From 1820 to Present Day

This has been a very busy week. We are supposed to have Mondays off as our P-Day; but that seems to be when we get a lot of work so we decided to "work from home" at least for part of the day so we don't get so far behind. This past Monday Steve had his follow-up appointment with the Doctor after his visit to the Emergency room last week. He is doing a lot better and still the Doctors can't find anything wrong. That is good. They agreed that it was probably related to stress and has he is doing better on his own with his responsibilities, his stress is decreasing and he is feeling better. That week he ended up in the Emergency room was his first full week on his "own" since our trainers went home. He had several mistakes that he felt bad about, but were easily fixed so no harm done. I think those mistakes caused him a great deal of stress. Needless to say, he is doing much better on his own. This week proved he can do what he needs to do. 

So after working from home for most of the day on Monday, Steve finished his preparations for our Family Home Evening group. We have a group of several missionaries that usually come to our apartment every week for FHE. We take turns giving a lesson and having an activity. Since our trainers left and our group was not very big, we invited a few more missionaries to join us. We now have the perfect size to meet together each week. Steve did a great job with our lesson and activity. Everyone loved it and lingered long after the event ended. It was nice. Everyone decided we would have it at our place all the time. That is fine with us.

On Tuesday we had RAIN and lots of it. Actually, this whole week was rainy almost everyday. We need it so much. We had a wonderful Department Devotional before we had our weekly Team Meeting. We were busy most of the day even though we tried to leave early. It didn't work. Anyway, it wasn't raining when we went to work so we didn't take our umbrellas. We have a set of umbrellas at work too. Our trainers left them for us. When we were ready to leave work at 5:30 (not early) we checked the weather

and everything was dry, although it was overcast. We figured we would be fine walking home. By the time we got outside there were a few little drops but nothing we couldn't handle. By the time we got to the front of the Conference Center it was actually raining, but not too bad. We would be a little wet but that's OK. It wouldn't take much longer to get home. As we headed for the cover in front of the Conference Center it started raining harder. Glad we were under the cover.  We walked to the other side of the Conference Center so we could cross the street to go to our apartment we were in the middle of a monsoon. The wind was blowing and the rain was pouring down. Needless to say we waited a while before we finished heading home. As soon as it let up a bit, we ran for it. We were soaked to the bone!

Wednesday stayed busy; however we were able to leave early. Our Zone leader called us on Tuesday to see if we wanted to attend a play on Wednesday. A couple had bought tickets and was unable to go so they were donating the tickets to anyone who wanted to go. Our Zone leader thought of us. They were at our Family Home Evening group on Monday so that may have contributed to their choice. lol.  Later our Branch President called us and offered to car pool to the play and asked if we wanted to go to dinner beforehand. So we left early on Wednesday so we would be ready when our Branch President picked us up. We had a delightful time with them and when at the play. Our Zone had purchased about 40 tickets so we all sat as a group. It turned out that our tickets were right next to a sister who used to serve on my Tuesday Temple Shift. I knew she was in our mission, but we are not in the same department so we don't see each other very much. It was fun to sit next to her and get caught up. The play was fantastic. It was not at all what I expected. It was like a Broadway Musical. The music was very modern but the play setting was in the 1820s with Joseph Smith and Emma through his martyrdom. It was unique and very fun. They did a marvelous job of portraying snippets of their life together through song and dance.

Thursday was also fun. We were able to leave a little early that day as well as one of our Supervisors was having a dinner for some past missionaries as well as the whole team. Not everyone could make it of course, but it was fun to meet some of the previous missionaries who served in our department. There were several team members too, so it was good to mingle with them in a non-work setting. It was kind of funny because it was the first time some of the team members had actually met other members in person. Aaron was hired just a couple of months before us so with COVID he hadn't come to the office except for events. Prior to that he only saw his co-workers on our Team meetings. We met one of our Language coordinators for the first time as well. We had a very fun evening.

