Paula, besides being the mission historian, is now also the reference secretary. It has kept her quite busy and not a lot of time to get in trouble or go shopping. Some days she will get as many as 15 referrals. When she receives a referral she also has to determine where it goes and then contact the area that is is going to. She is also responsible for follow-up. It is good that she has always been a power-house when it comes to talking on the phone! She has seen some success and the missionaires absolutely love working with her. I always get asked, "are you the other half of Sister Rose? We love her!" No surprises here!!
It seems like my work hasn´t changed much. As long as I have a phone and my laptop I can do most of the executive and administrative work. I can work from home, from the office, or from the beach.
We have continued to see and be a part of a lot of baptisms. I have not spent the time like I did at the beginning of our mission telling the miraculous things that aways seem to happen. It is sad if it becomes common-place and we need to recognize the Lord´s hand in so many things that go on around us every day. When I find the picture of Joaquim I will need to add it here. Joaquim was our first-person-to-contact here when we arrived in Santarém. It took about a month to finally get to meet him and Anita. And it took another 8 months before he got baptized. When we first heard about him and then met him we were surprised to learn that he was active. He attended all of the meetings. He came to baptisms. He paid his tithes and offerings, even as a non-member. When he finally made the commitment to baptism he was definitely knowledgeable about the gospel and had a firm testimony and was ready to complete his repentance process and officially join the kingdom of God here upon the earth. He and Anita were fun to teach. The final straw was his decision that the time was now to repent and be baptized. He wanted to be certain he was going to keep the covenants he was making at baptism.
And we love our local Santarém missionaries. Elder Checketts, Elder Dastrup, Sister Ornano and Sister Caldwell. This transfer we moved out Elder Dastrup and Sister Caldwell. More coming!
Normally we toast with Root Beer that we buy at the American Store. This time it had to be ice cream bars. Oh, the sacrífices we make!
