Day 4

What an amazing day we had!! Today was our first day in the Employment office. Our office has workshops every Tuesday through Thursday, so today was more of an administrative day which was fine with us since we really don’t know what we are doing quite yet and we had a lot of questions that helped us to kind of get the feel for the kind of work force we are going to be looking at to help our wonderful students.

We got in to the office this morning and met the two sister missionaries who work there Hermana Mehew and Hermana Graham. They are just so great! Hermana Mehew has been out the longest, and Hermana Graham has only been here about three months and they have a bit of a hard time with the language, but they are just truckin right along and doing all they can. They are the sweetest ladies and just love the Lord so much. Hermana Mehew has a brother with some serious health problems and decided instead of throwing in the towel on this whole mission thing to go and help him to stick it out and trust that the Lord would take care of everything while she is gone. Hermana Graham is the same way. They are just so faithful it is a testimony to me. Today made me want to serve mission after mission after mission.

Today in the center we mostly helped with fielding phone calls and kind of getting the hang of how things are done in the office. The Hermanas aren’t the greatest at phone conversations so they are grateful for all the help they can get. We had some fun people come in to work on the computers and make phone calls. My favorite was this boy who isn’t a member who showed up with his mother. They walked in the door and she said, ‘Is there anything he can do?’ I directed them to the job board we have there and then told them about the workshop that starts tomorrow. She looked at him and said ‘You’re going.’ I laughed so hard, but he looked excited about it too. Then he made a few phone calls from the job board we have and got two interviews! So he is going to be a little late to the workshop, but we told him it was fine because work was always better.

I also helped a few people with their resumes and sending them in emails. I was helping a young man and had to ask him his name twice and make sure it was really his name because it was really funny. Elmer Smith Guiterrez Gallardo. Yeah that’s right his first two names are Elmer Smith. I cracked up.
I talked with Hermano Nunez (that’s our manager here in the center) today for a little bit because I felt a little useless or like I wasn’t doing enough. He talked to me a bit about a few other things that we could do and a little bit about the Perpetual Education Fund and how it worked and how we could help with that. He is a great man.

Tonight the Hermanas from the office invited us to a Family Home Evening with all of the senior missionaries from the Santiago West Mission. They had us introduce ourselves and say where we had served. When I said where I had gone, a couple asked how long ago and when I told them they said I might know their son since he was there the same time. It was one of my buddies Elder McCown and I had actually been to their cabin last year. We got a good laugh out of that because during that same trip to the cabin, we went wakeboarding in October while it snowed so they told everyone else.

As Sarah and I walked back to the apartment we talked about today and just how happy we were to be here. Seeing all those wonderful missionaries and getting to help people today was just so wonderful and fulfilling. We were impressed by all those little grandparents that could be on a cruise or flying around the country visiting grandchildren and they chose to pay their way through missions and serve. I want to serve with my husband someday.

This is me in our tiny apartment trying to get everything organized. not a ton of room, but we love it and it is starting to feel like home!

This is the view from our window of the area we are living in and of course my little pidgeon friend. We always leave the window open and I am always afraid they are going to fly in, but they never do!