Liz wasn’t sure
she wanted to go to all that effort to pull everything out of the cupboards and
closets, but 2 days before the pest control people came, we were in the kitchen
and noticed a roach scamper across the floor and went into the opening where
the refrigerator is. There was a new mop
in that space, so I pulled out the mop and didn’t see anything…until I gently shook
the mop and about a dozen cockroaches fell out!
We managed to stomp on most of them before they made it back to
safety. I shook it again, and the same
thing happened. So I took the mop
outside and shook it a third time, and a few more fell to the ground. The mop was then deposited in the closest
dumpster. That experience convinced Liz
that we needed to do everything they had asked us to do.
We purchased
boxes to put things in. We moved two
small tables to the front room to stack boxes and things on them. It was almost like we were moving! When we returned home the day the pest people
had come, we had to reverse the process and put everything away. In our instructions, they said it would take
about 2 weeks before we would not see any cockroaches, and we are now at about
2 weeks. I saw one last week, smashed it
with my sandal then turned away from it for about 2 seconds. When I went to dispose of it, it was
gone! I think they play dead for just a
second and then scamper away.
Last week I mentioned
that we have not been involved with missionary work in the most common sense of
the phrase. We are not out finding or
teaching. We are supporting those who do…the
young sisters and elders. We support
them and try to remove obstacles so they can focus on their work. We occasionally hear of their successes at
our mission-wide “Miracle Meeting” each Sunday evening via Zoom where they can
share with the other missionaries any miracles they have had in the past
week. These 30-minute meetings are one
of the highlights of our week.
A few months
before returning home, senior missionary Elder McBride shared a story about
Charles Plumb which made me think about what it is we do in the office:
Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75
combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb
ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a
communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons
learned from that experience!One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a
restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, ' You're Plumb! You flew
jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot
down! 'How in the world did you know that?' asked Plumb. 'I packed
your parachute,' the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude!
The man pumped his hand and said, 'I guess it
worked!' Plumb assured him, 'It sure did. If your chute had not worked, I
wouldn't be here today.'
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about
that man. Plumb says, 'I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy
uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how
many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?'
or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor.'
Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in
the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of
each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.
Now, Plumb asks his audience, 'Who's packing your
parachute?' Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through
the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his
plane was shot down over enemy territory - he needed his physical parachute,
his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He
called on all these supports before reaching safety.
Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives
us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or
thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to
them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you
go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your
parachutes.
Elder
McBride said that while we may not be engaged in “missionary work” like we were
when we served as young missionaries, we are helping to pack the parachutes of
the young missionaries. In the office,
we provide them with reliable and safe vehicles, help them when they are getting
ready to travel to their original mission assignment or returning home at the
end of their missions, make certain they have their finances in order each
month, and that their apartments are safe.
We have medical missionaries who can be called if a missionary is
injured or isn’t feeling well, or some other medical concern, and a psychologist
who can counsel with the missionary if they are having difficulty adjusting to
the rigors of missionary life. The
mission president encourages us to listen to them, as occasionally they may
open up and share some of their concerns.
He wants us to be their temporary grandparents, and to be a good example
so they will want to serve another mission when they are “more experienced.” So, I appreciated Elder McBride’s story about
packing the missionaries’ parachutes.
When I
first got here, and was working with my predecessor, Elder Aird, I was amazed
at the number of calls he would get everyday from the missionaries with
questions about their cars. Too many
times, they would call to inform him that they had done damage to their
vehicle. Elder Aird helped me become
proficient rather quickly on how to file an insurance claim. I was submitting 2 or 3 claims each week for
the first 3 weeks, or so it seemed. Then
suddenly, it all stopped. No accidents
for an entire week. Then two. Then three!
What had changed? Certainly, it
wasn’t because there was a new “Car Czar” in town. It was during this time of repose, that Liz
and I went to dinner with my cousin, Doug Higham. He is a former mission president, so he was
familiar with what a vehicle coordinator does. I made the mistake of telling
him that we had gone 3 weeks without an accident! He was as impressed as I was! By having said that out loud, I think I
jinxed that streak because by 7:45 the next morning, I received a call from some
missionaries who had put a dent in their car.
We did have 2 accidents that were not the fault of the
missionaries. One got rear ended, and one
got T-boned. Both are safe, but their
cars will be in the shop for a while.
The week
started off with a text message last Sunday from the mission president saying
that someone had “keyed” his car from the front to the back in one straight
line, then a few other shorter lines for good measure. Things went downhill from there. Every day last week was another accident of
some sort. Most of these incidents are
minor; caused when the missionary is pulling into out of their parking space at
their apartment complexes. I had to file
two claims for one vehicle as it had damage that was not previously reported,
and unrelated to the accident they had.
I received documentation yesterday for an accident that happened on
Monday, so when I get to the office tomorrow, that will be my first task for
the day. If I could just have the
missionaries space out their accidents, it would certainly help my workload!
Tomorrow
is transfer day! I love to feel the
energy of the missionaries as they come together to meet their new companions,
and to say goodbye to their departing friends.
There is a bond between all the missionaries as they serve together,
united in one purpose in sharing the good news of the restored gospel of Jesus
Christ. On Tuesday, 8 missionaries will
be returning to their families, and 36 new missionaries will be arriving! It is fun to go to the airport to greet them,
and to load all their luggage into the mission trailer. They are wide-eyed, but happy to finally
begin their missionary labors after weeks of MTC training. This is the day they
have been waiting for, for many, since they were just old enough to go to primary. It’s finally here. The beginning of a new chapter of their
lives, and one that will change them forever. It will again be our privilege to
pack their parachutes.
PS: It actually rained last week! I didn't see it, but it rained enough to make my windshield dirty! I was told it had rained once before while we've been here, but I didn't see that deluge either!
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