Jerry's job

Jerry’s job
I am in charge of delivering the mail that comes every day except Sunday to the CTM. Our P-day is Saturday but if mail comes I deliver it that evening. One of my biggest challenges is to identify who Sister Lopez is when we have five sisters with that last name. Silva, Sousa, Santos are very common names in Brazil. Sometimes the Brazilians will just put the first name of their missionary and anticipate that we will know who their missionary is. The sister I replaced said sometimes it is just like doing family history research.

New American missionaries come on Wednesday and Brazilian missionaries come on Thursday. It is my job to see that they write a letter home to their parents that day. They bring their letters to me and I take the letters for Brazilian parents to the post office and send the American letters in the Pouch that goes to Salt lake and there they are put into the US Postal system. There are always missionaries that did not bring stamps or envelops with them and I have to figure out the best I can what they need. I remind the missionaries that after their first letter home they have to write their letters on their p-day and go to the post office themselves. I give the first orientation to the American missionaries.

I give them their meal ticket, closet locks, missionary hand book, schedule for their first two days and their room keys. I take them on a brief tour of the building and take them up to their rooms to make sure they can set the combination on their closet safe. Almost every day I have to let some missionaries into there room because they either misplaced their key or left it in their room and someone locked them out.

My biggest challenge next to the language is leading the choir. The choir sings at the Sunday night fireside and for every Tuesday night’s devotional. I have to select the number we preform, get the music copied if necessary for 100 missionaries. then I put up signs for the practice which is held one hour before the meeting starts. On Wednesday I make sure the pianist has the music for the following Sunday and Tuesday so they can accompany the choir. I select the opening and closing song for each meeting.

I keep a list of all the missionaries that have experience leading music and playing the piano, flute and violin. I send out notes asking missionaries if they will be willing to lead or play for the meeting and they come by my office and say yes or no. Usually they say yes but sometimes I have to change the songs so that it meets their comfort level playing in front of a large group. I am never given a theme for the meetings and just have to pray that the hymns fit the spirit of the meeting.

Besides all of this I am a counselor to the Relief Society president which means I conduct Relief Society every third week and make out a schedule for the lessons that are taught from the preach my gospel manual. We also hold the new sisters orientation meeting right after Relief Society.