Monday, July 12, 2010

Day to day details

I am over Referrals, which means logging into the computer, the names and addresses of those interested in learning more about our Church. It is my responsibility to assign them to the appropriate missionaries (2) in that area, and provide them the address and phone information. I then check back on a regular basis on the progress, updating the computer with that information. I also coordinate the medical needs of the missionaries. By the way, those missionaries are young men, ages 19 - 25, and young women, ages 21 – about 25. They come from all over the world, with a high percentage from other areas of Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the Pacific, but also quite a few from the United States. The young men serve for 2 years, while the young women serve for 18 months. We also have about 5 or 6 senior missionary couples, along with 2 single senior women (senior meaning past retirement).

Just one interesting story of a young lady missionary from Mongolia. She had difficulty getting her visa, which took 12 months! So she worked as a missionary in her home country of Mongolia for 9 months before coming here. She has a beautiful voice and has entertained us a number of times with acapella renditions of our hymns in her native language. Absolutely beautiful!

DeVon is over the finances for the Mission, and is responsible to see that all the bills get paid. This consists of the rent and related expenses for over 40 apartments (or flats as they are called here), as well as all the other costs associated with running the affairs of the Mission throughout all of Western Australia (comparable to nearly all of the western part of the United States).

We also attend many meetings scattered throughout the Perth area. By the way, Perth and its associated suburbs have a population of around 2 million people. So far we have never driven far enough to go beyond the reaches of this huge city. We are at the mission office from 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. Saturday is our Preparation Day, or the day when we do all our chores, clean the apartment, go shopping (because all the stores close at 5:00 every night but Thursday), and any extras we want to cram in. On Sunday we attend Church meetings and do some studying from the scriptures, and have some personal time.

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