Pday #1 in the Office

Howdy there everybody. Here goes official letter #1 from the office. We'll see how it goes.....

Glad to hear that the fam reunion-ness went well. Crasy to think that youre all back into "real"-life again. Getting back into the school and work and whatnot. Sad to hear that some of "my" clubs broke, but yeah. Not like I really used them all that much anyways. haha. The corn bust... wow. I miss corn. haha. Mat and Ben? Who are they? Our neighbors I'm assuming? lol. Its funny to think that I don't really know the names of any of our neighbors. Once again, thanks for the package. I've been enjoying the stuff a lot. The skipping rope is holding up decently, and so thats been good. Not feeling so fat anymore. Not that thats going to last very long though, with all this awesome office food that I've been eating lately. But more on that in a bit. As for your questions on the facts dad - I'll have to do some investigating on that for ya. But what I do know is that the average missionary here (if there aren't special area circumstances), gets an alotment of 800,000 guarani. I can't remember how that translates over to dollars ** (embarassing, since that is now my job after all), but yeah. The prices are all different for things and whatnot, so its hard to translate over. But yeah. Así es. There are ABOUT 200 missionaries, but like I said, well get better stats in a second.
** ($200.00 ish cdn)

But yeah. I guess I'll just get ya'll caught up on life here. Monday was kinda weird. I knew that the special changes were coming up, and I knew that there was a good chance that something might happen to me. But I didn't actually get to know anything about them until Tuesday. So monday was super tranquilo. Didnt buy much stuff, because I wasnt' sure if I'd be there to enjoy it. Just kept it real. Organized my desk kind of needlessly. lol. Kinda waited all night long just for the phonecall that never came.


So that left Tuesday open for adventure. Around 6:45 we got a phonecall. From President. That kinda changed the days plans. lol. He mentioned the changes and said that they were in need of a new Secretario Financiero, and that after praying and meditating, that he had come to the conclusion that I was the man for the job. Kinda cool. He told me later that in the first interview that he had with me, that he was already thinking that one day in the future, that I'd probably be the financiero. Hopefully it was something about what I said or something he felt, and not just because I looked good and geeky or something. haha. And also, my comp (the one that's training me to do my job), said that he made a list of people that he thought would make good potential future financieros, and I happened to be on the top of his list. I guess thats what you get for trying to be helpful during your week in the office with a sick companion. haha. But for real, it was just kindof cool to hear that it was an inspired decision to have me here. Thats kindof how I felt too when I got the call. It didn't really freak me out as much as it should have, because although it meant a lot of change and responsibility, it felt like it was right, and was what the Lord wanted. And obviously the Lord is going to be here to help me out if he inspired his servant to call me here for the job.


But yeah. So that meant that Tuesday was kinda crasy. I spent all morning packing all of my stuff. Turns out that I got a LOT of junk. Somehow I found room for it all. Then after that, it left me the afternoon and evening to run a ful and try and say goodbye to everyone. Fortunately I got lucky and was able to visit almost everyone. Also luckily Elder McCain was good and helpful and was willing to run around with me. Even when he got all bummed out because the people said that they were sad that I was leaving, and one of the reasons being that my accent was easier to understand then the american accents. That made me a little happy because I've always wondered how my accent is. I don't think its the best,  but apparently its not tooooo bad. That made Elder McCain all grumpy though. Anyways, had some last second goodbyes, and then we took the 10:30 bus at night. Got in at around 4 oclock. Slept at the assistants house. Wednesday, started work as a full time office Elder. As always, sad to say goodbye. But so much more tranquilo knowing that I'll be able to go back in a year with pops. And with all this office experience, I'll now know the big secrets of living in Paraguay, and it'll be even easier for us to get around and have a fun holiday at the end.


Being an office Elder has got a lot of ups and downs. I've been trying to spend the most time possible thinking about the good things. My favorites being: I won't die this summer because I'll have AC (YES!!), as soon as my licence comes in, I'll be able to drive the "Randog"(a 15 passenger Toyota van that we use). Also, I'll have my own phone and computer. My comp will be somebody good and hardworking (he's the Presidents secretary), and there is a LOT of good food perks here (one thing I really missed about the city). Also, our house is good and nice, somebody cleans it for us a couple times a week, and we have our own washer and dryer (getting people to wash your clothes is SOOOO overrated). And we get to listen to EFY music almost ALL day. haha. (2011 is great BTW.) Obviously there are the down sides too, but Im trying not to focus on that kind of stuff. Some of those include: I will probably be here a good 7 or so months. I hear it gets kinda old. I thought I was getting fat before - now it'll no longer be a funny joke, as the majority of my time will be sitting at a desk, driving, or eating delicious food, and more of a reality. And also, I had thought that my first area was supposedly the hardest in the mission, but I now work in one thats even harder. Ugh. haha. But thats alright. We're going to work hard and have success. When President Arnold was here, he told the assistants to tell me that "office elders baptize", and I'm taking that to heart. Not letting the super prideful rich people get to me. lol. Hopefully we'll be able to work really hard and find some success.


But yeah. As an office Elder, we work from 10-4:30 in the office. The morning is studies like regular. After work, we head out into our area to work and do visits. The area is SUPER rich and "chuchi". The majority of the houses in the area is bigger than ours or Grandma and Grandpas houses. And although ours are kinda normal back there, here, thats BIG. There are a lot that are just giant castles that take up whole blocks. And so the people aren't typically very open, welcoming or humble. But like I said, that won't hold us back. Just have to work harder.


Not sure what I'm going to write about in the future weeks. There won't be tonnes to say I don't think. This week I got lots, but not really details about the days, more just about general stuff. We'll see how it goes.


There are 4 of us that work here in the office (right now 5 cuz I'm getting trained). Also, President and the Hna. work here a lot in the office too, as well as 2 assistants. My trainers name is Elder Cerpa (from Chile. Good guy. Speaks super good English). We also got Elder Thornton, Elder Pearson, and Elder Gustafson (who is our comp right now and will be my only comp when Elder Cerpa leaves). Elder Christen and Elder Cerda as assistants. Great group. I think I'll enjoy their company.


Anyways, I still don't know all my job yet. But generally I work with money all day long. I have a HUGE safe in the office and a buttload of money to deal with. Thankfully its not too big of a temptation for me, because there is a lot of room if you were corrupt and wanted to mess with the Lords money. I think I'd rather not be cast into outer darkness. It does mean that there is a lot of responsibility to not mess up. But everything gets double checked by pres and such and so hopefully things will be alright with that. lol. Its fun. I like it. Learning a lot every day. Anyways, we gotta go eat Elder Thornton and Elder Christens B-day lunch at TGIFridays. Gotta run. Love you lots. See ya bye. Have a good week!!!!


Elder Humphreys