Mission Office.

You already heard about our wild life park trip on Thursday, only possible since the office was closed for carpet installation. I should have known that a one day installation was too good to be true, but we accepted the FM (church physical facilities) guys word that it could be done. Sister Salazar, Lee, and I  (Whites were on the road) spent Wednesday afternoon cleaning off desks, file cabinets, and putting everything we could into built in cabinets and on tile floors so they could move any furniture that was left off of the existing carpet. Lee was smart to label phones and boxes...we should have thought to label chair mats and office chairs too.

The glue-down carpet squares were very difficult to pull up in the first area, that's when we all realized it was going to be a much larger undertaking than anyone imagined. The FM people had never seen anything like it and ended up working all three days also to do the removal, using the "scrape, lift, shovel, and haul" technique. A ward member brought in a machine to loosen and smooth old glue residue, then the new glue was applied with a paint roller, and the actual laying of the squares went easily and quickly. 

The mission office ended up being closed Thursday, Friday, plus Saturday as usual. We went over several times to assess the progress and as soon as they were gone on Saturday afternoon, we went right to work to put the office back together. We found the desks, file cabinets, and chairs were replaced in their approximate positions and the clean up job was impressive and appreciated. It only took us a couple of hours to put everything back and the office looks beautiful and is ready for business Monday morning. I hope to include a picture of the finished product but forgot to take a 'before' shot. 

 

Back office:

 

Front entry:

 

My desk:

 

Lee's desk:

 

The new carpet:

 

 

We attended stake conference adult meeting last night at 7:00 pm and the general session today at 10:30 am. The theme as directed by the First Presidency was on Hastening the Work of Salvation and the speakers were from the stake with a musical number by the young missionaries. The message was to encourage and motivate members to share with non member friends and loved ones the GOOD NEWS and BLESSINGS of following Christ. There were how to's and why's but it all boils down to our responsibility to share the JOY of living the restored gospel with others. In addition, there are 80,000 missionaries to help us teach, and it is a tender mercy for Lee and I to be a part of this great work at this time in history!  Working in the mission office we don't teach like we did working in Mount Gambier, but we get to love and support 130 young men and women from all over the world so THEY can teach. We feel blessed!

A couple of weeks ago Pres Carter (Cauda as pronounced in Australia) passed out a Book of Mormon reading chart with the challenge for everyone in the mission to read The Book of Mormon by Christmas Eve. We participated in a similar challenge by Bishop Murray in our Riverton ward a couple of Christmas' ago, and some of you may recall participating with the entire church when challenged by President Hinckley. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON and we can gain so much by reading it. We are happy to join with the entire mission to double or triple our regular daily reading efforts and CHALLENGE YOU to unite with us. Will you do it? Hopefully Shelby can post the picture of the chart to help you keep track of your reading. Thank you for your support.