Training a replacement

I'm afraid this will have to be somewhat fast because today I went to the fancy-pants part of Santiago to have a despedida (goodbye) lunch for an outgoing assistant. The office is cool for things like that. 

We are done! We finished doing all the pensions we needed for the new missionaries, so now we can return to normal mission stuff and easy routine pension and medical incidents. Yesterday a missionary "stepped" (Or rather, played football on) a pipe in a pension and blew it to pieces, so they got everything wet and had to have a plumber come over and put in some new pipe. I get the tithing dollar signs in my eyes when I hear things like that. 

Little sidebar here, I think the Dad fix-stuff-in-the-house-and-car thing did, in the end, stick to me. Elder Smart and I have been cutting down on expenses by doing most work on the pensions ourselves. The other day we took out another Ptrap and pulled out some... stuff and it ended up perfect. We were considering buying an arc welder... but then we decided that it would be good if we stayed in for a year, but that it was unlikely that the next set of office elders would be as into it. So we didn't. Almost anything else is our territory.

 On the medical front, it's just people with the normal problems: cough, ingrown toenails, my companion with an infection like the ones for which I am famous (I treated it personally), etc. It is my favorite part of the job, definitely. When the ward members ask what I do in the office, I say, 1"Bueno, fui financiero, pero ahora soy el encargado de medicina y pensiones." To which they say, without fail, 2"Tienes cara de doctor."

 1(I was financier, but now I am in charge of medicine and pensions.)
2(You look like a doctor.)

 The end of my time here is quite evident. I am in my last change of six weeks here. I know because President has asked my to get ready to train my replacement. So I'll soon be leaving my favorite sector in the mission. Well, my next sector could be my favorite still. I'd leave with three and a half months-ish. Then it's just a sprint to the finish.

 I just looked up and read about the package. I'm going to go see if it is in.

 I need to shop. Sorry. I'm no good.

 Well, I may send some stuff with Elder Christensen to you. We'll see how that goes.

 The church is true.

 Elder A Conrad Crist

Over the five month left mark...

I feel like I did this yesterday. Nothing to report.

 We moved lots of stuff. A really obnoxious dueño decided that we had to fix a house we are trying to leave, which was awful. I'm still not sure what to do about it. There's a bunch of damage that we probably did, but I have to convince President King that we should pay it, or convince the guy (and he lives in Chiloe) to back off. Either one looks impossible.

 I'm also the acting medical coordinator for the mission, and the computer person. I have been utterly convinced that medicine and computers are the fields in which I must work. I know, from experience in the office, that I would not like to sell, be a corporate leader, be a realtor, be a driver, be a secretary, or be a negotiator. I do, though, like very much medicine, computers, general house repair (another one of my recent duties with the change resultant from Elder Fuentealba taking finances) and accountancy, in that order. I did an inventory of all the first aid kits and medications we had yesterday and I enjoyed it. I do the graphs each month and fix the network and stuff and I enjoy that too. It's like I asked God, "Should I be a doctor or what?" and he just nodded slightly and winked.

 It's really starting to hit me that this is getting over. Before I write you again, I'll have walked over the five-months-left threshold. That is not a lot of time. I have seven weeks left in the office, then two and a half changes of six weeks on the outside. Just enough time to really get working and... that will be it.

 I was thinking the other day that I really am not that different than I was before. The more I thought, though, I started to think about lots of mañas, or weird habits or pickinesses, that I don't have anymore. I eat tomatoes. I don't freak out when people touch me. I can talk to anyone for any reason, even on the phone in Spanish, even if it's a girl or a person who wants money from me. That's just the things you'd notice easily.

 I had a my second-to-last interview with President King on Monday. He asked me about how I've come to be converted to the gospel, or how I've progressed so far. It's a theme I've entertained a lot looking out on my mission. The biggest change is not how much I live the gospel. I think I always more or less was "living" it. But I've made it an inside force outward, not an outward mold on my actions. That way is a start, but it isn't the tenth of the power and joy that is the real gospel.

