September 28, 2014

This has been a pretty basic week.  The president and the AP’s have been working on the new transfer; Gary was asked input on apartments; Friday was the new leader and new trainer meeting.  This may be the last transfer that I input in the computer…..the AP’s are going to learn how to use the computer transfer board and will take care of that part themselves.  President Mella wants them to do it this way from now on, so we hope they get it okay!  This last week they played around with it, and did an “oops”.  Elder Lundgreen came to me and said they had somehow moved the districts and areas to the wrong zones, and they didn’t know how to fix it.  So, I fixed it for them.  I gave Elder Lundgreen a basic tutorial on how to work with the computer transfer board…..I know young people are a lot smarter on computer technology, so hopefully he gets it and it will be a smooth transition.  They know they can ask me questions about it any time.  They have 6 weeks to play around and learn to understand it before the next transfer.

Speaking of transfers, this is number 10 of 13 for us.  We have 23 leaving this time and 22 coming in (that is of the young missionaries).  I should have been putting the numbers down each time to keep track!  

Saturday, we did the usual cleaning and laundry, and in between laundry loads we did some other things, like grocery shopping.  After one switch of the laundry, we took a drive down to Gilroy to see the Walmart down there.  It is huge!  It is more like the Walmart’s back home.  The rest of them in San Jose, even though they are super Walmart’s, are limited in the quantity or selection of items in the store, and the aisles are VERY crowded.  We have learned that the reason for this is the cost of land in San Jose, and I think they also have a limit on the size of stores here.  It was refreshing to see the space in the Gilroy store.  I know, crazy to be comparing Walmart’s, but hey, we don’t get out much!  Anyway, while in Gilroy, we had lunch at a place called Foster’s Freeze.  It would be comparable to a Dairy Queen, I think.  The sandwiches were good, and the ice cream is great!  On the way there, we decided to drive down Monterey Road the whole way rather than down 101.  It was a more pleasant drive, though a bit slower.  We saw a pumpkin patch with a HUGE pile of pumpkins.  We stopped on the way back and took a picture of it.  I will put it here at the end of this entry.

Today we passed out copies of True To The Faith in Vietnamese or English, whichever they wanted, to members of the branch.  We wanted to get some kind of gift for these members, and this was something we could afford.  We will leave any extras with the Branch Presidency to hand out in the future to those who need one.

Tonight will be the Outgoing Devotional again.  There have been some adjustments in it for this time, because last time went WAY too long!  So, there won’t be so many musical numbers and the missionaries have been told to keep their part really short.  We shall see how the change goes.  This devotional is unique to this mission, we have been told, and President Mella was told he could eliminate it if he wanted to, but he has enjoyed it too, except for the extremely long one last time (it went about 3 hours!).  So, he has said if we can’t adjust the time length of it to make it more reasonable, and if the missionaries can’t reduce their part to a testimony (they are to realize that the meeting isn’t about them, it is about the spirit), anyway, if these things don’t happen, it may get deleted in the future.  It is supposed to be a spiritual meeting, with new converts sharing testimony, departing missionaries sharing testimony, so that the investigators visiting can feel of the spirit.

As for family news, Hunter just had his 8th birthday this past week, and Kori and Buddy had their 19th anniversary……now THAT makes me feel old!   Kori said that they were looking at pictures of their wedding, and seeing how we looked so young back then, and then realizing that we would have been close to the ages that they are now!  Wow!  Now that sure shows how time flies!

We didn’t get a chance to talk to Hunter on his birthday, since with time zone differences, it is impossible when we get home from work because by then they are in bed.  So, we face timed with them today.  We will be flying out for the weekend of October 11th for his baptism in Indiana.

That is it for the entry concerning last week.  This week is our crazy, busy week in the office.  We are glad we can serve this mission and help the work move forward, and that we have had the health and strength to do our tasks.  Yes, some days get extremely stressful, but then we get through it and catch our breath.  

We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have a testimony of this gospel.  We love rubbing shoulders with these young missionaries and hearing of their spiritual experiences.  Oh, here is an experience Gary had one day, to show how we are watched over.  He was talking about some new senior missionaries coming soon, and saying how he needed to let people know that he would be in the need of more couches….that is something he doesn’t like to keep in the storage units because they take so much space.  Anyway, not long after he was telling us that in the office….like, less than 1/2 hour…… he got a phone call……someone had a couch to donate!  Miracles do happen, even in our busy office!  And, with the crazy drivers here, we know we have been watched over, especially in looking back at the close calls we have had.

Remember, we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father.  Jesus Christ suffered and died for us.  He is our loving elder brother.  The gospel is true!  Keep the faith!

This is a HUGE pile of pumpkins!

This is the sign for the pumpkin patch.  It looks like a fun place to take kids!