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.
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