Murphy's Law Reigns Supreme

Some days I work backward better than forward. This was one of those days. Four weeks before our next group of missionaries enter the MTC I send out a follow-up letter reminding elders and sisters of the things that we still need to receive, ie., a letter to the President, personal and motor vehicle reports, bike info and if it's been ordered and current cell phone and work numbers and email and/or change of addresses. Can you imagine a missionary moving after they've turned in their papers? :)

All the letters were ready--signed and sealed--and put aside to be mailed on Monday. Because it's transfers next week I'm doing as much as possible this week. When I say everything will hit the fan that's not an understatement. Then I realized that the checklists were included in the sealed and stamped envelope without the president's letter.  Oh, boo!  I gently pealed off the stamp because there's no way I was wasting all those forever stamps. I'll get over the squandered envelopes. Okay. Round two. Got the letters printed and they were totally unacceptable. For some reason the recipient's' addresses were right underneath the letterhead address with no space at all. Um no--that won't work! Can I just go back, put a space and reprint. Oh no! It requires going to "home," to "letters," to the arrival date, get the incoming list, generate a PDF report, edit, retype all the addresses, then print. You'd better believe that I went immediately and changed the template, because when I do this again in 6 weeks I won't remember that there was a problem.  Round three. This time everything was perfect and ready to go again when the mailman (yes mailman, not mail person) delivered the mail which included a returned first pre-MTC packet saying "unclaimed" for an elder who's supposed to be getting the 2nd letter next week. No wonder he hasn't returned any of the requested information! I'll get to the rest of this story later.

We had our 8th accident--one of which was totaled--in 5 weeks. Another missionary is now "red-dotted" for making a lane change and sort of swiping the car in the next lane. So glad Elder Adkins does those reports.

There was a message from Miss D in Salt Lake who'd been in New Orleans and made contact with someone who'd like to talk to the missionaries. Great! Those are good referrals, so I called her back to get the important details, like name, address, phone number, and I reached a wrong number. Really, Mimi? You can't even write the number correctly? And of course I'd erased the message. I'm praying, yes really praying, that Miss D will call back. She's already thinking I'm a flake for not contacting her.

One of the 2nd pre-MTC letter is going to an elder with some minimal special needs. He lives in one state and his mom and step-dad live in another. We've had more contact with step-dad than with the elder. Step-dad (I don't like that term so I'm going to call him dad) has been attentive and concerned. We sent him a copy of several pages so he'd know what Elder G needs to do. Here's another elder who also hasn't turned anything in yet. So I called dad, and, as luck would have it, the number's been disconnected. End of the line for that communication. If we don't hear from Elder G soon, Elder L will get to call the Bishop for assistance.

All of this before noon and I was starting to talk to myself--out loud. But then the day started to turn for the better. I finally got to the box in the mail that was addressed to Elder Lauper, aka Elder Cajun, and Sister Lauper, aka Sister Cajun 2 or Sister Creole. It was from Bronson and Rosa and was filled with Trader Joe goodies-salted butterscotch caramels, English toffee, Belgian cookies, dried cranberries, sesame honey cashew, dried persimmons and artwork from Ara (and her dad)! Thanks Lauper's, for a taste of home.

Someone's house in Denham Springs Stake burned down awhile ago. That's not the good news. I'm not sure who was doing a fundraiser to help with the expenses of rebuilding, but a member of the DS Stake Presidency told the elders to come and pick up food for all of us in the office. So we dined on jambalaya, rice and white beans.

The travel request for go-homes goes into the computer 3 months before their releases. I managed to get 10 into the system without incident but went over every bit of it with a fine tooth comb every step of the way. Electronics just keep amazing me. Almost immediately it shoots back a list with every traveller, their ID#, travel date, departing and arriving airports and confirmation #.  Whew. That was a relief.

Wonderful news about the missionary from yesterday who'll be going home tomorrow for surgery.  It's serious enough to need to go home and get taken care of but not debilitating or life threatening. Another answered prayer.

I managed to burn CDs for next week's go-homes without any help, because there was no one in the office who could help. In fact, there was no one in the office at all, so I was on my own and determined to be successful.

It gets better. A mom, whose missionary was supposed to enter the mission field about 6 months ago called to say he definitely wouldn't be coming out. All I know about the elder is that it started with medical problems before he entered the MTC. They'd already had a new bike sent and it's being stored in its original box in the mission home garage. Could she donate it to a needy elder? She's also sending a new helmet and bike lock. Normally we can't even try to help missionaries buy and sell bikes because of liability issues which I've mentioned before, but I told mom I'd see what we could do. This becomes the Paul Harvey "rest of the story."

