March 7 - 11, 2016 - New Computers, Transfers, Arrivals, Departing Missionaries

March 7, 2015 - New Computers

Three men came to replace our computers; two from South Africa and one from Kinshasa. I had done as much on the computers for transfer week as I could last week. Since I have been through this at school, I knew I couldn't count on having a computer during the time they were here. Someone asked why we were letting them come on such a busy week.  My reply was "when you have tech people say they are coming, you just let them come. If you try to reschedule them, you might get put at the bottom of their list." So we just needed to work around them. There were 3 men. Each had a different job to do, so each had to have their turn using the computer: to put it together, network it, and then put on the software to make it run.  I couldn't even count on using Sister Cook or Sister Vance's computer because it seemed like someone was at every computer all the time  But they were very nice and worked very hard and efficiently. The new keyboard is HEAVENLY. I love it. My fingers can fly over the keyboard without so many mistakes. It even feels better than the one I was used to at home.

They also installed a new color laser printer. The old color printer went out to the Doctor Peterson's office. We are still not sure if we like the new one--it seems to be rather slow, but I am sure we will get used to it. They worked all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of the day Thursday. They took our old computers to the Self Reliance Center with Bishop Mbidi. He was not scheduled for new computers, but they upgraded him by using our old ones.

In the afternoon five of the departing missionaries had their interview with the President; the other four interviews will be Tuesday morning.

We had family home evening with Yves, his wife Deborah, their children Rena (7), Daniel (5) and the Queen (4 months old), and Yves sister, Cynthia. He is the man we met at the small hyper pisaro. Doctor Peterson explained a little about what family home evening is and why we hold it, then we had a song and a prayer. Sister Vance told the children a little bit about Jesus, showing pictures. Then it was time for Yves, Cynthia, and Deborah to ask questions while Sister Cook gave the children pictures to color. There was an interesting discussion. Yves has been reading the Book of Mormon in English. Deborah and Cynthia wanted a French Book of Mormon and some other reading material. They were given the book and a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet. Cynthia wants sister missionaries to come talk to her in French; Deborah would like some English speaking friends to visit with about the gospel. We had a peach cobbler I had made with ice cream on top for the treat.

Wednesday, March 9

Our new generator was installed this morning.

New missionaries arrived this afternoon. Our first one without Sister Draper.

President Thomas, Elder Lorin & Sister Nancy Peterson, Sister Thomas

Justin wanted to help, so I put him in charge of making sure everyone got in to see the President and that he wasn't left waiting for someone to show up. I think that made Justin feel good--he had a perpetual grin on his face.

Sister Vance was in charge of taking 2 photos.  I gave a clipboard with the names on it to E. Makangu and told him to put a 1,2  then a 3, 4  on the correct person whose picture Sister Vance was taking. He looked a little uncertain at first, but I walked away and Sister Vance said he did a great job. It gave her time to straighten a tie, etc. between each missionary picture. She is such a doll. We have been working together--she has been helping me with various tasks.  

Elder Mbeleck walked into the office with a handful of passports that he had collected. He said, "I only need 4 more" and he went and hunted them down. I started a couple of sisters filling out their user name and password and Elder Bosso (who is now the AP since E. Mbeleck is leaving) came in and wanted a job--so I put him in charge of helping the missionaries with the user name and password paper. I copied the passports and yellow fever cards.  Then E. Makangu came in looking for another job, so he and Sister Vance helped me put the 2 passport copies into the arrival packets. 

Elder Bosso finished getting the user names and passwords. He asked if I  wanted him to test them to see if they worked. I told him "Sure, and if their handwriting is not very good, print underneath it what it says".  He comes to me later and said they all worked and then shows me on the computer what he did. He had created an Excel document with the name, user name, and password typed in. Then  he put it into a WORD document in a table with every other line colored blue to help distinguish between them. I saved it on my jump drive and put it on my computer. Later, all I needed to do in IMOS was to copy and paste that information into the proper space. WOW! he saved me so much time. He is amazing!!

