Transfer Week – Baptism by Fire!!

So, it’s Thursday night and I’m wishing it was Friday night, but that’s okay.  One more day to go and it’s the weekend.

I am still struggling to find three new places for senior missionaries.  I think we finally have one in Dunkirk for Elder and Sister Angel.  Thanks to the Angels (literally and probably spiritually too) they already live in Ireland so they were able to go and check out the area for me and found the place they want to stay in for the next six months or more.  I’ve done all the pre-qualifications and now I’m just waiting for paperwork so they can move in.

Elder and Sister Pohlman fly in tomorrow morning from the Provo MTC.  I don’t have a place for them yet.  They are going to Antrim in Ireland and Antrim is the happening place apparently because I can’t even get anyone to show anything.  We have to already have applications in so we can see places because the demand for housing is high.  Lucky for me the Angel’s took a couple day trips to Antrim for me, going well out of their way, and we have it narrowed down to two locations.  But I’ve called the realtors (letting agents) and they won’t just let me say we want the place.  They have public showings tomorrow and Saturday and we have to be at them to be considered.  There is nothing I can do since I’m literally in a different country so I am at the mercy of the Angel’s who plan to drive once again to Antrim for me.

Then we have Elder and Sister Walker who are in Ireland currently and are supposed to be moving to Beith Scotland next week.  There is absolutely nothing in Beith for them.  We have looked and looked.  I have the branch president helping me and he has found one place but it is so tiny the Walker’s wouldn’t even have enough room to sleep.  They like to entertain and have investigators and less-actives over to their place for dinner and lessons.  It can’t happen in the one place we have found so I am hoping for a minor miracle to take place in Beith tomorrow.

I also need a phone for the Pohlman’s and I’m in charge of phones.  I haven’t even had a second to figure that out yet. My phone contact person in London has been out of town since I got here and I have no idea what I’m doing.  There are a few phones in a drawer but I don’t know what country they are for.  If you ask my kids they know phones is probably the thing I know absolutely nothing about.  I just do what they tell me to do.  So again, I’m hoping tomorrow it will come to me as to what to do.

So, a couple things we have done this week.  We had Dominoes Pizza for dinner on Monday night.  It was pretty good.  I’m still wishing a Taco Bell would pop up around here but I’ve googled it.  They don’t exist.  Pretty much no Mexican food exists here.  I hope I can last 18 months without a tostado or a cheese enchilada.  Ha ha.

We went to a grocery store where you park under the building and take an escalator up to the store.  The shopping carts ride on the escalator with you.  You don’t even have to hold on to them.  They stick in these grooves on the floor and just go.

Tonight we ran into another grocery store that is actually the best one I’ve been in.  I was so excited because I actually found food that I might be able to eat.  I haven’t bought much besides chocolate milk, bananas and cherry tomatoes before now.  I’m living on cherry tomatoes and Diet Coke!!  (As well as all the eating out at Five Guys – three times now.) Whenever we take out missionaries that is where they want to go.  So back to M&S, the grocery store tonight, I took a picture of the shopping carts.  You have to pay to use the carts.  They have locks and cables running through the carts and you have to put a 5pence I think, into the lock to get a cart.

I said today was transfer day.  I said goodbye to the first missionary I got to know here.  Sister Paxman from Midway, Utah.  What a sweet girl.  We took her and Sister Stapley to an Indian food restaurant last week because we knew one of them was going to be transferred.  Sister Paxman is heading up to Paisley Area in Scotland now.

Here is another set of missionaries that I met today.  There were leadership meetings today for Zone Leaders.  This is Elder Sealander from Alpine, Utah and Elder Peacock from London!!  I took this picture so I could text it to Elder Sealander’s mom.  She said I made her day!!  These cute elders make mine!

And finally here is a picture of the Elders we took to Five Guys tonight.  This is Elder Stoker from London and Elder Abel from Oregon.  (Somewhere South in Oregon – Ash…something.)  They had great stories of their adventures serving in Belfast, Ireland.

So, lesson learned this week:  I have felt very pressured to get a lot of work done every day this week.  I feel very inadequate and really don’t even know what it is I’m supposed to be doing with many things – in particular phones.  Each morning we have a devotional with the office staff (four of us in total).  It happens at 7:30AM which is just as I’m getting into my work.  Every morning I hear Elder Winter say Sister Call we are ready for devotional and every morning I groan inside my head and think – really…  I don’t have time for a devotional.  But this morning as I was sitting there watching three of the new Bible videos of Christ right after he was resurrected visiting with the people who loved him so much I began to realize that I am on a mission because of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I’m not on a mission because the missionaries need housing by this weekend or because they need a phone.  That might be my assignment but it’s not what or who I am.  I am here because I know the gospel is true and I want others to have the same blessings that I have.  So taking 15 minutes in the morning before I get too deep in my “job” to reflect on the Savior and the blessings I have because of Him is what I am really here for.  So I hope I can keep that in my mind as I continue learning and making mistakes.  There is always time for Him and I will have blessings put in my path because I take the time to remember that.

I hope you are all doing things in your daily life that bring you to remembering the Savior as well.  It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to include Him in your day.