Just Another Day at the Office

         

The new mission office address is 2600 Boyce Plaza Rd. Ste. 101, Upper St. Clair, PA 15241.  That is where we will be getting all of our mail from now on.

Our desks are in the same room along with the AP’s. Rod is always on the phone talking with elders and sisters about their cars.  The phones pretty well manage themselves except for a month-end report.  I take care of the correspondence for new and departing missionaries, travel arrangements, keep track of where everyone is and order and disperse supplies and mail.  Rod says it’s like being at work.  I say, not even close. But, then, his work was putting out fires all day, so I guess it is for him.

        

Elder Jex and Elder Huber are the awesome office elders who are training us to do their jobs. They are hard acts to follow. They really do need to get out in the field proselyting full time.  We have enjoyed going out with them in the evenings to help teach.  Elder Jex and Elder Green got six mission cars ready to go to the auction last week.

                                   

Sister Bowcutt bought two new dining room sets for the mission and gave us one of them. Out apartment will stay as an office couple apartment. The new couples have to pay $100/month extra for furnishings so they are trying to get nicer furnishings.  It’s still used furniture but nicer.  Thankfully, the elders do all the heavy lifting.

We are still having new adventures everyday and enjoying most of them.  We love the Lord and are happy to be serving where ever He calls.

Moving to Pittsburgh

We had our last district meeting with our Wheeling, Wintersville and Washington elders at Greentree with President and Sister Topham.  We will really miss our close association with those elders.

                                   

                  Elders Crandall, King, Copeland, Blake, van der Spek and Neilsen

After a very hectic week, we finally got everything moved out of the house in Wheeling into our new two-bedroom apartment in Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The hardest part was saying good-bye to all of our friends in Wheeling. 

          

The Barkers and Mike Orum were just some of our good friends whom we will miss terribly.  Lots of tears were shed and lots of promises to keep in touch.  They opened their homes and their hearts to us and we really miss being there. 

But on to the next adventure of our mission.  Rod is the fleet coordinator, taking care of 63 cars and all that it entails along with all the telephones in the mission.  It helps that he knows a lot about cars already.  I am the mission secretary and am not making friends with the computer very fast.  I am sure it will all sink in eventually, right?  I take comfort in the promise that the Lord qualifies those he calls.

Our new apartment is much smaller than the house in Wheeling, but it is comfortable and we are getting settled in.  And, yes, I did bring my organ.   

           

We will be serving in the Pittsburgh 2nd Ward and will hopefully have some opportunities to visit and teach. We have gone out twice with the elders this week.

Although this is an entirely different experience, we have faith that the call was from the Lord and he will show us the how and why of it all someday.  We are just happy to be doing it together.

Happy New Year

We ushered in the New Year at the church in Wheeling.  It was a small but lively group and we had fun with active and less-active families.  What surprised me is that I made it to midnight before I noticed it was that late.

           

Rod was in an intense game of Uno.  Allison Carman again decorated the church with streamers and balloons.  All the loose balloons collected on the air intake at one end of the hall.

            

Bishop Skrzyneki had a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit going and the rest of us were playing Pictionary.  We definitely were the rowdiest. 

                                      

Little Emily even made it until midnight.  Probably from her sugar high.

On Friday we went to Pittsburgh and had a Missionary Couples Conference.  We got to meet the new couples who have come in the past few weeks.  We visited, had a nice dinner and program and then President Topham instructed us on the new information he had just received from Elder Smith, the presiding authority.  It was fun to be with other couples.

             

Elder and Sister Kenley from South Jordan and Elder and Sister Mudgett from Layton UT are new MLS couples. (Member and Leader Support)

            

Elder and Sister Jackson from South Jordan are MLS and Elder and Sister Hurren from Weston ID were called as office couple.

             

Elder and Sister Mooney from North Carolina and Elder and Sister Pace from American Fork Utah are the record preservation couples in Wintersville OH.

               

Elder and Sister Brower are the medical support couple for our mission.  He supports 12 missions.  They are living in Chillicothe OH and he is a retired ER physician.  The couples in order in the last picture are the Christensens( mental health support), the Hurrens, the Paces, the Jacksons, the Kenleys, the Browers, the Mooneys, the Bowcutts (another office couple), the Mudgetts, the Marshalls (CES) and the Greens. President and Sister Topham were taking the pictures.

We received a surprise call on Monday from President Topham telling us that he was moving us into the office for our remaining 6 months.  Couples really do get transfers.  He is sending the Hurrens to Wheeling.  We are really sad about leaving Wheeling but we told the President we are willing to go wherever the Lord needs us.  We have already seen many tender mercies from Him with this change.