Life in the Mission Office

We're constantly learning and being challenged. I ask Sis Pankratz tons of questions and try to write everything down so I'll remember. Whenever I see a procedure that seems like it could be done better, Sister Pankratz agrees and we change things. We've been cleaning out files, our store room of supplies upstairs, and some down in the 'cave', and our basement 6 floors below, where we had a very big room for storage. We've been relabeling things, going through computer files and deleting some, etc. I feel kind of frantic in wanting to learn and do all I can while Sis Pankratz is still here. We don't know how long they'll be here before finding an apt. near Amsterdam.

We've attending some really neat meetings. Tues we drove up to up to Antwerpen with the Pankratz for our first district meeting - 2 senior couples (us and Pankratz) the assistants, the two office elders, and the two sister missionaries. We are so impressed with the missionaries here - they are great leaders, dedicated, enthusiastic, and have a great spirit about them. We had lunch first that the sisters had stopped at a store and bought as they're just on the train system, no car, so had to bring their bags of food they had just got from the store with them. The meeting was all about finding people to teach and we role played where the senior couples were the people on the street and the elders and sisters were trying to talk to us. Really fun to do.

We also attended a leadership meeting at the mission home for all the ZL's and the AP's in the mission. Again, we were very impressed with their spirit and dedication. The Pres wanted us to come so we could introduce ourselves and also he had asked that I meet with a sister missionary from St. Kitts who will be returning home soon, to talk to her about her schooling plans, maybe using the perpetual education fund, etc. She and I had a nice visit for an hour after lunch. this lunch was cooked by the office's Philipino helper, and it was incredible!!! Chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken, veges, rice, etc.

Whenever the missionaries find out that I've done academic advising and career counseling, they all want to talk to me, which is nice. I hope I can be a help to them. Loel talks me up so much that I feel like I'm supposed to be a miracle worker! Loel is so sweet that way. He's going to be so great at his job - the elders and sisters already respect him; he just has a very efficient, let's get it done attitude, but is also so kind and loving with the missionaries. He has to make all of them get vehicle inspections, etc. but they all listen and are working on it.

We and the Pankratz had loaded up both our cars with boxes of supplies we've been collecting for the missionaries, so we were able to give them to the ZL's while at this meeting for them to take back to their areas. I found myself feeling very protective of all those supplies we had carefully packaged up, etc, making sure they got to the right places! I also hand carried my little bags of mail for each zone that had come in as I felt that it was very important that each letter went to the right place. I know what it's like to be on a mission and how important it is to receive letters, and I also know how as a mother of a missionary, how important it is to know that my son/daughter is getting the mail we send.

The President asked us to meet with him for 30 mins last Thurs and it went to 2 hours as we had so much to talk about. He said he had awakened at 5:30 am that morning and had written down lots of things he felt we should be doing. He's a very inspired man. We felt so much more direction after visiting with him. He feels like we have strengths he wants to capitalize on and wants us to work more with stake leaders, clerks, executive secretaries, high council people over missionary work, etc, with more member relations to get more referrals, as right now, only 10% of the missionary's time is spent on member referrals, but 70% of the baptisms come from them.

He's very anxious for me to get the new Referral Management System up and running, which will send text messages to the missionaries as soon as referrals come in. I learned about it in the MTC but haven't been able to connect with the trainer in the MTC to work through some programming errors and walk me through the system. I can't even talk to them until 3:00 pm as that's 7:00 am in Utah when they come to work.

Pres Brubaker only wants us to manage the 6 or 7 apartments here in Belgium; there's another senior couple in the Netherlands who will take care of the rest. That was a huge relief to us. And he said he doesn't want us doing lots of the work - wants to involve the elders with it or hire it out. There were tons more things he wants us to do. I felt kind of overwhelmed when we left, but also felt really good to finally have more direction. When we asked if we should be involved with the Young Adult Outreach Center that is just starting in Antwerpen, the Pres said, "You are to work in the office. This is your assignment and there's plenty for you to do." And there really is.

I was greatly relieved when the Pres told us that our speaking only English would be fine and really gave us the impression that we didn't have to learn a lot of Dutch. He told us that the assignments he has given us can all be done in English as most people in the Netherlands do speak English. I felt like shouting hallejuhah as I was having a hard time imagining how we would have the time to become fluent in Dutch.

I attended a RS activity in Antwerpen, getting a ride part way with a previous RS president. It was a wellness night and they had someone doing pedicures, manicures, massages, etc. The sister missionaries were there and Katie, the nice Canadian girl, and so I was able to visit with some of them. I don't know how much time I'll have to go to many of these things as it's 45 mins away and I would be too afraid to drive myself at this point. I talked to several members there and got better acquainted, plus talked to several investigators, too. I didn't get home until 11:00 pm so was pretty tired! The first picture shows a very friendly member who I talked to quite a bit, plus the Nigerian member on the end - very friendly people! the 2nd picture shows Katie, the Canadian, then middle is a young girl on a mini mission with the sisters, and the last one is one of the sister missionaries.

I've actually gotten brave enough to drive two mornings to the park where we walk and back home. I've got to try to drive more, but am still pretty scared. This park is really beautiful, only 5 mins away, and we love walking there about every other morning. It has a little lake with swans on it, beautiful trees, flowers, green grass, etc. Plus, it has clay tennis courts!!