Week of Aug 31 to Sep 5, 2009
This is transfer week. We have been and are very busy. Most days we leave the flat by 8:30 AM and get back between 7 and 8 PM. Between walking & bus rides, it takes about 30 minutes to go to/from the office/flat. There is much to do. We received 18 new missionaries from the MTC in Preston and sent 17 missionaries home. The office was bulging from a.m. Tuesday until mid-day Thursday. We were planning on 22 new missionaries, but there were visa problems for two: one elder plus a sister missionary coming from Pakistan. Another elder from Italy was sent on to the Provo MTC until October to learn English and one elder was released and sent home due to significant health issues.
Sister Hawley has been most busy getting out all of the correspondence on these new and departing missionaries. All families are contacted by mail and there are training manuals to prepare for the new missionaries, training manuals to prepare for each new Trainer, District Leader & Zone Leader. She schedules for President Patch all of the interviews for departing and arriving missionaries and also prepared an orientation for the new missionaries. This is on top of all of her normal responsibilites. With this many changes and the last transfer in August, the mission force has changed by almost 25% new faces. This transfer meant that almost every conpanionship was changed and that meant 50 or so letters being sent to coordinate the transfers.
It is fun to see the new elders and one sister missionary, so excited and ready. Eyes wide open with anticipation. The process goes something like this. They arrived on a bus from Preston after a five hour bus ride. They move all of their luggage into the cultural hall. We feed them. Twenty large pizzas were ordered. (making Perfect Pizza's day with an order of over 240 Pounds, or about $400. Yes, they like the missionaries business!) After eating and settling down they were taken up three flights of stairs because the elevator was not working, and put in the Conference room, [really the high council room] where orientations are held. This orientation included finances, getting the JPMorgan debit cards and how to use them, the mission rules and expectations, obtaining reibursement for travel expenses and setting up flats. They were interviewed by the Mission President and the Assistants to the President took over during the interviews and led them through the training book: preparing and what and how to study as there is a prescribed plan for them for the next six weeks. The new traniners were trained the previous day. By three o'clock the new missionaries were taken to the Mezzanine floor and more training by the AP's was given. The new missionaries are seated with a chair between them. The trainers meantime are on another floor with the president getting last minute information and a picture card of the missionary they will train. As the new missionaries finished with training they began to sing "Called To Serve", and as they are singing the Mission President leads the trainers into the room from the back and the trainers seek out their new companions amoung the new elder's and sisters and of course the music and singing soon stops. There are many hugs and excited faces as they meet the new companion with whom they are assigned and whom they have never seen before. It was hard to keep back the tears when you realize this is the Lord's work and these young Sons of Helman and Sister's too are so ready and eager to serve.
The president then gave them a few words. Photos were taken by Sister Hawley and Elder Weibell] on the main floor with trainers, new missionaries, and President/Sister Patch, and then they were off. These photos will now be sent to the parents, along with a handwritten letter by their son/daughter, and accompanied by a letter from the mission president. They collected their luggage and were out of the doors being led and directed by the senior companions to public buses and trains to their various areas of assignment. Some will travel 3-4 hours by bus and/or train to reach their areas.
Interviews then began for the missionaries who were leaving. They had been filtering in from all over the mission. The president and his wife held a farewell dinner for them in their flat and dessert was shared back in the Cultural Hall at about 8 PM. Four parents were there to pick up their missionaries and they came at 8 PM to make that fun transition. The missionaries not with parents were taken to hotel rooms, all previously arranged by Sister Hawley, and went by shuttle the next morning to the Heathrow Airport: some to the USA, some to Germany, Denmark, Wales, and the Netherlands. Those returning within the UK went by bus and train.
It has been difficult to get our regular duties done with the mission office being used as a recreation room and reception or social gathering point. We see much hugging and back slapping and excitement as they interact with each other about the work and renew friendships and past associations as companions. We are tired, happy and exhausted. We seem to blend into the back ground and have been the facilitators of this activity through our preparations. Sister Hawley coordinates all of the travel arrangements and communications with parents well in advance of the departure. We had to trouble-shoot two problems. One missionary going to Rotterdam in the Netherlands was taken to the wrong airport. We got him on a later fight and got him to the London City Airport for him to get his flight home. We needed to call his parents in the Netherlands to let them know of the problem and the change in schedule. It only made him about three hours later in arrival, but to Amsterdam Airport about an one hour drive from Rotterdam. Another set of elders, flying to the States on the first leg of travel together from Heathrow, had different flight times. Sister Hawley made a few phone calls and discovered the problem -- the airline had changed the flight time w/o notifying us -- and the elders were able to make the flight home in time.
Now you know something about transfers. In the future it will be less hectic. We will know more, but the number of missionaries will be much less. The next transfer in mid October will involve only 7 new missionaries and 3-6 going home. We will figure it out this week and begin the notificaiton process. Thank heavens for computers, "Mail Merge" and technology to facilitate all of this correspondence and communication. We receive the travel plans from SLC via email.
We also took receipt of twenty cases of the Book of Mormon in English this week. You might be interested to note that we keep over fifty different language translations of the Book of Mormon in the office for use by the missionaries, as London is so diverse. President Patch invites Elder Hawley to go and look at flats with him. He is concerned about each missionary, and wants each flat to be healthy and comfortable. He takes his responsibility for these missionaries in his care seriously. One of Elder Hawley's responsibilities is management of flats. Mechanics around the zones maintain the vehicles physically, but Elder Hawley maintains the paperwork and the finances for these two areas as well as general mission expenses. We also meet with the office elders and the president twice a month regarding general office and administrative matters. The biggest and most time-consuming job Elder Hawley has is to keep records on financial matters and to pay the bills on time.
Sister Patch has asked us to write up a job description. One of the first things we are going to say is that this is a duet of jobs that needs a good 4-6 weeks of training for each couple who is called to serve in the office. We have had good trainers. The president also wants us to clean up and reorganize the office, and this includes everything from the files to the furniture to the decorating! Never a dull moment in London!
