Hold your horses!

Sunday morning we had a video conference with 32+ connections to homes all over the Bosnia District, in order to hold a Sacrament meeting without meeting at the churches.  It was a wee bit cumbersome, but it worked.  Singing a song was a disaster because so many people's microphones were active.  We were getting their voices in addition to their speakers playing other people's voices and their own voices.  The meeting was held in two languages so that everybody could understand reasonably well, but of course that meant we spent a lot of time waiting.  But there was a spiritual message and tone.  Now everybody is more or less free to hold their own Sacrament service at home.
  We also planned to hold a similar meeting with our own children and grandchildren.  We had planned to hold it later in the afternoon so everybody in California could be up and about.
  I was working on the program for the family meeting as I started contemplating on the news we had received during the morning Sacrament video call that Brother and Sister Christenson are leaving to go home on Tuesday.  They had planned to stay until their children begged them to come home.
  As I contemplated what that meant for everybody I got thinking about what an impact their daprture would mean for President and Sister Melonakos.   Sister has been doing all the finances for the mission, while Brother C. does the cars, housing, and technology, as well as run various and sundry errands for the President.  The mission can't run without somebody filling those two roles.
  So Liz and I talked it over and called Sister M. to tell her we would be willing to come over and try to get a handle on those things until somebody arrived to take over.  We thought we could just go for a while, and if it came to a longer stint we could bring the files and things home and do it from Osijek.
  Well, Sister M. was ecstatic and said, "Yes!  Please come over right now.  You can stay with us in the Mission Home, and if the new senior couple can't come, you can have the Christenson's apartment."
  We dumped some clothes in our bags and headed for Zagreb in less than half an hour.  Of course that affected the family conference, so we had to enlist Mark's help to schedule that for later when we'd be in Zagreb.  We drove into the setting sun and arrived at the Mission Home just in time for our video conference.  The meeting went much smoother with only 4 connections and we had a lovely We worked in the office all day with a break for lunch where we went to the Birkenstock store.  I got a pair of fashionable boots (combat boots are all the rage here), and Liz got some cute shoes too.
  Liz is working hard to do the finances and not get behind for the new couple who are apparently still coming.  We are waiting on the final word, but we think they are probably here.
  We had a discussion this after noon with Sister Melonakos about the logistics of receiving anew couple in today's environment.  Formerly, they escorted newbies to the office for some administrivia, and then fed them a big dinner before putting them in the Mission Home.  Liz, I, and the final remaining office sister all agreed the best plan today would be to let them go to the C. apartment and settle in, shower, put on clean clothes, and get some rest.    Tomorrow, they will be semi-rested but jet-lagged.  Thursday we will train them and let them run.  Then we can go home on Friday.
  And that's the news for now.