November 12, 2015

Bonnie:  The wind is fast and furious right now. We can hear it moan and whistle around our building, whipping up the leaves and the lid of the recycling bin down below and anything else that is not nailed down. I'm glad we are safe and warm inside tonight. Bob is talking with Christian, a young single adult who is helping him with his reports. I am doing the wash and writing on our blog.
It was a calm day today. I'm thankful for that. Next week there are Zone Conferences followed by another MLC, only 16 days after our last one. The APs told me not to ask for supply lists this time, except for specialty items, probably materials in languages other than English. That will make it much easier. Today I found that the MTC Bookstore did not receive one of my orders made in October and that another order has been lost in transit somehow. The sister over nametags said she will try to find out a tracking number for me. Then, maybe I can find out where it is. This is so frustrating to me. Oh, well, it's out of my control.
We received a very special box in the mail yesterday from a member of our ward who was just released as YM's President. It was full of 8 Books of Mormon, with testimonies in them from some of the Young Men and Women in our ward! I love it!. They are already gone, taken by just two sets of missionaries. They said they would report any experiences they have with those particular books. What a wonderful gift.
And speaking of gifts, I will have to have Bob take a picture of me in the midst of all of the packages we are receiving for missionaries for Christmas! I am struggling to find places for them all, so many of them are around my desk, and it's only November 12th! What am I going to do by the second week of December when hopefully all of the packages will be here? We get about 8-10 a day.
I hope all of you are safe and warm wherever you are this night. We think of you often and love you all.
Love,
Mom/Bonnie

Bob: It has been a very productive day. The Director of Operations for Vertica talked to me today and said that we would be able to lease the apartments in the name of the church. He said the local people would call me to make the arrangements. I got a call just a few minutes later and was told I would need to stop by and sign the lease. She said a girl would call me and make the appointment. Haven't heard from her yet!! We need the apartment by Monday too. Guess we'll try again tomorrow.
Christian has done a great deal of work on the reports I am trying to put together. He has worked basically on the phone report as it is about a fifth of the size of the text report. But he turned on his computer tonight and started his program. About 10 minutes later he had an individual report on every companionship of just about everything we are looking for. He knows what he is doing. I have a few more things to do so he will finalize the report output and then it should be ready. I get another Rogers report about the 20th of this month. He said by the 20th of December he is positive we will have it all wrapped up. That sounds so exciting to me. I will owe this young man a great debt. Hope he likes to fish and I can repay him in a big way!!
Bonnie is so right about the wind. It has been howling all evening. I saw that winds of 25 mph were possible the next couple of days. Hope it subsides some by tomorrow morning.
Better wind this up. Tomorrow will be a sad day for us in one way. Our good friends the Barretts are returning to Fargo, North Dakota tomorrow afternoon. He said they would stop at the office to return their phone, keys, etc in the morning and we could have lunch before they depart. They will be sorely missed by the YSA. They have been the little blue taxi and a mobile deli for so many!!
Time to get ready for bed. Love to all, and good night brother.
Dad/Bob