the secretary life

Say hello to the new executive secretary of the Mission Ciudad de mexico Oeste. Saturday morning I got a call that said "Elder Jones you're getting a new area! You're gonna work in Palmas!" and I was like "but the secretaries work in Palmas..." and he said "you'll be the new secretary to President Grossen! We need you right now to start training so pack up and come to the offices". That was pretty crazy. Normally new secretaries end their transfer two weeks early and go to the offices to start training, but I got two days. Basically I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's casual. 

I now live in a house that is the fanciest in the mission. We have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. My bathroom here is nicer than my bathroom in Texas. 

Right next to the offices (where I work) is a chapel. Two wards meet there, Palmas y Lomas. Palmas is a normal Spanish ward, just with lots of rich people, and Lomas is AN ENGLISH WARD. I WENT TO CHURCH IN ENGLISH ON SUNDAY. I almost didn't like it. It was really weird, but it was also kinda cool. 

I'm not sure what all to say...basically I'm brain dead from all the work I've had to do. I have a smart phone now, it's for all the work I have. I talk on the phone for much time of the day.

I'll give you all a description of my job real quick and brief, and then I have to go: 1.) I'm in charge of all of Presidents calendar and schedule all his meetings and everything he does 2.) I do almost everything for all the people who leave, meaning buy their plane tickets, organize their itineraries and "bye bye packets" and am kinda in charge of them the day before they leave. Also we take them to the airport at 3am, like this morning. I got two hours of sleep last night. Gotta love the offices #cubelife 3.) I deal with a bunch of number reports from the missionaries, so i filter and organize all the numbers they give and then print them out for President and the meetings he has with all the stakes here. 4.) I'm in charge of all the cellphones in the mission, if they break or are stolen, ordering new ones, and i also get to stalk all the missionaries and their cellphone records if president asks me. 5.) about a million other small things that are different around the mission that just add to the tediousness and 6.) the most important is that I'm in charge of every single persnos passport and visa. When they expire I have to renew them. I have to find visas for people who come to Mexico. I do all the paperwork, going to immigration like...three times, making sure nothing gets lost, it's all pretty stressful sometimes. That's my new job....

Final thing I want to share. Abraham 3:22-23...I love how it talks about the great and noble spirits. We can all be great and noble spirits if we live up to what we've been foreordained to do. I love how God says to Abraham "you've been chosen, you're one of those spirits". We've all chosen to come here. I think because of that we also are considered chosen. That's not something we should take to our heads and be super proud about, but it really feels like an honor for me, especially as a missionary called of God, to be able to do this. Let's all be chosen this year, and do what he asks. I love you guys so much! And miss you! Enjoy 2017, and make it a super awesome year. Hasta luego mis amigos, cuidense

Elder Jones