Well, we just finished transfer week again, and as usual, it was full of busy, long days, and not without a lot of stress on some of the days. But, the week is done. The next transfer, we should be training someone, so in some ways it is easier because of extra hands to get the jobs done. In fact, President Mella pulled us aside one morning and said that even though we had volunteered that we could stay longer than our end day, that he has a couple of other plans in mind that he can implement so that we can plan on going home on our original release date, even if no one gets called to take our spots. He will pull some other seniors into the office to be trained. We still have time for someone to be called, it is just getting close now, which is why he has come up with “plan B”. So, that is nice that we can plan now, and call and get doctor and dentist appointments scheduled for when we get back.
This transfer, we lost 20 seasoned missionaries, and received 8 new ones. The good thing is that with electronic media these days, we can, and do, still keep in contact with those who have gone home. It is always exciting to see a friend request on Facebook from one of our missionaries who have “returned with honor” after serving their mission. We love hearing from them all, and seeing the pictures and hearing of the updates that occur in their lives.
I probably have mentioned this before, but the church building we have the mission office in is not in a great location. We have had homeless people camped in the shrubs at the back of the parking lot before, and before the outlets outside the building were closed up, some used to camp right by the front doors of the church and use the outlets to charge up their cell phones! Anyway, over a week ago, Elder Michie had noticed that the same car was in our parking lot every day, with a man inside. He told me that he figured it was a homeless person, just sleeping in his car, but using the parking lot as his place to stay. Because of the vandalism we have experienced to mission vehicles in the parking lot, and the theft that has occurred during meetings (people just come in the back doors and steal items left in the cultural hall), we are extremely leery of someone living in our parking lot! Also, since UPS has just left packages at our door after hours, we are afraid that someone hanging around will start walking off with things that aren’t theirs. Plus, there is the fact that it is posted that you aren’t to just stay there. Anyway, Elder Michie told me I ought to call the police, which I did. They said that if we asked the man to leave and he didn’t, then they could do something, but that they would send a patrol car around to check on things. Elder Michie went out to ask the man to leave, and he was gone already. The patrol car did come by, but too late. However, the car was back in the lot the next time we were in the office. This time, Elder Michie did talk to the man and asked him to leave. The man said his car wouldn’t start, so elders went out and jumped him. He still came back another day. Anyway, on Wednesday, I was late getting to the office after helping with the morning transfer stuff, and when I arrived, there were about 6-8 police cars, a fire engine, and an ambulance! I didn’t know what was going on! I couldn’t get close to the office entrance to park because of all those vehicles, so parked on the far side of the building. As I was walking to the office, I saw Lamar Stuart standing there, and he filled me in. It turns out that a cop had come into the parking lot to check things, was parked away from that car, elders had come out to help the guy again, then the cop (who must have been checking things) found out the car was stolen, and went to get the guy, had him down, the guy was fighting him off, the cop dropped the handcuffs, still fighting the guy and demanding him to lay on the ground, which he wasn’t, warned him he was going to….I don’t know what he said exactly, but get rougher with him is what it amounted to….the guy still was fighting him, and the cop was having a hard time, I guess he slammed him down hard on the ground, one of our elders had to come assist the cop in holding him down, another elder helped in putting the handcuffs on. Then the guy, because he had been slammed down, was bleeding, and started complaining he couldn’t breathe, so that is why the fire engine and ambulance were called in. And I guess the other cops arrived when the first cop had a hard time getting the guy to cooperate….I don’t know the order of things here. Anyway, one of the elders was talking about it later and said if the guy really couldn’t breathe, he wouldn’t have been able to talk like he was, so it was just an excuse. Sister Michie was sitting in her car and saw a lot of what happened, and said she saw the cops pull out a bag of white powder from the car, so he was probably a drug dealer, doing his business in our parking lot! Ah, such is the life in the big city!
