No earthquakes
or tornados here this week. Just a lot of mission work! I (LeAnn) felt like I
got pulled into the vortex that is the Peruvian migrations office…so
frustrating! I spent hours working on migration status extensions for a couple
of our missionaries and basically got nowhere. Even our contact in the Area
office was stumped by the situation. Hopefully, we can get things resolved this
week.
One of our
office responsibilities is sending out replacement phones when missionaries
lose their phones (Yes, sadly, this happens from time to time.) We also replace
the phone chips when those get lost. (And don’t ask me why the missionaries are
taking the phone chips out of their phones, but they do that, too. I think it
has something to do with increasing the data capacity…) Anyway, I’m supposed to
coordinate all this phone chip stuff with the Area office and our contact at
Claro (the local service provider), which means that I do the following:
1. Ask Lane what am I supposed to ask/tell
the Area office (or Claro).
2. Type up the message in English and then
put it in Google Translate to convert it to Spanish.
3. Have Lane proof the message to make sure
it’s in the correct voice (formal, not familiar).
4. Send off the message in an email to the
Area office representative.
Then when I get
an email response from the Area office, I just reverse this process:
1. Paste the message into Google Translate
so I can understand it.
2. Tell Lane what the Area office said in
their email.
3. Wait for Lane to help me with how to
respond.
Well, last week after
going through the above process, the Area office was having Claro send us out
some new phone chips. When the phone chips arrived, Lane texted our contact at
the Area to confirm the delivery and ask a couple of questions. I was sitting
at my desk when Lane burst out laughing.
“What’s so
funny?” I asked.
Lane’s response:
“Well, when I told Brother R that the phone chips arrived he said, ‘Oh good. If
you have any questions, just ask Sister Simmons. She knows exactly what to do.’”
I’ve got
everyone fooled!
It’s easy for me
to feel overwhelmed at this time of year when I think about all that I want to
do, all that I could do, all that I need to do and all that I should do. But
this afternoon I read this scripture (which I may have shared before…can’t
remember…but it’s worth sharing again!) and I immediately felt better:
Counsel with the
Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest
down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep;
and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God;
and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day. (Alma 37:37)
¡Mantengan las
cosas simples! (Keep things simple!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
Occasionally we close an apartment the missionaries lived in because we don't need the apartment in that area, or because the missionaries found a better apartment or location. The result is a lot of garbage that ends up being cleaned out of the apartment that has collected and been left there over time by the many missionaries that lived there. We don't actually go in and clean the apartment out ourselves. We simply coordinate the effort with contractors we work with. The apartment owners often are not happy about the status of the apartment when the missionaries leave, and unfortunately there often is clean-up work we have to do, like painting and repairing items like faucet handles, toilets, door handles, and the like. No fun, but part of managing all the housing for the missionaries.
Corinne (Mission President's wife) visits each missionary apartment about every six weeks, and often brings excess items back that the missionaries don't need. We save what is still usable for potential future use. Here we are cleaning up a couple of hervidoras (kitchen pots for boiling water) that Corinne brought back from some apartments.
