A Senior Missionary's Experience

 

No idea where the hazy effect is all about but this is church ... after church. 

Classes always start about 10 minutes late each Sunday and sometimes even 15 minutes late. 

It's lovely really.

These are brothers and sisters in the gospel connecting. 

So ... every night at about 9:30, we hear quite the racket. It's the trash pick up. The large dumpters are on the street. Everyone takes their trash bags to these receptacles. In our building, we actually take our trash to a regular trash can in the stairwell across the hall from us. The building workers then take it to the large trash container. You can see how quickly they end up overflowing in spite of being emptied every night, seven nights a week. How are they emptied? A crane lifts them over a compactor truck. Unfortunately the boxes in this picture obscures the huge hook at the top of the container. The bottom is shut but there is a remote that another person presses, the bottoms of the container opens up, trashed go into a compactor truck and voile! Done. 

Substituting for my friend, Bev, in the English Connect program, has been really special. These young elders are so anxious to learn and they know that it's hard but they do it. They want to learn English because they know that it will open more opportunities to get a good job in the future and an opportunity to serve others, continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in a variety of settings.

The darling Taylor's who are leaving April 1, will become our neighbors for a few days. They have to vacate their apartment this week and move into the apartment next to us. They will be living out of suitcases for about a couple of days. Obviously, they don't mind doing it. They are ready to go home. Since they have been humanitarian missionaries, they will be exhausted. The humanitrian missionaries here are the hardest working of us all. 

The other humanitarian couple, the Richardson's, two of the most faithful people I have ever met, will be here to train the Taylor's replacements who arrive in a couple of weeks. The Richardson's leave April 30. 

We are moving along with the 2026 history. It's very helpful for the Area Historian to meet each Friday to be sure we are both updated about what we are each doing. Now that the Executive Summary is done, it needs a couple of approvals and then we finish assembling and it's done. We won't make the deadline of March 30 but we will be close and if we miss the deadline, the people who need to approve things will have held it up. So now ...

Each of the 29 missions in this area needs to write a history. I get to assemble them, help whoever feels that they need help, do some writing, if needed, and then assemble.

Had a funny moment with the historian in our meeting this morning. I joked about how deadlines are not respected here. She laughed and then said, "most of these people are North American". Touche. It's easy to take on a more nonchalant attitude here. The work gets done. Deadlines are flexible. Not necessarily a bad thing.

One more thing. The neighbor in apartment A has this hanging on the door trim of their apartment. I think it is a mezuzah, Hebrew for doorpost. As you can see, it looks like a scroll. My understanding is that the mezuzah is supposed to be a small box containing scriptures. 

Mike is still working from home. My biggest responsbility is to help the area historian and there is only one week left of the Leadership training, Leadership Pattern Journey (LPJ). I am going to miss it. I have learned a lot. The goal is still to become a facilitator in the program but for now, they are not accepting any more senior missionaries as facilitators. Bummer but more patience and more learning on my own is a good thing.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He loves us. He stands as head of His church, arms wide open to receive us. I am so grateful he has never given up on me, on the people I love. 

We miss you all. We love you all.