Sheltons in the Sun

March 1, 2015

Blog #9 - What is it we do?

One of the sister missionaries mentioned to me that the days are long and the weeks are short. That pretty much describes how I feel about the days and weeks. In fact, I missed writing last week because I didn’t realize so much time had passed. As senior missionaries, we have a lot of freedom to plan our days and weeks – yet we still have many tasks required of us. Frequently, folks we meet ask us what is it we do?

In many ways it feels like we left retirement and went back to work at a regular job. But, this job doesn’t have the emotional pressure our other jobs had. The other day Mike and I were organizing our storage garage, which is attached to the home of the Assistants to the President. As I was washing out waste baskets in the kitchen, the assistants had come home for lunch. I commented that I cleaned houses to earn money in college ($1.25 an hour), and now I’m cleaning again . . . my life has come full circle. However, I find much more joy in this service.

As you may have heard, the church is opening eleven new missions. What that means for the existing missions is that we will go down in numbers from 250 missionaries to about 200. We are not moving missionaries, but rather are modifying the numbers through attrition. We may have 18 missionaries returning home and only receive 8 new ones. In the months we have been here we have opened a few apartments. This involves, after signing the lease and inspecting the property, purchasing all of the items the missionaries will need to live in the home (beds, book case, dresser, tables and chairs, lamps, dishes, cooking utensils etc.) We set up the apartment and help them move in.

Now we are in the midst of closing several apartments. We help the President and Assistants look at area leases, productivity and accessibility to determine which apartments are best to keep and which ones we can let go. The closing of apartments is a major task. We must give a notice to vacate and inform all involved. Then on moving day we have to make sure we leave it as close as possible to the condition in which we received it. Since we’ve occupied some apartments for ten years, it is a major task. We sort, clean, throw away, clean, transport furniture to good will, clean,and move all of our items to storage for future use.

We are blessed to have eleven senior service missionary couples who inspect the apartments every six weeks for cleanliness and damage. They are wonderful, and we don’t know how we could possibly do this job without them. We are insisting high cleanliness standards, and holding the missionaries accountable. Our motto is “Cleanliness is a process, not an event!” And, this zone conference, we will give the Golden Plunger Award to the cleanest apartment in each zone. Yes, we do try to have fun as we go.

We also do trainings, etc. to help the missionaries know what “clean” means. We, along with the inspectors, help to fix problems, work with the managers, and get needed supplies to the missionaries. As I’ve been typing this I received a call from an inspector in Lancaster (two hours away) who received a call from two missionaries whose fridge went out two days ago. Mike and I ran to the office files to see if the fridge belongs to us or the apartment. Apparently, it belongs to us. So, the inspector is going to the storage in Lancaster, getting another fridge to swap out the broken one, and taking the broken one to storage. All in a days work.

We love working with these missionaries. Sometimes they invite us to go teach with them. We love that. Also, I have the opportunity to write the monthly newsletter and take photos. This work is a blessing. The mission had 23 baptisms this month, and those will affect families for generations.

We have a huge project to do in our ward, which is to find the young single adults who are less active. There are many different reasons people choose to move away from God, but seldom are they happy reasons, we want to reassure them of God’s love for them.

We also have the blessing and freedom to spend a little time with family. Jaci and Lori came last weekend for a quick visit. This weekend Becca and Reese came. This gospel is about eternal families, and we love to see our families. We are also getting to know our ward family here, and it is feeling more comfortable.

We love you and miss you, and we feel the Lord’s hand in our lives --

we are grateful for His tender mercies as we work to figure out what He would have us do.

Thanks for your love and support. You are in our prayers.