MIssion Office Chapter 2 Aug 21, 2009

Well things have settled down back to normal here. well at least as normal as things can get. We are working away in the office. Although the flooding has been really devastating to a lot of people here, it has been a great opportunity for everyone to work together and serve each other. i think it has been a tragic typhoon, but it has also been an uplifting experience to see people performing selfless service. many of the missionaries were down there cleaning up mud and debris that had been washed into peoples homes. i was moved to Taichung the day that they organized the service groups. Oh well, my work here in the office is important too.

If I had one complaint about being in the office, it would be that you miss out on all the action. Being in the office in Taichung is about the same as being in the office in Kaohsiung, of course there is a different mission president i report to, but for the most part it is the same. my duties here are quite a bit different though. I work on apartments and getting contracts setup with land lords. because missionaries move so often there has to be someone that organizes all the apartment stuff. I prepare all the stuff for new missionaries and missionaries going home. I am currently working on our english class website for all of Taiwan, it will be a website that Taiwanese people can go to to check locations and times for our english classes. Usually by 6pm we are out the door doing normal missionary stuff for 3 hours. My companion is a native, but we both are so busy that we hardly ever talk. Elder Li my companion is in charge of recording all the baptisms in the mission. That is what i used to do!

I still can't believe that I am back in the office. There are 186 missionaries in our mission and I have been in here twice!!! If I didn't know that they needed me here I would feel like it was some sort of punishment. hahaha...

President Hoer is great! he is a fast pace guy, I like it! We get along really well and so far it has been a great experience working with him. He used to be a business man in China before so I have a lot to learn from him.

I wish I could explain everything that I do, but it is hard. I am whats called the Mission Operations Manager, basically anytime there is anything that happens in the, whether its the Mayor of Taichung coming to visit us or a missionaries toilet gets broken, I get to deal with it. I was looking at my phone records for the past 2 weeks and it looks like I will average about 800 outgoing calls and about 1000 incoming calls in a month. Thats a lot of phone calls!!! So that is what I do.

There are 4 Elders in the Office. Elder Li, Elder Yang, Elder Alexander and I. Elder Yang and Elder Alexander are Assistants, they are hardly ever here though. Within 6 weeks they visit about a third of the missionaries in the mission. So that is about 60 missionaries, it takes them a long time, about 30 days to go and drive to every place and spend a full day with all the missionaries. It sounds like a lot of fun, but I am glad that I don't have to do that, I like sleeping in my own bed.

There are also a senoir couple that works in the office. Elder and Sister Douse, they are great. I work right next to Elder Douse.

We unfortunately do not get fed here. We have to fend for ourselves, but its okay because Taiwan has soooo many great places to eat.

President and Sister Hoer are great, we are their inside Assistants. We help them do things to help the mission. Most of it is just managerial stuff and organization nonsense. I am sure you are all a little shocked to hear that i have to be organized. Crazy huh?

My favorite thing about being in the office is the Air Conditioning hahaha... Really!! Apart from loving the AC I really doing things that help the other missionaries better do the work.

Of course the toughest thing about being here is not being able to be a normal missionary. Also it is tough not sleeping as much. We are often out past midnight doing running errands. Like last week, a land lord called and told us that we needed to move our stuff out in 24 hours, he originally told us we had 1 week. So we took the mission vans and were packing stuff until about 2 in the morning. Oh ya, we still have to get up at 6:30, so that other missionaries don't misunderstand and think we are being lazy.

Thank goodness though, when we do get to sleep our apartment is right about the office. It makes it very convenient for 2 reasons. Its easy to get home :), and 2nd if anyone ever tried to break in we would here them for sure.

Although I hate to admit it, i think i will probably be here until i come home. i am hoping that that is not so, but we will see.

Taichung city is great! It is really big and I am still a little lost, since we don't spend all day outside wandering around I still don't know the roads that great. I know how to get to different cities because we visit other areas quite often, but as far as downtown I still don't quite get it. i haven't even been here for 2 weeks though, i am sure i will figure it out.

Well i kinda rambled a lot. i better go. love yall

Elder Craig Anderson