Aug 24
This week was a 14 page journal entry. Don't worry, you won't get the whole scoop. To add to the frantic pace, somebody turned on the heat AND humidity to make the air unbreathable and the heat unbearable.
Monday and Tuesday were transfers. Instead of two or three coming in, we had 10 arriving different times and different terminals. Elder Taggart was in charge of the truck and trailer and picking up luggage. Someone had left the hitch on the truck and it was gone. (and we're never to refer to them as kids!) Quick thinking had him removing the hitch from the transfer van and he made the pickup of luggage on time. We did training both days. Tuesday was interesting for Elder Taggart. He has 10 new missionaries trying to activate 10 new Ipads but Salt Lake had changed the Apple ID # and we didn't have it because the man who should have notified us was out with family issues. To add to the frenzy, Elder Crook had gone in for surgery on a detached retina on Monday so we were short staffed. My stress was 68 changes--10 new, 13 out--5 apartment changes, and a general shuffle. From our President's perspective, he was not only housing new missionaries all wide eyed and missing home, he was housing 13 out-going the next day with testimony meeting and interviews and feelings of sadness, BUT ALSO the first of their wedding party began to arrive, 3 on Monday (3 days early) and 4 on Tuesday (1 day early). On any week but transfer week, houseguests can be managed in the mission home but really, 13 missionaries plus 7 family.....where do we put them all? And I thought transfers were hard on their own. Let me say, the 13 going home this time ripped my heart out. They were our leadership, the ones who showed us the ropes when we got here, some of the older and wiser. It hurt to let them go.
Let's pause for a minute....add into the mix Sister Woodbury's mom is dying of pancreatic cancer in it's last stages. She lives in Colorado and her daughter is here. Our president's wife bore a beautiful testimony of the Plan of Salvation and enduring faithfully to the end. Someone ask her if she loves it. (the mission) She said no, she doesn't love "it" but she loves the people. I agree.
So what do I have to whine about ? Wed. it took the President 3 trips to O'Hare to deliver the departing missionaries to their flights, then 4 more trips to O'Hare and Midway to pick up the 15 family members for the wedding on Friday. And what was I doing? Normally our phone hasn't been ringing much, but that all changes on transfer week....and Sister Crook wasn't there because she had to take care of the one-eyed bandit, or Crook.
Mom #1....Where are my son's contact lenses? They arrived at your office Aug. 13 because a Sister Crook signed for them but my son doesn't have them. ( 5 phone calls later I had connected the son with the lenses and soothed the irate mother.)
Missionary....."Sister Taggart, could you type me a letter of residency?"
Mom # 2.....My son is on a bike in Chicago and is having problems getting groceries. (what is he buying, watermelons?) I suggested he could call a ward member or his district leaders who have a car.
Missionary...."Sister Taggart, I need a new name tag."
Missionary...."Sister Taggart, do we have a Book of Mormon in Romanian?
Mom #3.....My daughters mail keeps coming back "return to sender". What are you going to do to get it to her? (Become a mailman?)
Elder....."My suitcase never made it to my new apartment on Tuesday. Where is it?"
Mom #4....Do you have the Christmas list out yet for missionaries in need?
Elder who went home....."Sister Crook has my passport. Can you mail it to me?"
Elder...."My apartment was left filthy by the Elders who were here.What should I do?" (You are in south Chicago and they are now up in Buffalo Grove. I suggest you roll up your sleeves and start cleaning.)
And did I mention, Elder Taggart sold 2 cars again this week? And we got into one of our less-active Home Teaching families. Murphy's Law, this would be the week they chose to let us in. She is a member, he is not. He was raised in the Czech Republic under communist rule as an atheist. His story is fascinating . They invited us back next month. The West Chicago office staff came to our office to say goodbye. They are going home. That night I had Mexican leftovers, Elder Taggart had Italian leftovers. I fixed a Chinese salad to go with it. Welcome to our frig.
I don't even want to tell you about Friday. Abbotts were planning on being out of the office shopping for the wedding salad. Crooks were out of the office for a doctor appointment and then Sister Crook came in to field phone calls from her children. We got a panic phone call from the mission home around 10 AM from Julie, the housekeeper. HELP!!! She needed to get the luncheon ready for the wedding party, have the Woodbury's 2 grandchildren over to the temple before that for the pictures, and the whole mission home "reception ready" after 25 houseguests had trashed the place getting ready that morning. So we left Abbotts to man the phones and we hurried to the rescue. May I just say how much I love mopping floors and cleaning toilets wearing a dress....NOT!! In 3 hours we had the mission home cleaned up and lunch in the ovens so we could hurry back so the Abbotts could leave and do their errands. I had a page of referrals to assign and 60 letters to readdress, supplies that arrived and had to be shelved, and a few phone calls to field. At 5:30 we hurried back over to the mission home to be kitchen staff for the duration of the evening.
A wise man said, "It's a good thing this is a mission. If it were a job I'd quit, or ask for a raise."
A better quote this week for my experience was, "If the world didn't suck we'd all fall off."
I have felt like we were spinning out of control several times this week. Elder Crook is on the mend and his office is decorated in Pirate theme when he comes back. I have decided after yesterday, P-day stands for "pants day" as I mended or hemmed 3 pr. of slacks. All in all, we love serving or we would have packed up long ago. We love our missionaries or we would have disconnected the phones. And we love each other or we wouldn't be speaking at this point.