 I feel like I can't teach what I've learned. I wonder a lot if most people get to the conclusions that I have. I didn't even hear of the higher concept of it in Church except from a few specific people, all of which had a bigger impact than average on my testimony, for example, Brother Troyer, Brother Leavitt, both good seminary teachers, Adam Dunn from Saint George, and a few scout leaders in their moments.

 I keep coming back to my patriarchal blessing - it is pretty obvious that I will work with youth. Is this why? If I can communicate even a part of the Real Christianity that I have learned here, I'll help anyone who can understand it. That's it's effect - everyone needs it, everyone benefits from it, everyone is a part of it. So in effect, I know why I'm here, I know how long more I'll be here - all I need to do is finish it well. So I'm just going to keep being busy for a while longer.

 Have a good week on me,
Elder A Conrad Crist

 Note A I'll try to register here. I'll let you know if anything doesn't work. I really can't research for scholarships here. Do you think I can go in right as I get home to look for them?

Heading into Fall as we head into Spring

Hey, what do you know, it's just getting not-hot here!

The majority of the new missionaries that are coming are actually going to double up in pensions we have already, which calls for more stuff that we have to take out to the pensions, but not a new pension. We actually only have two of those at this moment. One is in the middle of nowhere (search for El Monte, Chile). We're renting it from a lady who'd never even heard of contracts before now. The other is actually owned by the same person, so it's a pretty safe change.

That said, there is still a good amount of stuff to do. We have to move another carfull of stuff to Melipilla, my old stomping grounds. I think the main part of it is going to be over this week. At the same time, though, I have to teach Elder Fuentealba, the new senior missionary, how to do the finances. And how to work with the pickiest, finickiest Access database ever to take up space on a terrestrial hard drive. Lots of internet and Excel for a guy born in 1938. Even so, he is really doing well. It takes a long time for him to get something, but he's much better (as he was an accountant) than I am at the real accountancy parts. He was all kinds of executive and master accountant IN THE 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, including working for the church for the 80s and 90s as the Chief of Purchasing in the Chile Area Office. His wife was a homemaker, or in spanish, an owner of the house. She is sorting mail and taking medical calls, but she has a hard time doing any computer things, so I help her do her medical log like a secretary taking dictation. She's already got a thing going with the missionaries as kind of the grandma of the mission. I think she really likes that.

I still keep graphs, computers, and legal. All that Handel on the Law has really paid off. It's really quite an experience to be a tool of God in a way that is almost completely not spiritual. But I like it. I am pretty sure God is helping us, because we never fail in what we need for the mission. We needed a way to assemble two years of retention data that no one knew how to use. It has to do with how many people who were recently baptised are still coming, how well the wards are recommending inactives to be taught, and how often the Ward Mission Leaders are meeting with the missionaries. The main purpose of the data is to report to stake and district leaders on how well their wards are working. We needed a way to present it by ward hierarchically below take and by date to show when things didn't happen that should have. After looking at it for an hour or two and messing around with dumb graphs and an Access database, I half-designed and half-stumbled upon a way to do it that goes beyond our wildest dreams. Out of nothing I set it up into a "Pivot Table", which I'd never heard of before. And it worked exactly like we wanted. There was a little data cleaning to do - for example, taking out data that came from 2174... I mean, we understand faith and everything, but 2174? I think it was even on the 30th of February. - but it's all fixed now. (Are you getting that I'll probably be a Young Men's leader or in Family History forever? I am.)

Even President King has said to us, "You know, you really need to work in your sector, but I understand that these next two weeks are going to be difficult. Just do your best to stay out and visit those people." What I mean with that is to excuse myself for not being appreciably spiritual for you this week. In two months or so I am almost certainly out of here, and I'll be back to a short sprint to the finish in the normal missionary world.