And, another piece of excitement that same day….the facilities management team (FM) were also at the building, checking out a problem under the gym floor. They said it was like walking on a trampoline, and they figured there was a leak under the floor. They got big fans in there to dry it out, hired a company to try to find the leak, and closed off the gym, the kitchen, and the bathrooms on the far side of the building. I haven’t heard if they found the leak or not yet, but we have been told it could be 6 months till the building is fully usable again. The bathroom on our side of the building is okay to use. But, we usually use the kitchen and gym during meetings that a luncheon is served, so other arrangements will need to be made there. Also, I don’t know what is going to happen to the Yerba Buena Ward that meets in the building, since they can’t use those areas. I will let you know more when I know any more.
I mentioned last week that the woman being baptized was being done again on Tuesday evening because it hadn’t been done correctly on Sunday. I told the elders we might not be able to make it, depending on how busy Tuesday was for us. They said it was probably better if we didn’t go anyway, because then it made it less stressful for the man performing the baptism if less people were there. So, we didn’t go. The woman was baptized fine, but it was a different person performing the baptism, even though the man had driven down from Fremont (where they live) to try again to get it right. And now we have feelings hurt……the couple didn’t even come to church today. I feel bad for the man…..I had so wanted this to be a good experience for him in exercising his priesthood.
Today in church, I taught the lesson in Relief Society. It was on Missionary Work. It went over well. It was something they all could relate to. In fact, when we started the lesson, I pointed out that in that relief society room, only 1 person had been born in the church….Sister Shelton. The rest of us were all converts! So we got some discussion on their experiences, plus the experiences shared in the lesson manual. I had made a poster to hang up on the chalkboard with a list of 6 ways to be a missionary. I had copied it from the Vietnamese version of the lesson, but every time I write something in Vietnamese, they are so impressed!! I said, I can copy anything, but don’t ask me to draw something! These are letters, so it isn’t hard to copy. But, they comment on me getting all the accent marks right on the words….still, not hard when I am just copying it!
I picked up Sister Ly for church today, and then after church we dropped her off at the church her husband attends. Gary told me as we were driving that my phone was vibrating, so when we got home, I checked the message. It was from President Mella. Apparently this morning, 2 sisters had been in a meeting at their church building, and the one sister had left her purse in the car. Well, thieves apparently checked out cars in the parking lot, saw the purse, and broke the back window of the car to steal it. Inside the purse, for whatever reason, was an elder’s wallet (this sister and elder are in the polynesian program). So, I needed to run to the office and call the bank to cancel their MSF cards. Luckily, it is late in the month. Neither of them had much money on their cards. The elder’s card had been fraudulently used, but the thief only got $3 and something off his card.
Oh, the joys of office missionary work!
Yesterday we got an invitation for dinner with the Michie’s today at 4, so we leave in a few minutes to go there.
Just got back from an excellent dinner at the Michie’s….ham, baked potatoes, cole slaw, asparagus, jello salad, and german chocolate cake. It was yummy! And so nice to sit and visit with good friends!
Oh, I forgot to mention something…..yesterday was the Yearsley family Christmas party back home, and afterward they were having a surprise 85th birthday open house for Gary’s dad. We had hoped to be able to Skype with family, but it didn’t work out. But, Gary had talked to his dad last Sunday, so he had that covered.
Upcoming events:
Wednesday we will be having a mission-wide breakfast, talent show, white elephant type gift exchange and some speaker or something. This will be in the San Felipe building, where we meet for church. The seniors are to help with the breakfast preparation, and are to arrive at 6:30 a.m. I have Sister Withers, who used to work in the office, to cover the office that morning while we are out of it, to get the mail and packages that are delivered. So, I will meet her at 8:45 to let her in the building. Then, if any last minute Christmas boxes arrive for missionaries, she can call me and I will run and pick them up so they can be delivered to the missionaries while they are all together.
Thursday morning, we fly out to Houston for the purpose of being at Logan’s baptism on Sunday. So, we get to spend a few days with all three of our daughters, who had already planned on spending Christmas together! We will be flying home early Monday morning. In fact, our flight gets in at 9:16 a.m.! So, then we go straight to the office to work. Because of being gone next weekend, I doubt I will put a blog entry on until we get home.
We wish all of you a Merry Christmas! Remember the reason for the season! And enjoy your time with family!
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| The poster I used in Relief Society....written in Vietnamese. |
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