sul·try adjective 1. (of the air or weather) hot and humid. synonyms: humid, close, airless, stifling, oppressive, muggy, sticky, sweltering, tropical, heavy; More antonyms: refreshing 2. (of a person, especially a woman) attractive in a way that suggests a passionate nature. synonyms: passionate, attractive, sensual, sexy, voluptuous, erotic, seductive "a sultry film star"
That definition kind of makes “hot and humid” sound like it’s sexy, or something. Well, it isn’t. I can attest to that. Last night the temperatures went down to the low 80’s with humidity in excess of 95%. It wasn’t sexy at all! However, the trade winds are back today and the temperature will get down to 70º and the humidity down to 55%. I’ll be sleeping much better tonight. The choices are to endure the “sultry” weather or turn on the (very noisy) window air conditioner. We’re told that in August we’ll be very happy for the air conditioner regardless of the noise level when the trade winds disappear for about five or six weeks. I can wait.
We had the morning shift at the Visitors’ Center this morning. That means we arrive at the Center (a 30 second drive from our home) at 8:45 am, turn everything on by 8:55 am, have a short thought and prayer with the sister missionaries who will be on our shift, and then open the doors. Except, this morning there were no sister missionaries. They were all in District Meetings with their young Elder compatriots for training which didn’t finish until around 10:15 am. That meant that Nina and I were the sole resources available for the folks who came to the Center. We were fairly busy. We had a large group from Beijing, China (my little bit of Mandarin Chinese is really beginning to pay off) as well as a large group from Korea. I can now with confidence ask if I can take someone’s group picture in five languages. That doesn’t mean they understand me….
Missionary transfers are next week. We’ll be notified Saturday evening around 8pm what transfers will occur. The sister missionaries are called to serve at the Visitors’ Center for eighteen months, except that three of those months will be spent doing regular missionary work, affectionately called “Far Field Missionaries”. At least one sister missionary will come back from Far Field, meaning that another sister will likely go out for three months. Further, the companionships may be shuffled as well causing a few sister missionaries to move from one apartment to a different apartment and have a different companion.
During the week before transfers all of the missionary apartments across the mission are inspected. My assignment is for Nina and I to inspect all of the sister missionary apartments associated with the Visitors’ Center. There are seven of these apartments. Four apartments have two bedrooms and four sister missionaries. Two apartments have two bedrooms, but only two missionaries. One apartment has one bedroom and two missionaries. The inspection checklist is a full page and demerits are assessed for items not meeting the standard. All of the missionaries know when the inspection is going to happen and many spend the better part of a day just before inspections trying to get their apartment ready for inspection. A few just keep their apartment in good shape and don’t have to sweat the inspection. It’s very clear when we go into an apartment which category the tenants are in! It took a couple of hours to do the inspection for the seven apartments. All in all, they were in good shape.
I have a new qualification: Apartment Inspector.
Check out Nina’s blog at http://seashellsandseaglass.wordpress.com. She’s got some great commentary.
Life is grand!