I'm just now putting together how much I needed to come into the office. I've had to learn to keep studying in a more chaotic environment. I've learned how to be firm with people and not be afraid of calling them to oppose them. I was also getting sick of the mission daily routine, and that routine is completely gone in the office. It was a long and much-needed break from the monotony. Now when I go back, I'll know how little is left and not have time to get bored. In other words, It will be like getting to five hundred meters from the end of a 5K and sprinting and beating tons of people who'd passed you farther back because you know the end is right there and after that you don't have to run any more when you finish. It will be a glorious end.

But for now, I am God's gopher.

Elder A Conrad Crist

Note A

I don't get Riley's letters, except for those he writes to me directly. If someone could add me, that would be cool. (I read fast; don't let anyone not send something because they're afraid of taking all my time.)

Note B

When is registration again? Remember, I'm a Junior, not a Freshman, so I should have an advantage somewhere in there.

Busiest human Mormon

No food! There is enough food here. I'm trying to make the most out of the one-kilo yogurt-in-bags. I found fountain pens (disposable) in the BYU bookstore. They're not expensive or anything. There were at least three varieties there. One of them may have been Pilot. The most important thing is definitely socks still as winter is supposedly coming around for April or May.

Do you know what this week is

--

At the moment in which I stood up and interrupted the sentence I was writing, some delivery guys appeared to deliver three of eighteen new mattresses that we ordered. Getting those mattresses is part of  the story I was about launch into - so here it is.

This week has been the busiest week of my life. I have never had so many adult things to get finished under adult pressure. I am still surprised at this moment to inform you that, if fact, everything we set out to do this week has come out perfectly as we wanted it.

You see, the number of missionaries worldwide, especially in Latin America, is growing - so much so that the Area Presidency of Chile has decided to up our mission's complement of missionaries and budget so that we have two hundred in total, a net of eighteen Elders and six sisters.

The clever reader will immediately begin to see what this means for those who work in mission administration. We have to find about eight new pensions, furnish them, and rent them before they arrive - the twenty-seventh of March, some twenty-four days away.

Yesterday we woke up and did a bank run, then went to a place close to Melipilla to see a pension we want, which we got, then we came back and went out to fix the gas for some nearby sister missionaries (luckily all my repairing misadventures with Dad and Jake paid off and I found the gas line outside, turned it on and restarted the pressure regulator, which was the problem). Unfortunately we forgot about a family home evening we had planned. After a bout of self-loathing for forgetting, we arrived late. Luckily, God understood and softened the hearts of the people we needed to visit (to the point that they didn't even notice that we were late.)

I think this week's theme has been that God's got my back.

I've made an observation in reading the Book of Mormon. The attributes that each person in the Book of Mormon ascribes to God seem to always be the ones of which the observer sees a lack in the current civilization and time. I've actually found it to be instructive to ask people what they think God is like and from that determine what they find to be missing from the world.

Lehi - Just, Wise - Two dumb sons who try to kill Nephi like five times

Alma - Good, quick to hear - Big rich civilizations that kick him out all the time

Mormon - Dependable, loving - Angry, selfish, idolatrous oath-swearing soldiers that he led daily

And so forth. Just something to think about.

Today so far has been fun. We went in taxi to a quasi-american mall place and ate at the only restaurant I've ever seen in the entire country that has free refills. I got a burger and a drink. I drank six cups of coke, which essentially meant that after my companions were done, I kept asking for refills for everyone and drink all of theirs also. If you're going to drink soda, you won't do any more damage to yourself drinking four than you will for twelve, so I figured I'd keep going until everyone else got bored. (I am in danger of going soda crazy in America. I will definitely need to make some... goals on that one.)

Then we went to look at ties and I saw the newest Mac operating system. After picking my jaw up off the floor and pushing out the kid on the bike out of it, I ran away to not get trunky. I'm back on Windows 7 now, purging my love for computers out when the internet goes down for no reason or I have to do battle with Word. Windows 7 is better, but it still looks like it's a good 2006 operating system. 

I'm off that. I'm off.

