The MTC experience is over. We have been in our new home for the past two days frantically trying to sort through remaining boxes to determine what needs to go to Chicago, what needs to be in the basement under climate control and what can stay in the garage. We took two more carloads to Deseret Industries. A young man there said he wished we were going to his country.....Sudan.....but no missionaries are allowed there yet. With this "hastening" they kept talking about in the MTC , I will be looking forward to more countries opening.
Week two tried every last drop of patience and stick-to-it I could muster. Computers have never been my thing. We were told we would receive help from sources not felt before. So I sit down to the computer and I am expected to write letters from the mission president with attachments, log transfers and move photos of the missionaries to their transfer areas, print address labels for all the outgoing missionaries for the month.....and sort that information with a program existing on the computer, enter baptism information and send it to SLC, print up a newsletter with the presidents message, clip art, birthdays of missionaries for that month, etc.....figure out how to do financials, car reports, VISAs for foreign missionaries,......the list went on and on and on for four days. My first inclination was to bolt and send them a letter saying they had made a big mistake putting me in an office with a computer for two years. But alas.....I knew the computer in our new house isn't totally hooked up, we can't get the old printer to recognise the laptop or the old computer, the hotspot we bought can't run our old computer to even exchange information from it to our new laptop.....can you see a pattern here??? And yet off I go to Chicago to "help" move the work forward by manning a computer for two years.
We sat at lunch with a couple from Oregon one day, who had been assigned to Texas to teach Institute. They were terrified. I shook my head in amazement. What an easy mission that would be. So The Lord continues to stretch, try,and test in areas we are weak in to make them strong. I told Bruce if this works out and doesn't kill me, I'm coming home and finding work in the computer industry. Kidding.
On the home front....we got mirrors in our bathrooms Thursday night at 10:00PM. Try getting ready every morning with a mirror the size of an encyclopedia. Another trainer at the MTC approached us to live in our house for two years. I had just spent the night before unpacking boxes until 2:30 AM and couldn't face reversing that process the next night. We declined. I feel bad but I hurt worse so body pain won over. Our sod should be laid Monday right after we leave. It may be dead when we return.
The associations in the MTC were amazing. We felt a loss as some would leave early for their fields of labor. Many sold homes and left their things in storage. Some let children live in their homes. We all have health issues at this point. Many we're serving, hoping The Lord will bless the hearts of their inactive children while they are gone. One guy retired and wasn't even sure what his retirement check would be....but they are headed to the Kirkland Visitors Center for eighteen months. Our sacrifice seems small when compared to some.
The incoming group of Sr. Missionaries was only 80 this week so our group still holds the record. The incoming young missionaries totalled 800 this week. The logistics would blow your mind but because the Lord is in charge it all goes smoothly. We only waited in line in the cafeteria one day in 13. When they needed 20 more computers to teach us, they were there and hooked up by the following morning. When they run out of room for a devotional, they head over to the Marriott Center.....a line of marching missionaries 2000 strong from one direction, 1000 strong from the other campus.....singing Called to Serve as they go. So how can I whine about my computer skills? I am what The Lord has to work with so here I go!!!
We have stake conference Sunday. Appropriate, I thought. We will walk to the Alpine Tabernacle here in American Fork. So close to our new home. In two years we will appreciate that.
We said goodbye to Paige Oliver before she left. We saw Sean Nichols in the copy Center. We have tried to interact with grandchildren when we could. We met a young Elder who said he was going to our mission that last day. His face lit up when we said we were going to his same mission and would meet him there in July when he gets there. It is easy to love these youth.
Well.....Bruce is out in the garage digging and I will be out on my ear if I don't get busy. We love you and will Return with Honor in 22 1/2 months.
Love,
Sister Taggart
No comments:
Post a Comment