Tomorrow, Dec. 4Th, 2011 marks our one month anniversary for being in the mission field. It's been quite a month....... It's been difficult because Joe and I were needing to get trained by the couple that we are replacing, but unfortunately Sister Rogers was having some serious problems with her back and feet and she was having to go to many doctors appointments and having many test so she could find out what was wrong before they had to start on their long drive home to Utah.
The Roger's felt so bad because they weren't able to give us all the training that we so badly needed, and when we were able to do some training, it was constantly interrupted because there are always missionaries coming into the office for various thing and they want to talk with us.
The day after we arrived we were invited to the Mission Presidents home for dinner. The Roger's were also invited. President and Sister Saylin have 7 children. The oldest is 17 and the youngest is 6 months. Some of the children wanted to play games with us and some just wanted to sit and talk with us. After dinner we all sang a couple of songs together and President asked us and some of his children to bear our testimony. Then he and Sister Saylin also shared their testimony. It was a really nice evening and everyone made us feel so comfortable and so welcome.
Our first week here we had two days of Zone Conferences. Going to Zone Conference was really a wonderful experience. Our Mission President, President Saylin taught about the The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've never heard it done in such an amazing way. It was so beautiful and so full of feeling.
The first day of Zone Conference lunch was brought in to feed all the missionaries by the ladies of one of the wards in our area. The second day of Zone Conference, the ladies from another ward were suppose to bring lunch, but something happened and they were not going to be able to do it. So the ladies in the mission office provided lunch. The missionaries in our mission have a really neat thing that they do at the end of the meal. They all stand together and sing a song to who ever prepared their meal and at the end of their song they sing a very fun THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL MEAL. Then they line up and one by one shake hands with each person who prepared the meal and each one of then thanks you for the wonderful meal. It's really a fun experience.
In our mission, there are 161 missionaries. That's not counting all the Senior missionaries. On the first day of Zone Conference, half of the missionaries were there and the other half on the second day. Joe and I were introduced to all the missionaries in both session of Zone Conference because we will be working very closely with them.
The end of the first week we had a General Authority from our church, Elder Rasban come to speak to the missionaries in our area. What a wonderful experience that was. All I can say, is that by the end of our 1st week, we had been so spiritually feed. It was amazing!
We've been working really hard trying to learn all the things that we need to know to do our job here in the mission field. We start our day at the mission office around 8:15 and usually leave for home around 6:00. Some days a little earlier and some a little later. We are very busy doing a wide range of duties.
Joe's main job is taking care of anything to do with the missionaries cars and their bikes and making sure that all their drivers licenses are current.
He has a phone that he has to carry with him at all times. If any missionary in our mission has a problem, such as having an accident or locking their keys in their car or getting sick or hurt and needing to go to the hospital or any type of a car problem or bike problem, they are to call Elder Lambdin. He will advise them as to what to do, and in some cases he needs to go to where ever they are and help them. If one of them has to go to the hospital for something, then we both have to go to where ever they are. It could be as far away as 200 miles. He does a lot of other miscellaneous jobs as well. He's pretty busy most of the time.
Ginny's main job is being secretary to the President. I schedule all his interviews with all the missionaries. I record all the baptisms and make sure that they are sent into Salt Lake. I have to double check the report that comes back from Salt Lake to make sure that all the information that has been entered is correct. I then send a letter to all the people who were just newly baptized.
That's only a part of what I do. I have many other jobs just like Joe.
This past week was transfer week. Some of the missionaries missions were over and it was time for them to go home and at that same time we have all the new missionaries coming in. It's a very exciting time for all the missionaries. Plus many of the missionaries have their area and their companions changed. The first night the new missionaries arrive, they haven't met their companion as of yet. They are housed in different home for the night. Our home is one of the homes that the new missionaries come to. We had 3 new sister missionaries stay with us. It was fun having them. They are so excited to get started doing the Lords work and to see their new surroundings and to meet all the other missionaries. The missionaries are so anxious to see if their going to get changed, or if their going to be training one of the new missionaries. There are a lot of changes that take place at that time as well. It's all very exciting. They are amazing young men and women.
They are always coming into the office and sharing a spiritual thought or some amazing story with me. Sometimes they just want to talk to a grandma. They will even sometimes share something special that's in a letter from home or from a good friend.
I love being here for them, to help them in any way that I can. We're all here to help the Lord's work to go forward and to help one another. It's really hard work, but it's so rewarding. We couldn't do all the things that we are doing if it weren't for the Lord's helping hand. It's amazing how He has blessed us to be able learn so many things in such a short time and to be able to keep up with such a busy schedule. We couldn't do it without His help.
We're so appreciative of our daughter Shanna for writing on our blog for us for the past couple of months while we have been at the MTC in Salt Lake and traveling to Houston and then while we have been trying to learn our jobs here in the mission. We are now ready to take over the job. We still need to learn how to do things on this blog, but we'll get the hang of it soon.