I need to go do stuff. I am going to be the busiest human Mormon being on the planet this month. Pray please.

Love,

Elder A Conrad Crist

3 of us to run the whole Mission

Well, we've almost (well, I've almost) finished upgrading the whole office to Windows 7, so we should be safer for the futures. It's only three to five years behind Apple! At least the networking stuff works more often.

I need to clip my fingernails! (Did you know that they grow faster in Chile because of the hormones in the meat?) (I clip them about every ten days.)

To get it said at the beginning, I think staying at home for the first semester will be an appreciated shock absorber for all the "tramites", or rather, to-dos of getting back. I have to say here, though, that that will be that last time I live at home. I also am done having room-mates in the same room. That is over.

I will ask for permission to get on and start looking at classes. President King is forming a three-week-early group for my group, because more than half have to go home for school. It will almost certainly be the 21 of August.

I have no idea what to do about scholarships. You will have to just impersonate there and do the government and New Century one, I think. I don't know/have the information I need to do it. I'm coming back with basically no money or anything like that. I will certainly need a computer. Phone is medium-low priority comparatively. And a solid bicycle. Dad rode that path for a year or something, so I know I can do it. I think I'm going to avoid cars at all cost for another three years.

I will have to work. I don't know where. Two things jump out to me - TA in a science class or in the Missionary Department doing international finance coordination. I work with people who are back in Provo and Salt Lake who are just missionaries in school after. I know a pretty ridiculous amount about Chilean finance and law now, so I may have a chance there. I'll have to see when I get there, of course.

Now, let's talk about what you came here to read.

I have not done dedicated missionary work for four days. Elder and Hermana Dorius, the senior couple that's still here, have to leave. On Monday. Their planned return date was the end of this six week change. Do you know what this means?

Hna Dorius has trained us how to put in convert data, and Elder Dorius has filled us in (it took three hours) on all the work that's left to do in the pensions in the mission. Hna Dorius showed me the medical log and how to set people up to go to the doctor.

In short, Elder Smart and I are responsible for finding, renting and furnishing seven new companionships that are arriving to the mission. And putting in convert data. And distributing the mail.

And it's all on us. Everything.

We went over to the Dorius' apartment to talk last night, and we helped them move out today. It's real now. The office is three missionaries. No matrimonies. I have to be the mission doctor!

"Dizzying, but really fun." That's what I call it.

As we wrapped up the meeting last night, Hna Dorius said probably the grandest complement I've ever received. She said, "But, you know, I'd be worried if it was someone else, but I know that you'll do excellently. I'm not worried." I looked over at her starting to laugh to break the sarcastic joke she may have made. She just said, "What?", seeming to not know why I laughed.

Hermana Dorius thinks we can run the whole mission!

I can't tell you how satisfying that is after working for all this time to be at least dependable. I set a goal about eight months ago to "Be the embodiment of the Scout Law." The mission worked!

All our investigators have been on vacations until today or Sunday, which is a little God-organized help due to the Dorius' leaving. We have three "slam-dunks" and we're waiting on another one that could reappear at any moment. I will talk missionary again soon. For now it's all advanced logistics and finance. Sorry. Our first normal day is tomorrow.

I've been thinking a lot about how we look at numbers in the mission. It always is tempting to compare up (and down) numbers between sectors and missions. I have basically no numbers, and I am doing non-spiritual things, and the difference is striking compared with other sectors that are doing well right around me. But somehow I am being bettered by this, and prepared for the future. That much is more than clear. I just don't know how. 

I shall attempt to be more inspiring next week.

Note A

Socks! Enviar! Send! Disposable fountain pens too. I really don't lack food here so much.

Note B

Got Package! Ate! Liked the Kato one!

Nooooo!

Sorry. The Windows NT pteranadon ate my email and I have no time left.
I'm going to write some other time when our computers work.

Tell Gypsy and Randy that they actually got the right email this time.

I'll re do my email in a day or two when our computers are working.

Cooler full of sandwiches