March 2nd, 2013

Hey!  (Today is the 16 Month Mark)                                                                          March 2, 2013

Well we had a good, less crazy week. Here's what we did:

Monday- First thing we went and picked up Presidents Computer that he wanted me to fix. Then we did Mission stats and other usual Office work. Also went to Rita’s for the first time this year. Rita's is an East coast thing. It’s Italian ice water, basically a really good version of finely shaved ice with lots of flavors, I got Mint Oreo. Then we went over to the Anderson's for dinner. We watched the new Mormon message with them - Mountains to Climb by Pres. Eyring. 

Tuesday- More office work, recovering from transfers. Lots of phone calls and computer work etc. We had dinner at Wendy's with a member and the other Broomall Elders, and then went to mutual that night. 

Wednesday - had the Mission Conf. call. Our mission has a newsletter that gets mailed to all the missionaries every week called the Sickle Thruster. And president asked us to come up with some new designs for it. And he picked mine which was pretty cool. I will send you guys a PDF of it. Did lots of office work as usual, then went and saw some ward members who are in an assisted living home with one of our Priests. After that we had dinner with the Curatolo's.

Thursday - We had Zone Training @ our church building. Then we all went to lunch as a zone at this really good burger place down the street. (I will take you guys there when you come) Then more office work. Our mission is getting audited on Sunday, so we have been getting ready for that.  Then we had our weekly dinner/coordination at the Baileys. We also went over the ward list with our ward mission leader before and after dinner so we could make a list of all the LA's. Friday was busy. It is our Service day. First we went with Elder House to drop off a car to be detailed. We sale all of our old mission cars once they've hit around 55,000 miles, and Elder House has them get all fixed and detailed before they are sold. After that we decided what we were going to do for service that day. We decided to go to Jersey. First we had to make a stop in South Philly to drop off a desk at a new apartment, and then had to go to the mattress factory in North Philly to pick up a bed. We were hungry so we went to a Chinese buffet both me and Elder Flake had been to in Medford’s area. While we were there eating, the Medford Elders and 2 other missionaries from that district showed up to eat too. So it was kind of cool to see them. Then we figured while we were in the area we would visit some people. So we went and saw Steve Parker, then stopped by the Masses, only Kyra was home, so we talked to her for a while.  After we saw Kyra we stopped at the Medford apartment to pick up some AC units. By that time the missionaries were back, and Bro. Rankins from the ward showed up to pick them up. So we got to see him too, then we headed down to Vineland, NJ to drop the bed off. Then we had to drive back to Broomall for a dinner appointment with our Ward mission leader - Brother Johnson. Then since we weren’t done we had to drive over to Moorestown, NJ to pick up some furniture from the Sister's apartment there, then came back home. I was super tired. We were driving all day. 

Saturday- Today we did some service in the morning for an older lady in the ward with the other Broomall Missionaries. We just raked some leaves and helped move a fridge etc. Then we went shopping. It’s the beginning of the month so we have money again. So bought lots of food, bought some And I bought some new church shoes. We’re not really sure what we’re doing the rest of the day. 

Monday were going to go to Philly in the morning with the Broomall missionaries. My companion hasn’t seen all the sights yet. 

So I thought I would explain a little about what "office work" means. Well it entails a lot of stuff but here are a few things. 

We are in charge of the mission's finances. 

Coordinating Missionary service needs - beds etc.  Commissary - Missionary supplies, Book of Mormons, pamphlets, pass along cards etc.  Phone calls, Spreadsheets, Keys to apartments, Keeping info updated as missionaries get transferred. Or Area names get changed etc. Apartments, Organizing and making things in the office more efficient. Missionary packages and mail.  Lots of other stuff and assisting office staff, President and assistants etc. 

So guess what Monday is.... One year ago Monday I met Kevin and Kyra Mass when they showed up to church. Two days later I met the rest of the Mass family... And the rest is History. Kevin will be hitting his 1Year mark on March 24th!! He said he's going to wait to do Endowments with Dawn when she hits her year mark. But they are going to keep going to do baptisms. 

Well that's about it. We have Zone Conference this week. I think we’re only going to go to 2 out of 4 of them. 

Thanks for everything!

-Elder JJ