Yes, I heard myself say those 6 words over the phone to a concerned mother this week. We are ramping up for transfers again.....meaning 34 new missionaries arrive a week from tomorrow (only three are going home), boxes of bedding and winter clothes started to arrive in the mail this week, and the moms sending said boxes are slapped up the side of the head with the reality MY CHILD WILL BE LIVING IN CHICAGO...MURDER CAPITOL OF AMERICA!!!
This mother is sending her eldest daughter. Will she be driving a car in the snow? Will she be in a safe neighborhood? Can I send pepper spray or mace so I can have peace of mind? ( I assured her she could but if her daughter gets sent to Buffalo Grove or Valparaiso, IN, the only thing she can use it on is cows.)
The letters I address are sent to locations such as Lake in the Hills,Crown Point, Homewood, Libertyville, Round Lake, Crystal Lake, Vernon Hills, Crestwood, and Blue Island. Sounds like a resort town, exotic, isolated, pristine, and beautiful. Most of Illinois is just that. A business associate of Elder Taggart from Buffalo Grove (38 miles from downtown Chicago) hunts from his front porch----deer, duck, pheasant---legally. He owns a hunting cabin and lake on his property and lives a simple life. (He also pays $22,000 a year in property taxes) Then there is downtown Chicago and a few surrounding neighborhoods that ruin it for the rest of us.
So I calmed a troubled mother who had heard all the myths about missionaries getting mugged each week in Chicago. It just doesn't happen that way.
Kyleygirl and BFF Bethy.....who are these people and why does their mail cross my desk? It is a postcard written to Kyleygirl, addressed to our mission. I go through 180 first names of missionaries. We have one Kylie. I call her. "Sister --------, do you have a BFF named Bethy?" She assured me she doesn't have a BFF. I believe her. So I go back to the list of 180 missionaries. We do have one Bethany, second to the last name as luck would have it. I call her. She forgot to put an address on the card, just the return address of our mission. She is embarrassed. She is young. I've just used 45 min. Of my life trying to solve the mystery of Kyleygirl and Bethy. I learn patience.
An Elder calls. His mail is being stolen. I call the Postmaster General. Guess what I am told??? In downtown Chicago there is nothing he can do about it! Are you kidding me? Is's a Federal Offense!! He suggested they pay for a PO box at the post office. They are on bikes in downtown and that is out of the question, they say. Yes, I'll hold your mail and send it via district leaders when they come into the office. (Did I just tell a mother her daughter would be safe in Chicago? Daughter, yes....mail, no.
We are an online mission now and I have lost a husband. The President turned the whole baby over to Elder Taggart and this week has been a flurry of training the leadership, getting their Facebooks up and running, cleaning up old accounts with missionaries so they will be missionary appropriate. My tiny miracle amid this flurry is a small piece of paper on my desk with a name and an email address on it. A " referral" of sorts, that couldn't be assigned because I had no phone number or address so who do I assign it to? It was from Australia. The man came to Chicago to work, leaving his family at home. He is a Spanish speaking Puerto Rican who wanted the missionaries. So this week I texted two missionaries the info and during their Facebook time they will find and teach him. Hurray for technology.
Two sisters called me with 8 PI (potential investigators) they met while street contacting for 8 hours one day. Facebook will speed that up for them, I hope.
We had a surprise visit from our mission president this week. He and his wife came to pick up training DVD's and copies after an appointment, and wanted to see what "retro ghetto" looked like. We laughed and laughed. Good thing we keep it clean. Anyway, as they were about to leave, the President said the saddest thing, "Katie, do you think the Taggart's would trade houses with us for a night or two so nobody would know where we were and we could have alone time? Guess retro ghetto is not so bad after all .
I got a call from an Elder in Chicago this week. He was with an investigator who was distraught. Her grandmother in Mexico was in the hospital and needed missionaries there to give her a Priesthood blessing. Could I notify them today? No address. No phone number. No name at first. The hospital was really a clinic behind a bus station in Volcan. Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Mexico were locations I had to work with. I got on CDOL , entered what I knew, located an email address, pushed a button and prayed someone on the other end would come through.(Elder Asher was in the office and he translated it all into Spanish for me) I think technology is amazing.
I did 4 Excel spreadsheets, to include tabs on the bottom, for our 4 stakes apartment inspections. When the stake presidents saw how many of our 93 apartments were not inspected, boy did that raise a ruckus .( yes, I emailed it, with attachment, to stake presidents and high council and ill bet they rue the day I learned how to do that!)
Trivia: we have to walk 53 steps down a long hall to use the restroom at our office. That gets old.
In one day I rerouted 24 packages, 111 pieces of mail, and unloaded 44 cases of supplies from the distribution center. I'll be buff when I get home.
I mended 3 pair of slacks. For that I am appreciated.
Highlight of the week was dinner with Dave, Jill and Tyson Conrad from Utah.(Elder Taggart's little sister) so fun to see family and catch up.
Two new rules for us#1. We can't have two cooked meals in the same day. It dirties all the pans, most of the utensils, and there isn't room on the drainer to stack all the dishes. #2 lunches and garbage should not be put in the look alike recycle Wallmart bags. Senior couples will then throw away lunches and supplies for the office (did really happen.....3 times) and open garbage for lunch!
We love you. The Gospel is true. We are having a blast. We are needed. Have a great week.
Love,
Sister Taggart
No comments:
Post a Comment