We hardly had time to take a deep breath after the Wakolos left before we were deep into transfer #13. We were a little discombobulated with everything going on that only two elders got invited to our new leadership training meeting.
They were treated extra special because we started the meeting later because of taking Elder and Sister Wakolo to the airport. It worked to the missionaries' advantage because we ordered lunch in for them and their companions, which we don't usually do for this meeting.
After the meeting was over and we were feeling good about things, It occurred to Glen that two other elders should have been at the meeting. So, the next day we had to do new leadership training all over again. No lunch this time.
We did a more abbreviated meeting this time, then had our weekly planning meeting with the assistants before we joined in with the Vista stake for their stake conference weekend.
Elder Pimentel had attended another stake conference in our mission a while ago and we really enjoyed his teachings. He likes to have a women's leadership meeting Saturday afternoon, an adult session Saturday evening and then priesthood leadership meeting early Sunday morning before the general stake conference session. We were asked to speak in the general session on Sunday morning and ended up having only about 4 minutes each to speak.
I hadn't prepared anything for my talk yet. I have some already prepared to use at conferences, but I didn't feel like I wanted to use any of them. I wasn't stressing about it (which is out of the norm for me).
Sunday morning while Glen was at the priesthood meeting, I got the inspiration I needed to prepare my talk. I love it when that happens. A woman at the meeting the night before had jogged my memory about an experience we had had with her and her friend when we first got here and I used that as part of my talk.
Sunday evening the sister training leaders brought the three Swedish missionaries to our home to spend the night. They were visa waiters assigned to our mission. We learned their visas arrived on the day they flew here, but we were instructed to keep them for the full transfer.
They had been so anxious to get their visas and go to Sweden. After spending 6 weeks here, they were feeling a little sad to be leaving because they had made friends and were adjusting to missionary life here.
It was a very short night!! I never like to see a 5 as the first number on the alarm clock. A 6 as the first number is plenty early enough for me. So, arising at 2:55 a.m. for the day--with no nap happening during the day--was not my favorite thing. But, sometimes we just do what we gotta do, and that's all there is to it!
Glen promised the sisters a French toast breakfast in the wee hours of the morning before we left for the airport.
It was truly a bittersweet day for them and for us. They are wonderful missionaries who will be missed by us and who will be a blessing for the Swedish Mission. One of our home neighborhood girls is in that mission--Rachel Cole--so we told them to look for her.
We came home and exercised and got ready for the day--which was Monday and the day the missionaries send letters to Glen. He was able to get all their letters read and answered and dinner cooked by the time the group of departing missionaries came to our home to spend the night.
Our transfers have changed so that we do the departing group on Monday evening instead of Tuesday evening. We receive new missionaries in on Tuesday afternoon now instead of Tuesday morning.
It was not per our request--it was because the MTC is changing the departure time so the missionaries don't have to get up at 2 a.m. to catch the shuttle to get to the airport to catch the early morning flight to California. So the good news is we only have to go to the airport once instead of two days in a row.
Except in the case where we have visa waiters and we go two days in a row...
We got this group of 12 departing missionaries fed. We had testimony meeting. We slept. We got up early and headed to the temple.
It is a wonderful thing for the departing missionaries to do a final endowment session in the San Diego Temple and have some time in the celestial room to reflect on their 18 months or 2 years of service.
I always get a kick out of the assistants when they take selfies. This one made me laugh out loud. Generally I love palm trees in photos. Not so sure if I can say that in this case.
Finding a spot for all our vehicles to pull over together and unload all the luggage at the airport curb is always an adventure. Time for hugs and good-byes.
They finish up with this chapter of their lives and go home with nervous anticipation of their next phase of life.
With our new schedule of arriving missionaries on the same day, we had several hours in the middle of the day in between groups. It doesn't make sense for us to drive all the way home just to turn around and drive back to the airport.
So we took Elder Eddins and Elder Hadfield to Tom Ham's Lighthouse Restaurant for lunch.
It was so nice and relaxing having lunch outside by the water. Glen was almost envisioning himself on a cruise.
The hostess asked if we were celebrating anything special and Glen mentioned we'd already celebrated my birthday, but they brought me a birthday dessert to share with the group anyway.
Let's face it--we had a lot of time to kill, so I had the elders posing for some photos by the water. It was so beautiful!!
We have talked about it since and decided we need to do some planning ahead to figure out how we can use those hours more productively. It felt like such a waste of time just waiting...waiting...waiting...for the plane to arrive.
Our one Spanish elder arrived from the Mexico MTC and then there were five of us waiting...waiting...waiting...for another hour for the plane to arrive carrying all the rest of the missionaries coming from the Provo MTC.
We instantly loved our new elder who suggested we share our favorite scriptures with each other while we were waiting. He didn't want to waste that time doing nothing. Good for him!!
Finally our group arrived!
Instead of doing all our usual new missionary stuff all throughout the day as we had in the past, we are now forced to have to deal with traffic delays, getting to the mission office church building in the evening after the senior couples should have gone home for the day.
Fortunately, the Radfords and Kopenhefers are very willing to do what is needed, so they stayed late to get a meal brought in for us. They did their parts of training with the missionaries. They hauled in mail that had arrived for the new missionaries. They had the missionaries fill out paperwork. It's like the first day of school. Paperwork and hearing lots of instructions.
Glen was rotating the missionaries one by one through his office to interview with them. I was doing group training on medical issues and then pulling them aside one by one to ask if they have any health issues I need to be aware of.
We had the trainers arrive at the building at 9 p.m. to pick up their new missionaries. It makes for a late night for them and a long day for us, but relatively speaking--we thought it went pretty smoothly for our first time and with a pretty large group.
2 comments:
Just as I thought I was caught up, you sneak a new post in! I love your new missionary who wanted to share a scripture while waiting. Awesome idea!
Also, do I see the elder who got called "HERE" in those pictures?! I just read that story and loved it!
Yes to what Becky said. That one Elder looked so familiar and then I remembered it was your pal who got called to the same mission he was testing out! He feels like an old friend.
That looked like a busy week. Hope you had a couple of days to catch a few extra hours of shut eye after all those early mornings!
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