Family and Friends,
Mom- First off, we do have Google maps on our cell phones, only the staff does. We have an unlimited plan but the rest of the mission only has 100 minutes to talk and that’s it. I made a picture yesterday of the Staff during my spare time. I was waiting for a meeting with the President and I had nothing to do, so I made this picture. It’s all of our faces except for the girl, she still has the same face.
I got the package!!! Thank you so much for it. I loved every bit of it, except I still haven't opened the Cereal yet. I'm going to try to save it for later. I love the Old Spice. Did they stop making the Fiji Old spice with the white stick? That one is by far my favorite. If possible, I would like some of that ready for me when I get home……and Axe hair puttyJ
So this week was by far the craziest week ever! It’s a blessing to have all the new missionaries coming out, but it is also a challenge when they all come in. I won’t even be able to explain it fully, you just had to be here to see it. We start our Conferences next week, but this week was transfers. NUTZ. So, Tuesday morning we had a small meeting with the President and we talked about transfers. The President had already decided on where he wanted the missionaries, but we still discussed what would be good and bad and made some changes. Then we had 15 new missionaries come in. 13 in the morning and another 2 at 1:30 in the afternoon. Elder Schendroski and I went to the airport with the President and Sister Fortunato in the morning to pick up the Elders and 3 sisters at the airport. We got there about 11:30 am. It’s about a 1 ½ hour trip. Right when we got there, the sisters got in the president’s car and headed to the office, but Elder Schendroski and I took all the Elders, their suit cases, and the sisters suit cases and took a bus back to the city. Right when we got there we left all the missionaries with the two Secretaries and Elder Schendroski to do a new missionary training while I left and went with the President again to pick up the other two missionaries. The President wanted me there to translate because they were both Americans. So I was the translator during that car ride back, but going there the President and I had some good one on one time. We talked about some things we can do in São Paulo when you get here.
After we got back, we went straight to the Mission home to eat lunch. Elder Schendroski was in charge of bringing all the other missionaries from the office to the mission home, but apparently they all left and locked the office without knowing that there was an Elder in the Bathroom. When he came out there was nobody left in the office and the door was locked. He got scared, grabbed the office phone which happened to have the President’s number next to it, called it and was just like, "Uh President, I went to use the bathroom but when I came out everybody was gone. What do I do?" So Elder Schendroski had to go back. We got him, ate lunch, bore testimonies, everybody was crying (I think more out of fear than anything) but joined in one cause; to serve the Lord. Then they stayed at the office while we finished up planning the transfers. The office isn't that big, so 20 people in total is a lot. They were all really loud and hyper waiting there, playing stupid games that were just irritating. Then the transfers were finally released, all of forty of them, which meant calling 80 missionaries. A HUGE transfer, and it was already 8:30 pm and we had to still wait a little longer for the President to call the new leaders. He likes to call them personally and tell them about their new calling, and then we call them afterwards confirming their calling and their new areas. So we just started calling the missionaries that were being transferred without new callings. I accidentally called one Elder that was being called as Zone Leader before the President called him. Right after I told him, I realized what I was doing so I was just like "Uh, just kidding, I read the wrong thing! You're staying exactly where you are. BYE!" And hung up.
Then we took them all to the Secretaries house which is where we were temporarily, but they took up all the beds, so we went with the sisters to the Hotel to sleep. It was already like 11:30. We checked into our rooms and tanked out, but it was pretty cool, my first hotel stay in Brazil. The next day was crazy! All the new trainers arrived at the office at the same time. Now about 40 missionaries stuffed in the office, with ALL of their bags. I was hurdling over things for 5 hours trying to help everybody. It was a mess. We had to get their phones organized, get DVD players to them with the training DVD's, give out their blankets and pillows, and help them locate their houses. It was just a mess, a lot of impatient missionaries, a lot of lost people, and I was getting super impatient because I was being asked a lot of stupidly ridiculous questions. Finally I just yelled out loud, "Whoever is able to leave, can leave now!" They all got nervous and started trying to leave, but there was only one working elevator on the tenth floor that holds only one companionship at a time with all their luggage, so that took another hour or so. Then we had to rush to lunch at the Mission Home with all the missionaries going home. We ate quickly, came back, went to the airport with three of them, checked them in at 9:00 pm, came home, got our stuff, got to the apartment at about 12:30, changed, went to bed, woke up at 3:30 am to bring the rest of the missionaries to the airport, got them shipped off, came back, and I was just dead. Right about now I'm recovering from the transfer. It was just a pure headache that lasted for about three days straight. But it’s all part of the job, Workin hard or hardly workin, eh Mack?
The leadership experiences that I’ve had in the office are teaching me a lot, but apparently I have a lot left to learn.
ONE MONTH!!
God Speed,
Elder Smidt X
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