Transferred to the Mission Office-Big Changes!

As you know from the last post, we did not hear from Ben on his regular P-Day and the following day, we got an email saying that Ben had been transferred to the Mission Office to serve as an assistant to the Financial Secretary and that he would email us on Saturday. Needless to say, Saturday came and went and we got another email saying that the elders in the office had to switch their P-Day from Saturday to Monday due to the transfers that occurred. We emailed Ben all kinds of questions about what happened and he has answered some of them below. Hopefully we will find out more in his next letter.

Hey family, 

Sorry it took so long for me to write to you guys. Here is what has happened since the last email.

Last Saturday night (the 19th of April) at 10 pm, I got a call from the Assistants to the President of the Mission. They called me and told me that I had been chosen as one of the new financial secretaries and that I needed to pack my things as soon as possible. They wanted me to arrive Sunday night to receive some training and to help a little with the normal "Transfers" that would be coming the following Wednesday. 

I packed that night because we had church the next day and I wanted to say goodbyes to a few people. I finished packing completely and was able to say goodbye the next day. Then, later Sunday, we got another call saying that my companion was also going to be leaving the area, to go to another area as a zone leader; that´s when things got complicated. Elder Aguilera had about 3 hours to pack everything while I prepared the area book and our records for the next missionaries that were going to come. 

This is who Ben is replacing:
Elder Oliveira
From São Paulo Brasil

After all that craziness, we finally left. It´s sort of fun to have a desk job where I go in at 10 till 9 some days. Haha! I arrived to the church where the mission offices are at about 8 that night. I was given a small introduction as to what I was going to be doing. 

We (the financiers) are in charge of managing: 

• Rent of all 88 apartments in the mission 
• Buying and preparing for apartments to be sold 
• Coordinating contracts with the landlords 
• Water bills, light bills & phone bills 
• Missionary Debit Cards/Monthly Allowance 
• Reimbursement of bus tickets used for proselyting activities 
• Managing the mission related finances of the President, his Spouse, and Senior Missionaries. 
• Paying for transportation related expenses during transfers and conferences 
• Catering/Buying Food for conferences 
• Paying other random things such as Airline baggage and the furnishing of houses 

This is a photo Elder Muñoz and I took for a presentation we gave to introduce ourselves. We thought it was pretty funny. We had to make an enormous purchase that day (we don't normally handle that much money at at time). Elder Muñoz is my companion. He is from Panama and has been a member for 3 years and serving a mission for 1 year and 2 months. He does not speak any English.

The goal is to leave the offices at 16:00 hrs. So far, because of transfers and other circumstances and conferences that are coming up, we have only been able to leave once on time. 

It's really fun! There is always something super crazy we need to do...always something pressing. I am really enjoying it. The missionaries in the offices are normally here for 4 changes so I should be here for a while (up to 6 months). 

It´s was so fun to hear so much news from back home. Congrats to Trent and Rob! They´ll do great. There are several YM in our Ward who have either gotten their mission calls or are submitting their papers. Rob leaves for his mission the beginning of May and Trent will be going in August or September. We currently have 9 missionaries serving from our ward with several more leaving before any come home. I think we will have at least 11 out by the end of the summer. The wall in the entry way with all of the plaques is quite impressive. I think they will be adding another row for the missionaries who will be leaving this summer. 

My Pdays from now on will be Saturdays, if nothing goes crazy again. I love you guys so much, I miss you but I´m super happy to be here doing what I´m doing. 

Love You!

Elder Taylor

This is Familia De Maria--we did not get any explanation from Ben, but I think this is the same family that has Mateo (8 or 9 years old) and Edgardo,the young man who just had a birthday from Ben's previous letter.

Natalia just recently started going back to church, she quit about 6 yrs ago or so, then she lost her sight because of her diabetes. The missionaries passed by one day and now she is one of the strongest members we had in Lomas. She relied on us a lot to help her get to the church and some activities but now she´s learning to use a cane to be able to get around more independently