Week 31...7 months!

It is hard to believe I have only been on my mission for seven months, but at the same time, everything feels new. I know the routine of work, most of the people, the building, and a good portion of the jargon (some of it has become so natural I forget and mom and dad have to ask for explanations)...And then someone e-mails me with a strange request and I wonder what on earth I'm doing in a business. Still don't know what a midpoint is...

I have also been called as one of two Sister Assistant leaders. Until this point we've never had Sister leaders, so I'm not exactly sure what this is going to look like. However, I did pray about it, and although I am very scared about pushing my body too far, I did feel like I should follow my desire to minister to the other sisters. I am praying for courage. I would be grateful for your prayers as well.

This week's activities included:

• E-mailing Area office managers throughout the world to set up phone calls with the Managing Director.
• Getting a phone call from New Zealand
• Being severely tempted by a job opening in Self-Reliance Services to teach in the Chuuk islands for a year. (Chuuk is a set of little itty-bitty but beautiful islands south-east of Guam). I googled it. =) Too bad I need to finish up school.
• Transferring employees
• Terminating employees
• Fussing with spreadsheets. I swear, we just keep making it more complicated. Green for this kind of request, blue for the other. Yellow for 'starting to take too long,' orange for 'you're really pushing it guys' and red for 'this is way late and someone is going to decide you don't really need more employees.'
• Assigning building access.
• Submitting paperwork for job changes.
• Lots of driving through snow. Fun fact, if it's sunny and clear at home, then as soon as I hit Parley's Summit, the weather will be snowy. If it's horribly icy at home, then the weather will be clear from the moment I hit Parley's Summit. That's the dividing line, without fail. If I want to know the driving conditions I have to check both sides of the mountain. On Thursday they even switched so it was clear when I left home and icy in Salt Lake, then when I came home it was sunny in Salt Lake and icy at home. What is this madness?
• Set up meetings.
• Ask (again) if our main software was down or if it was just me. Thankfully it was the software this time. It can process a ton of information, but it's really not user friendly. You know that scene in Finding Nemo where the fish shakes his fist and shouts, "Curse you, AquaScum!" ?Well, that's how I feel about this software. Just picture me using that exact same tone of voice (a.k.a. desperate) and shaking my fists as I cry "Curse you, PeopleSoft!" into the quiet of our office.
• I learned how to play Chinese checkers. One of the sisters brings the game board to lunch every day. I've been watching for a while, so I decided it was time to try it out. I did quite well for never having played before and it was really fun. The other sister dominated the game though. It's pretty fun just to watch everyone trying to block her.
• Worked on an article that's due to be published in March.
• Played Joseph in Egypt with the cat....Merlin pounced on me while I was putting my contacts in. Since I was temporarily blind as well as allergic to the cat, I had to leave my coat (bathrobe) behind in the cat's claws and find mom to remove said furry creature. Thankfully, the cat can't speak to defend himself or I might have been the one tossed out in the cold. =) At least it wasn't my fault that time... A few weeks ago I was teasing the cat through the crack in the door with the strings on my sweatpants. I won't make that mistake again. He wouldn't let go and I couldn't get around the door since I was attached to him by my own pants. I had to shout for someone to come and rescue me. That was just a tad embarrassing. Just a tad.
• I Finally sorted out the education reimbursement for the guy who pretty much vomited all his school records into my inbox. Seriously man, couldn't you at least sort out the relevant information for me?
• Try not to feel bad for pestering my managers with questions. As Andrew says, they like when I ask questions, because if I go all day without questions then they know I'm just making things up. Which is actually a pretty accurate description of how I function. At work and in life. Alan said that it made them feel good because otherwise they would feel unnecessary. Ha. Just HA.

The weather finally has cleared up for a moment and I was able to see the mountains "for the first time in forever." They were so beautiful, reflecting the golden sunrise. It reminded me why I love living here. Even when it is cold.

That's about it for this week. 

-Sister Ward

P.S. I love you.

Week 30

This week I've mostly just focused on staying on top of my work and making it to physical therapy.

Things I did during my mission assignment:

• Lead a discussion on the talk "The Love of God" by President Uchtdorf. This is a must read. Studying this talk has really strengthened my testimony of Heavenly Father's love for us and the love that I want to have for others.
• Attempted to sort through all sorts of ridiculous charges on someone's tuition receipts.
• Asked lots of questions.
• Tracked down mystery employees and then terminated their records when they proved to no longer exist.
• Restocked the NOB workrooms with just about everything (hand sanitizer, 5 different kinds of pens, 2 kinds of pencil, notepads (2 colors), highlighters (assorted colors), sticky notes (If they want fancy colors they can go find their own), tape, paper clips, binder clips and elastics. The only thing they don't seem to run out of regularly are staples and folders. At least I didn't have to order more tissues. Seriously, how can they go through so many tissues?
• Tried again to convince managers that they have to submit a Workfront request to have an employee terminated instead of forwarding me an old e-mail. We have a process for a reason... so I don't have to e-mail you five times to get all the information I need and then forward it all to five different people.
• Attend a meeting to discuss how we get new employees set up with everything. Apparently we all thought someone else was doing it when the managers were having to call all the departments individually. Whoops.
• Added up the years of work for temporary employees. Temps or Contingents can only work for two years and then they have to quit for 6 months. (Otherwise the Divison of Labor comes down hard on us for not providing the same benefits we would a full-time employee.) But certain managers (cough, cough) keep trying to move their employees around so that it looks like they haven't been here two years. Which 1) does not work, 2)means that we can't help them or the employees much when the suddenly all their temps have to leave, and 3) makes my job a lot harder.
• Worked on an article.
• Attempted to sort through hiring rubrics that declined to provide either a) the number of the empty position or b) the name of the person who once had the job. Oh I'm sorry, you wanted a new language designer because someone is retiring? I'll just guess out of your fifty employees which job it is... (In case you were wondering, the phrases "That's so helpful," while dripping with sarcasm; "why would you do that?" "what were they thinking?" and "No." are very popular in our little portion of HR. Even if we don't say it to anyone else).
• Make emergency phone calls because someone's phone was not set up on time, and oh the horror! Turns out the guy has a cell-phone anyway and totally could have done without a desk-phone for a while. Why do I always get the weird assignments?

I did get two great quotes out of lunch this week.

1) When I asked an elder about his blood-sugar-tester-device another Elder exclaimed suspiciously, "It's a vampire in a box!"

2) In answer to a question, Sister Gowans explained, in the most perfect terms I've ever heard, that "

Roots Tech is like ComicCon for Family History nerds." All they need to do now is come dressed up as their favorite ancestor...

Week 29...I think

I'm beginning to lose count of how many weeks I've been on my mission. Let's just go with 6 months and some change. I hadn't meant to go this long without writing on my blog, but I've been sick, and writing takes more brain power than reading. My tension headaches have come back, and my immune system has taken a hit, but I'm beginning to do better and I got to Salt Lake twice this week.

I did pick up a writing assignment for a writer that quit, and I managed to get that done before I got too sick. You can read it by following this link here: Choosing Mindfulness

I'm also teaching the CTR 5 class now. I miss my sweet eight-year-olds, but I'm sure this new class will be fun too. I'm still learning how to teach them, but I'm sure it will get easier as I get to know them better.

Lately, my missionary assignments have included:

• Creating instructions (with screenshots) to teach directors how to add items to the agenda in a meeting software called DecisionPoint. 
• Create a powerpoint template for managers and directors to fill out when they want a new employee. In case you're wondering, they use your tithing very well. Managers have to give a lot of proof that there is absolutely no other way to accomplish the work without another employee.
• I submitted lots and lots of educational reimbursements. My teenage self used to complain that I would never use the math I used in class. I was right. I add up the tuition and times by 75%. And I get a calculator. Take that, math tests!
• Fixed reporting lines
• Tried to explain to Church Security that we did not want to create HR accounts for over 500 volunteer interpreters... 
• Arranged for desk space and a phone for a visiting employee from Europe.
• Writing short articles.

I did learn the names of some interesting languages while discussing interpreter badges. I had to look up where some (read "most") of them were from. The world is so much bigger than I ever could have imagined. It makes me realize how much there is to learn and see in this life. The list included interpreters for:

Amheric (spoken in Ethiopia), Apache, Arabic, ASL, Armenian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cambodian, Cantonese, Cebuano, Chuukese (from the Chuuk islands in Micronesia), Croatian, Efik (southeastern Nigerian ethnic group), Farsi, Fijian, French, German, Hatian, Hiligaynon (central Philippines), Hindi, Hmong (So. China, Northern SE Asia), Igbo (Nigerian ethnic group), Ilokano (Filipino language), Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kosraean (Kosrae Island in Micronesia), Laotian, Lingala (Bantu language in Congo and DCR), Malay, Mandarin, Marshallese (Marshall Islands in Micronesia), Mongolian, Navajo, Palauan (Micronesian language in Guam, Mariana Islands, and Palau), Papiamento (One of my old Spanish teachers is a translator for them. Used in the So. Caribbean, it's a mix of Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese), Pohnpeian (Caroline Islands in Micronesia), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Sinhala (people from No. India and Sri Lanka), Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Tahitian, Tamil (a people in So. India and Sri Lanka), Telugu (India), Thai, Tongan, Turkish, Twi (Akan language in Ghana and Ivory Coast), Urdu (variation of Hindi) Vietnamese, Yapese (Yap Island in Micronesia), Yoruba (an ethnic group living in Nigeria and nearby countries). 

It's a crazy, beautiful world out there.