Getting Ready for the New President

It seems crazy that we will be getting a new mission president in just a matter of days.  We have been SO busy getting ready for his arrival!  I've had to update an entire 3" binder with all of the documents that I use to prepare the Missionary Guidebooks, do the SPC's, luncheons, and all the letters I write to parents and missionaries, and stake presidents.  I'm not finished yet, and it has taken me HOURS!  The missionaries have expressed concern about having so many changes take place:  a new mission president, new mission secretary, finance/housing/cell phone secretary, and vehicle coordinator.  (Elder Dana is being released just four days after us.)  They've said such kind things to us.

Glen also had a very busy week doing two full days of visa waiters again.  He processed nearly 70 visa waiters in the last 3 weeks and he has had to be away so much!  Plus to get the housing and cell phones ready for our next transfer and train Elder Sudweeks--he has been BUSY!!  But it makes the time fly and we are enjoying it a lot.

When we arrived at the office on Monday morning, this picture was on desk.  It was a picture of the Spoken Word taken the day before by one of our assistants, Elder Carlson.  He thought the man circled in the picture looked just like Glen.  Funny, huh?

Tuesday, is of course, my favorite day of the week at the office because the zone leaders come in to give us the stats from their zones, do vehicle reports, and get supplies.  We never imagined the amount of supplies that fly out of a mission office.  They take stacks of copies of the Book of Mormon, pamphlets, and pass along cards.  Pictured here are Elder Dowdle, Elder Werner, Elder Sanders, and Elder Torgersen.  They are all such good elders!  On Tuesdays the Church also emails me the new missionary recommends that are assigned to our mission--and on this day I got a record number of twelve new missionaries who were assigned to our mission in just one week!  

On Tuesday evening we had some special visitors--Michael and Nancy Boyer, Juliann's brother and sister-in -law and their four children.  They have recently moved to Las Vegas for Michael's job as an RN, so we were so excited to see them and have dinner with them!  They are just darling and we had a great time with them--but I forgot to take a picture with them!   I was devastated!  

On Wednesday I was invited by Sister Larson and Sister Hoffman to go out to lunch!  Their choice to go was Subway, and we had SO much fun talking!  They both told me that when the announcement was made to lower the age for missionaries they immediately knew that they should serve even though they hadn't planned on it before.  They are both beautiful and wonderful missionaries.

On Thursday night we were able to go see "The Music Man" with the Buffalo Ward Empty Nesters FHE group.  Even though I saw it the week before, I was so excited for Glen to see it!  We had a little picnic dinner and had so much fun with this group.  Pictured are Jay and Dorothy Burt, us, Eula May Judd, Tania and Brent Leonard, Jay Chapman, Lata Tu'ua, and Valerie Chapman.

  Bradley Stirling, who works at DI, would come into the office a lot to visit us because this was his last week to work at DI.  His next step in the training process is to get a job outside of DI.  He's a sweet man and for some reason, he really latched onto us and kept telling us how much he would miss us.

I was at DI looking for more desks and chairs for the missionaries when I saw Ashley and Priscilliano standing together.  I was SO excited because I had wanted a picture of them so bad before we left, so I could remember how much they had always helped me throughout our mission.  DI has been a big part of our experience here and I just love the people who work here and have helped me so much.  Glen always calls Priscilliano one of the Three Nephites because he is not married and is so awesome and good.

On Saturday we drove out to Pahrump to bring furniture to the member home who will be housing a new set of elders, bringing the total number of missionaries who serve in Pahrump to eight!  This is a beautiful home, and we were so appreciative of Elder Bloomfield and Elder Houghton who came to help us move in the furniture.

After all of our work, we met the other missionaries at Mom's cafe and had lunch with them.  We had so much fun with them!  They all love it in Pahrump and it's the first time the mission has ever had sister missionaries there.  Pictured are Sis. Rasmussen, Sis. Baker, Elder Wong, Elder Van Etten, Elder Bloomfield (he is SO funny!), and Elder Houghton.  

After lunch we went to Elder Wong and Elder Van Etten's "house" so that Glen could inspect it.  It was quite the place, but they like it!  

We got back just in time t ogo to the Hofbrauhouse, a German restaurant that Glen has been wanting to go to since we arrived in Las Vegas.  It is patterned exactly after the Hofbrauhouse in Munich Germany where he served his mission, and where Danny, Heidi, and we went in 2006.  It was quite the place!  A musician came to our table and played this huge Swiss horn--it was really awesome. 

We were so excited to go to dinner with Joni and Dave Rasmussen and Spencer and Jill Judd.  The food was great and we had such a good time with them.  It was a good way to end our busy week!