May 8, 2015

Written on May 7th

Bob: Took a little detour on the way to work this morning. Turned right when I should have turned left. After a couple miles I figured it out and turned around. Tonight coming home made another wrong turn, but quickly realized what I had done. After I got home I then went out to get a few more items at Walmart. My neighbor told me how to get there. Still had a little trouble finding it as I thought it was just across the street from Costco, which I found. Turns out the Walmart is about ¾’s of a mile down the street from Costco. Finally did find it.

Bonnie was sick this morning and didn’t get to go to work. Her allergies are attacking her again. She said she slept about 6 hours today while I was gone. I didn’t get home till after seven as the Zone Leaders from all zones came in starting about 4:30 to pick up supplies. Elder Gillen, who I am replacing, cooked Belgian waffles for all of them and everyone in the office that wanted some. There were 30 zone leaders and 8 office workers. His waffle maker makes 1 large waffle at a time, so it took a little while to feed everyone. When he finished up he said I could have his large pitcher to take over waffle making. So it looks like we’ll be purchasing a waffle maker.

It is a little warm in our apartment tonight as it got pretty warm today. Air conditioning is not going be turned on until June 2!! That might not be too good if it keeps heating up like today. We’ll have to go this weekend and pick up a large fan. I was told the church will pay for it though.

Haven’t gotten the Internet ordered yet. The local girl in the office says that Teksavvy is what was recommended to her by a couple of IT people. She lives just down the hall from us so this weekend sometime we’ll go check out the speed, etc. and order it Monday. She said the prime carriers, Bell and Rogers, are difficult to deal with when you have problems. And they want automatic payment set-up so you have to fight with them to get your refund. But since they are the prime carriers in Canada they must do something right. So we will see. Teksavvy has a large modem fee that has to be paid at the start so even though their monthly fee is a good bit smaller, the modem fee makes a higher investment for a short term resident. If you lived here permanently it is no doubt the way to go. Gambling on Bell or Rogers customer service, however, could be a huge risk.

Did have one good experience at the bank. Went in to convert our US cash to Canadian. There is small fee for doing that and also a small fee if you use the ATM. When the teller found out we were over 60 she said the bank would let us open a checking account with no monthly fees or transaction limits. They provided us with a debit card and ordered a credit card for us too. Checked with our US credit union and they can transfer money to the Canadian bank and that is feeless too. So now we get full exchange rate on our purchases and don’t have to pay any fees.

May 8th update

Bob: At the office right now. Internet and phones were down earlier today. Had some time to take Bonnie to the Mission storage unit and get some items we can use. The Mission has a truck we can use to haul in a large shelf unit for storage. When we leave work today we'll have to go home and do some laundry. Trying to find out how I go about washing my car. There is an outlet out back but no key to turn on the water. The office worker that can tell me about this has not been in yet. She is always making rounds or doing something when we go down to see her.

We are visiting with one of our neighbors who works a couple days in the Mission Office. She has advised me who to get as my Internet provider and it appears she is correct. I think I'll give them a call ASAP. Being without the Internet is a pain..

Will try and get on tomorrow and load some pictures of our apartment. Also, tomorrow we will be visiting with President Jakob and the Stake Clerk, Brad Sauve, who are from the Temiskiming Branch where we stayed last summer. Till tomorrow, we send our love and wish everyone well.