Sunday, 7 November 2010

This past week has been like no other on our mission.  Tuesday was transfer day and we had more missionaries in and out of the office than we've seen since we've been here.  It was fun to visit with them, but of course, we didn't get a lot of work done.  Thank goodness I was prepared and had things caught up.  There were fourteen missionaries who went home, some to Hong Kong, Guatemala, Tonga, Fiji, and the US.  We sure love those missionaries and will miss them.

On their last day in the mission, the missionaries had lunch with the mission president and his wife, did a temple session with them, had dinner in the mission home and bore their testimonies to one another.  Those who were picked up by their parents left after the testimony meeting, and those who flew home spent the night in the mission home.  Ken and I cleaned up the kitchen and stayed until 9:30 to see the parents leave with their missionaries.  It’s a tear-jerker to see families reunited for the first time in 2 years or eighteen months.

We arrived early Wednesday morning around 7:30 to say goodbye to the missionaries and take the president's children to school.  The mission president and his wife, the assistants, and the office elders took the departing missionaries to the airport and picked up 14 arriving ones. 

The fresh-from-the-MTC missionaries, from Hong Kong, Japan, Fiji, and the US, were brought to the mission office where they received driver safety training from Ken, medical info from the nurse, apartment rules from the housing coordinator, and instruction from the mission president.  I copied their passports and drivers' licenses and updated iMOS (internet Missionary Office System) with their correct addresses and other information. 

At noon the new missionaries were taken to a Chinese buffet by the mission president, assistants, and office elders, and we breathed a sigh of relief to have a little time to get some work done.  When they came back to the office and the mission president completed his interviews, everyone went to the Visitors’ Center and walked around the beautiful temple grounds.  At 5:00 dinner was served in the mission home and afterwards the missionaries met their trainers. Again we stayed late and went home about 9:30.

This schedule is typically what we follow every transfer.  It’s sad and exciting and lots of hard work.  We’re always exhausted during transfer week.

Thursday was supposed to be a calm day at the office.  Instead, while the mission president and his wife and all the zone leaders (20) and sister trainers (4) were on a spiritual, six-mile run after their zone leader training meeting, someone smashed two windows in their parked van and a missionary car and stole backpacks, cameras, cell phones, and wallets that were locked in the trunk of the car.  Some of the backpacks and scripture cases were tossed out of a truck on the streets of Oakland and good people returned them.  Seven missionaries had items stolen.  All credit cards had to be stopped and this took some time.  The amazing thing is the great attitudes of these missionaries.  All of them took it so well.  We spent most of the day Thursday working on this problem.  After all this, we had a long drive to Antioch to do some missionary business and decided to fix all our problems with a great dinner and dessert from Outback! 

We got to the office at 7:30 on Friday to receive an overnighted package from Salt Lake for a sister who had to return to her country to renew her visa, the mission president had new leader training in his office, and several of those whose belongings were stolen came in.  We were able to leave the office around 5:30 to come home and wash clothes and clean house.  Saturday we had to be at the office again at 7:30 and worked until after 4:00.  Finally, we went to Montclair, a nearby village where we love to shop and walk around.  We bought the stuff we needed for our Thanksgiving dinner, came home and had a great meal and played some Scrabble.

Today, we picked up Disraeli and her sister for church and for the first time since we began picking up the girls and their mom eight months ago, we were on time for sacrament meeting!  The mother didn’t go today.  Ken confirmed Disraeli a member of the Church, which was a highlight of our mission.  I took a long afternoon nap and feel great!