This past week we had the pleasure of having Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong (General Authority Seventy and President of the North America Central area) conduct a tour of our mission. Elder Wong and his wife are originally from Hong Kong. Initially he seemed like he would be very serious and stern, but his interactions with the missionaries were on such a level that he showed he really had a sense of humor and the missionaries really enjoyed him. I, (Eileen) went to each of three zone conferences on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, Russell was not able to attend as he was working on the missionaries’ cars.
Elder Wong asked the missionaries what they wanted to get out of the zone conference and his wife wrote them down on a white board. I felt like the missionaries’ answers were excellent. Later in the conference Elder Wong returned to the answers which were still on the board and discussed how many of them were ways to help ourselves rather than those we interact with. He focused the conference on how we can best help our “friends” (aka investigators) both in the way we teach and also in utilizing help from the members. At one point he asked how many of the missionaries had ever played spike ball. Most had played the game. Then he asked who had not played the game. The senior missionaries, visiting stake presidents and stake RS presidents, had not even heard of the game. He had one of the young elders explain the game, then asked four people to play it based on the instruction the young elder gave. It was obvious there were some gaps in the teaching. Elder Wong likened this example to teaching the gospel. Sometimes we make assumptions as we tell others about our beliefs, that there is an understanding of what we are talking about. I believe this was an object lesson that will stick with the missionaries for many years to come.
After zone conference we went to a hair salon so Russell could get his hair cut. I heard one of the hairdressers there telling a client that she gets annoyed when her kids call her at work. She said, “I tell them not to bother me unless either they are dead or someone else in the family has died.” About 10 minutes later I heard hysterical sobbing at the back of the salon. Apparently this hairdresser had just received news that her 18 year old son just died. I didn’t know if it would be appropriate to go and try to comfort her. It has weighed heavy on my mind since yesterday, hoping that she can find peace in this time of grief and wishing that I had been able to be a source of comfort to her.
During the past couple days, Eileen and I (Russell) have started taking the missionaries’ calls. Our predecessors, Elder and Sister Hegvik, told us that we would get calls 24/7, which I thought was a stretch. They were right. I’ve had calls as early as 7:00 am and as late as 9:00 pm, Eileen’s go even later. Thankfully for me, the young missionaries should not be driving during the night. One call I got early yesterday was from a couple of elders who said their car was accelerating on its own and that they had to keep braking to slow it down. I asked if they were driving in the car now, to which they said yes. I asked if the cruise control might have been inadvertently turned on. They said no, they had checked that already. As we contemplated what else might be causing the problem, I heard the other elder say, “Hey, I think I may see what the problem is!”They had washed the car the day before and reinstalled the floor mats after cleaning. The floormat on the driver’s side was over the accelerator.
Every six weeks we have zone conferences that are conducted in three locations on subsequent days. During those conferences, I and a few missionaries from zones not attending that day, inspect and service their cars. We refill fluids (oil, antifreeze/coolant, and wiper fluid), note any problems with dings or windshields, and then do a cleanliness inspection.Tire wear is rarely a problem since almost all of the cars are less than a year old; flats, on the other hand, are common.
The one thing that the young elders are not allowed to help with is installing or replacing the Tiwi (Orbcomm) devices. These devices monitor how the drivers of the vehicles are doing. Not only are there cameras both forward and into the car, but there is an annoying woman’s voice that tells you when you exceed the speed limit, have a hard stop or corner too fast. These offenses are then reported to me weekly. If there are too many infractions, the missionary may lose his or her driving privileges. When I was replacing one of the Tiwi devices, I forgot to unplug it (a big no-no for the young missionaries) prior to taking it off the windshield. The woman’s voice just kept yelling at me, “reckless driver, reckless driver!” Despite my lack of appreciation for the woman’s voice and her comments, the system can be quite useful. With it I can locate any mission car which has a device installed in it at any time of the day and also track its movements for the recent past.
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