"I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go......."

January 25, 2015

This week has been typical, crazy, and busy. Ernie Banks died. Some may be asking, "Who is Ernie Banks?" A Chicago Cubs baseball player from days gone by. He was the Cubs first black player. He hit 512 home runs in his career with his skinny 185 lb. frame and no steroids to help him.....just determination. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977 on the first ballot. He is a rare player in that his whole career was played on one team....the Cubs. He earned the title of Mr. Cub. It has been all over the news here, a real blow to the community. Even White Sox fans were in mourning.

We fed 2 sets of Elders, Thurs. then Fri. nights this week. I was on the phone with one set of Elders while another set was at my desk. They heard the cancellation, heard I already had a turkey breast in the crock-pot, and chimed in as soon as I hung the phone up, "We're available for dinner tonight." They love being in our home for an hour, having a home-cooked meal, then going back out into the cold cruel world. I had to scramble the second night to feed the original invitees. Costco roasted chicken with leftovers of everything else from the night before was good enough. We have no leftovers now, but they leave a spirit in our home better than leftovers.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
Odd referral name for the week: CLANTCHA. Can't you picture a mother holding a baby in her arms and saying, "You look like a little Clantcha." Some of these names crack me up.

Chicago has a coyote problem. There are 2000 within the city limits and they are even producing little ones in the city limits. Adaptation is the name of their game. I say good for the coyotes!!

A man in our ward got a $400 ticket for walking too close to the commuter train tracks this week. They said they have had too many suicides recently so they are ticketing anyone they see close to the tracks. They don't have enough police to stop the murders, confiscate guns from teens, come to our house for identity theft.....but there were several officers there ticketing commuters as they got off the train. It's all about revenue and how Chicago can make money to keep the insanity going.

I received a pair of suit pants from an Elder this week with a 4" tear (off the seam) across the rear. "Can you mend these?" When I questioned how it had happened---I almost told him no. A few missionaries decided to build a human pyramid in the gym after district meeting and these pants were the casualty.

A  young sister came into the office this week, took one look at my outfit and said, "I would totally wear that outfit! I would trade clothes with you anyday." I think I have arrived. The jacket was 15 yrs. old, the skirt from Salvation Army, and the blouse a gift from last Christmas. Stylin'

We are not on a count-down but I have hit the panic button. We have 3 months left and no replacement in sight. I am cleaning out drawers and binders at the office and closets and shelves in our apartment. We came in a car and we go home in a car.....without adding a trailer my husband reminds me. How did we accumulate this stuff? I spent my last 6 months in Renton eating down our food storage. Now I'm doing the same thing here. Soup, rice, and chicken. I give food to all the missionaries who eat here. I mailed 4 boxes "home" this week and the car still won't hold all it has to. Hoard and purge seem to be a pattern in my life.

I also started writing detailed instructions to whoever takes over my job. I may not get to train a replacement so I must leave instructions so any warm body can do the tasks I do daily. All systems have changed since I was trained. Referral system with Ipads is completely different. Baptisms are recorded the same but you must bird-dog missionaries to get the signatures they need on the records, mail them in the same month they are baptised in, then reconcile reports, dates, months, and wards, put it all on an excel spreadsheet to attach to an email to 4 stake presidents and the mission president each month. We have an audit coming up. Invoice matching with supplies ordered gets scrutinised by the bearded wonder who audits us yearly. I spent $26,000 on supplies for this mission last year and I can account for every dime. I am more than a cute outfit sitting in an office! So in my spare time I write instructions as if she is as "out of touch" as I was when I got here. (Turn on computer. This is a mouse.)

We were invited to dinner again this Sunday....by the teenage daughters in that home. The parents said, "All the teenagers in our ward love you." We love them too. I guess one Youth Conference was enough for them to know who we are.

Tonight we had a Book of Mormon fireside in the Wilmette Stake. It was packed. 60 missionaries serve in this stake so we were all here. Young families, older families, Spanish ward members (there are 4 in this stake), new converts, investigators all joined for narration, a slide show to go along with music and the spoken word. A harp accompanied our ward's children's choir as they sang "Easter Hosanna" with slides of the Savior coming to the American continent after he was crucified in Jerusalem. After our mission president spoke about the Book of Mormon and sharing the gospel, our missionary choir of 60 sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go." I was moved as I looked over and saw my husband surrounded by young Elders. (They all wanted to be by him in rehearsals because he has a good voice.) It feels good to be part of this group.

So that's our week. Nothing spectacular. I tell people we are plodders. We are assigned a job and we just go about doing it the best way we know how, loving those we meet along the way.
We love being part of this work. We love The Lord. We love the Gospel. We know it can change lives.....it certainly has changed ours.

Love,
Sister Taggart