Mission: First Time for Transfers

Transfers happen every six weeks.

There is a lot to do to get ready for transfers.  Transfer day arrives and there is more to do.  The office missionaries are busy as beavers getting everything ready.  The President, his wife, and the Assistants to the President work very hard with transfers.

"Transfers" is a time when new missionaries arrive, missionaries who have completed their missions depart, and missionaries continuing on in their missions may receive a new assigned area and companion.  A lot of thought and prayer goes into these changes.  With all the attention given to so many details, usually transfers go smoothly, I understand.  This was our first transfer as we arrived to the mission two days after the August transfers.

Missionaries arriving from the Provo Utah Missionary Training Center leave Provo VERY early in the morning and arrive in Portland around 10 in the morning.  After getting their luggage they are taken to the Visitors' Center adjacent to the Portland Temple.  There they have their photograph taken with the mission president and his wife.  From there they are taken to the nearby stake center where their first order of business is to come to the serving area to pick up a bag lunch.  By now it is noon and they have not had anything to eat since a breakfast before leaving the MTC so they are ravenous.   They are also just about wiped out!  One of the new missionaries told me he got up at 1:30 AM to finish getting ready to leave Provo...

After picking up their lunches they go to one of the larger classrooms where they are given a short orientation by the Vehicle Coordinator, the Finance Secretary, and the Arrivals Secretary.  Following that they are interviewed (5-minute interviews is the time they have) by the mission president and his wife.  Some with medical conditions meet with the nurse to discuss their health situations and how to keep them well while serving.

Eventually the missionaries come to pick up their bedding: pillow, fleece blanket, and comforter. They bring their own sheets.  (As I am writing this, it seems like I may have already shared this, but...the old gray cells being what they are, I will continue on as if I had not already shared.)

After a final time together in the cultural hall, (a large space where all kinds of activities take place every week) the arriving missionaries pick up their luggage, their bag of bedding, and depart with their new companions and head to their areas.  They will do some work then fall into bed for some much needed sleep.

The office missionaries headed back to the office.  My after-transfers job was to print out boarding passes and pay for luggage for the missionaries who will depart the next day.  (This transfer we had 9 departing missionaries and 27 arriving missionaries!  Twenty-seven is a lot of missionaries!)  Once the boarding passes were ready they were banded together and, along with the departure binders, were taken to the President's house where the departing missionaries were staying overnight.  I got to do this...my first trip to President's house on my own.  Dear One was off with Elder B getting mattresses to one apartment, moving mattresses from a different apartment, moving an air conditioner, and other necessary tasks to make the missionaries comfortable.  I arrived home at 8:45 PM.  Dear One did not arrive at the apartment until 9:15 PM and Elder B still had two stops to make on his own way home.  He did not arrive home until after 11 PM.  This is a man who does not let MS keep him from serving.


This first transfer was very eye-opening to me.  There is a lot of energy put into making things run smoothly and to get the missionaries where they need to be in a timely and organized fashion.

The only glitch this transfer (that I am aware of...) is that the people making the bag lunches mis-counted by one lunch, so when the three missionaries arriving from the Mexico City MTC got here later on, one of them might have had to miss lunch but Sister B gave up her lunch.  Then it was discovered that one person who was expected to attend did not so she was able to eat after all.  It was my job to order the sandwiches, which I had done the week before.  We actually had ordered the right number of lunches.  I think the sandwich people just mis-counted.  We needed 47 lunches.

It was beautiful to see local members who come with their vans and pickups to carry missionaries where they need to go.  We met some very kind brothers who were giving this service.  While the missionaries were finishing up their orientation I got to visit with a couple of them.  Dear One was conferring with Elder B to figure out how they were going to get what where...!