The Welcome Back

We arrived back in Cape Verde the morning of January 8, 2013. We flew out of Salt Lake City on the morning before. We arrived in Boston and had a several hour layover, partly because the Cape Verde plane was late. Just a reminder of what we were going back to - laid back island living. Nothing is on time. But no complaints for that gave us plenty of time to enjoy some Boston Clam Chowder at Legal Sea Food in the airport. (Going to miss American food)  We hit the Praia runway about 10 in the morning. We were exhausted. When we walked up the stairs to outr apartment on the third floor, we passed the office on the second floor and this is what we saw.

I loved the "especially Elder Gunnerson and Twix" at the bottom (It is actually Twiggs). They were the missionaries chosen to take our place - about two weeks after we left. Obviously by that time things were getting a bit dicey. With zero training and direction they still managed to keep things mostly afloat.

We entered our apartment exhausted but managed to unpack, shower and go back down to the office. Sister Oliveira had made us lunch which we had with the Oliveiras, Elder Cruz de Santos, Elder Hill, Elder Pugmire and Sister McKnight. That is when the President told us that he and Sister Oliveira were leaving for Portugal that night. Poor Sister Oliveira was also having some health problems. They left right after lunch. 

Then we walked into our office ... Within minutes Robert received a call from Germany insisting we get  several financial journal entries done so they could close out the 2012 books! That is when the fun began. Finding the information and recording it under the right categories took us hours. During that time Robert also got a glimpse of the petty cash situation and nearly started hyperventilating. About $1700 could not be accounted for. I started to help him and did four journal entries before Holden called me downstairs to the garage. The copies of the Book of Mormon - that I had ordered in September - were being delivered (two pallets worth) along with the curriculum order for the mission's two districts AND the stake (three tall pallets worth.) There were boxes everywhere. I knew I did not have the strength to deal with it then so I just showed them where to put everything and went back upstairs to help Robert finish. It was well into the evening when we crawled back up the stairs to finally get some rest. This mission has certainly cured my insomnia. Ha!

President Oliveira was only gone a few days. In his absence we were able to account for all the petty cash and get most of the financial stuff under control. The thing that hit us the hardest was the mission had managed to close seven apartments and open ten. Ten new apartments is five weeks?! We were scrambling to find contracts, old and new, electric and water bills, old and new, paying painters and guys with trucks, and bills from appliance stores. It was crazy, but we got it done. Well at least we think we have. We still have four contracts floating around the islands that the missionaries are absolutely promising to send to us. And every time the phone rings, I wonder if someone has another bill. What a welcome it has been!