Hang on this week and know that some weeks are just like that.
Love,
Sister Taggart
Monday and Tuesday were transfers. Instead of two or three coming in, we had 10 arriving different times and different terminals. Elder Taggart was in charge of the truck and trailer and picking up luggage. Someone had left the hitch on the truck and it was gone. (and we're never to refer to them as kids!) Quick thinking had him removing the hitch from the transfer van and he made the pickup of luggage on time. We did training both days. Tuesday was interesting for Elder Taggart. He has 10 new missionaries trying to activate 10 new Ipads but Salt Lake had changed the Apple ID # and we didn't have it because the man who should have notified us was out with family issues. To add to the frenzy, Elder Crook had gone in for surgery on a detached retina on Monday so we were short staffed. My stress was 68 changes--10 new, 13 out--5 apartment changes, and a general shuffle. From our President's perspective, he was not only housing new missionaries all wide eyed and missing home, he was housing 13 out-going the next day with testimony meeting and interviews and feelings of sadness, BUT ALSO the first of their wedding party began to arrive, 3 on Monday (3 days early) and 4 on Tuesday (1 day early). On any week but transfer week, houseguests can be managed in the mission home but really, 13 missionaries plus 7 family.....where do we put them all? And I thought transfers were hard on their own. Let me say, the 13 going home this time ripped my heart out. They were our leadership, the ones who showed us the ropes when we got here, some of the older and wiser. It hurt to let them go.
Let's pause for a minute....add into the mix Sister Woodbury's mom is dying of pancreatic cancer in it's last stages. She lives in Colorado and her daughter is here. Our president's wife bore a beautiful testimony of the Plan of Salvation and enduring faithfully to the end. Someone ask her if she loves it. (the mission) She said no, she doesn't love "it" but she loves the people. I agree.
So what do I have to whine about ? Wed. it took the President 3 trips to O'Hare to deliver the departing missionaries to their flights, then 4 more trips to O'Hare and Midway to pick up the 15 family members for the wedding on Friday. And what was I doing? Normally our phone hasn't been ringing much, but that all changes on transfer week....and Sister Crook wasn't there because she had to take care of the one-eyed bandit, or Crook.
Mom #1....Where are my son's contact lenses? They arrived at your office Aug. 13 because a Sister Crook signed for them but my son doesn't have them. ( 5 phone calls later I had connected the son with the lenses and soothed the irate mother.)
Missionary....."Sister Taggart, could you type me a letter of residency?"
Mom # 2.....My son is on a bike in Chicago and is having problems getting groceries. (what is he buying, watermelons?) I suggested he could call a ward member or his district leaders who have a car.
Missionary...."Sister Taggart, I need a new name tag."
Missionary...."Sister Taggart, do we have a Book of Mormon in Romanian?
Mom #3.....My daughters mail keeps coming back "return to sender". What are you going to do to get it to her? (Become a mailman?)
Elder....."My suitcase never made it to my new apartment on Tuesday. Where is it?"
Mom #4....Do you have the Christmas list out yet for missionaries in need?
Elder who went home....."Sister Crook has my passport. Can you mail it to me?"
Elder...."My apartment was left filthy by the Elders who were here.What should I do?" (You are in south Chicago and they are now up in Buffalo Grove. I suggest you roll up your sleeves and start cleaning.)
And did I mention, Elder Taggart sold 2 cars again this week? And we got into one of our less-active Home Teaching families. Murphy's Law, this would be the week they chose to let us in. She is a member, he is not. He was raised in the Czech Republic under communist rule as an atheist. His story is fascinating . They invited us back next month. The West Chicago office staff came to our office to say goodbye. They are going home. That night I had Mexican leftovers, Elder Taggart had Italian leftovers. I fixed a Chinese salad to go with it. Welcome to our frig.
I don't even want to tell you about Friday. Abbotts were planning on being out of the office shopping for the wedding salad. Crooks were out of the office for a doctor appointment and then Sister Crook came in to field phone calls from her children. We got a panic phone call from the mission home around 10 AM from Julie, the housekeeper. HELP!!! She needed to get the luncheon ready for the wedding party, have the Woodbury's 2 grandchildren over to the temple before that for the pictures, and the whole mission home "reception ready" after 25 houseguests had trashed the place getting ready that morning. So we left Abbotts to man the phones and we hurried to the rescue. May I just say how much I love mopping floors and cleaning toilets wearing a dress....NOT!! In 3 hours we had the mission home cleaned up and lunch in the ovens so we could hurry back so the Abbotts could leave and do their errands. I had a page of referrals to assign and 60 letters to readdress, supplies that arrived and had to be shelved, and a few phone calls to field. At 5:30 we hurried back over to the mission home to be kitchen staff for the duration of the evening.
A wise man said, "It's a good thing this is a mission. If it were a job I'd quit, or ask for a raise."
A better quote this week for my experience was, "If the world didn't suck we'd all fall off."
I have felt like we were spinning out of control several times this week. Elder Crook is on the mend and his office is decorated in Pirate theme when he comes back. I have decided after yesterday, P-day stands for "pants day" as I mended or hemmed 3 pr. of slacks. All in all, we love serving or we would have packed up long ago. We love our missionaries or we would have disconnected the phones. And we love each other or we wouldn't be speaking at this point.
Hang on this week and know that some weeks are just like that.
Love,
Sister Taggart
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