Changes

We are soooo behind in writing. We have been on the 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. shift in the library for most of the past month which makes it difficult to keep up with life. There are leaves on the trees and flowers everywhere. The sky is blue most days. Two weeks ago at our Monday morning devotional in the chapel of the JSMB, Elder Smith and I were finally "up" to give our three minute life sketches. We had hoped in vain that we had been forgotten. Every missionary who comes here has to do this. After three minutes a sister in front holds up a little red 3 minute sign. After another few seconds, the missionary gets "gonged" if still talking. We both got "gonged." (I think she was quick on the bell.) Can you imagine giving your whole life story in three minutes at our age? Can you imagine Sis. Smith saying ANYTHING in three minutes or less? The talks have to be written out. We're glad that's over.
Last Monday evening we attended the Hail and Farewell luau in our branch for the new and outgoing missionaries. It was so much fun, complete with Polynesian dancers and flowers everywhere. Upon returning to our apartment, we learned that our next-door neighbor's husband had passed away that morning, and with her children gathered there in there apartment, her two-year old grandson had gone missing. Poor Sis. Mason was so distraught. We quickly joined the other residents and police in searching for the little guy who turned up happily playing games on the third floor in some poor old soul's apartment.
Our jobs have been pretty routine as we have continued to work in our own certification books and help patrons in the library. We are actually able to help and answer questions on our own now.
But alas!! We have been TRANSFERRED!!!! Elder Smith is being reassigned to the Training Zone in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, hereafter known as the JSMB. He will be training new missionaries and will have a new crop each month. He will have an incredible zone leader, Elder Kuchar, a retired BYU chemistry professor, the one who was called to Egypt to do fabric analyses on the mummies. Elder Smith begins his own new training on Monday, May 11. I am excited for him. (They always have very yummy treats in the morning in his zone.) Sister Smith was asked last Tuesday to be the secretary for the mission president, also in the JSMB, in the Administration Zone. Sister Smith nearly passed out but had to stay conscious since she had to begin her duties this past Thursday morning. With only a day to say goodbye to the friends I'd made in the library and clean out my messy locker, I made the transition with more butterflies than I've seen all spring or in ANY spring. Our mission president, President Halverson, told us that now that we will be working in separate zones, we will have to attend parties in both zones. I told him that was sad, but somebody has to do it.
We were looking forward to coming home from our mission in two years being somewhat knowledgeable in family history so that we could be a help to others working on their own genealogy. Elder Smith will come home the expert, while Sister Smith will come home with a knot in her brain.
My first two days in Admin were actually much less stressful than I had anticipated. The differences between secretarial work in the offices of the "world" and those of the Lord's kingdom are vast. I spent the first entire day with Sis. Halverson and yesterday morning, with Sis. Hansen, the secretary whom I am replacing, and Sis. Halverson again in the afternoon. There is soooo much to learn. The love, laughter, expertise, organization, standard of excellence, spirituality, etc. that exist in that environment truly testify of Him for whom we labor.