After the pre-MTC #1 packet came in the mail I tried to call the elder but only got his voicemail. I left a message but didn't hear from him yet. We called his Bishop but could only talk to the wife as he was at work. We were going to call tonight, but Sister Bishop called back and told us we could get more information from the Ward Exec Secretary. He didn't answer either so Marc called tonight to request a usable address. Brother S said we could send it to him and he'd help the elder get things completed. Then the sensitive question--would the ward be helping to support the elder? Brother B said they'd be assisting. I forgot to mention that the elder's parents are both non-members, divorced, and he doesn't live with either of them but has been on his own for awhile. You've already figured out that the bike was meant for this elder. It's no coincidence that the returned envelope and phone call came the same day. And to make this better, President Wall popped into the office about the time we were getting ready to leave, and I was able to explain the situation to him. His response was "Yeah! Let's do it!" He had absolutely no reservations. Wonderful man! I"m thinking about the mom whose son won't be serving but the joy she'll receive knowing that she's contributing to someone else's mission for the entire 2 years. This is just one of the mission miracles and another "tender mercy" of the Lord.

This is my last story, because it's 9:40 and past my bedtime. Sister Wall mentioned that she was looking for more Pink Lemonade cake mix and frosting but hadn't been able to find it. We needed to go to Target so I thought I'll just see if they had any. It's a spring thing so won't be in the stores for long. I texted Sister Wall thinking we'd found it when Marc brought to my attention that it was just the cake mix, not the frosting. Too late:(  Sister Wall texted right back and was so excited, and I was so in trouble. So now the quest was on. Lucky me. It only took one more store to find the rest.  Happy day!

I thought I was done, but NO.  Sadly, Marc just got a call from President Wall that another vehicle was just totaled.  And their 2 bikes were on the back as he was rear-ended by a truck whose transmission failed. Luckily no one was hurt, and it wasn't the missionary's fault. No red dot! Now I'm really done and heading for La La Land. Warning. I won't be proofreading this till tomorrow.

How much do I love my friends?

We found this on the counter when we came into the office this morning.  Funny thing is we don't know who left it, but, more curious is how they got in.  None of that really matters because the thought is so kind and just made us smile.  So thanks, nice missionaries, whoever you are.  Y'all'd think that this was written by someone in the South!

I had an email from my new Seegmiller family friend.  Her great-great-grandfather, Daniel, is my great-grandfather's brother.  (That makes us something like 3rd cousins once removed and makes me a lot older than her.)  When Daniel's died his son, Adam, moved to Cedar City, and their family has been there ever since.  I'll meet her mom sometime after September next year, because she and her husband are on their way to Chicago to serve a mission!  

I received another email from a dear friend in Hacienda Heights today.  It always makes me happy, but brings the tears on, thinking about special people we left in California.  This is one of the priceless pictures she included, and it seems very appropriate to share it because we've had a few sad phone calls lately, but they're not my stories to tell so I won't share the details.  But missionaries are wonderful and always there to help. One set of elders said they'd leave right away to give a blessing that had been requested from a non-member. We also may have a missionary who'll possibly be going home for serious surgery. Sometimes bumps in the road seem more like mountains to climb. How grateful I am for the power of prayer and the ability to trust in the Lord.  

Times like these remind me of Elder Scott's General Conference address, October 1995, when he said, "Now may I share some suggestions with you who face...adversity, the testing that a wise Heavenly Father determines is needed even when you are living a worthy, righteous life and are obedient to His commandments.  

Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more.  He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit.  To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain."

Reorganizing computer files

After getting over the disappointment of not getting ANY NEW MISSIONARIES today, I regrouped and formulated a plan for the day.  Usually Tuesday are filled partially with packets, summaries and cards, and we'd gone into the office really early to get started.  Onto Plan B!

In our meeting yesterday Pres Wall mentioned that he'd like to have each of the missionaries write a letter or note to the incoming president as a little introduction.  And it would be nice if it had their picture on it.  Elder Asuao jumped right on it and offered to get it organized before I had a chance to say anything.  Knowing the situation with the pictures and getting them off IMOS, I told Elder A that I'd start downloading them--all 208. That includes go homes and missionaries that aren't even here yet, but will be soon.  He and Elder Griffin and the office elders had their district meeting today, so by the time they returned I'd finished my job.  Then Elder A designed a nice page with the picture, lines and heading.  I'm telling you, these elders are so good at what they do, and they can do anything.  He brought in a sample with the first elder in the alphabet and asked what I thought.  I thought it was brilliant and told him so!

