Our life revolves around six week cycles. This lengthy entry lets you know what it is that we do to keep so busy. Each six week period, what we call a transfer period, varies a little bit, but these are the essential activities.
TRANSFER WEEK
Week 1 of 6 week cycle
SUNDAY
We attend church, perhaps speaking in a Stake conference or a Sacrament Meeting somewhere in the mission, hopefully close to home.
Pte Murri [pte]: reviewing and finalizing last minute companion changes
Sis Murri [sis]: last minute food preparations
This day, as every day, sis answers 2-5 phone calls about medical questions, injuries, or illnesses. Pte reads missionary letters and answers 10-15 calls from missionaries, parents, or stake presidents.
MONDAY
7:00 am or even before, pte is at the office starting call outs to missionaries who will be transferring to another location or receiving a new responsibility or a new companion.
Sis is home doing last minute cleaning and food preparation for the evening.
11:00 am Sis picks up pte at the office and they head for the Santa Barbara airport in the President’s car. The assistants to the president [AP’s] are driving the van, and perhaps also the truck. Sometimes there is a rental trailer to haul extra luggage or a member helping with another pick up truck.
12:00 noon All arrive at the Santa Barbara airport. Missionaries land a few minutes later. We greet and welcome them all. They walk around the corner and pick up their luggage. We head for the cars, truck, van in the parking lot, load up and head back to Ventura.
1:15 pm We all arrive at the mission office or the mission home. Our office staff, a senior couple and our fleet manager, a local church service missionary, greet them and provide pizza and cookies for lunch. Their individual photo is taken.
The missionaries are divided into two groups. One group is at the mission office filling out paper work and having an individual welcome interview with pte. The other group goes off with the AP’s and learns about street contacting in Ventura. After a few hours they trade places.
Sis is at the mission home and prepares food for dinner, puts out dishes, etc, and makes lunches for temple trip on Tuesday. She could also work on breakfast or run to the store depending on what else is going on.
6:00 - 6:30 pm Sis welcomes everyone to the mission home for dinner, all incoming missionaries, the AP’s, the senior office missionaries, and usually pte. We have a wonderful time. Everyone usually eats out on the back deck because the weather is so wonderful here, but sometimes it is too windy and cold for a pleasant meal.
7:00 pm or so we gather [or stuff] the new missionaries together in to our TV room and show them a DVD about car and driving safety. Meanwhile the veterans are finishing up dinner, cleaning up the leftovers and doing dishes.
7:30 pm We move all into the living room and begin the official orientation to the California Ventura Mission. We have a booklet of information that has been collated and spiral bound. We each take our turns going over our responsibilities. Topics include email, cell phone use, health and wellness guidelines and procedures, apartment care, emergency plan, auto care, mail and address information, spiritual preparation and mission study outline. We take group photos, and individual photos with each new missionary and pte and sis.
10:00 - 10:30 pm We send the missionaries off to bed or some may still need to have interviews with pte. Pte meets with the AP’s for their insights into the new missionaries. Sister missionaries are usually taken to spend the night with our local sister missionaries. Our senior missionaries head home.
Sis puts together the final touches for breakfast, setting out dishes and whatever else needs to be done.
Pte decides which missionaries will have which trainer and gets to bed around midnight or later depending on if there is any other trauma going on.
TUESDAY
5:00 am Alarm rings for pte and sis to get up. With a houseful of company we have to be dressed and ready to go fairly early.
Pte continues to ponder about trainers and prepares for meetings later in the morning.
Sis gets breakfast cooking and watches beautiful sunrise out kitchen window.
7:00 am AP’s and sisters arrive and then breakfast begins. We usually eat outside in the bright morning sun. We have baked breakfast casseroles, muffins, fresh fruit, and various juices and milk.
7:45 am Pte leaves for church to hold train the trainer meeting which begins at 8. The household help arrives. She will change all the missionary beds, launder the sheets and towels, take out the garbage, clean the bathrooms and the kitchen, and vacuum before we get back this evening. She is wonder woman!
8:00 am Pte begins training for the trainers who will be getting brand new missionaries in just a few hours. At the mission home, the AP’s and sis load missionaries and luggage into vans and truck, etc. and head for the church for transfer meeting. We unload all their luggage and set in on the sidewalk at the church.
