One crazy week…
Well, first I know it’s not normal for me to be writing this on a Saturday… P-Days are supposed to be Mondays, like they have been for the last 21 months! But it seems that a lot of things are going to change from here on out, starting with a few things:
1. I’M EXTENDING MY MISSION!
Ever since I really started to know and like the mission, I’ve always considered extending because, as I’ve mentioned many times, I love being here and doing what I do! The last cambio (ever since May) I’d been thinking a lot more seriously about it because I’m getting close to the end. So I did some fasting and prayer and asked my mission president if I could, and when he told me it was still an option (I thought it was already way too late! I’m a procrastinator…) I took it! If I could do the mission for even longer I would be so happy, but I know I can’t do it forever… so I’m going to take advantage of however much time I can! I didn’t really know what my presidente had in mind for me until Monday, when he told me what my cambio was… And here’s the next big change:
2. I’m the new secretario personal!
Yeah, I know, that’s not really all that interesting or cool. I’m going to be working in the mission offices to organize everything that has to do with visas and other important things to make sure that the government doesn’t kick all of the missionaries out of the country, and it’s an incredible amount of work! That’s actually why I’m taking P-Day on a Saturday — the rest of the week has been so busy after all the cambios that we haven’t had time to take P-Day (Well, they — my companions and the president’s assistants — didn’t have time. I did, so I get two P-Days this week!).
But seriously, it’s a lot of work being here in the offices! The idea in the mission is that the office workers don’t do anything (Basically, we think they’re lazy because they aren’t always out finding and teaching investigators — most of the day we’re in the offices), but it’s completely false! I’ve especially seen this this past week, when there have been meetings every day and I’ve had to be trained by my companions at the same time. Some days we’ve worked from 10am until 6 or 7pm in the offices or running errands around Lima (Not even taking time to eat lunch!) before going to our area to find and teach people until 10:30pm. On the way back to the cuarto we usually stop by the offices to finish something else up, and we finish the day by planning with the assistants until 11:30 at night!
I really like how we work almost 100% in the mission (before, my companions and I would have from 10pm until 11:30 to do our own things, leaving us these few hours when we didn’t focus so much on the mission), but the work is very different. I’m going to miss being a normal missionary because it’s a little more public, but I suppose working in the background a little more is a good way to humble myself!
3. I’m in a trio!
As I’ve already mentioned a little, this Tuesday I was changed and left my old area and my companion (My “son”!) and moved to Independencia to work in the offices with the other two oficinistas, Elder Klein (who’s training me to replace him as secretario personal) and Elder Castrejon. It’s interesting to be in a trio again (I was in a trio for a few weeks when I was starting the mission), and it’ll be cool again, especially because I have a lot more experience!
I suppose that’s all the news for right now! From here on until the end of my mission it seems like I’ll be in the offices, and that probably means that I’ll be taking my P-Days on Wednesdays! I’ll write about the other interesting stuff that’s going on as I get more into this new job! ¡Hasta luego!
— Elder Schroeder