Thursday, June 19, 2014

Our Office

I was hoping by now to send pictures of the inside of our apartment, but unfortunately we're still not in it!  The Mission President and his wife are such gracious hosts, but I'm sure they had different plans for their last weeks here!  The home and the office have been having some minor renovations in preparations for the new President, so things have been kinda crazy.

So - have you ever tried to type on a keyboard with a few extra keys and others out of place?  Wow - talk about steep learning curve for an old lady!  It has taken me the better part of a day and a half each of the last two weeks to enter the baptism records for the weekend before.  The mission averages about 50 baptisms a week, but the information is handwritten and my deciphering of new names with a new style of writing has also proven to be another steep learning curve for me.  There are so many different things that we will eventually be responsible for, it's really overwhelming.  Craig's got the toughies - housing and visa renewals.  And dealing with me all day!

Our office is in a nice area, but Fortaleza was sadly not a well-planned city during its boom in the eighties.  There are some modern buildings right next to some real decrepit, scary pits.  Few sidewalks are not full of DEEP holes or piles of stuff, and tonight as I was speed-walking home I fell HARD.  It was one of those trying-to-catch-myself-for-several-steps falls in a crowded area.  People were very nice and helpful, and I was almost sad that Jessie wasn't there so I could see it replayed as she imitated it to everyone for the next several months, like she does so well when I do something like that!  :)

Anyway - here are pictures of our office so you can picture that part of our mission life.  We were able to get good shots today because it was a holiday.  This in addition to the ENTIRE city being off work on Tuesday when Brazil played a World Cup Game here in Fortaleza.  The drive to the mission home from the office with the President that usually takes close to 30 minutes took 5 minutes.  A street that is usually scary to cross had children playing in it during the game!  It was a ghost town... until after the game!
Kitty-corner and across the street - we're on the top full floor.

Front of the building, from across the street

Where we spend our days!
We really miss the hands-on missionary work we did in Boston.  More on that later.  But a fun thing to end on is the news that Reginaldo did indeed get baptized on Sunday after a year of investigating!!!  Our love to everyone.

1 comment:

  1. Your office looks a lot nicer than your apartment. Good thing you spend more time there than your apartment? Loving the pictures!

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