Meanwhile other missionaries are arriving from all over the mission. Members from all over the mission have brought them in their vans and trucks. Some have traveled for 2.5 hours to get there. These members are wonderful!!! The parking lot is loaded with missionaries greeting one another and looking for their new companions. Members are sharing stories of travel adventures.
8:30 am Transfer Meeting at Ventura Stake Center. All the missionaries in the mission who will be receiving a new companion or are going to a new place are at the transfer meeting. They sit in the center section of the chapel, hopefully with their new companions. The new missionaries sit on the second or third row all together. All the sisters sit on the front row, except for training sisters. The members sit on the back and toward the right side (when looking down from the stand.) The trainers all sit on the left side. The missionaries heading home sit on the stand in the choir seats. The AP’s, pte and sis sit on the stand.
We pray, sing, recite. The new missionaries are introduced. The departing missionaries share a testimony. Sis may talk. Pte talks and introduces the trainers and new missionaries to each other one by one. They go sit on the left side. We sing and pray. Meeting is dismissed.
9:30am Missionaries are finding their rides home, loading luggage onto vehicles. New missionaries are wide eyed and excited or worried. Departing missionaries are saying good by to everyone and dragging their feet a little.
10:00 am We load their luggage into the truck and van and pte and sis drive them to the mission home. We unload and assign them their rooms.
10:30 am We hold a little disorientation meeting and then load up and head for the temple in Los Angeles. This is a daring adventure as it is outside of the boundaries of our mission. We do, however, have permission from our presiding authority to make these trips. Depending on the number of missionaries we may be in one van or the van and the car. They eat their lunches as we travel because they are all starved because they had no breakfast this morning. Lunches are fruit, crackers, cheese, granola bars, raisins, some candy, carrots, and water.
12:30 pm We attend a session at the Los Angeles Temple. We hope to make it to this session. If we don’t, the next session is at 1:30 pm. We have a wonderful time and stay as long as they want. We take a group photo with the temple as background.
We head home and stop to eat dinner once we get back into the mission.
7:00 pm Back at the mission home, pte holds individual exit interviews with the departing missionaries.
Missionaries pack and re-pack luggage, fill our garbage cans with assorted items, and weigh their luggage to see if they will have to pay for excess weight. They have a great time talking and sharing with one another. Some are excited and some are scared. Some are pleased with themselves, and some know they could have done better.
Sis prepares breakfast for the next morning.
10:30 pm target bedtime.
WEDNESDAY
This day varies a lot depending on flight schedules and where everyone is headed.
Our earliest departures are from Santa Barbara at 6:00am.. That means leaving the mission home at 4:00am. We haven’t had too many of them.
5:00 - 6:00 am Time to get up.
8:00 am Breakfast. We have a nice breakfast similar to yesterday’s. We try to delay breakfast as long as possible since they will have a long journey before they get home to eat again.
Sometimes pte is still doing exit interviews this morning.
Sometimes we run missionaries to the post office to mail some more things home.
10:00 am If we have missionaries departing from Los Angeles International Airport [LAX], usually our foreign missionaries, our senior missionaries come by the mission home around now and pack them up and haul them off to LAX.
11:00 am We load everyone else into the van or truck and head off to the Santa Barbara airport.
12:00 noon We help them get checked in, pay their extra bag fees, place their luggage for security check, and then show them where the security check point is. Once they pass through security there is no food to purchase, no water to drink, nor restrooms. Consequently, we don’t rush this. We take pictures, give farewell hugs, and hold back most tears.
12:55 pm Their plane takes off and pte and sis are alone at the airport or even perhaps on their way back to Ventura already. We like to stop and have lunch in Santa Barbara. A few moments of relative peace after all the hustle and bustle. Sometimes we can’t as there is some trauma to resolve, but usually we can and do. Sometimes we are even in two separate cars. There is a little place we like to go that is out of the fifties. I guess we feel at home there. We love the drive back home along the beach and enjoy the beauty of the ocean and beaches so much.
3:30 pm Usually back in Ventura. Pte heads to office to resolve whatever has come up there and to begin planning for Zone Leaders’ Council [ZLC]. Sis heads to mission home to start the sheet and towel changing and washing and kitchen clean up. She may also evaluate the food situation and finalize plans for the next meals on Friday and Saturday. Sis also downloads and prints photos of missionaries today and tomorrow.
