Irony of it all!

It's Sunday evening at 9pm.  And I am listening to the sounds of a plumber working an auger through the plumbing under the toilet in our bathroom.  For the 4th time in two weeks.  The irony of it all is I live with the Housing Coordinator for the Missouri St. Louis Mission.  The person in the mission who helps solve these types of problems for 90 plus apartments the church rents.  They rent 4 apartments in this complex alone.

Goes to show that crap happens no matter who you are or what good you're trying to do in the world!

On a brighter note... we had our first visitors from home this week!  Taz and Tammy Murray from Provo came to see comedian Jim Gaffigan in St. Louis and introduce us to some of their dear friends who live here.  For the first time ever we slipped away from the office early on a work day and visited the Gateway Arch before their friends joined us for dinner and the show.  It was great fun!

 


We love getting to know the missionaries as they come and go from the office or work with us on various mission projects.  I particularly love "owning my morning" with the Frontenac Sisters who live in our apartment complex.  These two sisters have earned a spot in my heart - Sister Thomas (who lends me her name tag when I forget mine) is from Utah Valley and Sister Jensen is from my home town of Hooper!  So fun!

 We have been concerned about the impact the coronavirus is having on missionary work throughout the world.  Harlan's sister copied us on the letter sent to the parents of the missionaries in Thailand who have been quarantined. As we read the letter I had the very strong impression that it was yet another tactic the adversary has found to thwart the work. That fact was confirmed the next day when we had the chance to video chat with our friends Brent and Jackie Cook, who are also serving in Thailand (doing the same jobs in that mission that we are doing here in ours!)  Elder Cook told us that the work is exploding in south east Asia. He said throngs of people are converting to Christianity generally and to the Church of Jesus Christ specifically.  He wondered out loud how they were going to keep 180 missionaries engaged in the work holed up in their apartments.  It's a little thing but...

Within 12 hours of that conversation, I received a text from some of our Sister missionaries asking if I could help them find someone to help translate for a person they are teaching who's native language is Burmese.  I reached out to the Cooks.  Turns out that the Thailand mission extends into Myanmar - the country where they speak Burmese - and there are a few missionaries in their mission who do speak Burmese!    So with President Bell's permission - Sister Cook and I will be linking up missionaries in Thailand with Missionaries in Missouri to teach the gospel to someone here who speaks a language from over there!  Miracles!

Hooray!  The auger has stopped.  They are working on putting the toilet back in place.  Now it's 10:30pm and here come the 'First Responders" coming to wet vac and clean carpets, sterilize bathrooms, and start the fans going!  Think I'll call the housing coordinator and see if he can get us a rent rebate! (wink)

Transfers with a capital T

I am gradually learning that the rhythm of the mission is based on The Transfer with a capital T.  What happens in the mission all depends on how it relates to the week when missionaries depart,  arrive, and are transferred within the mission.

The week when this happens is called "Week 1" of the transfer.  I've learned that I will barely be able to keep my head above water during weeks 1, 2, and 6 of transfers. If I've stayed caught up, week 5 won't be too bad. And I've come to expect that pending any mission wide emergencies, weeks 3 and 4 will be practically manageable!

Tonight marks the beginning of Week 3.  The past couple of weeks have been whirlwinds!  Not only has it been weeks 6, 1, 2 of transfers - we've also completed the turn over to an entirely new office staff!  Our new Mission Nurse (Carolyn Everton) and Vehicle Coordinator (John Everton) arrived from Bountiful in week 6.  Two days after they came into the office, our new part time service missionaries - Elder and Sister Jacob from the St. Louis Stake came in to the office to learn their new jobs as the Financial and Assistant Mission Secretaries.

And then we were off!  The first transfers of 2020 had a few exciting moments - including the phone call I answered at 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon, from the arriving missionaries who had just landed in the St. Louis Airport - a full 5 hours before we expected them!  Apparently a friendly Delta Gate agent seeing that a direct flight to St. Louis from SLC was departing out of a nearby gate invited the 5 missionaries transfer their seats to that plane, but didn't give them time to call us or the MTC to let us know that they wouldn't be going first to Detroit and then to St. Louis that afternoon.

Fortunately the group was small because Elder Hatfield and the property brothers were a couple of hours away with the trailer that we typically take to the airport to haul luggage in.  We scrambled and modified meal preparation and incoming interview plans. And made it work.  The rest of the 1st week of transfers went off as well as could be expected - having novices run it!

Zone conferences happen in the 2nd week of transfers. Our 9 zones are divided into 3 zone conference groups. Each group has a separate Zone Conference in a different location 3 days in a row.  Which means the Mission administration puts a few hundred miles on our cars as we drive and participate in 3 days of day long conferences. Attending and participating in these wonderful zone conferences comes at a price - of extra evening and weekend hours at the office.

Zone Conference Transfer 1 - OFallon, Springfield, Champaign Zones

Elder & Sister Hatfield Zone conference - Columbia, Lake St. Louis, Hazelwood Zones

Friday night after Zone Conferences

                        

   Sister Erickson and her final project:  The 2019 MSLM History       

On the last Saturday of their mission, Elder David and Sister Becky Erickson took us to a couple of their favorite places in St. Louis.  They included Crown Candy Kitchen, where we ordered their famous 1 lb, BLT                                             

And the Fountain on Locust, where we ordered aged ice cream Sundaes... - one made with almond joy ice cream and hot fudge sauce and one made with Lemon ice cream topped with homemade raspberry sauce.  YUM!