"Daily Dose"

Please don't give up on me! I've blogged but haven't posted the events of this past weekend. Perhaps I'll get around to it one of these days--or weeks--or months!

Today was just me and the office for most of the time. Elder L, Elder F and the office elders went to Natchez and Vidalia on office business which left the whole place for me to work. And I did. I took the messages off the answer machine, and the first one was a request for a "Daily Dose" packet. This is a program the missionaries use to teach English to those whose native language is not English. It's designed to be used in small groups and teaches conversational English for basic life skills, such as going to the bank, the dentist, church, etc. and practicing common words for everyday settings.

To put it nicely, this is not my favorite request because it requires time and space, but fortunately I don't get them very often. Maybe I've made 10-12 in 14 months. There are 48 pages that are printed and laminated. When I first arrived we had a color copier that was on it's way to the electronics graveyard. You couldn't feed the pages in so we had to hand place each page. A few months after we'd been on our own I was going through files trying to figure out what was in them and what I needed to use or discard, and I came across a CD with the program. Happy day. But it gets better. I also went through the computer files and discovered that the whole thing is already downloaded on the computer. So now all I need to do is change to the color printer, press print and hope that the cyan or magenta ink cartridges aren't almost empty. (I always hope that, anyway, because they're about $111 each, and I do have a budget!)

Back to my day. I printed all 48 pages, turned on the laminator, spread out all over the office elders' space and stuffed the papers into the pouches. Then I just kept going back and forth between the back room and my computer till the job was done--about 10:30. No sooner had I labeled a large envelop and tucked everything inside when another elder called asking for a "Daily Dose" packet. Holy Cow! That's what I get for complaining. So I started the process all over but had to quit before I'd even begun the laminating, because there were only 3 pouches left. Fortunately, we have a Staples Advantage account, so the new box of pouches will be delivered tomorrow.