Grief is mental suffering.
I suppose I have experienced that in a small way but take comfort in knowing that
"thy afflictions shall be but a small moment." The good part is the growth afterward.
When I tell you my "grief" you will roll your eyes and laugh, but to me it has been real.
We prepared ourselves for what we thought would be our role of relieving the suffering of humanity in this corner of the world. We were mentally prepared for changes but not prepared for the detail of the work. Remember we had been to the MTC, Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission and then cooled our heels in Albania and then a B&B. It seems we needed more training. Lots and lots of training.
So first we flew to Frankfurt, Germany.
Those are the Sar Mountains, dividing N. Macedonia and Kosovo (the two countries we live in).
In Frankfurt we met with five other couples assigned to different countries in central Europe.
We learned we were in the Central Europe Area of the Church (one of 23 world divisions).
Kristi and I serve in the green section of the Area, along with many others.
You can see that the Welfare and Self-Reliance portion of the Area is very organized.
The Church does employ a lot of folks. We are down at the bottom of "Field Operations" where it shows six managers and twenty-one couple Senior Missionaries. The other areas also have a few Senior Missionaries assigned. There is a great need for more.
Good grief, what have I gotten myself into?
We were gone four days and they tried to fill our heads with new forms and reports, more computer insights, software training, financial reports, evaluation criteria and reports, protocols and the necessity of keeping receipts for ten years. Good Grief. Now please, just let us get to work.
No, not yet, they wanted us to share how great an experience being a senior missionary is, so in the evening we experienced old fashioned German bowling. No gutters and creative scoring. I must admit I had fun and of course winning is always fun.
We went to the Senior Missionary family home evening. There are a lot of senior missionaries in Frankfurt. These four couples were heading home.
Another evening we went to the Frankfurt Temple.
No, not yet. On our return we were invited to the Albania Mission couples' conference.
We drove down through N. Macedonia to Korce, Albania.
It was beautiful and I said, "Good grief, are we just tourists now"?
Our Mission leaders are great people and we did learn more, but also had fun activities.
This is President and Sister Auras. They are helping and teaching us all, in the three countries of Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. There are nineteen senior missionaries and less than sixty young Elders and Sisters. The Auras' are serving here for three years from Germany.
Sunday was Branch Conference in Korce, Albania.
Monday was P-day or preparation day.
We watched and ate at a demonstration of making a traditional food of Byret.
It was especially good.
The next day was the Mission Conference with all the young missionaries in the mission.
They are bright, intelligent, conversant in Albanian and Macedonian, and in touch with the Spirit.
I have been so impressed with their work ethic and love for the people they serve among.
It is a delight to be around them.
(And none of them call me "Older Skidmore" yet, rather than Elder Skidmore.)
OK, one more photo - can I go home now? I can't contain one more drop of learning.
GOOD GRIEF, all of a sudden we are almost on our own.
We are starting to get in the swing of things.
Our world is meeting new people every day, emails, forms, starting projects, monitoring projects, documenting projects, filing every bit of information with each project and then seeing that it is closed and that everything is accounted for.
"Almost" on our own.
We can call Frankfurt any time.
We can call other Humanitarian couples, any time.
There is even a help line with the main software we use.
This is "but a small moment."
GOOD GRIEF - with prayer we are never alone.
