May 8, 2016 Mother's Day!

My turn to write this week.  (If it wasn’t, my companion would probably invoke the Mother’s Day excuse, and I’d be writing anyway…)  This past week was a busy week at the office, and the time flew by!  Unfortunately, what made it busy for me was four accidents, plus the regular monthly reports that are due by the 5^th.  Thankfully, none of the accidents involved injuries! 

It was an especially bad week for one set of elders-- last week I noticed that their car went through a set of rear tires in under 5000 miles, so I had them take it in to find the root cause (turned out another accident last July had bent the rear axle causing horrible alignment).  That was the first thing. Then a day later, they drove too close to a double-parked car (a normal hazard in NYC) and tore off their passenger side rear view mirror.  Then, on the way to the body shop to get an estimate for the axle and mirror, a car pulled over from the adjacent lane and side-swiped them, causing extensive damage to the car.  They told me it’s enough to make them not want to drive, but they need their car to do the work further east on Long Island where they are.  Now I just need to figure out how to get them a car for the next two weeks, so they can get something done! 

On a different note, yesterday morning was our branch Mother’s Day breakfast. It was scheduled to start at 10:00AM, so Diane and I went at 9:00, so I could help with the cooking and prep.  It turned out to be an interesting comedy of errors and men cooking and cultural differences—the food was 30 minutes late due to traffic issues, then men got busy cooking the easy, quick foods, only to discover that the rice would take 50 minutes to cook , and the rice ended up getting started cooking at 10:10.  Meanwhile (as usually happens (maybe they know?)), the women started arriving at about 10:15 and were mostly there by 10:40, and ‘breakfast’ didn’t actually start until 11:30.  It started with hot chocolate (a special blend that one of the men had been working on for several hours), then proceeded with bagels, tacos, fruit, bread, orange juice, chicken, and a couple of pastry-type items (one with chicken/ham/pineapple filling, and one with cheese filling), followed by brownies.  I probably got the order wrong, but there was a lot of food! And it was all interspersed with little talks and a song by four missionaries, too.

I was embarrassed and frustrated by the apparent lack of organization, but then as I watched the sisters of all ages (including six investigators from 12 to 89 y/o) talking and enjoying each other’s company and getting to know each other, it came to me that my frustration was because I was thinking about myself, and I’d better get over it!  No one other than me seemed to mind that the meal started late and didn’t finish until 1:00 PM! And afterward everyone (as far as I could tell) stuck around and took pictures, and helped clean up.  I thought how in an Anglo ward, people (anyway me) seem to want to get in, eat, get out and get on with their day, with as little disruption as possible.  In comparison, it seems like we tend to value organization over the interpersonal relationships, and that’s probably one of the reasons why so many more converts come in the non-Caucasian wards and branches now.  It was an important learning for me!  (Although I must admit, I’d still like a happy medium.)  We are loving the work here, and I know that it is part of the Lord’s plan for us to grow and learn!  I wish everyone could do it!!