Well I'm back from a long absence. First of all our internet was down and it took FOREVER to get it working again. It finally took Elder Ellis to come to my house and figure out that I needed a new router. Videotron, the company here that provides internet and TV service was happy to rent me one for a mere $397.00 a month fee. I couldn't believe it. When Elder Ellis was talking to them on the phone his response was, "That is out the window." I bought a new router the following week for $40.00. What a difference! The other thing is that we are soooo busy every single day at the office. We get there about 8:10 and work until after 5:00. We are busy every single minute with only a 10 or 15 minute break for lunch. John is responsible for everything that has to do with the fleet of cars. I think the mission has about 48 cars now plus a van and a few trucks. He is in charge of keeping them all in good working condition. The past month he has been busy making sure that everyone has snow tires on their vehicles, sometimes buying new tires. He is also responsible for buying and selling cars. Recently he has sold a couple of cars and has also purchased several cars. This week he and Elder Conway, the financial secretary had to drive up to Quebec City with the van to pick up 10 elders and sisters and bring them down to Montreal for the missionary christmas party. The drive usually takes 3 hours, but because of the snow it took about 5. The next day they drove them back, but this time it took closer to 6 hours because of the storm. They ended up staying in a hotel because the storm was so bad the the visibility was about 0. They drove home the next day.
Above is a photo of our little Christmas tree that I fixed up for some Christmas cheer.
Next is a little tree that I have on our table and below is my favorite tree sent to me by the Primary children from our ward. I was so excited to open a package and find this cute paper tree inside. Each star and little paper have a note written to us to wish us a Merry Christmas and to cheer us on our mission. We also got some candy, a tie for Elder Arhets and some nice gloves for me.
The missionaries are always so excited for their mail and I sure understand why. Whenever you get a letter or a package you feel so happy and excited. I thought it was so super thoughtful of the primary and their leaders to send us something. We do have a great ward.
My duties at the office keep me busy all day every day. I take care of all the mail and all of the ordering of supplies. When the supplies come in, I am in charge of putting them away. When zone conferences come around, I take the zone orders and fill them. Each zone gets their boxes of supplies that they pick up on conference day. I keep the supply room in order too. I am charge of all baptismal records, filling out and sending the forms to SLC and writing letters to the people who get baptized and to the missionaries who taught them. I answer the phone, take messages, answer the intercom when people come to the door, which is often. I am in charge of all of the mission phones and the phone bill. I take care of all the International driving permits for the missionaries. I order all of the name tags and Books of Mormon. I make copies of many pages of forms and information and put together the books for the incoming and outgoing missionaries. John and I both do training of the incoming missionaries. When it is zone conference, we go to the conferences and after the training missionaries there, we go and check each car. The car check ups are very detailed and it actually take 2 people to do it. Recently I folded about 650 Christmas cards, stuffed them into envelopes, put on labels and addresses and hand stamped each one. We, the senior couples, put on 2 Christmas parties for the missionaries. We had to set everything up, cook everything, serve, and clean up. Prior to that Sis Conway and I had to mark every single present that arrived at the mission home for the missionaries and put each package into it's proper zone along with keeping tab of who got a gift. I also do various other things that either the Pres or his wife ask me to do. This is just a bit of what I do. There is a whole lot more such as making phone calls, etc I just can't even remember right now. By the time we get home we're so tired that we have a simple dinner and then don't do too much else unless we need to go out and do some missionary activity or something like that.
Elder Arhets has been called to be the executive secretary to the Branch President so that keeps him busy too with calls, visits, etc. Tonight he is out with the President delivering baskets of food to needy people that the branch has put together. We have been collecting non perishable goods for about a month and at the last moment getting perishables to add to the baskets.
Wow. I thought I was busy! You two are hopping! Merry Christmas!
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