Elder Abbott Saves the Day!

Remember the office manual that I spent hours updating? Well, this morning, just after the office elders left for the day and Elder L and Elder F left for New Orleans I went to make another change that needed to be added to the manual. To my surprise, the files were nowhere to be found. No problem. I've had this happen before, so I restarted the computer. Nothing. Maybe I just need to turn it completely off and let it think about regurgitating my documents. Nothing. Now surprise has turned to panic as I unsuccessfully opened file after file after file. Thinking I must've missed something I searched the same files again, then rebooted the computer again. What's that definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Yes, I was bordering on insanity. And it continued, almost exclusively, until about 1:30 when I finally called Bronson, in tears, hoping that he could direct me to something I'd missed or hadn't even thought of. We'd been working for a good 30 minutes when Elder Abbott and Elder Stevenson walked through the door. Elder Abbott had helped Marc with a major computer issue he'd had a few weeks ago, so when I saw him I knew my prayers had been answered. After explaining my plight, Elder A told me that there'd been a problem yesterday with one of the Office Elders' computers and something had crashed. Everything but the past 2 weeks was backed up. But that meant that the only evidence of the new and improved manual was the manual itself. However, it also meant that I hadn't lost all of the files for incoming missionaries, go-homes, orientation, templates for release certificates and certificates of appreciation, commissary lists and order forms, all the information on baptisms and confirmations for Stake Presidents, and a massive amount of other information.

Elder A retrieved a flash drive and replaced all of the lost files. What a massive relief it was to see them again! Not long after everything was resolved, the senior Elders returned, and I unloaded my sad tale. Just before leaving the office I opened several of the files for the manual, and, to my amazement, all of the new documents were there! I'm not asking how or why. I'm just extremely grateful.