Hello all, this has been another crazy fast week, I can’t believe that im already here writing another email. We just got done cutting our hair, and now the rest of the office guys are watching a movie. One of the things that I love about office p days (I have a love/hate relationship), is that there is no schedule. As a non-office missionary, Monday we have to be in the internet cafes at a certain time in order to write reports, to hand in documents to the zone leaders (one of those documents is a chart with all the food that our pensionista has given us during the week, breakfast lunch and dinner), but here we don’t have to do that. We just coordinate between each other what we want to do, and we do it.
This week I really had some down time, so I cleaned the crap out of my office. I'm really learning to be self-reliant, and realizing that if I’m lazy and don’t do certain small things, the missionaries will suffer or my bosses will really get on me. Well not suffer, but it will make things harder for them.
This week we had a zone conference, and it was quite frustrating because it seemed that all the zone leaders had financial questions during the conference and kept calling me. But that was just a minor problem. I'm trying to take the role as a helper, not just a secretary that burns zone leaders for messing up finances. Presidente Li wore his Utes tie I gave him, so we definitely had to snap a pic, I even got him to throw up a U for me. I love that man.
This week we had interviews with President Li, and he has really won me over honestly. In the beginning of my mission, I really criticized him and his wife. I felt like they should have been doing things differently to get to know the missionaries better, not just burn the crap out of us (Hermana Li is a burner, sometimes for no reason) and actually know our names and stuff. But as I’ve been here in the offices, I’ve seen that he is actually such a GREAT guy. He has a heart of gold, and expects and wants the best for the Mission.
So in my office, I have a strong box, that has a certain amount of money in it, and Elder Newell keeps all the passports and travel documents in the box as well. Last Saturday, the box just decided to crap out, and stop working. And so that was a huge problem. President was here on Monday and asked for some money, and I couldn’t get it open, so he made some phone calls and the next day a guy came by and helped us figure out what was wrong with it. Turns out, it was just that the pin code had gone bad. That explains the one pic. Haha we were pretty scared, and there were lots of jokes about “la caja fuerte” during those couple of days that the box wouldn’t open.
This week was dedicated a bit more to the financial side of things, I barely had my personal study, which is frustrating. I need to be better about actually doing it. I have my own office, and the times that I've really focused on my studies, it has been an office of revelation honestly. It is hard to keep studying for investigators, like we're supposed to, because we really don’t have much. I just try to read my book of Mormon and PMG as much as possible in order to stay sharp. We also barely do companionship study, just for the lack of time, and I've really noticed that my ability to teach has gone down hill a bit. Kinda frustrating, but I think it is just office life. We really have a full time calling as a missionaries, and another full time assignment as secretaries. The fun part is learning to balance the two. Whats been really hard lately is our 4th companion that I mentioned last week, all he does is proselyte and help a bit here and there, he likes to go out with me, and really can get on my back sometimes when I'm doin things, he likes to help, but sometimes its just better to do things alone, that way I know what I'm doing, and where all the money is at and all that good stuff. He also likes to set appointments for hours during p day, and I honestly think were going to have to stop that. It is not that we don’t wanna visit, it is just that…. Welp, the Prophet and Apostles have given us a P Day for a reason. We'll see
Thursday we went to the airport to pick up some packages that had documents and stuff, and while we were at it we picked up a package for missionaires. I was thinkin' it was for others, because the lady always brings mine to the offices, but we got back and I was just goin' to town on paperwork (Thursday is my busy day) trying to finish by 9:00 pm, and Elder Macz knocked on my door and asks me if I'm gonna share my package. And I say what package? And he says the one that just got here silly. And that was awesome! I was on a high Thursday night for sure. There is nothing better than packages from home. The Utes hat is legittttttttttttttt!
 |
| How I felt being the one to receive my own package in the office |
Thursday was the 31st as well, which means that Elder Macz (secretary of reports and stats and stuff), has to send all the baptism records from the month by midnight. We stayed until 11:40 pm. Awesome.
This week I also found out that my mini missionary that I had from September to October went to his mission in Guatemala just before Christmas and came home this past week. I feel bad for him, he is a convert of like 2 years, and the only member in his family. Poor guy. It is really hard not to judge him because I know who he is and all that.
Today we went to a Peruvian cemetery. That was quite interesting. In the states we just dig holes and bury people. Here they build buildings, and just stack the caskets and stuff. It was quite interesting. There is an interesting Spirit that is felt when one enters a cemetery, especially after losing a family member or friend. Very humbling experiences.
Well, I think that is all for this week! Happy February!
Elder Roper
PS - 16 months is comin' quick!
No comments:
Post a Comment