october 23, 26th 2008

Dear family, Here are some clips from my journal... can't remember what I have written lately, so some of it might be a repeat...

Thurs. Oct 23, 2008
I have been so overwhelmed with the office, that I don't think I have thought much about anything else. We had a lot of computer problems for about 7 days, and now I am weeks behind. It about did me in with the stress of trying to meet so many deadlines. Everything I do, effects the rest of the office and how well the mission functions. I can't tell you how hard that was on me. Some people showed patience and others wanted everything now! and that was hard.. But finally dad realized the problem and was able to fix it. So now I am just trying to get caught up.
Tomorrow is Greenie training meeting. Those are fun.
It has been amazing how many times we are the companions to the Elders in the office when some have to do other things, and one is left with us. We had one Elder up for breakfast today, yesterday it was lunch. We try to help where we can in feeding them. We fed two for lunch today also, because I couldn't leave the office until all 15 elders came back from a visa run. That means going by metro into the Interpol to begin the visa process and then on to other stops. They come in at 7 am. I go home after they have all come to pick up their paper work and have breakfast. One of the office elders had to go on the run, so that is why we had one elder for breakfast, his companion. After returning to the office, I can't leave until they all return about 2:30 usually, but today, most were back about 12:30. So that was good, but we had already ordered lunch into the office. so we just worked straight through until 6 pm... Long days!

Sunday, Oct 26, 2008
Today, has been a great day. Church was only held long enough to pass the sacrament and make announcements. Today was voting day for the Chileans and it is against the law to hold any kind of meetings on Voting day.. We came home, took a nap, ate lunch, took a nap, went to the office for an hour and then we went for a walk with Dr. Dixon and his wife, and Brother and Sister Davis. We went on a long walk!!!! I was so tired. When we got back we went out in the back of our apartment and sat and talked, ate cookies and just visited. Then another senior couple (Andelins) were coming home from their “Campo”( ward out in the country) assignment and they were telling us about the baptism they had and about the family. It was an amazing story. They brought back fresh goats cheese and shared that with us and then to top the evening off, she played her violin for us. A poof wayfaring man.... Boy it was beautiful. What a way to finish off a beautiful Sunday.
Our meeting on Friday with the new missionaries went well. I was really proud of dad and I and that we were able to do our part and speak Spanish. I could explain what I needed to say, but didn’t understand their questions and had to ask for help. But I felt good about all of it.
Saturday, we got up about 8:30 and had a good night sleep. You will laugh at this one.... we took a mattress and laid it on the floor in our little living room and closed the bedroom and kitchen doors to shut out the street noise and we were able to sleep in quiet for the first time since being here. It felt so good.... We felt like we were camping out!!! Funny huh!
We went to the office for a few hours and then watched a movie last night. We are reading the Pearl of Great Price. We finished the book of Moses today.
Yesterday, the weather went cold again for some reason. Today it warmed back up. We had a new senior sister (Graham) arrive yesterday. She will be working in the church employment center. She replaced sister Mauldin who finished up her mission on Friday and returned home to Utah. The rest of the mission is just going, going, going. I have about 30 baptisms to type up and send to Salt Lake. We had one elder attacked on Thursday night. The guy took a iron rod and tried to beat him up. The doctor said he was smart to have put his arm up to guard his face. He will be OK. It was an attack against gringos. We will receive two more senior couples on November 8th. They are assigned as area missionaries and will also work in the employment center.
I don’t know if I wrote about a special meeting that we were called to attend at 7 pm (Oct 15th). We were told that Russell M. Nielsen was going to come and speak to us before he attended the temple with the presidents of the missions. We were all there waiting and he got stuck in traffic because of a big soccer game being played. He was supposed to be in the temple at 7:30, and at ten to eight, he finally arrived. We were only able to have a brief but fun hello and shake his hand. We sang and sang while we waited and that was awesome.

Love and prayers with all of you....

Have a good week..
Love mom and dad