Friday is usually an easy day. We can use it to catch up on things and prepare for the weekend events if we have any. This Friday was different than from any we have had thus far. First of all, we had almost everyone in the office. We were only missing three people. That hasn't happened for at least a year and a half. Baptiste is the lead supervisor. He is the one who called us before we started and told us what we would be doing and got us excited about our call.  Like I said, Aaron just started a month or two before us. He used to be CIA. We found out on Friday that our manager, Daniel, used to be FBI.  Anyway, Friday was the first time Aaron and Baptiste actually worked in the office together. That was kind of fun when they realized their similar background. We were all set to go home after lunch since we were going to have to work over the weekend. Well right after lunch the Supervisors starting throwing more and more events at us. This week we went from 10 to 26 in just a few days with most of those coming in on Friday after lunch. And of the 10 we had, most of those were Language Coaching jobs which didn't involve us other than putting them in the computer. Of the 13 new events we received, not only were most of them events in our building requiring meals or snacks; but, most of there were scheduled for this next week!!! And just as we were getting ready to leave again, this time around 5PM, Aaron brought us the news that his producer for a very large event that takes place over multiple days was changing the venue of three sessions for Saturday. They were supposed to be on Zoom where the Interpreters could do it from the comfort of their home and we wouldn't need to provide a meal. The producer decided at 4:30 PM on a Friday that he wanted them to all come into the Church Office Building, and meals and/or snacks would be provided! One of our interpreters scheduled to do the zoom just had a baby 10 days ago so she wasn't going to come to the COB for the event. That meant our Language Coordinator, Sara, had to scramble and find a replacement last minute for two of the three events. Those replacements got paid RUSH rates because of the last minute change. Steve had to scramble with meals and snacks. Luckily we already had several events going on for Saturday and the times were pretty close. We wouldn't even have to adjust the food much for lunch and the afternoon snacks to accommodate the extra people. Breakfast; however, was a problem. It was too late to order from COB catering and we didn't really want to do McDonalds, so we decided to go to Costco and see what we could get. We found a frozen breakfast bowl, some yogurt, muffins, and Orange Juice we could get. We went in earlier to microwave all the meals and then provided a microwave so they could warm them just before they ate them. Everybody was happy and we pulled it off with all the extra people. We ended up at the office for a FULL day from 8:30 until 6:00. We had 6 different events that day involving Spanish for all but 2 events, plus French, Haitian, and Dutch for the two remaining events.

Sunday morning we were up at 5:30 AM for a Stake Conference in Puerto Rico. Our meal started at 7 and the conference started at 8. We have to be there early to set things up so we were there at 6:30.  We try not to buy restaurant food on Sunday if we can help it. Sometimes it can't be helped. So for this event we thought we would order a meal from COB Catering that they would prepare on Friday and leave in the cooler for us. We were going to warm it up in the microwave before serving. I still think it would have been fine; however, the Chef wanted it fresh so he came in this morning and made breakfast for us. They are all so wonderful. I made a card this morning and had everybody sign it so we can give it to him on Monday.

Speaking of Monday. Another one of those last minute additions late Friday afternoon was a Caribbean Area Missionary Devotional at 6:30 AM Monday morning with Breakfast!!! Again we were too late to order from COB catering. The Supervisor asked if we could do breakfast after the event and have them just go down to the cafeteria. The event goes from 6:30 to 8:30. The cafeteria closes at 8:30 so that wasn't going to work. Steve talked to Moroni, who is the COB Catering Supervisor about what we could do and they graciously offered to box up the number of breakfasts we are going to need tomorrow morning and we will pick them up for our people right around 8:30. Like I said, they are so good to us.

We are heading into a very busy time for us. We hope we are equal to the task. We are still praying for another missionary couple to join us, but at this point it doesn't look like it will be before General Conference. I think we will be OK, but we will be very busy. We have had events every weekend this entire month so we haven't really had a day off for a month. At this point it looks like next Sunday is open so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will remain so. 

We love serving and working for the Lord. We love all the wonderful people we work with and we love being involved in all the events we get to do.

We love each of you and hope you have a blessed week. 

Here are a few pictures of the cranes around the Temple and some construction.