Musser Mission Blog

 What a wonderful and crazy week this has been! It started with my work computer deciding that it needed a new motherboard. Typical timing for something that is essential to die right when you need it the most. Had to continue to work with my home computer as much as I could this week. On Tuesday we met Adam and his sweet family at the airport. My heart melted to not only hug them all but for my sweet little Violet to come running to me to be my little buddy. That day we attempted to do the "Hop-on/Hop-off" bus, but because of jet lag it turned in to the "Hop-on/drop-off" bus. We gave up after a while of fighting off sleep, and then having a near "Potty Emergency" which resulted in the creative use of a bathroom sink. We rode the metro back to the house and went to eat Kebab. Wednesday and Thursday Adam and his family went to Madrid to go to the temple. It was a wonderful experience for them as Peter got to not only baptize his dad, mom, and brother, but h...

Some weeks kind of fly by in a blur. This was one of those. We worked hard all week to attempt to get caught up on everything that had been neglected last week when we were at the senior missionary conference in Madrid. I am really sad that when I am not in the office that there isn't some little elves come in and do my work for me. So this week was filled with paying bills, doing bank card reconciliations, and generally dealing with "stuff". Brenda was also pretty stressed as there is a lot going on in the housing side of things. There are some days when you just want to curl up in the fetal position under the desk. So, P-day yesterday was a welcome relief. There was a Relief Society activity that Brenda got to go to, and she had a great time. Of course they wanted her magic fingers on the piano, but they also had a neat presentation where they showed pictures of all of the sisters and they included her. It turns out they had downloaded a photo from her Facebook page of ...

 This past week was a wonderful blessing for us. All of the senior missionaries got to go to Madrid for a senior missionary conference. We stayed in the Temple patron housing, and were able to spend a lot of time together in the Temple. We were able to ride the bullet train from Barcelona to Madrid. It reaches speeds of up to 300 kilometers/hour yet is as smooth as can be. We got to ride right next to the Heckmanns and so were able to visit with them the whole way (when he wasn't doing Zoom meetings on his computer).  We got there on Monday afternoon. We couldn't get into our rooms until after 3:00 so we took all of our luggage up to the conference room that was reserved for us in the building that houses the Madrid missions and the patron housing. We had an Area 70, Elder Gomez, and President Heckmann address us. After that we had a little free time to get settled in our room. Then had some Tony Roma's through Uber Eats. Unfortunately, the order didn't actually get to ...

 Wow! What a week. We had 14 missionaries complete their missions and 22 just starting theirs. There is always a lot of excitement building up to transfer day, but this one was particularly crazy. Along with all those missionaries going and coming, we had 3 changes in the office. One of the APs went home, the technology secretary moved over to be the mission and travel secretary, and the mission and travel secretary went out to be a Zone Leader. So, we basically had a huge transfer with 3 of the 4 office elders doing something they had never done before! The logistics behind a transfer that big are crazy. Just getting people to and from the airport with all of their luggage takes some serious planning. Brenda and I ended up going to the airport twice that day as a sister from the Mexico MTC came in much later than the big group. It is always fun to see these wide-eyed, jet-lagged, excited new servants of the Lord. Getting them all interviewed so that the President could decide wher...

This week was pretty fun. It started off with a special Zone Conference with Elders Palmer and McConkie. It was really sweet. Elder Palmer called the Heckmanns over to the pulpit and then had the missionaries volunteer things that they have learned from the Heckmanns. It was really emotional for them as you could just feel the love that the missionaries have for them, and that they have for their beloved missionaries.  This week we also started getting the copies of the Book of Mormon that we are going to need for this year's celebration of San Jordi. Last year, they gave away more than 3000 books. So we are getting them by the pallet. There is an excitement in the air around the office because next week we are sending 14 missionaries home, and receiving 23. It will be totally crazy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  So, we decided to take advantage of the "calm before the storm". We decided to celebrate our combined birthdays and sneak away Thursday afternoon to a place ca...