Last Week We Had Interviews With The Mission President

Last week we drove to Olathe, Kansas to the Stake Center for interviews with the Mission President. The sisters that are serving in a neighboring town had a car accident and so they were without a car. They got a member to drive them to Mound City where we stay the night prior to interviews and they stayed the night with us. The next morning, we drove them to Olathe for the district meeting and interviews. Our interviews with the Mission President are pretty casual; he for the most part wants to know if we are doing okay. I believe he is very focused on how the young Elders and Sisters are doing and is just pleased when the senior couples are not causing him any concerns. He always expresses his appreciation for our service. Spending time with the young missionaries each week, we get to know them a little better and get to know a little of what is happening in the mission. These are really good young men and women but they are all different personalities and like all of us, they each experience some of life’s challenges. With that background information, I have decided that being a mission president is a very busy and challenging calling. The missionaries have accidents, ailments, some get sent home. One of our favorite missionaries was sent home, which surprised us, but we are hoping he will be able to come back out. As a mission president, I am sure there is great concern for the missionaries and for their parents and families. I think of how difficult it would be to send a missionary home, knowing that he and or his family planned for this blessing their entire lives. However, I know the Lord’s hand is in all things, and he knows what is best for his children.

After the meeting and interviews, which was on a Thursday, we transported the Sister missionaries back to their town of Iola and then returned to Mound City. This was about a 2 hour drive. So we had almost three and a half hours of driving on Thursday.

Then on Friday, we had planned to drive to Osawatomie, Kansas to visit a new convert who is in the hospital. I was talking to the grandson of one of our members and trying to help him to find a job. I had suggested to one of our investigators that he might consider hiring this young man. When I contacted the grandson to provide contact information he mentioned that he had an interview as a maintenance person for a summer bible camp, but no way to get up there. He cannot drive because of a DUI, so I told him we could take him there, since it was on our way to the hospital in Osawatomie. We took him up to this 800 acre ranch outside of La Cygne, Kansas and dropped him off, then drove on to visit the member in the hospital and we also visited a less active family and picked him up two hours later. We picked him up and drove him home arriving late in the afternoon. That evening about 7:00 P.M. we received a call from the Zone leaders, wanting to know if we could help the sisters in Iola get to a train to head to the the trainer meeting. One of the Sisters will be training a new sister who will arrive next week and when they receive that calling, they have them attend some training prior to that assignment. (Thinking back on my first mission, they did not do that back then, when I think of my first companion, I am thinking such training would have been a good idea. I also could have likely used some of that training myself, prior to having my first green companion from the states. They have made a lot of changes to better prepare the young missionaries since my first mission some years ago.)

The young sisters had tried to find a member to transport them for their training but were not successful. So we agreed to go and pick them up and take them to Gardner, Kansas, and drop them off and then drive back to Mound City. That was about a 3 and ½ hour drive, we got back home about 11:00 P.M. So I had about 5 and 1/hours of driving time on Friday. We have put a fair number of miles on the car since being out here.