked of going to a movie, but there wasn’t anything playing we wanted to see.  We picked up a bucket of KFC and headed home for dinner, and Gary spent the evening watching ball games on TV or the computer.  I finished the laundry.   I know it sounds like we have a ton of dirty clothes with all the laundry taking so long, but remember we have an apartment sized washer and dryer…..they are WAY mini!——-so it takes a lot of loads.  Both bath towels and the floor towel/mat is one large load!  I can’t get the sheets in one load.  So, it all takes a long time.  

Today Gary taught the 5th Sunday combined Priesthood/Relief Society lesson…..on how to teach!  I think the class enjoyed it very much….he is a GREAT teacher!   It is very warm today…supposed to be 90.  Tomorrow it is supposed to get to 98.

This week the new president will be jumping right into things…..this is the week to plan the transfers which occur next week.  We don’t know yet if we work on Friday the 4th or not.  We kept thinking we could plan on something for a 3 day weekend if we didn’t, but by the time we know I don’t know if we will go away or not.  Plus, we learned that our branch is having a couple baptized next Saturday.  We don’t know the time yet on that.  So we shall see what will happen.  Next Sunday is the outgoing fireside already.  We are losing some more of the missionaries that we have gotten attached to.  :(       It keeps happening all the time now.   But then we also gain new missionaries that we don’t know yet, but that we will get attached to as time goes on.  That is the way things are around here, always some leaving and new ones coming.  

Wishing you all the best this week!

June 22, 2014

June 22, 2014

Well, this was a steady, busy week for me.  Gary was out of the office a bit more this week than last doing his things…..dropping off to missionaries, picking up from missionaries, moved shampoo machines around to get the carpets shampooed.  He keeps a spreadsheet of when the carpets are shampooed and tries to keep on top of it.  When we arrived here, because of the large influx of missionaries and the last housing coordinator being so busy trying to keep up with  the growth, some of the apartment carpets were pretty disgusting looking as they hadn’t been shampooed for awhile.  That was Gary’s goal, to get them all cleaned and on a schedule every 6 months.  There is a black grit in the air around here that gets tracked in on the carpets, and they definitely need cleaning.  Plus, the ones that park their bikes inside are tracking in more stuff.  He has tried to make sure that they have tarps to park their bikes on, and some small rugs by the doors to catch some of the dirt.  That black grit we can see even around the edge of our tub.  It just gets dirty fast.  It shows on the cars too, they get dirty looking fast.  With the shampooing, he has to keep after the missionaries to make sure they do it when they have the machines…..some like to put it off a few weeks, and Gary wants the machines moving around to get them all done.  We have nearly 100 apartments that he is over, so it is really a regular thing to keep them shampooed.  Even in our apartment, when we think we are keeping things vacuumed and cleaned well….when I walk around with socks on you can see how dirty they get.  Yucky!

We have been doing things to get ready to open 2 new apartments…..I have to get cashiers checks from our bank account to pay the first months’ rent, and then get reimbursed from the mission.  This is a crazy thing….that there is no other way to get these cashiers checks!  Luckily we have money in our savings account to draw from!  We are also waiting for word on another apartment—whether they approve us or not—so we can move forward with adding them as a vendor and getting the applications all filled out.   It is quite a process that Gary goes through to get an apartment.  The 2 new ones that we just got are to replace one we had where we got an eviction notice because the building had been sold.  Some sister missionaries live there.   We move 2 of the sisters out on the 30th and the other 2 on the 11th of July.   The apartment we are waiting to hear about still is to replace one because we got an eviction notice that they don’t want us there anymore…..elders live there, and apparently have annoyed either some other renters or management somehow, so they want us out.  That is a first that we have seen.  So, that is what Gary is working on this coming week.  Plus, on the other 2, we both have to sign the papers tomorrow, so we are taking a trip up to Redwood City.  Most of the time, he just has to sign the papers alone, but this place requires 2 signatures.

This last week was a bit stressful for me.  On my last deposit, I had an excess of money..$25.70..and couldn’t figure out where it was supposed to go.  So, that bugged me all week, and I didn’t have time with missionaries in the office every day, to think it through and try to find it….until Thursday.  Then, I finally found a deposit that I didn’t get recorded and that is why it was off.  Phew!!!!  That took a load off my shoulders when I found that!  That is the one thing that is so hard for me when there are lots of missionaries in the office buying things or paying for things…..trying to keep it all straight and getting it all recorded properly.   I just have a cash box that I put payment money in and get change from, and it all is entered into the computer.  When the missionaries line up and are all coming in quickly, and phone calls are coming in etc., I usually take the money and clip it to the bill and stack them up to enter in the computer when the kids are gone.  This one that I made the error on was a partial payment on a bill, and I didn’t take the time to write out a new receipt, just wrote on the current one that that amount had been paid, and filed that back in the folder of unpaid bills.  I have to have another receipt to go with every payment, so that one I didn’t get written was the one that threw me off.  I sure hope that doesn’t happen again!  

