We have two Sister Missionaries that give the Spiritual Thought for us at the end of our English Class. There are missionary transfers every 6 six weeks, so one of the companions is transferred while the other one stays and receives a new companion. Sister Wiser was transferred in February so we got a picture with her and sister Harris. They are great missionaries and were such a pleasure to have in our class.

Now we have Sister Harris and Sister Booth helping us. We only have two weeks left in this series of lessons and our numbers of students have dwindled down to 3 at 5pm and around 7 at the 7pm class. Most of them are afraid to come out anymore. Even with a work permit and social security number, they are no longer safe from deportation. We will be starting over for the third time the first week in April. There are 24 lessons so it takes 6 months to complete the course. Hopefully, we will have a group of new students come in to our class then. Most of the ones that we have now will be moving up to the level 2 class.

It has been almost a month ago when the printer in our office quit working. I tried everything I know how to fix it. All of our computers are hard-wired to the printer with ethernet cables, and our computers could no longer recognize the printer. I was on the phone with troubleshooters for at least 7 hours in total. It was finally decided to purchase a new printer since this one is about 5 years old anyway. Our manager put in an order for a printer and it arrived about 10 days later. In the mean time, we were able to copy the files that we wanted to print onto a USB drive and then print from it directly to the old printer. So, at least we were still able to print while we waited for the new printer to arrive. The new printer arrived and it was like Christmas! I unboxed it, hooked it up to the same ethernet port that the old printer was connected to , and I received an error message, ethernet connection not recognized. I immediately thought that that was the issue and perhaps we didn't need to have a new printer after all. So I connected the new printer to another ethernet port, and it recognized the ethernet port. I connected my computer to the new printer and sent a test page. The printer made a terrible noise for about 2-3 minutes, then displayed the error, paper tray empty, which I knew was not the case. The print cartridges were obviously not new, so I new this printer was not new either and was probably supposed to be a refurbished printer that wasn't refurbished. It took 4 days for the tech service person to call me, (it takes a long time to get a message to India), and he insisted on doing a troubleshooting session over the phone. I told him that it could not be solved that way and that we needed a service technician to come, but that was protocol. After spending half an hour downloading the troubleshooting service app on my phone, and activating the camera, we got disconnected. When he called me back, I could hear him but he couldn't hear me. So, he said, I think you might be able to hear me but I can't hear you so I am going to close your ticket, have a good day. I called back and I think my call was transferred from Calcutta to Mumbai. I got a new person and went through the whole process again. Now I was getting a "replace the yellow print cartridge" error message. So the tech says"we can't do anything more until you get new cartridges, (which were supposed to come with the printer). She ordered new ones and they arrived the next day. I put the new ones in, and then I got a "paper jam" message. I followed the instructions and opened a panel on the printer and low and behold there was some kind of thick paper jammed in the printer:

One surface was black and shiny, and the other looked like someone had painted a mixture of every color under the sun on it. After hours of sincere and deep contemplation, I came to the conclusion that this printer was not new, and most likely is not serviceable. That was 5 days ago, and I still have not heard back from the Xerox people on what they are going to do. My advice is to not buy a Xerox Printer. Even if it is actually new, good luck on ever getting the service you need if there is a problem with it.

I think that I mentioned in a previous post that I put together a hutch for one of our Service Sister Missionaries. It took me 10 hours to get it done. She had all sorts of problems with her apartment and had no luck in getting them fixed. There was black mold in it and she is very allergic to it, resulting in a significant increase in her asthma. We finally found another apartment for her that she could afford, so we moved her on March 1st. This last Friday, we went over to her apartment to help her move her food storage cases of food to their final resting place in her spare bedroom. Then it was time for me to put together her second hutch, identical to the first one. I worked on it for 4 hours before Velyn and I went to have dinner with the people that I will describe in the next paragraph. We left at 4:30 and came back at 6pm. I finally finished it at 10:30 pm. So, I shaved off about 1 1/2 hours in the assembly time. I hope I don't ever have to do another one. I had bought a cheap electric drill after the first one to speed things up and reduce the number of blisters on my hand from manually screwing in 150 screws. However, after the first 3 or 4 screws, the Phillips head attachment for the drill stripped out and it was back to the screwdriver. There was a small screwdriver that came with the hardware for the hutch, but it wasn't much better. Sister Elmer had a bunch of tools, but only 1 Phillips Head screwdriver out of 7. It too was stripped out so it couldn't be used. Needless to say, I had about the same number of blisters as the first one. Anyway, she is getting settled into her new apartment and is going to have her daughter and granddaughter visit this coming week. She is really a great missionary at the employment center. She is 78 years old and has an amazing amount of patience. When it comes to patience, I want to be like her when I grow up. 

