Working Hard

Hi, we've been under criticism lately from those who read our blog; they claim we're not on a mission but a vacation because all our pics show us in our non-missionary clothing touring a beautiful place.  Well the first pic is proof that we're not all fun and no work.  This is our mission finance secretary, Sister Springer, as she pours over that latest bills to pay from vendors (most written in Norwegian), reimburses missionaries for expenses, fills out lots of reports, buys new cars, approves car repairs, and allocates money for the young missionaries' base pay. Just to name a few things.  Vacation?  Come on!  She's at the office 11-12 hours a day.

This is our apartment complex.  The photo is taken from our deck.  We live in a suburb of Oslo named Bekkestua (spit that one out) - about the same distance as Salt Lake to Murray.  The place we live is nothing like downtown Oslo - not a lot of cool historical buildings and fountains and palaces - more like a suburb.  How's that?  Anyway, we like where we live and are only about 7 minutes from the office.

This is Elder Harris, one of the AP's in the office.  Harris went home just last week.  It's becoming really tough to say goodbye to people you get to know.

Here is the cute office secretary, Elder Springer.  He answers mail, does some correspondence for the president, orders everything (Book of Mormon copies, pass-a-longs, office supplies, etc, and spends quite a bit of the day mailing these supplies out to missionaries.  He also prepares for incoming and outgoing missionaries, does the monthly newsletter, takes his 15-minute power naps on the floor, prepares missionary work permits, and a bunch of other stuff cute office secretaries do.  Actually, Dana and Norm have violated the long-tested stereotype that men are the only people qualified to do math and women are alone in the skills requiring typing skills. People who call us and don't know us typically ask Norm questions involving money and Dana questions about things like typing a letter.  

This is us in the office conference room eating lunch with President and Sister Johansen ( I think - won't let me enlarge the pic), Elizabeth, a new convert, and the AP's.