Just Another Day in the Mission

In my head, I write these wonderful posts about our days in the mission, but when I get home at night, I'm too exhausted to think! And, often too tired to eat. (Not always a bad thing!) Yesterday, we ate lunch after we came back to the apartment at 3:30.  I should say, David ate.  I flopped onto the couch and watched an episode of West Wing.  We bought Strong VPN Client, which, for a monthly fee, hooks us up to an American IP address so we can get Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Yesterday, we spent four and a half hours looking at apartments with two wonderful Zone Leaders, Elder Obray from Payson, Utah, and Elder Manares, from Ilo-Ilo, Philippines. It is so much fun to be around these excellent missionaries! We finally had to get two apartments, each for two elders, because we couldn't find larger.  We actually DID find two larger, very nice apartments, but both owners were flying under the law. The Church insists on paying the income taxes on the rent.  It's a good deal for owners because their rent is increased by the 5% tax rate. However, if they don't pay on their other apartments, having one paid for them puts them in a fix.  So, we can't rent those apartments. Having signed those two, we are still searching for at least four more apartments in the mission. Before June 6!! We send to SLC for the first rent check, and that takes at least a week, so we are really down to the wire. We're gaining a net 12 missionaries at the transfer.

Today we inspected five apartments, three that we've never been to before so there was a little exploration included, handed out two new skillets and some pocket knives, fixed a toilet by installing a new flapper, checked out a new apartment which we are going to rent, and sent in the paperwork to begin the rental process.

This evening, we learned that as we were acquiring the apartment, the president was telling the elders not to go ahead with that apartment! So then, we started the un-do process!!

All in a day's work.  Tomorrow we get to visit Villa Escudero, a working coconut plantation and resort, with several senior missionaries.