Mission: Going Well--Transfers Again!

On Monday this week I looked at the calendar and saw that it was Transfers next week.  This means there is a lot to do THIS week to get ready.  Last month I made a check list of things to do before transfers.
This is that check list:
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Before Transfers Check List PACC

      o   Bedding:  2-3 weeks before transfers check inventory, order

      o   new comforters--20 in stock (by which I mean: in the storage garage)

      o   blankets--11 in stock

      o   buy pillows--14 in stock

      o   sheets-11 in stock

      o   Mission-wide email re: cleaning apartment, donating extra stuff

      o   Order Sandwiches 1 week prior to transfer day

      o   Prepare incoming flight info sheet for AP’s

      o   Prepare boarding pass envelopes

      o   Create info check off sheet of missionaries and photos

      o   Print info check off sheet of missionaries and photos for President interviews, nurse interviews, photographs, lunch, bedding

      o   Make a list with the departing missionary emails and arriving missionary emails to update ALL EMAILS list.

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(As you can see, I don't know how to re-format for Blogger.)

The critical thing for THIS week is to order the sandwiches/bag suppers for the incoming missionaries and those who are helping with orientation and other things on the night of the arrival.  That was the thing that I remembered sometime on Tuesday.  Wednesday was when I needed to place the order.  The usual pattern has been to write up the order in Excel then send the order to the Beaverton Sub Station via fax on Wednesday the week before Transfers so Chuck and Gina have plenty of time to get 35 or more sandwiches/suppers ready.  They do a fabulous job.  After the first time, I discovered they make Reuben sandwiches, so that is what I always order for myself.  Two others now also order Reubens!

Sorry about that funky formatting.  Cannot seem to fix it.  Oh well.

SO on Wednesday when I was getting ready to fax the order to Beaverton Sub Station I remembered that since we changed over our phone service to a new provide a month or more ago, our fax machine does not work.  It has something to do with needing some sort of switch.  We have four phone lines coming into the office just like we always did but before I think one was a dedicated fax line.  Now it is not dedicated and we cannot use it for faxing.  We found this out when a missionary mom tried faxing and could not get through but got an error message instead.  The IT people in the office tried with the same result.

This turned out to be a bonus for me as I had to drive down to the Sub Station and bring the order with me.  With 33 sandwiches this time, I thought it was completely inconsiderate to make the Sub Station people take down the order over the phone.  Just could not do it to them. SO....off I went in the car to try to find the place.

Beaverton proper/downtown, has many many one-way streets.  Most are pretty short.  There is not a lot of parking.  Following the GPS I found my way to the Sub Station pretty easily.  There was no parking and the one-way street situation caused me to learn a lot more about downtown Beaverton than I knew before!  Finally the stars aligned and I found a parking spot which was pretty close to the shop. I took in the order and while I was there I came over hungry all of a sudden and went over the edge and ordered a Reuben!  Can you believe it?!  I also ordered an egg sandwich for Dear One's lunch. (He had been out with Elder W looking for new apartments when I left the office so I did not even ask if he wanted to pass on his cinnamon honey paste tortilla sandwich that he has every day for lunch...). I really enjoyed that Reuben. It was worth the stress of finding my way there to the Sub Station.

So, by the end of Thursday all the items on the list were taken care of except the need to get one more set of sheets plus Elder and Sister B are bringing fleece blankets to transfers.  

We have twelve new missionaries coming in this transfer.  Three of them we just learned about last week.  They are "Visa Waiters": missionaries who have been preparing to go to other missions, foreign missions, whose visas are not yet ready.  We have one going to Peru, one to Ecuador, and one to Taiwan.  Our last visa waiters went to the Dominican Republic and Taiwan.  We had one visa waiter months ago whose visa was delayed and delayed and by the time it came he was having such success here that he ended up staying in our mission.