Missionaries have been in the office the last 2 weeks because of interviews.  They aren’t finished yet, so there should still be interviews going on this week.  This is the last week for the current mission president.  Saturday the new one arrives.

In planning our long weekends to go to grandchildren baptisms, I was working around transfer weeks….we can’t be gone then—too much to do!  Those are my busiest weeks.  But, I forgot to check the calendar for other events, and happened to pick weeks of zone conferences…hopefully the new president will be understanding of us being gone the ends of those 2 times.  Crazy that both of them ended up on zone conference times rather than interview times!   I will have to get someone to be in the office then, as usually I am the only one there when the rest go to the conferences.  I hope it isn’t too difficult to find me a sub!  As for Gary, he goes to the conferences and has a little presentation he does, about 15 minutes, so it should be fine for him I’m sure.  Unless the new president plans on using the office staff a little more at that time.  The other thing Gary does at zone conferences is help with the car inspections, but hopefully that will work out okay too.  Oh, well, the first one is set in stone, reservations made.  The other one is pretty much set too, just waiting for the okay to start making plane reservations.  So it all has to work out okay!  

Crazy thing happened Monday….when I got the mail, there was a bill for a toll charge for crossing the Golden Gate bridge——back in October!!!  It was for $6.  The way the Bay bridge toll systems work, we have learned, is they photo your license plate to bill you.  They WANT you to prepay online before crossing the bridges, but we had no idea!  We drove across when we were with Melissa and Tim when they were in San Francisco for a medical conference.  We thought it was strange that there was no one in the toll booth to pay, and just figured it had to do with the government shut down that was going on at the time.  Other things, like Alcatraz, were closed down and you couldn’t go to them.  So, we just didn’t worry about it.  And then we get this bill in the mail 8 months later!  No wonder the state has money problems!  Plus, on the way they handle things with cars……we see places that say no parking that people park and are never ticketed, places that are no parking one morning or afternoon a month that they catch lots of people on.  We have seen so many cars with expired license plates…..and nothing is ever done.  I mean they are way past the dates….like some a year or more over.  It is almost a joke!  And registering a car isn’t cheap here, so they are losing so much money by not going after them.  Only in California!

Wednesday evening I had my first class at the Apple store for my new Mac.  It was fun learning things I didn’t know on the operating of it.  Problem is, I couldn’t remember it all when I came home, but I didn’t take notes because I was doing the stuff so no time to write it down.  I will try to keep taking as many classes as I can while we are here and so close to an Apple store.  It takes me about 10 minutes to get to the mall, and another 10 to park and get inside.  I hope the more I learn, the more I will remember and be able to use.  The next class I signed up for is on iPhoto….that should be fun!   I need to remember as much as I can, though, because Elder Michie also got a new Mac and didn’t sign up to have classes, so he wants me to show him what I learn!

Our neighbors have been noisy and partying late an loud again.  The Crockett’s have complained to management about it.  We hope that the management will take care of the problem, or they will want to move for sure.  Part of the problem is that the pool isn’t locked up at 9 like it is supposed to be, and these people pretty much take over the pool with their friends and party loud and late.  We will see what happens in the next week, and if it isn’t resolved, Gary will meet with the managers and talk with them.  There is no sense making these rules if they aren’t going to enforce them for the benefit of all who live here in such close quarters.

Yesterday, Saturday, after our laundry and cleaning, I went to Gilroy with the other 2 office ladies and went shopping at the outlet mall.  I got me a new top and a new pair of shoes.  Today I wore the new shoes to church, and got a blister on the back of my left foot!  Gotta get them broke in better, I guess!

Well, another busy week ahead!  We love hearing from those who email, and talking to our kids on the phone occasionally.   I missed face timing with Shelley’s family today, because I was tired and took a little nap during the time she tried to contact us…..sorry Shelley!  This darn time zone difference!  

We got a letter in the mail from our stake leaders back home written to all the missionaries serving from our stake.  It had a good thought in it that I really liked.  It was from a Youth Conference talk by Brother Bill McKee on loving the Lord with ALL our heart.  Are we ALL in?  Are we straddling the threshold with one foot in the world and one on the Lord’s side?  The world has things that are not all bad.  The family you left behind, your car, or big truck, a girl…etc. (remember, this is written to all missionaries, so this is geared to the young ones).  We cannot be truly effective in the work of the Lord until we have both feet on His side of the threshold.  Truly committed to the work.  Put the world behind us.  So we need to think:  where do I stand?  Am I ALL in?  Some days are hard…we all have days like that.  We just need to remind ourselves, ask ourselves…am I ALL in?

