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| Helping the sisters! |
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Here’s a day in the life of Norm and Debbie, two senior missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Monday through Friday, we get up, pray, and walk. We love the pond by our apartment—the prettiest pond in Rockville. An even greater joy is the people we meet. Most are walking their dogs. Some of the dogs are beautiful, and most are friendly. We try to know by the Spirit which people might appreciate an invitation to go to the Washington D. C. Temple Open House. Most have seen the building from the outside and are excited to see the inside. As a result of these invitations, Julia, one of our neighbors toured the temple with us Thursday. We look forward to getting to know her better. (Her Welsh Corgi’s name is Cannoli.)
We eat breakfast, get ready, study scriptures, and join hundreds of vehicles headed to work further south in D.C. Part of our 15–20-minute drive is through gorgeous, tall, many-shades-of-green trees.
The office of the Washington DC North Mission is part of a church building on Falls Road (the Great Falls of the Potomac River are at the end of the road.) It’s in a residential area of Potomac. Come to see us here, and you’ll see Nissan Rogue and Chevy Equinox cars—missionary cars waiting to be assigned to missionaries—in the parking lot. You’ll go down a stairway at the back of the church and past a small marshy pond where a spotted turtle lives.
As you enter our office, you’ll be greeted by Sister Cindy Cole. My Dad once described a woman this way: “She has the disposition of warm apple pie.” That’s Sister Cole. Her husband, Elder Ed Cole, equally friendly and full of fun, is also in the front office. He teases the young missionaries, just a little. Sister Cole orders cleaning and household supplies, paper goods and office supplies, pizza for brand-new missionaries on their first day here, and lots of other things. She answers the phone, deals with delivery people, and helps her husband.
Elder Cole oversees housing for the missionaries—some 80-90 apartments scattered from Germantown in the north to the Chesapeake Bay in the south, and from the Potomac River west to Delaware. He negotiates leases, delivers furnishings, and hears stories about pests ranging from birds to cockroaches. Coles are from Grantsville, Utah.
Down a long hall, you’ll pass a conference room (where I use a computer) and come to the office shared by Sister Janette and Elder Evan Connell. The apple pie description also applies to Sister Connell. She brought us soup, bread and a shamrock on our first night in Rockville. She strives to know all 160 young missionaries in our mission and is unfailingly kind to them. She orders Church supplies—pamphlets, Books of Mormon, Bibles, the DC Temple cards we give on our walks, missionary nametags and hundreds of other things. When they arrive, she organizes them on carefully labeled shelves in the supply room at the end of the hall, until our vibrant young missionaries pick them up and get their mail.
Elder Connell, a retired dentist with a big smile and willing spirit, oversees missionary finances. He makes sure that everything relating to mission operation is paid on time: rents and utilities, each missionary’s monthly allotment on their mission credit card, and so much more. It’s a huge job! He lives by our pond and feeds the Canadian geese (plus intrepid squirrels!) out of the goodness of his generous heart. Connells lived in Lake of the Ozarks, MO, and will live in St. Louis, MO after their mission.
You’ll find the office of Elder Norm Holm, vehicle coordinator, at the end of the hall. His oversight of 87 mission vehicles entails: coordinating maintenance; checking a computer program called CARS re: oil changes, expiring drivers’ licenses, etc.; fielding phone calls from missionaries about flat tires, lost gas credit cards, etc.; conducting weekly Driver Accountability coaching (this device reminds drivers not to speed, etc. AND reports back to him if they do); gathering gas use and mileage reports; reporting and inputting month end mileage to CARS; signing off on fuel purchases; providing safety training and conducting vehicle inspections at Zone Conferences; inputting maintenance work performed into CARS; training new missionaries; assisting with mission decisions on designated drivers and cars; getting damaged vehicles to a body shop for estimates and repairs; inspecting repairs; notifying missionaries when oil changes are due; receiving, inspecting, and processing new vehicles into the fleet; and preparing high mileage vehicles to sell at auction.
I help him by obtaining driving documents from new missionaries, filing mileage reports, and in other ways. I help the other two sisters sort mail and packages (all missionary mail comes to the office because they get moved around so much.) I’m in charge of sending birthday greetings (one of my favorite duties, even though I don’t make cakes or give gifts) and compiling the mission history.
If you came to our office, you’d see six office missionaries join for a spiritual thought and prayer at the beginning of the day and enjoy our lunches together at noon. Plenty of days aren’t as “typical” as this one—zone conference days, transfer day (when missionary companionships are swapped around), arrival day for new missionaries, and departure day for those going home. There are days when we inspect missionary apartments, and days when the guys inspect cars and the women serve meals. We’re always ready to help each other—and our wonderful missionaries—as much as we can.
At the end of the day, we drive home and relax in our comfy, one-bedroom missionary apartment. And sleep. In one photo, Elder Holm helps two young missionaries with their "Driver Accountability Program device" in an after-hours call. They must log into their device to drive. In this case, it denied them. It took awhile, but with Elder Holm's ideas and help from a remote manager, they were able to leave and do their missionary work for the Lord.
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| The long hall. |
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| Connells' office-- finance and Church materials orders. |
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| Well-organized supply shelves and mail bins. |
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| Front door-- welcome!
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| Sister and Elder Coles' desks, front office. (In November, Norm and I were moved into this office.) |
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| Elders Thorpe and Butler with their 7-ft Chinese Book of Mormon. We visited them for an apartment inspection. |
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| Among the MANY translations of the Book of Mormon in our supplies-- one in Guarani, the language our grandson Jacob Roetto is learning (along with Spanish) on his mission to Asuncion, Paraguay. |
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| Elder and Sister Cole and Sister Holm at the Metro, headed to the National Zoo. |
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| Sister and Elder Connell, celebrating his birthday in May. |
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| We have two meetings a week via zoom-- a mission-wide devotional and a staff meeting. Our mission president, Reid Neilson, and his wife, Shelly, are giving instruction here. We will miss them when their three-year term is over June 30. |
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| Elder Holm in our vehicle office. (Debbie's office chair to left. The table behind Norm is her "desk!") |
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