Apartment Hunting -- But Not For Us

We received a call from President Healey, the other counselor in the mission presidency and mission financial secretary, asking us to look for an apartment in the Bradenton area.  With the departure and arrival of missionaries this week, President Cusick is thinking about assigning two additional missionaries to the Bradenton Ward.  We spent the morning calling and visiting apartment complexes, and we found one that we quite liked.

We then drove to the mission office in Tampa where we will be the next three days meeting with the departing and arriving missionaries.  By the time we got there, things had changed, and there is now uncertainty about whether two additional missionaries will be assigned to Bradenton.  What happened is that two missionaries unexpectedly will be returning home tomorrow.  So instead of a net gain of 10 missionaries, we will have a net gain of 8.  Unless something changes by tomorrow.  We are learning the need for flexibility as things change regularly.

We ended the day with a dinner at the mission home with the departing missionaries, President and Sister Cusick, and Preisdent and Sister Healey.  The departing missionaries bore their testimonies.  We also learned that Elder Hall, one of the departing missionaries that we have become acquainted with has a girl friend who is waiting for him.  So President Cusick called her.  She works in a hair salon.  Without telling her who he was, Pres. Cusick offered her $500 and then $1000 for a haircut at the time when Elder Hall arrives at the airport in Idaho.  She refused, and then Pres. Cusick told her who he was.  It was a funny situation, and Elder Hall handled it very well.