Home Work

We worked in our apartment today on some projects.  I was working on the administrative details for the upcoming Saints Unified Voices firesides.  Renee was contacting missionaries about the upcoming temple trip and finished up with the March section of the 2016 annual history.

New Missionary Training

After a hopefully good night sleep, the new missionaries had training and met their trainees.  They had a short meeting for the new trainers.  I asked them who was more stressed -- they not knowing what their trainee would be like or the new missionaries not knowing what their trainer would be like.  They thought probably the new missionaries were more stressed.

After the training was completed, I helped Sis. Smith and her new missionary trainee, Sis. Greenberg, get some brochures they needed.  As I was carrying them to their car, they stopped to check with the office Elders about getting an oil change.  I set down the brochures, and then we all forgot about them.  So we ended up stopping at their apartment in Bradenton to deliver the brochures.  While there, I was able to fix a couple of problems in their apartment, so it turned out to be a beneficial stop.

When I was getting dressed this morning, I noticed a problem with my tie.  This is a tie that I wore quite a bit before coming on our mission.  The tie is now worn out.  I have never worn out a tie before.  This one is is frayed where the knot is tied.

Arriving Missionaries

We had seven new missionaries arrive today, 5 Sisters and 2 Elders.  Over the past year, President Cusick has reduced the amount of training on Tuesday evening.  I think he has learned that they are so tired from the travel that they don't retain anything.  I doubt that these newly arrived missionaries understand what big shoes they have to fill from the departing missionaries.  But somehow, the new missionaries turn into good missionaries themselves.

Last evening I visited with the desk clerk at the hotel and told her about the missionaries.  I talked with her again this evening and invited her to meet with the missionaries.  She said that she would like to, so I was able to get her email address for the missionaries to contact her.

P-Day and Departing Missionary Dinner

We did our apartment cleaning and then drove to the mission office and then to the mission home.  There are eight missionaries departing early tomorrow morning plus Elder and Sister Smith.  We have been able to associate with all of them, some very closely.  This is a really good group of missionaries.  They have done great work, and we are sad to see them leave.  And they were sad to be leaving.

Sisters Torres, Rydalch, Jahnel, Gibson, Smith, and Packer.  Pres. and Sis. Cusick, Elders Reamon, Morris, Ware, and Smith.

General Conference

Again we watched the General Conference sessions.  We only had one of the sets of Elders join with us.  The others had been invited to watch with a recent convert which is preferable. As always, we appreciated and were strengthened by the conference talks.

When I made my weekly Sunday evening call to my father, he could not hear anything I said.  That made for a one-sided conversation.  He is slowly losing his eyesight and hearing, and that is frustrating for him.  I can understand why it would be.

General Conference

We watched the General Conference sessions today.  We invited the four Elders who live close to us to watch at our apartment unless they had somewhere else to go.  We had two Elders for the morning session and all four for the afternoon and priesthood sessions.  Of course, Renee needed to feed them.  She continues to be surprised at how much they eat.

Elders Rees, Gardner, Casperson and Bowden and Renee singing during General Conference.

MLC Barbecue

The Mission Leadership Council was held at the mission home today.  This is the first time that we have met at the mission home, and I thought it went quite well.  We had the normal council on mission issues.  Then, we broke into two groups, zone leaders and sister training leaders, to discuss what their plans for the future are.  I think that President Cusick wanted to learn whether what they are doing on their missions is preparing them for the future.  I think it is, but some of the preparation is indirect.

We finished the meeting with barbecued hamburgers.  I think the missionaries enjoyed having an informal meeting at the mission home.  Hopefully we will be able to do that again.