We arrived in Chicago at 1:00 PM on Thursday and went right to work. We actually didn't get to our apartment to settle in and go grocery shopping until 8:30 that evening. We are both on a crash course to learn our duties. Right now there are four senior couples in the mission office. But on Wednesday this week the Crooks and the Taggarts will go to the new office to get everything set up since the mission splits next week. That gives us only two more days to figure out how to do everything before being on our own.
I will be responsible for the vehicle fleet which includes making sure the missionaries service them as needed, inspecting them at zone conferences, ordering new vehicles, selling old vehicles, coordinating the repair for damaged vehicles and making sure that any payments related to vehicles gets taken care of, picking up new missionaries and dropping off returning missionaries at the airport. We found out this week that the Church has spent over 67 million dollars on new vehicles since the first if the year with the creation of 58 new missions. So getting 18-20 year olds to care for and maintain a new vehicle will be a challenge I am sure. Some of them have never driven a new car and perhaps never will again in their lives.
Sister Taggart will have responsibility for making sure referrals get processed, recording baptism info, coordinating zone conference and other meeting meals, ordering all of the mission supplies, transfer updates, letters and other correspondence to missionaries, new missionaries packets, etc. all of this will require her to fall in love with the computer, which you all know is not her passion. But I am sure she will be awesome.
We love the senior missionaries. We have met over 18 of them now. Their assignments include office specialists, employment specialists, welfare specialist, member leadership couples, FM specialists and a new women's auxiliary specialists. We had a fun dinner with the senior missionaries on Friday night. We get together as a group once a month for that.
We are temporarily in an apartment vacated by an employment couple because we can't move into ours until later this week. So we are still just living out of suitcases. It will be really nice to get settled so we don't have to do an archaeological dig every time we need to find something.
Yesterday was our P-day so I was able to wash the thousands of bugs off the car. After driving almost 1,900 miles, there were many who gave their life trying to make it past our car.
The young missionaries are awesome! We met about 15 of them this week as they were in the office to get a new car, swap a car so theirs could be repaired or because they were AP's working on transfers which are on Tuesday. We have 26 new missionaries arriving tomorrow morning. We will take six vehicles to the airport to transport all of them and their luggage. Friday we picked up 9 new vehicles and had to drive them 45 miles to the office; tomorrow we pick up another 5 new ones. The young missionaries are so full of life and energy. They are a joy to be around. One of the treats of being on the office will be being able to meet every missionary either as they arrive or as they depart in addition to times at zone conferences, etc.
Our new mission president arrives on Saturday this week. We have dinner with the current mission president and his wife this Thursday evening plus a mission conference on Thursday and Friday. I am convinced that we will be very busy. I have also come to realize that whether you are teaching a lesson, working in the office or one of the other various assignments, it is all necessary in order for the work to move forward. We are excited to be part of this tsunami that is taking place in missionary work.
The gospel is true, our Father in Heaven knows us and loves us and is mindful of our needs, desires and challenges. If we will trust Him we can do anything that He needs us to do. We love you.
Elder Taggart
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