Once that was complete I needed to get a list of districts, missionaries, phone #'s and addresses in the Denham Springs Zone to the DS Stake President.  All of that information is kept in IMOS, and I had to figure out how to access it.  After pulling up a variety of reports, including next week's transfers (oops!) I found what I thought would work, figured out how to generate it and how to eliminate certain elements that weren't necessary--like missionaries' entering the MTC and release dates.  Got that sent off. Wahoo!  I felt like I was on a roll.

With some new challenges under my belt I thought I could use the rest of the afternoon to start getting packets ready for the incoming orientation but couldn't find any originals for several of the pages that needed to be copied.  Rather than making copies of copied copies I contacted different offices in SLC and they emailed what I needed, pronto! I couldn't believe how quickly they sent things out.  Talk about accommodating.  I did some cutting and pasting, made a new folder in Microsoft 2013 then proceeded to fill the file with pertinent information that was in other document locations.  Now they're all in one place and ready to go.  As a side note, one of the ladies I emailed in SLC was a Seegmiller.  I told her my grandma was a Seegmiller and did she have any family in St. George.  She has 2nd and 3rd cousins but is actually from Cedar City! I told her we'd moved there just before our mission, and that's when we came home.  Maybe I'll find out more about her tomorrow.

Since I was in "making new files" mode, I decided to organize the rest of the documents as much as possible.  At 5:30 I looked at the clock and left the rest of the arrangingccategorizing and consolidating till tomorrow.

Lightening and Angels--But Not Together

We had another massive rain/lightening storm last night, so I mustered up my courage to go outside. To my disappointment, the lightening was directly over the roof and I wasn't willing to get soaked just to snap a picture of lightening bolts.  After all, I'd just washed my hair and the law says I can't do that again till Wednesday.:)  Good law!  So this is what I managed--the sky before and during the lightening. Needless to say, our room was like someone was just standing there flipping the light switch up and down and up and down and up and you get the picture.

I like our office meeting more and more each week.  Marc and I are feeling much more comfortable and able to ask questions and contribute without feeling like were still at the bottom of the totem pole.  (I think we still are--we just don't feel like it:)  President Wall had the spiritual thought this morning and shared a "tender mercy" story from one of our missionaries who'd shared it with him in a weekly letter. Two weeks ago had been a challenging week for the missionary and companion.  They'd been working hard and trying their best but to no avail.  Then last week was amazing for them.  They had some "miracle finds" in unusual places, such as riding on the bus.  The missionary said "I became aware that my older brother (who'd passed away a few years ago) was helping prepare them from the other side of the veil." Then, in the letter, Alma 13:24-25 was quoted: "For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory.  And now we only wait to hear the joyful news declared unto us by the mouth of angels, of his coming' for the time soon cometh, we know not how soon..."

This reminded me of the book, The Message, by Lance Richardson who had a near death experience. I remember him saying that while he was on the other side of the veil he communicated with a cousin who'd previously passed away.  The cousin told Lance that he was able to help his family more from the spirit world than he could in mortality.  Unfortunately I didn't bring the book with me, so I can't quote him exactly, but I think it's fairly close.

General Conference Weekend

I decided to come up for air after burying myself in General Conference.  This is one of my 2 favorite weekends of the whole year, and I have a hard time letting it go.  This weekend was no different.  As always the talks were so wonderful and my head is spinning with who said what.  Good thing it'll be online on Thursday.  I do have a confession.  I don't remember sustaining anyone after the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  I resurfaced for Elder Hales.  Today I napped in between sessions--not during!

Elder Watkins and Elder Adkins came over both mornings and we had what's become a tradition. Saturday is now Heidi's hashbrown casserole, and Sunday, as it has been for about 60 years, is Bisquick coffee cake (tweaked and definitely improved by Ryan), which the younger generations have renamed conference cake.  That's probably a bit more appropriate.

Here's the problem with today's blog.  I took some conference notes, just in case I need to converse intelligently at the office tomorrow. But just like the Womens Broadcast, they'll be in print soon. And I'm too impatient to start transcribing 2 dozen talks.  I should've done that after each session. I have many "should haves" in my life.