We may or may not have dinner and try to get to bed on time.
THURSDAY
Not a minute by minute schedule today.
Pte meets with AP’s about ZLC and upcoming Zone Conferences. He also answers the phone and tries to call the new missionaries to see how they are doing.
Sis continues with washing, bed changing and preparing the home for more missionaries tonight. She plans a little snack for this evening and works on breakfast for tomorrow morning. She probably had to do a little shopping to restock some supplies.
We usually have left overs for our meals today.
9:00 pm Ten zone leaders from the outlying areas begin showing up to spend the night.
10:30 pm We all try to get to bed.
FRIDAY
5:00 am The alarm goes off to wake us up yet again.
7:00 am Ten more local zone leaders, the ten already here, and the two AP’s show up for breakfast. That is 24 including pte and sis. Again, we eat outside as much as possible and it sure is a nice way to accommodate so many people for a meal. We have two tables on the deck and one on the patio below it. We also have a large dining table inside. These hungry men really love their breakfast.
7:50 am Zone leaders and AP’s head off to Ventura Stake Center to have personal study before ZLC begins. Pte finalizes his preparation and then heads off to Stake Center around 8:50 am taking the paper products for dinner with him.
Sis does breakfast clean up and begins the sheet and towel laundry again. She also starts to work on the newsletter and may work on lunch for tomorrow.
9:00 am - 1:00pm Zone Leader’s Council.
1:00 pm Dinner at ZLC provided by two sisters in the Santa Paula Ward. The Elders have set up the tables and chairs. The sisters decorate them and provide a lovely meal for us. Sis shows up for this event. The meeting goes over and it is usually 1:20 pm before we actually get to eat.
2:00 pm Sis heads home to continue with laundry and food prep. Pte heads to office to meet with AP’s or to prepare in other ways for zone conference, and also for mission presidency meeting tomorrow.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
SATURDAY
6:30 am Up at "regular" time.
9:00 am to 12:00 noon Mission Presidency Meeting at the mission office. Pte attends this meeting with his two counselors. After awhile the AP’s join in the meeting.
Sis fixes food and may run some errands.
12:00 noon Sis shows up at mission office with empanadas for the presidency and AP’s and whoever else is in the office. There is usually a little salad of some kind and some dessert also. Both counselors served missions in Argentina so sis has an audience of fans for the empanadas. That makes it worth the trouble to make them after such a busy week.
Afternoon - Pte prepares for zone conference, perhaps speaking in church somewhere for the weekend, answers phone calls with missionary questions and concerns, reads missionary letters, thinks about newsletter articles, and calls new missionaries to see how they are doing.
Sis cleans up whatever messes are left, works on the newsletter, and prepares hand outs for zone conference. She also shops for morning and afternoon treats for zone conference as well as quiz rewards, etc.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed. END OF WEEK 1.
A TYPICAL ZONE CONFERENCE WEEK
Week 2 of 6
SUNDAY
May attend Church anywhere in the mission. May speak in Sacrament Meeting or Stake Conference.
Pte reads missionary letters, prepares for zone conference.
Sis fixes meals, may work on newsletter or other zone conference needs.
MONDAY
Pte meets with APs to finalize zone conference, makes assignments and types up agenda.
Sis finalizes newsletter, takes to office to be copied, also other items for hand outs at zone conference. Sis divides up materials for zone conferences by day and number of missionaries at each, sets in three separate stacks. Adds any missionary property that has been left somewhere or given to us to deliver to a new place. Sis loads car the night before except for cold drinks.
TUESDAY
5:00 am The alarm sounds.
6:00 am The AP’s show up and we finalize car loading and sis drives the AP’s and pte to Bakersfield, a 2 hour drive into the sun rise. The time of day and angle of road help this to not be so uncomfortable, it is usually beautiful in fact. Pte and AP’s do last minute preparations. Some of that is sleeping on the part of the AP’s. We also nibble a little breakfast.
8:15 am or so Arrive at Bakersfield Stake Center. Unpack treats and audio visual equipment if needed.
8:50 am Pte and sis greet all the missionaries.