Have a good week, all of you, and take care!  Let us know what is up in your lives!  

And let’s work to be ALL IN!!

June 15, 2014

June 15, 2014

Happy Father’s Day!

We have face timed with our 3 daughters and their families so far today, and Gary was wished a happy father’s day by them.

We have had great weather this week….70’s and 80’s.  All the vegetation looks beautiful, there is always something blooming, different things than I am used to so I have no idea what they are called.  You can actually tell by looking at some of the trees that they have been in a drought for a few years……some are dying.  But most everything else looks beautiful.  The sad thing is, for living in a place that has such beautiful vegetation, there are a number of people who don’t care about keeping their city beautiful.  There is a lot of trash by the sides of the roads all the time.

This past week has been busy, and I expect the office to be busy the next 2 weeks until the change of mission presidents on June 28th.  President Watkins is interviewing missionaries every day, so the office is constantly full of missionaries.  It is nice to see them, but when it is a constant all day long thing, it starts to interfere with the work day a bit.  They want to visit with us while they are waiting, which is fine to a point, but we do have a lot of work that needs to get done too.  So it is a fine line for us........to enjoy the visits with the young kids and to get our work done.

Friday night we had a fun night planned…..we bought tickets 2 or so months ago to go to the Oakland A’s vs the New York Yankees.  We drove up to Fremont to catch BART (the train in the bay area) and take it to the stadium.  It took us an hour to drive that far….twice as long as it would have if we weren’t caught in traffic.  Then another 26 minutes I think it was to the stadium by train.  By the time we arrived at the stadium, and were getting our seats, the game was beginning.  It was a good game….the Yankees won!  But it was a long night…..by the time we got home, it was 1:30 when we were getting into bed.  

So, after that late night, it was to be expected that we would sleep in somewhat.  I woke up at 8:45, and by 9 we were up and getting ready for the day.  We had our usual Saturday activities to get done in a few hours, because we needed to leave here before 1:30 to head to our church building to catch a bus chartered by the Foothill ward and head to the temple…..it was so nice of them to invite our branch to ride with them.  Gary kept commenting how it was the most pleasant trip to the temple yet, because we didn’t have to worry about the traffic!  So in the morning we cleaned and did laundry quickly….I even had stuff washing here and in the laundry room of the apartment complex to get done faster.  Then we did our grocery shopping for the week and had lunch and changed clothes to leave.  We got home Saturday night about 8:30.  The temple is now closed until Aug. 5th for cleaning etc. to get ready for the 50th anniversary of the temple.

Today, I was assigned to speak in church.  I got asked on Tuesday, so I only had those few days to work on it……since Friday night and Saturday were already filled up.  It isn’t long to speak in the branch, I think I have mentioned it before, because you have to allow time for translation.  So it was okay.  This was my second time to speak in the branch.  After church, they had a social.  I didn’t remember hearing them mention it last week, though they said they did.  So, I didn’t bring anything, but that was okay, there was plenty of food.  We left earlier than most because we knew kids would be starting to contact Gary for Father’s Day.  We also both got in a brief nap today too.

So, here we are to the end of another week’s report, and getting ready for another week’s work! This week, on Thursday, we will hit our 10 month mark.  

When the new mission president arrives on June 28th, he will be immediately involved in planning for transfers……he will have the one week, and the next week are transfers.  Talk about jumping in with both feet!  We look forward to getting to know him and his family, but I am a little apprehensive at having to train him on the bank stuff with the credit cards which I just got trained on a week ago…..an updated program, so a little different setup than I was used to.  I hope the transition and the learning of office things goes well.  I am not the greatest teacher…..or very good at explaining things.   Oh, well, que sera sera!  

Bye bye!

Yankees at the Oakland A's - June 13, 2014

June 8, 2014

June 8, 2014

Busy week, and we were both so tired we took a nap this afternoon!  I sure hope I don’t pay for it when it is time to go to bed tonight!

Monday, June 2nd - I already told part of the day.  I forgot to mention that for the last Senior Family Home Evening with President and Sister Watkins we had several old timers who live locally who came….those who had served in the office and those that had served as counselors.   Family home evening night is always a later night, so we know in advance we will be a bit tired the next day.   Gary also opened a new apartment today.

