1-8
Feb 2020
February
began with a lowlight. It began with a fine
day of church and ministering to Annie Stewart and Dee Marche, followed by
dinner for Elders Hamblin and Schuermann on February 2nd. But then things went down hill in a
hurry. Actually, things didn’t go down
hill, which was the problem. Later that
evening we heard a faint glug-glug sound, paid no attention to it, but before
long realized that the drains in our showers and the mechanical closet were
backing up with sewage. Ugh. At least I knew the phone number for the
apartment after hour call center. The on
call maintenance man made his way from the hospital where he was visiting his
son to our apartment, saw what was going on, and called the roto rooter
man. What a colorful bunch of folks the
drain technicians are. I guess you can’t
take yourself or life too seriously if your job is to unclog sewer lines and
keep the crap flowing. It’s just messy
business, there is no way around it.
And
so that this doesn’t become the only thing in my journal, I’ll go ahead and say
that three weeks on, we have by now had four sewer backups, followed by roto
rooter work, gross clean ups, annoyed neighbors upstairs that we need to keep
telling not to use any water, and aggravation on our own part. It seems that the real problem is that they
did not install sufficient clean outs so that they could put 4 inch cutter
heads down the line and really clean out the pipes. Instead, they keep pulling off our toilet and
putting a 2 inch cutter head down the drain, which seems to poke a hole in the
clog, but leave plenty enough debris so that a week or so later, it plugs
again. Wow. It is not easy to know what to do, but this is
getting old. We no sooner get things
really clean and sanitized and sewage overflows again. We have gotten pretty good at identifying the
tell-tale glug-glug sound, moving our clothes out of the closet, clearing our
bathrooms, putting down old towels, and calling the maintenance team.
February
5th was a zone conference in Chesterfield, Mo, Feb 6th in
Columbia, Mo, and Feb 7th in O’Fallon, Ill stake centers. The way it works here is we have nine zones,
so every transfer (or every six weeks) we hold three zone conferences in a
week, with three zones invited to one of the three conferences. The locations are rotated, so the outlier
zones aren’t always the missionaries that need to drive the farthest. But for the office staff, it means that for practically
the whole week, the office work is either pushed off, not done, or done late
into the night. President and Sister
Bell, along with the Assistants, are also very busy with presentations, ad hoc
interviews, meals, and the other responsibilities of leadership. The office staff has some time at each
conference to do some training in our respective areas—health, vehicles,
records, supplies, finances, housing, and so forth. The President has really encouraged us to not
over do what could be hours of temporal matters training, and to make sure we
bear our testimonies as part of our presentations.
This
round was the first zone conferences where the presentations were all done by
the new office staff that is by now in place.
And while it is plenty disruptive from purely a normal work flow perspective,
it is really a payoff to us because we are able to meet with the young
missionaries in consecrated time and inspired training. And all of the staff did a great job in
weaving the messages of the gospel into their respective presentations so that
it felt more like “temporal and spiritual” are all one with the Lord. And if I’ve said it once, I’m sure I’ll say
it many more times, these young missionaries are so amazing, doing a very
difficult work, and it is a privilege to help sustain them. I admire their courage.
This
work isn’t without its casualties. We
know that the incidents of depression and anxiety are high—at least equal to
the general population of young people—somewhere between 20-40 percent. We wonder if we just diagnosis these problems
more astutely, or whether connected-ness has changed emotional stability, or
whether the stresses of missionary work, or some combination of all of this
adds up to the high rates of emotional problem.
But these young people are brave, doing their very best to not let their
problems squelch their work. Our mission
nurse, President, Sister Bell, and health care professionals work very hard,
and there certainly are some sad casualties, where despite the best efforts of
everyone, someone must go home. But no
one gives up without a fight, and most succeed, regardless of handicaps.
RaDene
has been a blessing in this regard. She
of course relates to these young people with some emotional struggles, and has
not only been a voice of encouragement, but an advocate for resources. She has helped some leaders that have limited
experience with and understanding of mental health to think more broadly about
the modalities of care and the capabilities of the afflicted. And she pitches in on the firing line. She has taken a depressed young sister on
morning walks, had supportive meetings, shared ideas, and bolstered her
companion. I have no doubt that Sister
Hatfield’s intervention has helped turn the tide for this beautiful young woman
from being hours away from being sent home to getting some professional help
and another supportive, encouraging view from our mission leadership. Perhaps some new ground is being broken. At least we are not giving up!
On
the way home from the Columbia zone conference, I asked Sister Hatfield to
accompany me on the long way home. We
went down to Jefferson City to inspect a sisters’ attic apartment. I’ve had some recommendations that they
should be moved. After looking at it,
the eves are uncomfortable on both sides of the long hallway of an apartment. And the steep steps up to the entry and the
pathway to the basement laundry are not convenient or appealing. But I must say the uncleanliness of the
sisters made it a little hard to be fully objective. Nothing looks too good when it is cluttered
and dirty. Another challenge is that
members own the house and live on the main level. I fear that they have come to rely on the
mission’s rental and the blessing of having sisters upstairs, as opposed to someone
less trustworthy.
We
also stopped in Warrenton, Missouri to see another sister apartment. The complaints for it are two-fold. One, there seems to be an inordinate amount
of mold, and second, the neighborhood is rough, with some nighttime activities
that could be disconcerting. I’ve looked
for weeks for an easy alternative, but Warrenton is an old town without a lot
of growth, so newer apartments don’t seem available. I’ll keep looking. Meanwhile, hopefully the sisters will do
their part to control the mold by working to keep surfaces clean and dry and
using good judgment to help with safety.
After
zone conference on Friday the 7th in O’Fallon, President Bell had
the mission staff meet him at a restaurant for a dutch treat farewell dinner
for the Ericksons. They have worked to
the bitter end. I’m afraid to say that
they never even made it to the St Louis Arch, the iconic symbol of the
region. But, while they missed the
history of America’s smallest National Park and other attractions, I think they
have done better at exploring a few of the food haunts. So on Saturday the 8th they took
us to a couple of their favorites—Crown Candy Kitchen, an old fashioned soda
fountain-type dinner, famous for its one pound bacon BLT sandwiches, and
Fountain on Locust, which features delicious ice cream treats. Both are in old town St Louis, and fun to
find and visit, especially if you are okay with seeing some of the city’s
burned out north side. At any rate,
having finished my BLT and ice cream sundae, I definitely needed my statin and
antacid that night. Whew!
