July 17th

Today was a hectic day with lots of twists and turns.

We started out pretty normal with all the rituals being performed that we usually do before we go to the mission office.  However they went in a little different order.  Larry got up to go to the VA to get some prescriptions at 7:00 a.m. when he got there he noticed that it opened at 8:00 a.m.  So he waited.  Some other people came around 8:10 a.m. and he looked up and noticed that the sign said that on Fridays they didn't open until 9:00 a.m.  He decided that he would go another day when it opened at 8:00 a.m. and came home.  When he got home I was ready to go so we went to the mission office.

I answered all the emails and then there was an email answering mine that asked if we could switch IPads for missionaries that where just using the loaners when the were broken.  I happened to mention that the IPad that the Sister from Australia had was slightly cracked when she received it.  When I got the answer they said that it was okay to switch it.  This was in opposition to the things I had read online that said that even missionaries with loaners had to pay for their own repairs.  So I was confused about who to follow.  I called President and asked him what he wanted me to do and he said it was okay to ask the Support person that answered my email why he had given me an answer that conflicted with what I had read.  So I did.

A picture of Cieli sleeping that Holly posted on Facebook

Then about this time I got calls for two referrals one for a blessing that they needed soon and the other for an investigator that was moving and wanted some help moving in today when they got to Laredo.  Those were both things that needed to be dealt with immediately it seemed.  I had just hung up the phone and I got another phone call from the Referral Support telling me that they were sorry that they did not get me called on time for my appointment to be trained on the new referral system.  I had no appointment that I knew of so I asked if it was the one I had been trained on in December.  And the answer I got was it was 3.0.  I finally said what it 3.0.  And they said that it was the referral system that was used with IPads.  I realized that this was important also so I told them I was ready.  And I am glad I did.  The new system does not require so much typing and used Google Maps directly to find the area.  It seems like it will be better.  So after listening to the training system on that for about a half hour I went back and was able to finish up with the immediate referrals that I had received.

Then I turned to trying to learn how to start an IPad so that I could answer the questions that the missionaries call with.  Already I had had a missionary call the day before and he could not get the Area Plan Book App to sync with his companion.  The answer that I got from support the day before was to report it with a tab on the Ipad so I told him to do that and he did but he was already calling this morning reporting that it kept telling him that he did not have access to the link they gave him.
I asked him to send me the email and I read it but did not understand it and could not understand why they had sent it to him.  I thought how can they expect us to know all this computer talk!!

So I spent about an hour and a half trying to set up this IPad.  When it got to setting up email it would not work for me.  I asked the Assistants for help and they did not know how to get it to where it needed to be and I could not get it to let me go on and set up the next steps because I had to have the email set up for those. I called support and they did not have the answer and that they did not support email and they would send me a copy of what they had. So I became frustrated and finally decided I needed to set it aside for another day.

I worked on Referrals for a while and realized that it had reloaded every referral that I had trouble with on the other system and then I typed in all of the Baptisms that I had and submitted them.   I worked on clearing up all the sticky notes I had on my desk of things to do.  In doing this I found a return email from the person that had given me opposing information.  He said that all I read should be followed but because this Sister's IPad was cracked when she received it and it just grew bigger that we could exchange it for another.  If she had been the one that had cracked the screen than she would have had to pay for it.  I was excited and called Sister Ormsby and told her the good news.  I told them that we would be in the office until about 5:00 p.m. if she wanted to come and exchange it today but if she couldn't get there before 5:00 p.m. then she would have to wait until Monday.

Elder Jorgensen called me back about this time and again wanted to know what I had found out for him.  So I decided that I needed to call Support and have them look at the answer he received on my screen so I did that.  After they did that they told me that somehow he had received an automatic response to his email that was for a place he didn't need to go.  They said that they had a bug in some of the Area Book Planner apps that was preventing syncing and that they had sent the problems to the developers to get them to work it out and it wasn't working for a lot of other people so it wasn't what he was doing.  I called and told him that and told him to be patient until they get it worked out.

About 2:30 p.m. I finally came to the thing that I had felt like was the most important thing to do today:  Ordering supplies!!  So I worked on that for the next two hours.  It all went very well but I realized in going though the list I had that I was going to have to revamp the list because many of the DVD's that I ordered and the paper planning supplies are now obsolete with the IPads coming into the mission.  It has virtually cut my orders down by about half what the cost was before IPads.

Sister Ormby from Australia loves ice cream

I was just finishing up my order when Sister Ormsby and Sister Collier called and said they were coming to get her IPad exchanged.  That was when I realized that I needed to clear the IPads of all their stored stuff from the other missionaries.  I thought I can do that if I hurry.  Hah Hah!!  So I got the handout that told the missionaries how to clear their IPad before turning it back in and started to clear one.  Immediately I realized I had a problem because it asked for their passcode and I did not have any passcodes and if I did I didn't know who's IPad was who's.  So I called the Mobile Device Support.  They said, "no problem I can walk you through this"  But we need a computer that has ITunes on it.  I checked and my computer did not have ITunes on it so she showed me how to download it.  But it would take at least 15 minutes with our slow internet.  So she told me to call back when it downloaded.  In the meantime Sister Ormsby and Sister Collier show up.  I told them what I was doing and they said great we can wait.

Sister Collier, Sister Ormsby, Elder Presser, Sister Presser

The Itunes eventually downloaded despite our slow internet and so I called back.  They instructed me to plug the IPad cord into the computer and then attach it to the IPad when it was turned off while holding down the home button.  After 15 minutes of trying this and it not working I tried another IPad and it worked perfectly.  Then they showed me what I needed to do to get it to clear the IPad and we started it.  When I finally figured out where the button was that I could view the progress the download had stopped.  So we started it again and it said that with the speed of our internet it was going to take three hours to download.  We started to let it work hoping that it would change the time after adjustment but within a few minutes it had quit downloading again.  My theory was that our internet speed is just to slow for it.  Anyway by this time it was close to six and I was not going to try more because I had had it and we had to be at the temple at 8:00 p.m..  So I suggested that we take the missionaries to dinner because they said no one had signed up to feed them and then they would have to come back when I finished it.  So that is what we did.

We almost didn't make it to the temple because we took an hour and 15 minutes to eat but luckily the session before was behind and so we made it in.  It was a good night at the temple and I was alert and ready to learn.  I was disappointed that they showed the old film that they have shown for about 30 years but it teaches the same things that the new ones do so I don't know why other than I have seen that one for so many years.  There were a lot of hispanics in the session that used headphones.  They said that they were from the Huebner Creek Spanish ward. The only thing about 8:00 p.m. sessions is that we get home at about 10:30 p.m. but it was Woodlake ward temple night and so we were there.

So now you know why it was such a crazy weird day.  I am sorry I do not know what Larry did today except when he went to the temple and ate with me.  I could ask but I am too tired.