Gotta Love Mondays!

I actually love Mondays! I look forward to getting back to the Mission Office and delving into our work.  I also enjoy the office meeting followed by lunch (so far always at Olive Garden).  But just when you think you're getting a handle on things everything gets turned upside down and you wonder if 5 more weeks of training will be enough. We talked about some of the needs for the missionaries in case of emergency, ie, hurricanes, floods or tornados. The discussions about who gets what new cars, which apartments are in safe or not-quite-as-safe locations, which branches want sisters, where the President should speak next month, etc. all go right over my head.  I don't know which districts are in what zones yet, so that's yet another thing I want to learn so conversations will make some sort of sense. I did come home and make a color-coded, alphabetized list of all the districts so when someone mentions a district I'll immediately know where it is. Maybe I need a crash course in Louisiana geography! And then there's the "Ditch." That's what they call the Mississippi River down here. It snakes and winds it's way through our mission and you have to know where and how to cross it to be most convenient and use the least amount of miles on the 52 mission cars. I'm glad that's not my responsibility.

One of our missionaries went home today but must have missed his connecting flight so was on standby for another. Pres Wall asked me to see if he made the flight. That took a little doing but was finally accomplished without breaching airline security. Actually, I glad it happened while Sister Olsen was still here for some assistance.  The mom was SO excited when I called to tell her what time her missionary would be arriving. That was fun because I could hear the excitement in her voice and knew what she was feeling.

We're getting information together to send to the new Mission President as Pres & Sister Wall will be released at the end of June. Got out this weeks birthday cards, updated incoming and outgoing list, changed a go home date, processed information from incoming missionaries, ordered a few name tags, had to call some elders to tell them that the people below them in their apartment had complained because they were bouncing a ball at night. Why did WE get this call? What I didn't tell the elders is that the downstairs tenants had called someone in Texas (probably a Mormon friend) and complained to him and asked him to call us. REALLY?  After a conversation with the elders I learned that the complainant (ok, it wasn't a legal complaint) had complained numerous times to a variety of people, including the manager. The floors are so thin that you can hardly walk across them without being heard. And how many hours a day are they in their apartment? Very few.  So if Mister Texas man ever calls back I will very politely tell him the elders side of the story and hope he will relay the message to the whiners. Please don't mess with my elders! I can already feel the mother bear syndrome beginning to set in.

I know this doesn't sound like much, but some things have to be recorded in 2, 3 or 4 locations, so it's all time consuming, but I expect that to change with experience.

You know you're in the mission field when the only 2 people in the whole office talking about the Super Bowl are 2 senior sisters!