18 New Missionaries!
What a week! It all started on Monday. There is a sweet 89 year old man named Archie who is a legend in the Spain Barcelona Mission. Ask about anyone who has served here in at least the last decade, they will tell you about Archie. He loves the missionaries and the mission, and normally drops by the office about once every two weeks or so just to hang out. He often will go around without being asked and empty the garbage or clean a little. Monday was his birthday, and he came in and cooked a big meal for the office staff. He loves to take pictures with the missionaries. He is from the Philippines and is just a treasure for our mission.
On Tuesday the "salientes" (missionaries leaving the mission) arrived to have their final interviews with President Heckmann. That is always kind of crazy as they are going through all of the emotions that missionaries go through when they are going home. They're excited to get to see their families again, but sad to leave the life that they have grown to love so much. We have been here long enough that we have gotten to know them, and so it's kind of sad for us to have to say goodbye to these wonderful young people. Brenda and I have been put in charge of the "MyPlan" program for the mission. It is our job to work with the missionaries during their last transfer to help them set some goals for their lives so that they will be able to continue being lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. As we work with them many of them are super sharp and have some really good goals, and others have a hard time visualizing where they want to be. It's been fun to work with them to help them see how they can kind of "chart their own course" and use their mission as a solid foundation to build their future on.
Wednesday is the crazy day. The "salientes" get taken to the airport/train/bus stations and we pick up the new missionaries. This week we lost 9 and we received 18! The logistics of picking up that many missionaries was pretty intense, and required all hands on deck to make it happen. We had the mission van, the president's car and 3 other mission cars in order to handle all of the luggage and missionaries. There is a lot of "in processing" that we need to do in the office in order to get their residency paperwork started along with briefing them on medical issues, driving, housing, and finance items. There were 4 of them that had not gotten their MSF cards yet, and so I had to make sure and order those. The President needs to interview them all, we need to feed them, and then introduce them to their trainers once the President has decided who will train who. It's a marathon for us, and for them as well as they are seriously sleep deprived and jet-lagged. Once the trainers are selected, the travel secretary needs to arrange travel for all of them so they can get to their areas and get to work.
We usually take a collective sigh of relief once they all head out the door and start their new life in the field. Thursday and Friday were mostly taken up by catching up on what doesn't get done during the first part of the week as we are so focussed on transfers.
We have been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time. I love General Conference, and we are able to watch the first two sessions on Saturday live (6 and 10 PM). The third session doesn't start until 2 AM so we are going to watch that this morning. We'll be up until midnight again today watching the Sunday Sessions. I am extremely grateful that we have the ability to go back and re-listen to the messages that are given so that I can really try to internalize them. It is a wonderful thing to have Prophets, Seers, and Revelators on the Earth. Conference is always a "shot in the arm" for me as I get recharged, and refocused on the Savior. I hope that you all have a wonderful experience this weekend with Conference as well.
It's hard to believe that March is already gone, April is upon us, and we are looking at Easter coming up! How grateful I am for the knowledge that the Savior is victorious over both sin and death, and that I have hope of being able to return home to Heavenly Father. HE IS RISEN!
I love you all.
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