We have now been serving here almost ten weeks.
Some family and friends have asked about what
our office assignments here in Manchester are like.
Our immediate answer is: BUSY.
This post is intended to document our work spaces,
highlight our duties and at least explain
a little more about where we are and
what we are doing.
But first I'll share a couple of images that greet us
right now - at summer's end - as we arrive at work
to the Manchester 1st Ward building on Wind Song Ave.
These beautiful hydrangea bushes grow in
the plantings on each side of the Church back door.
This funny insect below placidly clung to the glass door
one day last week as people came and went,
opening the door dozens of times throughout the day.
He's a walking stick, included here because Elder Warner
has loved bugs as long as I have known him.
Longer -- really.
This group photo below was snapped the first week we served,
capturing the office lobby, with (l to r)
Elder Ron Matkin, Sister Sarah Matkin,
Sister Ann Larsen, Elder Dave Larsen,
Elder Vince Warner and Sister Jodi Warner.
There are four senior couples that man the office.
Elder Matkin is the Financial Officer for the Mission,
and coordinates the spending cards, mission expenses
and credit cards, procurement for larger items,
new missionary bedding, payment for apartments, etc.
He also finds and coordinates those apartments, prepares
and monitors leases and payments/arrangements
with apartments landlords, and more.
Sister Matkin is "the face" of the Mission Office,
answering phones and attending to inquiries,
working as secretary, preparing new missionary information,
coordinating the information about those arriving soon,
preparing and coordinating transportation, departure packets,
staff meetings, president communications, helping with
apartments prep or clean out, mission rosters and
regularly-changing area and companionship rosters,
calendaring, and also helps the rest of us with what we do.
(You can see in front of her desk the boxes of bedding
for the incoming [new] missionaries.)
A couple of weeks after we arrived, and Sister Larsen
the former mission nurse departed, the replacement
nurse Sister Bobbi Hoke and husband Elder Pat Hoke arrived.
Shown below, they work side by side in their cubicle.
(For more convenience, they often move their "operation"
to other larger spaces within the building.) Calls and
situations arise 24/7, so they are regularly on the road
or working from home.
Elder Warner is serving as VC (Vehicle Coordinator).
He manages the large mission fleet, with cars
spread across the three-state mission and many,
many miles of separation between the seven zones
in Vermont, Maine, a tiny part of Massachusetts
and New Hampshire.
He helps when gas credit cards
don't work like they should, monitors regular service
and maintenance, helps submit incident reports,
defends mission mileage usage, picks up new cars
and coordinates delivery out to the field,
makes monthly reports to Salt Lake about miles driven.
Here is an "emergency" hand off that happened today
(Sunday) when we had to drive unexpectedly
down to Acton Ward in MA to exchange a car
that had "breakdown" symptoms.
You can see that Sister Randall and Sister Semadeni
are quite excited to be getting a new car to drive.
He also monitors the transmitted warning messages
from the TIWI driver feedback system in each mission vehicle
that helps reinforce safe driving practices.
(Shown below, it is rather a four-letter-word
around missionaries.)
As new missionaries arrive, he documents their licenses,
gets clearance for future driving privileges,
warns any drivers about violations of the TIWI system,
and suspends their privileges when necessary.
This funny little yellow fellow is a humorous 'suggested'
replacement for the TIWI unit, shown here simply sitting
on the dash in Matkins' private car.
Elder Matkin tells us that this device could replace the TIWI,
since it would indicate fast starts, quick braking,
sharp turns, etc. -- if it stays on the dashboard,
the driver is complying with safety directives.
Another slice of Elder Warner's duties includes
coordinating the transportation during the busy transfer
days when the new missionaries arrive at the nearby
Boston-Manchester Regional Airport with their luggage.
The mission trailer is hooked up to the mission truck,
driven (moving forward ONLY) to wait at the airport
for the arrivals, then loaded and driven to the Mission Home
in nearby Bedford, NH where it is unloaded for that night's
stay. The next day it is re-loaded for transportation to
the Mission Office building, where the missionaries
are assigned to their trainers and then depart to their
new outlying teaching areas. Elder Warner has had to do
hard things, including learn to back up the truck/trailer
into the Mission Home driveway. This picture below celebrates
his "masterful" accomplishment in August (first time).
Look how straight it is!!! (Not mentioning how long it took!)
Transportation coordination continues as Elder Warner
plans for the departing missionaries to travel
to Concord, MA for a fun and interesting history explore
and a final restaurant meal together at the historic
Colonial Inn. (Couldn't resist including this picture, below.)
Then home again to Mission Home for final discussions,
devotional, Pres. interviews and sleep (doesn't include us).
On third day of transfers, very early in the morning,
the truck and trailer are driven to the airport
as we say goodbye to the Elders and Sisters
who we can hardly bear to have depart.
As Mission Recorder, my duties focus around
the submission electronically of new convert baptisms,
following up with welcoming packets of media materials, etc.
As mentioned in earlier blog posts, I also receive
printed supply requests, including media copies of
Book of Mormon and Bible, pamphlets, pass along cards, etc.
We have four languages regularly used in NHMM,
including English, French, Spanish and Portuguese,
but also get requests for widely varied languages,
such as Swahili, Arabic, Mandarin, German, Haitian and more.
This image below shows the cartons of Books of Mormon
labeled to be distributed as we travel to the three
zone conference locations (every 6 weeks).
My other duties include ordering replacement
name tags for the missionaries, assembling and
electronically publishing the monthly newsletter (below),
collecting information for the yearly history.
I also take individual and group pictures of new
and departing missionaries, and at the various group
events and conferences, and post through our private
FaceBook communication links to parents.
One of the unexpectedly-demanding duties of this assignment
includes the coordination and sometimes food prep for
the various meetings and activities each month,
most of which are outlying.
(Below, Sister Hernandez poses for a slightly hilarious
take on how my taking photos at the lunch events is viewed by
the young missionaries. She is visiting with Elder Sypher
shown in his apron, who is a helpful, directing force for
the JSBM site meeting lunches.)
These meetings include from small to large:
Office staff meetings (12 people)
Mission Leadership Conference (around 45 people)
Transfer morning (bagels and snacks for 110 or more)
Followup Training at JSBM, Sharon VT (50-60)
Montpelier/Concord Zone Conf. (80)
Nashua/Exeter Zone Conf (80)
Bangor/Augusta N/Augusta S Zone Conf (80).
In addition there is the autumn Day of Service at Sharon JSBM,
and the Christmas re-configured zone conferences.
We have help in a couple of these outlying events
(such as Elder Sypher at JSBM and the Dawbins in Farmingdale),
but sometimes they fall back to the Mission to furnish.
These are busy, busy days, and we typically try to be at work
by 8 a.m., and sometimes don't leave the office before 5:30 or 6 p.m.
At this point in our Missions, we are feeling much more
comfortable with our duties, and getting used a little bit more
to the constant work load.
These people we serve and who serve us
keep our lamps burning!
No comments:
Post a Comment