A new P-Day? What? I used to love having all day Sunday to reflect and write to my boy. Now it is going to have to be a Friday night date night thing. I am happy to have Alex inside too! It is very hot in Chile and now he gets to be inside for most of the day. Although there is a bit of stress in the office, I think it will be good training for when he is a Doctor! All good skills to have, as well as teaching the Gospel. Go Elder!
So I guess my P Day is Saturday. Monday has too much office stuff.
In my first day, I had a come-to-Jesús with a landlord to get his security deposit back, flied and PDF´d like 4 reams of papers and receipts generated by the senior couple that does all the pension stuff.
That's apparently how every day here is. Oh, and I handled in my hands about eighteen hundred dollars and then carried it through a plaza terrified of getting shanked.
The sector and ward is amazing. The office elders before have been much busier in the past, so the sector is untouched. We had a calculated 800% increase in effectiveness from my last sector. No one even really knows us, so the people who were easy to get in other wards are still floating around. We don't have to dig that deep - the really good people are still just there for us.
There is certainly a large uptake in stress, though. All kinds of crazy stuff happens. For example, I may be in the middle of counting some money and the reference phone (which is also my job) will go off and I have to run over and answer and write something, just to come back and start over. Then let's say I'm waiting for an email so that I can actually pay rent for this month at the same time, and someone's lights just got turned off. Are you starting to get this? (I watch a huge outlook inbox as well.)
I am currently in a trio with a fellow Provoite, another relative of Elder Christensen's, Elder Monsen, the last financier, and Elder Spencer, the Secretary, who does all the visas, handouts for missionaries, etc. Being a trio is mostly fun, but also unwieldy in teaching sometimes. Elder Monsen is teaching me how to do all these things, and while I am not ready to do it alone he won't move on. Elder Spencer is my real companion.
I probably get along with them the best out of all my companions. Elder Spencer is from Idaho and wants to go to med school too. Fun all day, seriously.
This is rather different than before. All my computer skills an stuff are paying off hugely. I already started an Access Database for references, and fixed up the big numbers spreadsheet. It works pretty well so far. The job isn't that hard usually - like Doctor Snook said, "I could teach you to do an appendectomy in three hours. Med school is all about the part that comes if something goes wrong." That is my job. Once a week or so we have a nutty crisis. On the other hand, we are obscenely powerful. We could theoretically do any bad thing to anyone. And we have unlimited access to all the records and purchases of everyone. One of my assignments is to drill into weird transactions to see if there's some dishonest stuff happening. It's a 40-year-old job for a 20-year-old. President said only a few can be trusted at this level. Here we go.
It is going to be hard to hang on to the spirituality. But I am super compartmentalized, so I'l be fine. Office box, mission box.
Also, this calling is the only one a missionary can have that can in and of itself cause excommunication. Is that scary?
Well, I need to send in some pictures for the mission review christmas video.
Love,
Elder A Conrad Crist
Atte.
______________________________________________________
Élder Alex C. Crist
Secretario Financiero
Referencias
Misión Chile Santiago Oeste
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