If anyone is reading this, we are still alive! August is about gone and we are approaching our one year mark - September 9th. This month we missed Adam's birthday and we celebrated my birthday alone. However, I am grateful for all of the very nice birthday wishes. Doesn't seem to be as fun as when there are grandkids around to blow out candles! Sometimes it seems like we have been here a very long time and in other ways it has gone by fast. We are grateful for this experience - but it is so different than what we thought. I am very tied to the office, where the others seem to have more freedom and that has been hard. This week it is zone conferences - 4 days and I am "minding" the office. (I also missed transfers (and I love transfer meeting), but for some reason, they make me stay here. Not sure what I have done wrong - but it is what it is. Once I get my work done, then I try to help Elder Ruse as his work is never done. He is either working on accident reports and getting those cars repaired or making sure that vehicles get oil changes, or other problems that missionaries are having. He also has to determine if new missionaries have turned in all of their paperwork so that they can drive. Today in the mail we received 12 new car registrations, and I know how to process those, so I entered that information into the "cars system", copied the registrations and found out who has that car, prepared the envelope, added the memo and will wait for Elder Ruse to "check my work" and then mail them out. I never want to get into trouble with Elder Ruse!!!
Yesterday, I spent the day pulling the files of the 21 missionaries who are going home in December and contacting their families to find out which airport they want them to fly into, so that I can start the travel arrangements. This will be the largest group that has gone home since we've been here. We will have to rent a bus to get them to the LA airport. We have been adding new missionaries gradually to fill the hole that will occur when the December group leaves. I am always working 3 months out - with those departing and 3 months the other direction with those coming in. It is interesting work - just not what we thought we would be doing. Also - I have the mail back, so I am doing that while working at the front desk. That can be tricky because the front desk doesn't have as much "working room". Plus, if it is a day where the phone is always ringing - I tend to "lose my place" when doing the labels.
We miss Elder and Sister Truman who went home to Las Vegas July 1. We worked well together as a team. I talked with her the other day and it was a wonderful visit.
We found out this month that we will have grand baby #10! Emma and Rich will have a boy in January. They will be moving to a house in Palo Alto. I have been making baby blankets at night to keep myself busy. I finished the 3rd one the other night and miss it, so I guess I will get more material and keep going. Emma - how many blankets can you use in Palo Alto?
