Saturday: The cambio calls are made
Sunday: All is calm. I attend church with my companion, Elder Gonzalez, who will soon be leaving home. We teach a little bit after church then head into the office to finalize logistics for what will be the craziest week in history. Late Sunday night President gets back from his trip to Buenos Aires for a Mission President's Seminar.
Monday: We woke up at 7:30 AM like normal only this time I was saying goodbye to my companion who was being picked up and taken to the mission home to do the final day stuff. We are now in a trio. It's weird but exciting and fun at the same time. Monday was calm. We made sure all of the finishing missionaries got in from all ends of the mission safely and then went out to work like normal at 5 o'clock.
Tuesday: The madness begins. We woke up at 4:30 and went to meet the Latinos at the airport so Elder Morales (Secretary of Visas and International Travel) could do their check-in and I (Financial Secretary) could pay for all of their baggage. Elder Spanbauer also accompanied us because we're in a trio. All was going well until President came up to us with one of the Elders and it turns out that his last destination was wrong. It was a very heated moment. We ended up working it out to buy his flight to Santiago and we were then going to have him wait in the airport and get his next flights ready in the office. We ran to the van and drove immediately to the office where Elder Morales started making calls to Santiago to get everything sorted out. In the end everything worked out so that the Elder could make it home. While we were doing this the gringos got dropped at the airport and left.
Afterwards, at eleven I went with Elder Talbot and Sister Talbot to the mission home to start getting things ready for the new missionaries while Elder Spanbauer and Elder Morales went to pick up the food for the newbies. The newbies were picked up by the Assistants in a bus while we were doing this. We got everything ready super fast and Elder Spanbauer and Elder Morales arrived just barely before the newbies with the empanadas. The newbies got of the bus with their suitcases and we put tags on all of them. We then threw all of the sister missionaries' luggage in the truck and went inside.
Afterwards we ate lunch with President and Sister Dalton, the newbies and the Talbots. The newbies finished their lunches and we took all of their pictures and had them sign documents for their visas. We (The trio) then sneaked out of the mission home and took the sisters luggage to Holiday Inn and did the check-in. We drove back to the mission home to pick up the Talbot's and finish cleaning up (all insanely quietly because the newbies were having a meeting) and left the van with the assistants so that they could drop of the sisters in the hotel. We went back to the mission office and set everything else up for meetings. At 6 we went out to work like normal missionaries and had a bit of success contacting a couple of people.
Wednesday: Trainer meeting. We woke up at 5 to get ready and be at the mission offices at 7 to receive the trainers who were coming in from all over the mission. We set out breakfast for them and all of the newbies arrived. We took their suitcases and ushered them inside. The training meeting started and we ducked out of the auditorium and into the office. The newbies came in and sister Dalton introduced us and what we did. We ran and went to Domino's and picked up lunch and then we had the ceremony where the new missionaries met their trainers. Everything was going well until one kid opened up his letter, read it, and then got to the part where he read his companion, stopped, and said , "uuuuh, I don't think that's allowed." President Dalton walked over and then looked straight back at us. (We were kind of hiding in the back) and we all got super nervous. I don't know how I got nominated but I walked up into the circle and grabbed the call letter. We then ran to the office and printed off a new one but this time one that didn't say that he would be trained by an hermana. After that we (the office) told some more things to the newbies about their visas and mission credit cardsand then left. We cleaned things up while they were finalizing the meeting. We kept cleaning after the meeting and set up for leadership council. We got out to work at about 7. Worked until 10:30 and then went to sleep at 11:30 like normal. I found fleas in my bed though so I was wigging out and actually got to bet at 12.
Thursday: Leadership Council. We woke up at 5 again to be at the office at 7 to receive the Zone Leaders and Sister Trainer leaders coming in from all over the mission. As they get in we take their suitcases and they go to eat breakfast that we have prepared. When the meeting starts at 10 we go into the storage room and start to unload their suitcases that are full of pouch from all over the mission. We then organize the pouch and put it in the corresponding suitcase along with proselyting supplies for the different zones. Afterwards we ran and picked up empanadas. All of the food has to get their a little bit late. President Dalton gives us a time and we have to arrive 5-10 minutes after the time he gives us. We get there and throw everything out for lunch so that the meeting can end and they can come out and eat. The leaders then go back in and we go do office stuff while they wait for us to finish. The meeting finishes at 4 and afterwards we are all attacked. I'm not sure why everyone waits to talk with us instead of just calling us with their problems beforehand.
The only funny part that happened was that a group of about 14 hermanas came up and half surrounded us. They started to complain about where they were sitting on the buses to get to Antofagasta. Elder Spanbauer looked at me even though it's his job and I got stared at by the menacing glances of a herd of wild hermanas. I took a step back and said that I had nothing to do with bus pasages and Elder Morales did exactly the same thing on the other side of Elder Spanbauer.
We got everyone off and when everyone had left President called us into his office. The three of us went in and Elder Spanbauer and I sat down in front of President while Elder Morales hung out on a couch behind us. President then started to review these packets that Elder Spanbauer and I had completed to be able to drive. It was super intense and I felt like I was having a worthiness interview about my driving record. BUT I PASSED. My international license is now here and I have been loosed on the streets of Chile.
We went out and President signed the audit sheets that Elders Gonzalez, Talbot and I had done. We then left to work and had a pretty successful day, got back at 10 and then went to bed at 11:30 after planning the next day.
Friday: The reperation after the storm. We were so busy with meetings the whole week that I had a bunch of work buildup and had to get things done really quick or they were going to cut off the electricity in one of our apartments other problems had arisen as well. I also argued with the Dueña of an old apartment for about 30 minutes on the phone. We're going to have the missionaries go there and meet with her Monday to discuss her demands before she will take the apartment back from us but in reality they are just going to hand her the keys and walk away. She isn't going to be very happy at all and I expect a very angry phone call from her Monday. I ALSO DROVE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE MISSION!!!! It's an interesting experience.
We went out to work and did some splits with members. The one advantage of being in a trio is that it is really easy to split up with members. We found some new investigators and had some spiritual lessons as well.
That's pretty much how my week went. Hopefully there is something interesting in all of my ramblings.
I love you guys tons!
Elder Walker
