What goes on in the Mission Office

August 2, 2009

Dear Family,

This past week we have been finishing up our “on the job training.” I have been busy making sure all incoming and out going missionaries have plane tickets, the president and his assistants have the flight itineraries, and everything is a go for Week One.

I have made lots of notes in the instruction binder and practiced with Elder Tingey. Yesterday we went through several scenarios of different things I would come up against and he said I did great. Monday I will be the official office secretary.

We run on a 6-week schedule and then repeat it over and over. The first week, Monday, we have new missionaries arriving from the MTC. The office staff gives them the dos and don’ts and they watch a driving video since our mission has cars due to such a large geographical area. The new missionaries have supper at the president’s home, which is the mission home, that evening and then the assistants deliver them to their new areas of assignments the next day. This is where the shuffle begins.

The old missionaries finishing up their missions come into the mission office on Tuesday. They go on splits and proselyte in town until 2:00 and then they go to the mission office for interviews with the president. They then go to the mission home to have supper and spend the night. The next day the assistants take them to the airport early and make sure they catch their flights home.

The number of incoming and out-going missionaries is rarely the same, so a lot of work goes into closing down some areas when there aren’t enough missionaries to go around or opening up areas when there is an increase of missionary power.

The financial secretary (Elder Parker) is in charge of housing and handling apartment rent, finding apartments, paying bills, and making sure the apartments are in safe areas, etc. What a huge job. He quietly does his work in the background and makes it come off without a hitch.

Elder Fox is the referral secretary. He pours over church on-line maps, finding out which area “incoming referrals” go to and then contacts the missionaries in that area. He gets a lot of calls from the MTC.

Your dad, Vehicle Coordinator, is kept very busy keeping the missionaries on a tight schedule on their car care—when to change their oil, training them to call him right away when accidents happen (which they do frequently because of the narrow winding roads and backing up), rotating tires, listening for funny noises (which he is an expert at), or any kind of car trouble. Plus he keeps meticulous records of vehicle expenditures. He has an audit coming up in November and everything has to be just so.

Every month the missionaries have to detail their cars, which includes a deep cleaning, wash and wax. This involves a lot of phone calls and buying of supplies for the missionaries to keep their cars looking good. One of the church’s goals is to train the missionaries to take very good care of their cars personally and to realize it is a privilege to drive a car. If missionaries are in a preventable accident they loose driving privileges for 6 months or maybe for the rest of their mission.

Last night Joseph B. Worthin’s son stopped by to pick up a pickup the mission had. He will be driving it back to Salt Lake for the Church. He is the materials manager for the church. He was telling your dad they have now started to put “little black boxes” in the cars of six other missions. The “black boxes” have GPS in them. The tracking is turned on all the time so it records where the missionaries are, what the speed limit is in that area, and how fast they are going. It has a G-force indicator, which records how hard they are making their turns, and their starting and stopping. If at any time they go over the speed limit by 20 mph their driving privileges are taken away for the rest of their mission. What a wake up call for sure!

This past week I went on splits with two different sister missionaries. We visited a dear little grandmother, Collen with a word of wisdom problem who is raising her 5-year-old grandson. This dear sister comes to church when she can get a ride. She also has an artificial leg and it is hard for her to get around. Her Book of Mormon is an older version—a big blue one with pictures in it. It is so worn out but very much loved. She says she reads from it when she has a desire to smoke and that helps greatly. We invited her to turn off the TV and play sacred hymns to help her remain focused. She said she would. The missionaries are going to get the ward 5 yr. primary teacher to go back with them to Collen’s home so the little grandson would get to know her and look forward to going to church on Sundays.

The other sister is not a member but her husband is a recent convert. After visiting with them for a little while I learned of her worries for her daughter with aspergers. I shared my testimony of how reading the Book of Mormon helps one find the peace in this life so our troubles don’t consume us and how turning our problems over to the Lord and waiting for him to put the puzzle pieces together helps greatly. She teared up and then gave me a big hug when we left. She said she would start up her reading of the Book of Mormon again. She is such a dear mother.

We have started going to the fitness center every morning at 6:00am and working out. When we walk down the road to and from the center in the morning the trees hang over the road and you feel you are on the island in Juristic Park. There are strange bird calls that sound like Rusty is out there! It is quite beautiful and calm at that time of morning. Things definitely change when we hit the freeway at 8:30. What a rush.

We are doing well and think of you often. When we see a cute baby we think of our beautiful grandkids. When we see young couples with children we thank the Lord for our hard working children at home. Thank you for loving each other and being strong in the gospel. You bring a great peace to your mom and dad just knowing you keep the commandments and are bringing your children up in righteousness. Thank you. A mom and dad couldn’t be prouder. We keep you in our prayers.

Have a great week. MOM and Dad