One of the ladies that I helped to get a job at Deseret Industries invited Velyn and I to come to her house and have dinner with her and her husband last Friday. They are from Cuba, and are the same age as we are, which is very, very old. They made some traditional Cuban food for us. One of the dishes was shredded beef with green olives and other spices. It was very good. They called it Rodilla Viejo, which means "Old Knee". Maria's husband, Fernando, told me that the name came from an old fable in Cuba. It was about a man that had a huge family and they were starving to death, so he cut off his leg at the knee and cooked it for them to have something to eat. I know its gross, but that is the fable. They also made us roast pork, and black beans and rice. For dessert, they made white cheese and guayabo, along with sweetened coconut. It was also delicious. They are such nice people and we greatly enjoyed our time with them. As soon as we got home, I wished that I had taken a picture with all of us. So I texted Maria to see if we could come by after church and get a picture with them:

The guy in the white hair is me. Fernando made the porch swing and wanted us to sit in it for the picture. Needless to say, I was a little concerned that the little chain it was hanging from could support 4 adults, especially one that was muy gordo! However, we survived and the chain held together just fine. 

We have been so fortunate to meet so many good people while here on our mission. People that are so kind, hard working, and willing to share whatever they can. You probably remember me writing about Luis and Xiomaria, from El Salvador. They invited us over to their apartment again for Pupusas. They were delicious, and we enjoyed the time we had to spend with them. They sent me a photo of them on their way home from church:

Xiomara had to work this Sunday but Luis came to church and brought his sister for the first time. They are both attending our English class when they can. Unfortunately, their work often interferes with them being able to attend class. 

Every morning I have to make a major decision on what shirt I have to wear to the employment office. I often have to spend 10-15 minutes trying to make this decision. I thought I would show you a picture on why this decision is so difficult to make:

Sometimes, when time is running short for us to leave, Velyn will help me pick out which shirt to wear.

As always, we have had some very rewarding experiences, but also some that are heart-braking. Yesterday, we had a lady register that was homeless and was looking for a job. She had gotten hooked on drugs, and as a result, got divorced, and lost custody of her 5 children. She is clean now and is trying to put her life back together. I had a couple come into the office that entered the US legally from Cuba. He is the 2nd Doctor of Human Medicine from Cuba that has come in. He is desperate and is willing to wash dishes if necessary. He doesn't speak any English and will be attending our English Class when we start the course over again the first week of April. His wife has leukemia, and he doesn't have the money to pay for her treatments. There is basically no medical help in Cuba, anymore, with a number of the hospitals closed and no medicine to treat this type of cancer. There is a highly successful treatment for this type of leukemia, but it is $7,000 per treatment. So, he has to just sit there and watch his wife die from a disease that can be successfully treated if he just had the money to do so. I could easily come up with a dozen more stories like these, but I don't want to dwell on these difficult situations. Needless to say, a high percentage of the people in the US take their situations for granted. Our freedom, our ability to work, our medical facilities, doctors, schools, etc. We talked for a long time last night about how we are so blessed. The only hard part about being on a mission is being away from our family. We do not feel like we have sacrificed anything other than that. It has been such a wonderful experience for us to have the opportunity to help others every day. Often times, our help consists of trying to lift them up and help them overcome discouragement, and let them know that there is someone who cares about them and loves them. I had one of my job seekers tell me last week, "At least I know that there is one person that cares about me." These people are going through such difficult times, and there are so many that just need a friend, or to know that someone really does care about them. They have to be able to overcome this discouragement to a certain degree before they can be successful in finding a job. 

We now have less than 4 months left before our mission is over. We are hoping that our replacements will be here in plenty of time for us to train them before we leave. Time has gone by so fast! We can't believe that it is almost over.