Craziness

23 September 2005
"Another day over with. We survived the battle and it was sure insane. We got up super early this morning – well we got up as usual and then we came here to the office. Once we got here this morning, we started getting things ready for the elders that were going to be coming. I put all the books in order and got all the paperwork that I needed put together and then the troops started to pour in at about 7:30. By 8:00 we had the new missionaries here and they were super tired and ready to sleep. They sat down for a few minutes before eating the breakfast that we had bought them. After a quick bite they went back to studying and writing in their journals and doing all that fun stuff. I put some District Leader and Zone Leader Handbooks together before I started to talk with several of the elders and get to know them. They are really good guys, and they have a good spirit about them. Well, I ran around while everyone acted like they knew what would be happening. They started to meet with President at about 10 and they didn’t finish interviews until 1. Well, we then got our orientation started. That went really well, and orientation was really cool. We talked about the mission and we talked about all that is expected out of them. We also talked about where they are going to be serving and we had put together a presentation and put it up on the wall for them with the projector. Well, we got through orientation and then at the end we heard from all of the elders and sisters and their testimonies. That is always awesome to hear the testimonies of the new missionaries as they are always so strong and have such a wonderful spirit about them. We finished our orientation and then we went up to the newly finished apartment to eat a little bit. We had a really good meal, and I stuffed myself to death basically. I ate 3 Big Tasties from McDonalds and that was way good but I am still full from that. We also had Pringles and good salads from Sister Davidik as always. I enjoyed it a ton and I love to eat with them. We then sat and talked with the APs for a bit and some of the new missionaries. Then the craziness really started. All of the trainers got here at about 4:30 and they were all in the office. There were about 50 people in the office, and we could barely walk around. We were running everywhere trying to get people out of here, and get them to places that they needed to go. The reason there were so many is because President had asked that all of the new trainers come here to meet with their new guys. Of course the bus to Saratov was late and so that meant that people were standing around longer then they needed to, but we finally got things taken care of. We got everyone on their bus to Saratov and they were on a really nice bus – it was nothing like what I rode on when we went to Izhevsk. It was super nice and it was just for us. Well, the elders took off, and then we just started to relax a bit. That was good because I had run all over the place and was going crazy. In fact, it was a little better today they usual when missionaries come in, but yeah it was a lot of fun, and I had to play a big role so of course that always feels good. We have been working on getting some little odds and ends worked out now, and we have been doing the little things that we couldn’t earlier. Well, we are now working hard to get the last elders off to their cities and then we are going to go home and sleep awesome. What an awesome day in the office and tomorrow will be even better to be able to relax finally. Wow, life is sure crazy. I can’t believe it!"