I will say this.  The talks were inspiring and have given me plenty to think about and improve on.  Our church leaders have such tender hearts and great spirits, and I had no idea that Elder Zwick was so dramatic.

The Naked Mole Rat

Bright and early this morning Elder Asuao and Elder Griffin came in with their new "pet"--the naked mole rat.  He was in this battered box with a screen on one half and a hinged lid on the other.  Elder A said he was probably asleep so I looked closely to see if I could find him. Elder A slowly lifted the lid and I started to move back, but not soon enough.  Snap! Out he popped. This furry thing on the end of an arm attached to a mousetrap or something like that.  I must've jumped three feet, and Elder E just about died laughing.  I wasn't sure he was ever going to stop.  What a great joke. And I fell for it hook, line and sinker.  When Elder Fontenot came in the 4 elders tried to convince him to look inside but Elder F wasn't having any of it.  "You get that dirty thing out of here! Do you know how dirty and awful they are? Get him out!" He was hilarious with his truly Cajun vocals.  Elder E finally lifted the lid and we all had another good laugh.  I tried it once more when Elder McCutcheon and Elder McMurry brought us brownies.  Not very nice of me, but it worked like a charm--again!

The Assistants and Office Elders asked we 3 seniors if we'd like to go to Uncle E's for a hamburger lunch.  My response was, "Elder Lauper never met a hamburger he didn't like."  So off we went to Uncle E's.  Talk about a hole in the wall dive, but the burgers were great.  Let's just say, Marc and I aren't having dinner tonight!  That's Elder Watkins with a double burger, and I don't know what Elder Griffin ordered but they were huge! And Elder Griffin gave out a few fliers for the Gladys Knight fireside along with a Book of Mormon.

I had another good visit with Elder Griffin today.  The weather was pretty bad this morning--bad as in lightening and thunder.  I'm not sure, but it was probably the President who texted the missionaries and told them to stay close to home or maybe not go out if not necessary and especially not on bikes.  So Elder G was telling me about an experience he had when he was about 14.  Of course he thought it was great at the time.  His family lived near Logan back then, and they had a big porch.  He was outside on the porch when lightening struck and split a tree nearby, and it hit so hard that it knocked him off his feet.  His grandpa also experienced lightening one time when he was milking a cow.  It came down through one cow, up through the next one, then down through the third one, through her udders where grandpa was milking.  The first cow died and poor Grandpa never spoke again.  Now that's a very sad story.

Grandpa S

I love Grandpa S!  He's the sweetest man from Idaho.  The first time I talked to him he was baking cookies.  Don't ask me how I knew that.  From what I can surmise, he's doing a lot to help his grandson get out on his mission.  Mom is supportive, but I think she works, so her dad is stepping in to assist.  I don't think dad lives nearby as the parents are divorced.  Anyway, Gpa is so attentive to all his elder's needs.  The second time we spoke he wanted to be sure he had all the info needed to order grandson's bike.  Then he called again today to let me know the bike has been ordered and should be delivered next week.  Would I mind emailing him to let him know it arrived? Of course I wouldn't mind.  I hope I get to meet Gpa someday.  Also, he met our new President Hansen when he was in Boise.  He'd driven a bus full of cheerleaders to Boise for a competition, and his wife was chaperoning.  They must be very young or young-at-heart grandparents. While they had some free time they met the Hansen's at some restaurant.  The connection is Pres Hansen's cousin who lives in Gpa's stake.  Anyway, he says the Hansen's are wonderful people and very excited about coming to Louisiana.  They'd just returned from delivering Elder S to the MTC.  We had a good conversation about that experience:)

That conversation reminded that our next group of incomings did, in fact, enter the MTC yesterday, except for one sister who's already in the Mexico MTC.  That means we're only 13 days away from transfers.  This time we'll really be on our own to prep the incoming packets, do the orientation, pick up the mountain of sandwiches, set up, clean up and all that fun stuff.

I've been trying to make a map of the 6 mission zones and mark where all the companionships live, thinking that it would be useful for referrals and getting them to the right missionaries.  I thought I was finally getting the 2 New Orleans zones slightly figured out when I received a phone call from an elder who said they'd received a referral this morning for someone who, not only didn't live in his district--he wasn't even in their zone! Back to square one.  I should get this under control by June of 2015.