Life of an Office Elder

Ahhh I feel so rejuvenated after talking with my favorite seven people in the universe!!! Each one of you are so awesome, and I feel so blessed to be apart of an awesome and loving family. Time is flying by, and I am so grateful for the season that I have to labor in Romania as a missionary... I'm all in till it's over!!!

Mother has requested to know more about the day-to-day life here in the office, so I thought I would share a couple of tidbits from my life here.

To start, my bed is definitely the highlight (and the most dangerous) part of my morning... it's so dang comfy! Even though it's a top bunk (what I slept on my whole life), the two mattresses stacked on top of each other blow my one at home out of the water! I feel blessed to have the basic necessities taken care of here in Romania. 

Lucky Charms...how I missed you!

There are many times when we have to wake up before the sun rises, as missionaries arriving in the aeroport or train station need picked up and transported for various different reasons. I am not one for early mornings, but it is a blessing to have a car that allows us to do so much more than we could otherwise to help missionaries. We typically drive every where, but plan our days and the errands that we need to run according to the traffic hours... I have heard that Bucharest is in the top five worst cities in terms of traffic. On another note, my parallel parking skills have drastically improved- I can get our little Opel Corsa into any space (within reason)!

After a work-out, breakfast and personal study, we are out the door by 10 am on a day where we don't have any weird assignments. We often head to the office and begin our work. We make a list of all of the things that need to get done that day, or at least need to be get looked at. Things that we do include ensuring all missionaries are legal to stay in the country, preparing residency permit applications for missionaries coming in to the country, planning for zone conference travel, creating travel "doctrine" (itinerary of travel) for transfers, picking up mail, getting name-tags printed, organizing travel for any other event that might take place in the mission for missionaries (ei. we are currently working getting travel itineraries for all the missionaries for the Mission Tour in two weeks), doing odd jobs to make President and Sister Hettinger's lives a little easier (changing their tires), and doing all that we can to prepare for the big move of the mission office to Hungary on July 1st. So that is a good, yet surface-level description of some of my duties as an office elder in the Romania/Moldova mission. 

Keep up my ping pong skills every once and a while

I have really learned good problem-solving skills during the time I have been here as well. We have had some missionaries who have had pretty serious visa issues, and Elder Trottier and I are left to find a solution. It is kind of sad that we are the legal gurus here being that we don't really have any idea what we are doing half of the time... BUT the Lord has always blessed us with little miracles along the way, and we have learned so much as we have confronted random problems. 

A big source of all of our problems is the fact that Romania's legal processes are typically very unorganized and completely paper... it's like what I would imagine how America ran in like 1960. The government offices prove that by their crappy computers and use of carbonless copy paper for everything. You know if a paper has been endorsed or approved by a government entity or business by the stamp used... they really like using stamps!!! These little quirks of Romania have caused some problems, but we usually work with really great people, and many people are eager to help us. 

A scripture came to mind that kind of sums up what I have learned from this new adventure:

Doctrine and Covenants 107

99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen.

Somebody told me once that whether I am buying plane tickets, or in a nursing home, my purpose is the same- to help other's come closer to Christ. I pitied myself for not having as much time to do "normal" missionary stuff for quite a while, but the reality is that the Lord and President Hettinger have entrusted me with another duty, and I must learn how to act accordingly, and learn how to be effective in every second, that I might be "counted worthy to stand." 

This has been no excuse for going and contacting, visiting members, or teaching our investigators- we always make time to do these things as that is what our main purpose is- to help build the Lord's church in Romania! I truly feel that God has given me the energy and abilities to fulfill all that my mission has entailed. I love being a missionary!

A fun Mother's Day Tribute https://youtu.be/hShlOAtws_A

Here's to a great week,

Elder Ditto

This is what my hand looked like a week ago.  It already looks SO much better now.  I have dyshidrotic eczema on my hands - I get blisters all over my hands and then they itch, crack, flake, repeat.  

P.S. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for my hand to get better. For about a year and a half by hand has had skin issues, and in the past four months, has gotten worse. I finally got in to the doctor two weeks ago and since then my hand has made a 180 and feels like new!!! I know that it is through your prayers and modern medicine that my hand got better at the time it did. Miracles!