Week 54 - New Responsibilities

  Hello everyone. It's been a busy couple of weeks as we wrap up summer and prepare for another school year. I realized that I never added to the mission blog last week, my apologies. Generally, Elder Schaff will send his main email to me, especially anything that he types up specifically for the blog, but for this week, everything was sent to his Dad, and I am finally tracking it down to copy and paste. Sounds like he is doing well at the Mission Office and learning what is required of him in that role. He sent a few photos too. Here is his news-

  "Alright, so as the Secretary I am mainly in charge of all the organization involved with coordinating different events. My responsibilities include:

• Managing all the mail. (Sister Bradshaw, the Secretary before me and when I entered the mission, set up a pretty much perfect system, so this is easy.)
• Overseeing all the paper work and files for missionaries
• Ensuring the successful arrival and departure of the missionaries (which includes mailing the paperwork to their families, confirming flights, checking for up-to-date IDs, etc)
• Inputting all baptismal records
• Managing the Mission Calendar for President Mackay
• Planning events like Zone Conferences--President Mackay picks the day, location, and trainings and such, and I plan for the lunch and building reservations.
• Constantly Compiling an annual history for the mission
• Doing things the Mackays ask for--I ordered Pizza and Subs for Tuesday and Wednesday for the whole mission office for lunch since they were doing transfer boards. (Making the transfers)
• Coordinating Temple trips.

That's really the majority of it. The rest is miscellaneous tasks here and there, but I've actually gotten a sample of just about everything we do there in the Mission Office. I really like it and feel good about the work I do! Most of all the things Sister B. left me are super organized, so that's made things easy. I improved the computer organization though.

Also, if it was unclear, the Bradshaws left in July, and a new senior couple, the Ruschs, have been tending to these secretary positions. But they are training Elder Biggs and I, and will begin a proselyting area on Tuesday. We are excited for them and they are excited to exit the mission office. (Especially Sister R, because she doesn't like computers much, haha!)

Yeah, my companion and I are the only two in the mission with a Saturday Preparation day. It's different. President Mackay said we could split it between Monday and Saturday to do activities with our Zone if needed. Going off of the "be an agent unto yourself" concept. He trusts us. It's fun, I see President about everyday now. I'm actually friends with my Mission President!  It's nice to see him in environments other than Zone Conferences and Interviews.  I will be serving in this role until President decides to transfer me. I'll be notified and will have to start training a new missionary to do everything I've learned, whenever that happens. I honestly hope that doesn't happen for a while. I like the office, but I really love our area!

We work in an English Ward called Mountain View. The leaders there are on top of things, and there are a lot of strong members and youth. We have been working closely with them to bless all the ward members. They had Sister Missionaries before, but they were covering 4 wards, so the Mountain View Ward is just lighting up and accelerating the work as they've realized we are their personal missionaries. It's been great and full of blessed, spiritual experiences.

That answers your questions I think!

--Elder Schaff

PS- I am now in the Fresno North Zone. We are living with the assistants for now, but will move to the Gunderson's apartment on Wednesday. They are a senior couple working housing and finances, but they will return home in a week. They are awesome too!

We helped them move out this morning, which I attempted to capture in these pictures.