Back to the arrivals--everyone pitched in and all was handled, including serving dinner. We had an extra missionary who had come down to be set apart before going to the MTC. It took me a minute to figure out who he was. We had 13 people hanging around--one without a name badge.  I was extremely tired when it came time for bed. I think the stress of hoping I remembered all the details was the worst part of it.

Elder Mbeleck was busy his last week getting missionaries to and from the airport to Mbuji-Mayi, picking up new missionaries, taking departing missionaries to the training, etc. etc.

March 10 - New Missionary Training Meeting.I went over at 8:30 to start the prelude music. I told the President that there was no one who could begin to play like Sister Draper did, but I was willing to give it a try. He had told me which songs they were going to sing, so I started practicing them during the prelude. (I had hoped to get over to practice before Thursday, but that didn't happen. There were too many other details to handle.) The music wasn't played perfectly, but their singing covers up what I lack in musical talent.  I was back and forth during the training, getting the new pictures and other information into IMOS, taking the group arrival picture, emailing both the individual and group arrival picture to each missionary, preparing the departure letters, sending the arrival email to the stake president, etc. All the last minute things that have to be done.

The departing missionaries arrived for their meeting--the elders were here early--the sisters almost a half hour late. I took the group picture, then went to print them before I went to the meeting. But the Epson printer wouldn't cooperate. First it said it was out of the light blue ink, then it said there was a paper jam. Then when it finally started to work it only printed 1/2 inch of the beginning of the picture, and then spit the paper out. I tried 3 times but it wouldn't work, so I left it and went over to the testimony meeting. After all the missionaries were finished President Thomas asked if I wanted to bear my testimony. I did but had to do it in English with him interpreting for me. Then he asked Sister Vance if she wanted to bear her testimony. She did a great job--most of it in French. Sister Thomas finished up with her testimony and then the certificates were handed out. Sister Vance and I came back to the office and printed 2 pages with 4 group pictures on an big sheet of paper on the new color printer. We then cut them and put them in the envelope to give to the departing missionaries after their dinner.  WOW, what a hassle without the Epson printer working correctly. I will still have to figure out the arrival pictures tomorrow. When I turned on Sister Cook's computer earlier today there was a message to download an update for the Epson printer. Maybe that will fix it back the right way. Oh well, that is tomorrow's work.

Elder Mbeleck, An AP is going home to Camaroon. He is dressed to the nines.

Friday morning Elder Peterson and I along with Justin took 8 new missionaries to Vodacom. The other 4 new ones arrived there with their Lubumbashi companions. They all got set up with their sim card (we didn't even use any of the ones from here since it appeared they weren't any good) and got set up with Mpesa Premium. I was able to write down their phone numbers right there. Also, while we were waiting for their phones to be registered (or whatever it is that now takes so long with their passport check) Elder Peterson sent each of them $5 worth of minutes through their phone. So that made sure he had their number in his phone. Justin had come back to the office after dropping his group off. Then he came back when we called and told him we were done. He took his group to wherever they needed to go to catch the bus to Likasi and Kolwezi. We dropped our group off at the GOLF apartment. They are going to Mbuji-Mayi on the plane tomorrow. One of them is being sent to Gandijika--talk about the end of the world in the DRC Lubumbashi Mission.  Anyway, by the time we got back to the office it had been a total of 3 hours spent getting phones taken care of. It did work out well though and we have their correct phone numbers right off, so that might be the way we do it from now on. 

It was a busy day going over all three checklists for Transfers, Arrivals and Departures to finish the AFTER details.  Combining two reports from IMOS, I was able to put together a master list with the missionary telephone numbers. From that master list I could create the Apartment list for Emmanual, Elder Peterson's Soutien and Sister Vance's Key Indicators information by just moving the various columns around to the order they each needed it and copy and paste in the information.  That was one of the things I was practicing with last time's transfer information. So, I think it worked out good. At least we haven't found a problem with it so far.