Here's a look at our--or rather--Marty's schedule. Mine works around his.
Monday: Office Devotional, where we get our heads together with the office missionares to coordinate work and calendars. The Assistants report on weekly key indicators from the missionaries.
Language lesson from Brisi, our 20-year old young woman tutor and friend.
Marty spends a good part of the day reading the emails from the missionaries and sending quick replies that they won't receive until the next Monday's P Day.
Monday afternoon I teach six piano lessons. The church has a keyboard program of loaning a five-octave electronic keyboard (from the U.S.) to piano students. They can keep the keyboard as long as they are taking lessons and showing progress through their practice. When the student becomes proficient enough to play for meetings, we can apply for a grant of a new permanent keyboard for him/her.
At 9:00 Marty starts making congratulatory calls to missionaries who've had a great week.
Tuesday-Thursday (for three of the weeks of the six-week cycle): Marty goes to interviews. Four of the districts are in Tirana, so this only takes half a day, but the outside districts in Shkodër, Fier/Lushnjë and Vlorë take up most of the day. I often go with Marty to interviews to chat with the elder/sister who is waiting. I always send cookies for the missionaries, meaning I am in constant need of infusions of brown sugar and chocolate chips from the states.
Friday: District Mtg. with one of the districts (four to six missionaries), and sometimes we treat them to lunch.
Saturday: P Day. Sometimes we get to relax, sometimes we don't. There are often meetings on Saturday.
Sunday: We visit a different branch each Sunday. We speak on the fourth Sunday. If it's a small branch, we always speak so the missionaries get a break. We both speak at Zone Conferences.
Tuesday-Thursday (the other three weeks) is lots of meetings: with members; with investigators; to decide on transfers; big transfers four times a year with arriving and departing missionaries; Mission Council to plan for Zone Conference and training (I provide lunch for 14 that day); Meetings with folks from Germany or Austria about finding land for buildings, the Church Education System, Public Relations, etc.; meetings with visiting authorities; Zone Conferences (two); visits with inactive Melchizedek Priesthood holders; and many more meetings that come up unexpectedly.
I attend some of these meetings. I do a lot of cooking, baking (cookies in the oven as I write), and laundry, although my laundry time has been greatly reduced since we purchased a new Bosch 8 kilogram washer and dryer. As a matter of fact, it's been life-changing! The laundries here don't do shirts, so I have to iron a lot, also. But I did buy a steam generating iron which helps. (If I have to iron and do laundry, I believe in having the best tools.) If Marty is around, he'll iron his own shirts. I am grateful. The missionaries and couples have washing machines but no dryers, so they have to hang their clothes to dry-- usually inside their apts. A laudromat would seem to be a good business opportunity here, but I think most people are too poor for it. The missionaries sure would love it!
Marty takes me grocery shopping if there is a lull between meetings. I could shop at the various little stores and fruit/veg. tregs around the mission home, but I would be going back and forth constantly with little bags of this and that and with my bad shoulder it's hard to carry heavy things. So he drives me to a Conad or EuroMax Supermarket where I can get most things in one place, and some things that are unavailable in the small shops. I buy fresh produce at our corner or down on the Myslym Shyri street where I can get better quality and more variety. There's a little store across the street that we frequent as often as we can as Hasan the owner keeps an eye on our building, and often opens and closes the gate when we're departing in our car.
Once the shoulder is totally better I'm going to learn to drive here. Eeeeek!
Marty's cell phone gets a workout every day. Mine rings when a missionary is injured or sick. We have a service doctor in Frankfurt who answers questions I can't.
We may be tired sometimes, but there are moments of great joy and we're enjoying the work and grateful and happy to be of service. Our missionaries are diligent and hard working, and we love them.
Any questions?