9:00 am Zone conference Begins with about 60 missionaries.
3:30 Zone Conference ends. Pte and AP’s meet with various leaders. Pte talks with a few missionaries who have issues.
5:00 pm We head home. We find a decent place to have some dinner with the AP’s before we head out. Sis or pte drives everyone home again while others are on the phone, evaluating today’s events, or snoozing.
9:00 pm Usually are home by now. Sis prepares items for next day. Pte talks on the phone and does agenda for next conference.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
Week 2 of 6
SUNDAY
May attend Church anywhere in the mission. May speak in Sacrament Meeting or Stake Conference.
Pte reads missionary letters, prepares for zone conference.
Sis fixes meals, may work on newsletter or other zone conference needs.
MONDAY
Pte meets with APs to finalize zone conference, makes assignments and types up agenda.
Sis finalizes newsletter, takes to office to be copied, also other items for hand outs at zone conference. Sis divides up materials for zone conferences by day and number of missionaries at each, sets in three separate stacks. Adds any missionary property that has been left somewhere or given to us to deliver to a new place. Sis loads car the night before except for cold drinks.
TUESDAY
5:00 am The alarm sounds.
6:00 am The AP’s show up and we finalize car loading and sis drives the AP’s and pte to Bakersfield, a 2 hour drive into the sun rise. The time of day and angle of road help this to not be so uncomfortable, it is usually beautiful in fact. Pte and AP’s do last minute preparations. Some of that is sleeping on the part of the AP’s. We also nibble a little breakfast.
8:15 am or so Arrive at Bakersfield Stake Center. Unpack treats and audio visual equipment if needed.
8:50 am Pte and sis greet all the missionaries.
9:00 am Zone conference Begins with about 60 missionaries.
3:30 Zone Conference ends. Pte and AP’s meet with various leaders. Pte talks with a few missionaries who have issues.
5:00 pm We head home. We find a decent place to have some dinner with the AP’s before we head out. Sis or pte drives everyone home again while others are on the phone, evaluating today’s events, or snoozing.
9:00 pm Usually are home by now. Sis prepares items for next day. Pte talks on the phone and does agenda for next conference.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
WEDNESDAY
6:30 am Regular get up time.
Breakfast and load car.
8:00 am Pte and sis leave home and drive to Camarillo.
8:15 am or so Arrive at Camarillo Stake Center. Unpack treats and audio visual equipment if needed.
8:50 am Pte and sis greet all the missionaries.
9:00 am Zone conference Begins with about 70 missionaries.
3:30 Zone Conference ends. Pte and AP’s meet with various leaders. Pte talks with a few missionaries who have issues.
5:00 pm or so Pte and sis head home. Dinner. Prepare materials for next day and load car.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
THURSDAY
5:00 am The alarm goes off.
6:00-6:30 am AP’s arrive at mission home. Sis drives Pte and AP’s to Santa Maria for 2 hours or so. Sometimes we stop in Buellton for breakfast from Burger King. The drive is beautiful with a lot of ocean view and hills covered with vineyards and other crops. Sometimes it is very foggy. Traffic is not too bad.
8:15 am or so Arrive at Santa Maria Stake Center. Unpack treats and audio visual equipment if needed.
8:50 am Pte and sis greet all the missionaries.
9:00 am Zone conference Begins with about 46 missionaries.
3:30 Zone Conference ends. Pte and AP’s meet with various leaders. Pte talks with a few missionaries who have issues.
5:00 pm We leave Santa Maria after we have dinner or we find dinner somewhere on the way home.
8:00 pm We are home. Unpack and put away what we can.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
FRIDAY
No alarm today unless a phone rings but we are usually up by 6:30 am.
Pte works on issues that have arisen, signs checks, gets a hair cut, shines shoes, prepares talks for church and priesthood meetings, receives and makes phone calls.
Sis does laundry, ironing, bill paying, thank you notes, plans interview schedule around our speaking engagements or baptisms, or whatever.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
SATURDAY
No alarm today unless a phone rings but we are usually up by 6:30 am.
Final details on interviews or other upcoming events.
