May 23, 2011

Hi Mom,

 

So correction, I have had one week in the office, but things are going great.  Elder Schmutz (we were in Ivano together) was with me all week to help in the office and then to teach me the area in the evening and it was a lot of fun with him. Elder Kashiwagi and I are finally going to be together this week.  I feel like I have gotten a hold of the office and that there won't be too many more questions, and as far as the area, we will see how the work comes as Elder Kashiwagi and I continue to learn it.  We have a massive area here, the largest in the mission I believe, and it is only one section of the city.  Right now, there are eight missionaries all working in this area, so I am excited for the work. 

 

Here in the office, I have a lot of paperwork, but it is all electronic which is nice.  I sit on the computer from 10 to 5 everyday and I fill out ticket requests, scan and send off visas and contracts, send out anything that needs to be sent through a mail service, and I also have some other small projects.  I put together the mission newsletter every Monday morning which has a lot of numbers, a letter from President Steinagel, some quotes and pictures of baptisms, and then we go out and do our p-day after that.  So we are in the office from 8:30 to 11:30 on Monday.  I do train tickets for everyone by the way, except for President Steinagel.  The assistants do a lot of travel so I have to stay up with that, and I also get tickets for all the senior couples and they travel a lot.  Other things include, transfer letters to the branch presidents, a phone report each month (that was the big project last week; I look at all the phone calls of missionaries to make sure they use their phones correctly).    I also pick up mail each week.  So yeah, that is about it.

 

So Elder Kashiwagi is from Arizona and is in his fifth transfer now.  Oh and the temple desk just calls the missionaries here in the office if a non-member ever walks in. Some of the temple desk workers are Americans that don't know the language so we help them out.  And yeah, we just ask if they want to find out more about the church and how they can enter the temple. 

I hope that Jacob's farewell was a lot of fun.  I am sure that he did great and that he will be an awesome missionary.  Send me his address when you get it please.  I am glad to hear that Jake is planning on turning in his papers soon and I think that I might be home for that which would be great.  I hope that everyone is doing well.  Oh and Sean is now in a city called Cherkassy, south of Kyiv.  And by the way, I am probably coming home with Sean because I need to come home earlier for school so if he stays the late transfer, we will go home together which will be neat.  There will be lots of us heading back to Salt Lake I think.

 

So the weather here is incredibly hot - it is summer time and I am suffering.  It has just been hot, but I will be fine.  I just need to get used to it.  Tell Chelsea good luck by the way on her lesson.  That will be a great experience to get to learn a lot more about President Kimball.  I really like him a lot and hope that I can study more of his life when I get home.  We will go back to the Teachings of the Presidents so I will definitely have a chance.

Anyway, I love you mom.  Thanks for all that you do and for your support.  I love you so much.  Thanks for always putting up with me when I was a pain back home and for teaching me all that you did.  I love you.

 

Elder Jones