Week 75: Anderson's "replacements"

The heat wave finally broke with a pounding thunderstorm this morning awakening us to its welcome rumblings.  It has been so hot lately, but it wasn't until the last couple of days that the humidity moved in and I was suddenly reminded of what summer is like in New York!  Hot and sticky.  Too bad we don't have a lake to jump into here!  As John muttered about the heat the last few weeks, I reminded him that while he was working in an air-conditioned office in June, I was in a classroom trying to keep 20-30 perspiring teenagers cool and focused! It is SO nice to know those days are behind me!

Our adventures exploring Sweden are dwindling as we prepare for the new couples to arrive.  Responsibilities at the office have kept us busy.  Just last night I finally finished my Secretary's Handbook.  When I originally started it, I thought I might be teaching Sister Bailey remotely, so I described every little move on the computer.  Obviously, that took a lot of time.  The last couple of sections are miscellaneous items so they went much more quickly.  I hope it will be useful to her when she is on her own.  I also finally finished hemming and hanging all the curtains in the office--14 panels, whew!  I'm glad that is done!  This coming week I need to focus on our apartment, because it needs to be ready for the Baileys to move in when they arrive on August 7th!

Monday a Church History missionary couple, the Wheelers, arrived to check out our old records.  This was a moment where I saw the Lord's hand preparing the way.  We've known the Wheelers were coming for about a month.  However, about last Christmas one of the POEs felt it was important to organize the attic.  Since then each of the POEs have continued on that project by cleaning, discarding, and organizing, until it was clean and orderly.  The POEs who are there now, finished the project and were ready for the Wheelers!  They were so impressed with the organization and number of records we have.  (This simply would have been a mess to sort through, and much would have been missed, if they had come a year ago!) After reporting back to Church Headquarters, the Wheelers were told that the historical items should be moved to Copenhagen where they will be archived in a climate controlled room and will be digitized for broader access.  The Wheelers are assigned to inventory all of Scandinavia, while other Church History missionaries are doing the same thing throughout the world.  (I didn't even know this was being done!)

Another missionary birthday lunch was prepared this week.  I should have stopped asking them what they want to eat because since I made "Cafe Rio Sweet Pork" that has always been the request!  It was worth all the work though, when the birthday boy, Elder Beverage said, "This is what I would have if I was home.  It is what I really miss."  (And honestly, this is probably the last birthday dinner I will make, and that makes me a little sad.  It is one thing I will really miss!)

Happy birthday to Elder Beverage.  Note the cakes in the back.  The missionaries decided to have a cake bake-off  so I didn't have to worry about dessert!

Friday night's lunar eclipse drew us outside.  Unfortunately, the first half of the eclipse was under cloud cover.  John stood patiently searching the horizon.  I didn't have the patience to just wait outside, so I sat reading in the car.  On second thought, maybe he really enjoyed standing outside, because he became a sort of "chick magnet" as two groups of women came up to him and talked about the invisible eclipse!  However, by 10:30, when the clouds finally began to move out of the way, his patience paid off.  Here are a couple of his pictures as the moon came back into view.

Saturday our first "replacement" couple arrived--the Clouses from Arizona.  They will be serving as the apartment couple, in the Anderson's stead.  They are lots of fun and will be sure to bring laughter and good times to all the missionaries as they travel around the country serving them.

After dinner with the Clouses, Andersons, and Youngbergs tonight on our patio, we had an ice cream party with the elders.  Transfers are coming this week and two missionaries are leaving--one returning home and one is going to Goteborg, so the dynamic will be changing once again at the office.  It all seems so familiar, and yet so different,  because this time we won't be part of the operation for very long. In nine days our "replacements" will arrive, move into this apartment and begin training. It's a little surreal.

Just as the new young missionaries arrive with excitement and innocence, so do the new couples.  For them, this experience is also new, an adventure motivated by faith, and reaffirmed by testimony. Meeting these new missionaries, young and older, is one of my favorite things about being here.  They remind me of the importance of this great work of inviting others to come unto Christ.  I know the work will continue on without us in a few weeks, but we will miss it, the missionaries, and this lovely country of Sweden!