Sep 19 07

September 19, 2007

It was so weird to wake up this morning and think that a year ago today we were also on our mission.

We had a great day. We spent the whole day in Zone Conference with Elder Glenn Pace from the Quorum of the Seventies. When we first got there the missionaries were in a line and we all went through and shook hands with Elder Pace, then Sister Craig and President Craig. When we sat down I asked Robert if he had the same strange feeling that I did. When we talked to President and Sister Craig we had the distinct impression that they knew who we were and what our assignment was. That was very odd. President Craig actually said to me, “So how’s the Cibecue Relief Society/Primary president doing?” And then to Robert he said, “How’s the High Priest/Ward Mission Leader/Sunday School President?” It’s very annoying and downright irritating to think he actually listens to what we tell him in our interviews. We may have to start feeling some sense of personal responsibility at those things.

They always acknowledge birthdays at Zone Conferences so we had to go up front and stand while they sang Happy Birthday. Because it was combined zones, there were a lot of us, but I was the only sister. Some of the missionaries thought it was very funny to sing “Happy Birthday dear Elders and Sister Charlton.” Elders are really quite easily entertained.

We had Zone Conference in the morning and they did all the housing and car stuff. Then we had a lovely lunch prepared by the Gilbert Stake Relief Society presidency. After lunch Elder Pace took the rest of the time.

He gave lots of encouragement to the missionaries about the work. He talked about setting goals that stretch us but are not realistic. He was inspirational, uplifting, entertaining, motivating. Everything you would hope to hear from a General Authority. He spoke for 2 hours and the time just flew past.

After conference we stopped at a mall for just a few minutes, went to Sam’s Club, and ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

When we got home we noticed that the old folding chair we leave on our porch for Cue to sit on had been thrown off the porch. Also, the mat from the front porch of the church was on our porch. So Robert did a walk-through and when he came out of the bedroom he had a popsicle that he found on his dresser. It was melted, but still in the unopened package. He said look what we left in there, but I was pretty sure it couldn’t have been there when we left. Monday night we had given a little girl a popsicle and she wandered down the hall while we were talking with her mother. But I’m so fussy about where things are, she couldn’t have left it there and I wouldn’t notice. So then we got suspicious and went and checked the box where we put our family challenge money. Sure enough…it was gone. Not the box, just the money. Someone got in while we were gone, took that money ($84) and ate several of the popsicles that were in the freezer. They didn’t take anything else as far as we can tell. Not even the rest of the money that was in the drawer right under the box.

On our back porch we found a couple of magazines and a whole bunch of welfare applications. One of them has a name on it that we know. The back door knob was locked but the bolt was undone. We’re thinking they must have come in through that door, but we still can’t figure out how they got it open. The screen had been taken off the window, but the window was locked from the inside. The locks aren’t exactly high quality, but how would someone open them without breaking any part of the window? We’ll have to check better in the morning and see if we can find any clues in the daylight.