About Life in our Office

Our work day begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday to Friday after we make a 7 minute drive to the office from our apartment.  After turning the phone off of "night" which enables it to ring (forgot that little step once and boy was it peaceful in the office!)  we and our other office couple, Elder and Sister Shumway (from Las Vegas) gather for our morning devotional.  We listen to a beautiful hymn or song from the Tabernacle Choir, or occasionally children singing from The Children's Songbook, then we have a prayer to begin our day.  After prayer we recite the mission scripture of the month - hopefully from memory - then we recite, also from memory sort of, Our Missionary Purpose and The Standard of Truth.  After that we study in "Preach My Gospel" for anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes.  We are learning quite a lot!

After devotional we each head to our various desks, boot up our computers, and begin our work day.  I check emails frequently for important notes from our Mission President, new Missionary Recommendations, travel plans for incoming and outgoing missionaries, and baptism photos and paragraphs sent in from our missionaries about recent converts.  I use those in "The Liahona" which is our monthly mission newsletter which I am in charge of.  This past one I just finished for September was 10 pages long!!!  It is emailed to the Missionaries, Stake Presidents, and Bishops and Branch Presidents in our mission.  Part of it is photocopied and mailed to the Missionaries. 

I have on my desk a large binder that is titled "Secretary Bible" and that it truly is.  It is full of checklists to be done for Incoming and Outgoing Missionaries.  I write TONS of letters to Missionaries, parents, Bishops, Stake Presidents.  I can now easily operate a very fancy scanner and, what's more important, find the document on the computer!!!  I am also trained on our postage thingy which will enable me to get a job in the Post Office upon my return home.   I can figure out the postage for ANYTHING to be sent ANYWHERE!

Elder Smart, also, spends his day at his computer paying bills, paying utilities, funding the missionaries, calling missionaries who phone or text too much on their cell phones and showing "sympathy" to those Elders (not Sisters!) who find themselves with 14 cents in their account with 2 weeks to go until they are funded again.   Lately he has been earning money by getting utility companies to refund back sales tax which we should't have had to pay.  He has mastered the computer very well.  He occasionally has spare time so I have managed to put him to work. 

Our day at work is supposed to end at 5:30 p.m. but it is usually at least 6:00 when we leave the office.  We are working very hard but actually enjoying it.  It is so good to feel needed and useful at our age!  We highly recommend this as a way for our senior friends and family to spend 18 months of their retirement.

More Senior Moments!

One of my responsibilities in the mission office is to answer the telephone.  Now, you see, 90% (at least) of the time the phone is for Finance (Elder Smart) Housing (Sister Shumway) or the Car Czar (Elder Shumway).  Still it is my job...........go figure. 

I have been known to forget who I am and where I am when I answer the phone.  I am simply supposed to say "Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission, this is Sister Smart".  Well, I have had several senior moments when I pick up the blasted phone and promptly forget where I am and who I am so I totally mess up the greeting.  Most every time this happens it is the Mission President calling.  I told him that I try to look at the large sign on the open door which says "Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission" and then if I also space out who I am I have that cute black nametag to remind me.  Well, the other day he called (of course) and I botched up my greeting.  He laughed and said "What's the matter, is the door closed?"  Well, actually, it was.  I'll be lucky if I'm not banned to the Upper Peninsula.  I hear it is lonely and cold up there.

Greendale Wisconsin is so beautiful and I didn't think it was possible for that many trees to be in one place.  I am anxious to see these trees in the fall!

We are loving this mission, inspite of the many goofs we make each day.  I managed to both lose and gain a missionary in the same day today.  Apparently on August 1st, which was right in the middle of the hectic transfer week, we received an email saying that one of our missionaries coming in September wasn't coming after all.  Neither I nor my trainer remember receiving that.  Then today I received a medical card for an Elder I had never heard of.  He, too, is coming in September.  Now I KNOW that we didn't receive notice of him.  Even finance in Salt Lake had no record of him.  Many more days like today and my brain will totally be fried!!!

Also, this week and next are Liahona producing weeks.......................HELP SOMEONE!!!