Attend baptisms when able.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
A TYPICAL INTERVIEW WEEK
Weeks 3,4,5 of 6
SUNDAY
Attend Church somewhere new or talk in a ward or Stake Conference.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
MONDAY
We don’t do many interviews today, but may do some early in the morning or in the afternoon.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
TUESDAY
We start at 10 with interviews. We may have to drive from 15 minutes to two and a half hours to get there. Sis usually does the driving especially if it is in day light so that pte can read missionary letters and talk on the phone. The interviews are held in chapels. Pte finds a room with a table and some chairs. Sis waits in the foyer or another room where there is heat or air conditioning depending on the season. Each missionary gets about 22.5 minutes. After about 3 companionships, pte takes a break and has lunch or we move to another chapel. Then he interviews for a few more hours till another break or move to another chapel. We end about 6 pm. Totally drained. We may stay in a motel if we are out of town and have more interviews to do there tomorrow, or we may head back home, or move on to a new town and stay in a motel there. Pte answers his voice mails and makes other call. Sis waits around in the chapels, talks to waiting missionaries, walks around, crochets, reads, may go shopping, or takes naps accidently or on purpose. She knows where all the rest rooms are and all the other rooms by now.
We find somewhere for dinner and head to the motel to collapse. Sometimes we find the hot tub. Others times we spend all our time on the phone or checking email. Pte reads letters.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
WEDNESDAY
Same as Tuesday.
THURSDAY
Same as Tuesday.
FRIDAY
Same as Tuesday.
SATURDAY
Partly the same as Tuesday depending on what is happening this transfer. We follow this schedule for three solid weeks unless we have an interruption like a mission tour by a general authority, a mission president’s seminar, surgery, or family visit for Christmas or whenever.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
A TYPICAL PREPARATION WEEK
Week 6 of 6
Week 6 of 6
SUNDAY
Attend Church somewhere new or talk in a ward or Stake Conference.
Pte reads letters.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
MONDAY
President analyses where missionaries need to be, thinks about how many Spanish Elders/Sisters are coming and going, how many Sisters are coming and going, what apartments we may not need, or where we need a new one, where we need members to help out with housing, who should have a car anymore, who should now have a car, etc. He also answers many phone calls from missionaries about housing, companions, doctrine, trips to the temple, activities, etc.
Sis starts putting together the menu and shopping list for the upcoming transfer. She figures out how many people we will have to eat when and what we should have, and what is needed to purchase, prints off the needed forms and begins to finalize the transition of missionaries. She does laundry.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
TUESDAY
Pte repeats yesterday because he had so many interruptions that he didn’t get it all done.
Sis thinks through and plans the transportation needs for the next week. She continues to work on food issues and verifies zone conference meals.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
WEDNESDAY
Transportation correlation meeting is held with all the office staff, the assistants, and pte and sis. We go over the plans sis made and fine tune them and figure out who will do what for sure and to make sure we have adequate transportation for our missionaries coming and going and all their luggage. In December of 2008, we had 18 new missionaries arrive. We had to rent a trailer to handle all the luggage, [72 pieces: 36 big ones and 36 carry-ons and back packs], We used the van, the truck, and three cars. It was more complicated than anything we had done so far. Planning it through helped it all to go like clock work.
Sis finalizes shopping lists and starts the shopping.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
THURSDAY
Pte sits in his office looking at the transfer board, deciding on trainers and other leaders. Missionaries call him to complain about their companions, their areas, whatever. Some call to beg to stay where they are.
Sis shops some more and starts with food preparation.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
FRIDAY
Pte sits in his office looking at the transfer board, deciding on trainers and other leaders. Missionaries call him to complain about their companions, their areas, whatever. Some call to beg to stay where they are.
Sis prepares the home and food for our guests.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
SATURDAY
Pte sits in his office looking at the transfer board, deciding on trainers and other leaders. He makes decisions and starts to decide on senior companions and other companionships. Things are shaping up well, depending on how many interruptions he has had and whether or not the office has been broken into or not. Missionaries call him to complain about their companions, their areas, whatever. Some call to beg to stay where they are.
Sis pretty much does food preparation all day. Perhaps some last minute shopping. She moves all her things out of her office and into her bedroom so the other room can be used as a bedroom by missionaries. She does laundry.
We prepare for speaking in church the next day. Pte puts gas in the car.
10:30 pm We hope to be in bed.
And then we do all over again... We love it!
