February 1 - 5, 2016 - Interviews and Dinners - 3 Zones - Lubumbashi

February 1 - 5

This week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, is interviews with the President and dinners for all three zones here in Lubumbashi. It is a busy week for President and Sister Thomas.

We do what we can to help serving dinner each night. The interviews are here in the President's Office and dinner is in the Mission Home Great Room.

Sister Peterson, Sister Ngui, departing for home, Elder Peterson.

 Sister Draper and I were working in the Depot this week, going through our inventory to see what supplies we have that we can share with the new Mbuji-Mayi Mission. Before Sister Draper arrived the boxes were just stacked on the front porch and the back area. She took everything that was stacked in the Depot and put it in the courtyard. Pallets were made and then the boxes of pamphlets, forms, books, etc. were placed back inside the depot. All the boxes that were outside found a "home" inside the depot. Back orders of materials were very common here (and still are). Apparently, when it took so long for an order to come, another order was placed.  Eventually all the orders were filled and there was an overabundance of some items. In the 17 months since Sister Draper has been here, there are many items she has never had to order---and we still have more than we need after sharing with Mbuji-Mayi. This is what the Depot now looks like after "cleaning house".

The Depot now

Many boxes have been taken out - this is what we are keeping.

Sister Draper showing off our hard work

It took all week to go through the Depot, deciding how much to keep, how much to give to the Mbuji-Mayi Mission and determine what needed to be ordered for the new mission.  We took the boxes that we are going to send to Mbuji-Mayi and put them in the humanitarian office that is adjacent to the Doctor's office. 

This is the stack of boxes we will be sending for the new Mbuji-Mayi Mission.

Sister Draper had the inventory organized neatly in a binder. I created a Depot Inventory in an Excel workbook with like items listed on a sheet within the workbook.Whenever anything is taken from the Depot it is listed with the name of the zone or the missionary. Calculations were put in so that it automatically deducts the number taken from the inventory.

Sister Draper had a great system on paper. It took both of us a bit of time to determine how best to transfer from paper to computer so that it will not be burdensome to keep track of what we have. Trial and error and tweaking was our purpose this week in finding a workable way of handling inventory on the computer. 

Sister Vance is the sunshine of the office. The missionaries love to come in  and speak to her. She speaks French to them and is always asking them "How do you say.....?

Sister Vance at work. 

Three missionaries from Malawi came this week. It is in the middle of our regular transfer schedule. They are English speaking so extra time to work on the French language was needed at the Ghana Missionary Training Center. That is why they are off track from the regular new missionaries coming in.

President and Sister Thomas with 3 new missionaries from Malawi.