Wednesday, after we finished with our usually work day, we headed to the institute to help with the meal that is prepared for the Young Single Adults every Wednesday night.  As mentioned in the past, this meal is under the direction of Elder & Sister Layton, but they have had some problems again with his cancer recurring, so he just recently had surgery again and needed help again while recovering, so we volunteered.  The first week, the Crockett’s helped out (the Cattron’s took over the lead on the meal again both times), and the second week we helped.  Elder Layton said this surgery was a little harder to get recovered from than the first time.  I haven’t heard from them since Monday to see how he is doing, but we sure pray that this time all will be better and that they will have gotten it all.  He is to find out next week, I think it is, what type of treatments he will be doing to make sure it doesn’t come back.

So, Wednesday night was also a late night.  As to the other days, I don’t remember all the specifics.  Gary opened 2 apartments this week total and secured a third…..one in Monterey for the senior couple that are military relations, and the other one and the secured one in Redwood City for young sister missionaries who were being evicted because the building they live in is being sold……we aren’t sure if it is being remodeled totally or torn down and a new one put up…it is a pretty old building I guess.  The 4 sisters had been in a large one bedroom, and Gary was trying to find a 2 bedroom but couldn’t, so got them 2 small 1 bedrooms.  We move into those 2 apartments on the 30th of June and  the 11th of July....we have to be out of the old one on the 15th, so just in time!  The senior couple move this coming Tuesday.  They are moving closer to where they serve.   Gary also was dealing with a bedbug issue in some elders apartments this week, and had to take out their mattresses and destroy them, and get them new mattresses and had them sealed in something that keeps the bugs out and the apartment management was spraying or whatever they do to the apartment.  They had tried that before, the spraying, but thought maybe by getting rid of the mattresses it would work this time.

We have another apartment we are being evicted from in July that Gary has to start looking around for another one.  This one has elders in it, and they just don’t want us anymore.    We don’t know all the details, whether they just don’t like us, or what the elders have been doing, but we have been told that there were several complaints, so we are evicted from there, and not fighting it.   I have my doubts that the elders are totally innocent in the situation.  Just knowing how they have been on their power bills that I pay each month…..WAY higher than others…..I know they aren’t following some of the rules and trying to be obedient.

This week was busy everyday for me.  Usually by this point in the transfer cycle I have some slower times, but it didn’t occur this week.  Part of the reason is that President Watkins is doing interviews, and all of them are in the office.  They are long interviews….we have heard of one lasting 1 1/2 hours!   So, every day we have lots of missionaries in the office waiting for their turn for an interview, and while in they are bored and spend time talking with us in our offices, asking if there is anything they can do for us,  and ordering things or paying for things.  So, it keeps us busy.

The change in mission presidents takes place on Saturday, June 28th.  We don’t know yet what to expect on the change, when we meet the new president or what he will expect of us.  The next transfers will be the week of July 9th, so he will be busy getting ready for that I am sure, then getting ready for zone conferences.  He will definitely have to hit the ground running!

Saturday we just did the usual laundry, cleaning and shopping.  I ended up making an appointment at the apple store because some things on my new computer weren’t going right.  Earlier, the first time I did my journal entry and saved it, I couldn’t drag and drop that entry into the correct folder…..it just wouldn’t work!  Melissa face timed with me on the iPad, and tried to talk me through stuff, but what she told me to do didn’t work.  Later in the week, that part started going okay, so I don’t know what was wrong before, but now it works.  However, when I tried to do some things in iTunes, I couldn’t move things around there either.  And the icon by the music said file not found.  So, at the appointment, the guy said he didn’t know what had happened, but the music files weren’t in the place they should have been.  He moved things around, had to get rid of everything I had in playlists so I spent yesterday evening getting those things partially put back in playlists, but he got it working for me.  I hope it is all okay now.  I need to try different things to see if everything is where it should be and working as it should.  He said if I find other issues, I may need to bring it back along with my old computer, and do a retransfer of files.  So far, things look okay, so that may not need to happen!  Saturday, we also took a drive through a local cemetery here, and found it was WAY bigger than it first appeared!  It was very interesting seeing headstones with all types of writing on them in the various languages.  

Today was ward conference in our little branch.  We probably had as many stake visitors as we had branch members!  The theme was on hastening the work.  It is a wonderful feeling to know that we are a part of that hastening by serving this mission at this time.  We talked recently with the 2 ladies that serve with us in the office about this topic….how the office work is different than the rest of the mission, but that it is needed work to keep things running smoothly to help in the hastening of the work.  Needed but hard at times and way too busy some days!   In relief society today, a member of the stake relief society presidency taught the lesson.  She talked about how Satan tries to discourage us, make us feel insignificant and unimportant.  She shared scriptures that showed how important we are to the Lord……each one of us is important and loved.  That is always a good reminder.

