Sunday, February 1, 2009

We are exhausted but happy. There is so much to learn. We can barely remember what state we are now in let alone remembering all of the Elders' names, the people you meet at church, and the responsibilities we have at the mission office. Tim is doing the finances and is feeling a little discouraged right now as he will be on his own now. I, Janet, am making sure that the referrals (about 20 each day) get pulled from the internet and texted to the right missionaries so they can respond to the referral in less than 24 hours. I also take care of forwarding all of the mail to the missionaries. Everything comes through the mission office and I have to make new labels to get them to where they are actually living. I am also doing the phoning and leg work on the medical bills that missionaries get to make sure the insurance company is paying the correct amount, etc.It doesn't sound like we do much but this week has also been zone conference. We spent one whole day in Miami at one and went to the luncheon of another one in Ft. Lauderdale, since we are close and new. That took a lot of our time. A senior missionary spent about 7 hours total this week on my computer trying to get it to talk with the fax machine to no avail so I am really feeling behind.The missionaries were challenged at zone conference to talk to at least 10 people every day besides those who they are giving lessons to. I thought I would try it while we were doing our shopping yesterday. I tell the people that I am from out of state or new in the area and ask things about the store or weather. They usually ask where we are from and why we are here. That leads me into introducing the church to them. The first lady I talked to was at Costco and she never did ask why I was here. The second one sat with us as we ate our hotdog at Costco and she told me that I would never convert her because she is Jewish but we had a good talk. She said, "There aren't very many Mormons here in Florida" and I told her that is why we are here. She laughed. The 3rd person was our repairman. I think we were given 2 leaks in our new apartment so that we would run across Vladimir. He is approximately a 45-yr old Russian from Cuba. As he was working under my kitchen sink, I asked about his family and told him that our church knows how to have your families with you forever and would he like that. He said that no one in his family went to church but that his daughter in law was Catholic, (as if that was going to help him).We visited for just a few minutes and then he left. A couple of hours he came back to finish something else. While he was working, he said, "I don't know much about your church." (BING, BING!) I told him that I could send some wonderful missionaries to his home to teach him if that was okay with him. He said it would be and so I got his name, address and phone number. He asked if we had any phamplets so Tim gave him a couple that we had. He said he couldn't read English very well and we promised him that the missionaries would speak to him in Spanish and get him some Spanish brochures. WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!!The weather is gorgeous - about 75 - 80 degrees. Our apartment complex has a lake in the middle of it that is about 300 feet wide. It is about 20 feet from our screened in patio just off of our living room and right outside our dining room window. When I sit on my bed and at the dining table, I can't even see the grass because the lake is so close. It reminds us of when we were sitting on a cruise ship watching the ocean going by as we ate. When I go outside sometimes, I am met by about 18 ducks wanting something to eat. There are lakes and ponds literally everywhere!!!

2 comments:

Amber and Everett said...

McKenzie said you can feed the ducks bread! She doesn't realize just how much bread it would take everyday to do that. Love ya

the happyhowards said...

Arlene said, "with all those ducks around, you had better watch where you walk :)"