Well, this week we have a fun thing to look forward to……we bought tickets awhile back to go to a baseball game in Oakland this coming Friday.  The Yankees are playing there.  Sister Nedreberg is going with us.   More on that next week.

Bye for now!

June 3, 2014

June 3, 2014

My update is late this week because I got a new computer!  Yeah!  Typing in the past had been a pain because my “L” key has been broken for some time, so it took several taps on the spot it should have been to get the “L” to show on the screen.  Saturday, we decided to go and finally get me one.  I got a Macbook Pro this time—I was tired of PC’s, and had 2 daughters who had Mac’s and were very pleased with them, so I took the plunge.  So, I left my old PC with them to transfer my files, and picked it up yesterday.  However, because of yesterday’s schedule, tonight is the first time I had a chance to actually open it up and use it.

So, for my weekly update............ 

Can you believe it is actually June already???  Here is the latest for us:

Monday, May 26th, Memorial Day.  We went to the beach, down a little past Monterey and Carmel to Point Lobos State Reserve.  We went on a hike there with some of the young sisters, Sister Bradshaw, Sister Fischetti, Sister Mehr, and Sister Zidek.  We had the other 2 office Sisters with us, Sister Wilks and Sister Nedreberg.  They just did a little walk and spent time at the museum there.  It felt so good to actually do a good workout like that hike!  After the time there, we went to lunch with everyone at a Mexican restaurant in Monterey.  Then headed for home.  We didn’t want to be too late, and it was good we left when we did.  The traffic was horrible!  We were on the highway that connects between Hwy 1 and 101 from Monterey, and were at a complete standstill.  We noticed several other cars moving over to the left lane, and at the stoplight that was there, turning left and getting off the road, so we decided to go to and find another way to 101.  We got to Hwy 1 and headed north aways until we got to a road that our GPS told us to take.  We finally made it to 101, and headed home, still in lots of traffic but moving.  We wondered if there had been an accident or something on the other highway to stop us like that, but we never learned for sure what was going on.  

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were the usual transfer activities, keeping us busy as usual.  Friday, I had letters to get out to the apartment managers, letting them know the missionaries that now lived in their apartments.  This is a busy time, but was made busier because there was a leadership meeting going on in the office too for the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders…..so over 40 missionaries in the office from 9 to about 2:30.  Every time they had a break, there would be some coming in my office to do business.  This doesn’t usually happen on the Friday after transfers.  Usually, it is pretty quiet in the office and I am able to get my work done quickly.  I was hurrying to get the letters done before the end of the day so I could get them in the mail.  Because of my hurrying and the busyness of the day, I never had time to eat lunch or even get a drink of water all day long.  And, we ended up working till about 6.  Most of the days during the transfer week we work 9 to 10 hour days.  But, I got my work done.  

Saturday, I was beat.  I slept in until 7, then just laid there because I was still so tired, and dozed off and on until a little after 8, then I got up and we started working on the laundry, cleaning and the grocery shopping.  That evening after all was done was when we went to look at the Apple store and I made my purchase.

Sunday, church.  After church, Gary had a meeting with Brother Bui, which was late starting.  We had 2 ladies to take home after church who sat there with me waiting, and finally they told Tien Bui (in Vietnamese) that they needed to get home, so he took them home.  If I had known how long it would be, I could have taken them home right after church and still gotten back in time to get Gary.  We didn’t get home till around 2, and church is out at 12:30.  We chatted with Shelley’s family for quite awhile, and with Jeff for a bit.

Monday, work. During the day on Monday, I took a little personal time and ran my errand to the Apple store to pick up my computer.  I had gotten a call earlier that said the data transfer was done and I could come get it.  So I got it and dropped it off at home and headed back to the office.  We were all late leaving the office because a young sister was waiting for her companion to come and get her after she had been to a doctor appointment, and they were late in arriving. So, we were late leaving the office this day…..it was about 5:30 when we left, and we were supposed to pick up the Michie’s at that time to head for Senior Family Home Evening.  So we got there a little late.  This was the last family home evening with President and Sister Watkins.  There was a surprise presentation after the meal……Brother and Sister Lambert had coordinated a special gift for them—a quilt that Sister Lambert had made and Sister Davis had quilted on her quilting machine.  The rest of us donated money towards it.  It had the names of the senior missionaries embroidered on the back.  I will put some pics of it on here later.  

Well, that catches me up till next weekend!