Hastening the Work in the Argentina Mendoza Mission : Literally the most stressful week of my life

HEY fam.... How's everything? Sounded fun... Weeding, near-flooding, also BOULDER MOUNTAIN. Sorry Dad about never mentioning that last week... After that big long message I wrote last week I kind of forgot to write anything else. It looked way cool... I still want to know how Jayson got out on that giant pillar thing. Looked intense. I see you got my dropbox link? I'll be trying to put more things in there now... I'm glad it worked. I don't know if you've seen my new video from Tuesdayish... We went and ate at this grill place under the highway and found this crazy guy who started singing The Beatles and Michael Jackson and Eminem. Definitely worth watching, I promise. Speaking of videos though, to answer your question Dad: Of course I have a movie list of things I want to see when I get back. Only like every missionary I know does... Haha. Also I have a list of things I want to do, music I want to listen to, first foods I want to eat when I get back, also foods I want to be able to make when I get back... Stuff like that. I've still got a ways to go in the mission, so I haven't really thought about it for awhile.

So... Why was this week the most stressful week of my life? TRANSFER WEEK. Also it's THE END OF THE MONTH. This means two things. Transfer week means there's a bunch of dying missionaries that we have to worry about getting to the airport and stuff, and also the new missionaries that are coming to the mission. I personally have to do a training about finances in the mission and then later I have to help get everyone to their areas. We're busy with transfers like the whole week. Especially Elder Benedict, geez. He's the one who really has to worry about that stuff. I just have to make sure everyone has to get their money or nothing gets done. Alright... Second: The end of the month means that I have to start figuring out how much everyone needs for rent next month and sending it out to them. Something that can usually take a very long time. And these two very stressful things don't always happen at the same time. But this week they did... My first week alone in the office, by the way. Elder Mortensen left on Thursday morning. OH! Other stressful thing I just remembered. This week we also did our over-the-phone training on our new medical insurance program we're getting in the mission. So yeah... That was a workload. I'm actually still not done! I've learned something this week as well. Maybe not everyone would agree with me, but something I've learned while being here at the offices is that as a missionary, you literally have NO REASON TO STRESS about anything unless you're working in the offices. Learning the language can be stressful, I'm aware. But in the offices, if I don't get all my work done the entire mission doesn't work. It doesn't exactly happen like that in the field, I think.

Sorry for venting. Venting to the people in the offices doesn't really seem to work, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because we don't have time to vent. I don't know.

I'm going to make you all understand how the mission works. Imagine the whole mission is in a parade, and we have this giant float. On top we have the Asistants, the faces of the mission. They stand there and wave to the crowd, showing everyone how great we are. Walking around the float we've got all the normal missionaries, organized into their districts and zones and stuff. They're having a jolly good time out there. What you don't see is under the float, the office workers. We've got all of us down there banging around making sure the float stays together. Elder Benedict, the travel secretary, is there turning all of the wheels by himself, making sure that the float gets where it needs to go, and he makes sure that all the missionaries are marching the right direction. He also makes sure that all the missionaries outside are legal so that they stay in the parade. We've got Elder Romero, making sure we've got the proper licensing to be able to run our float, and making sure that we have all the supplies we need to fix it. We've got me, I have to make sure that everyone under the float gets all the money the need to do their jobs and that all the missionaries outside have enough money to keep walking. Oh by the way, every 5 seconds missionaries from outside peek in under the float and ask me how much money they have on their cards. And we've got Elder Solomon, who's in charge of making sure the float still looks nice and pretty. He's gluing on sequins and ribbons and painting stuff. And I forgot someone! President. HE IS THE FLOAT. He's got the biggest workload of us all. Without him there is no parade. He is also the driver of the float, dragging this mission along to where it needs to go. He is also doing all the the office Elders' jobs simultaneously, because everything we do has to go through him.

This is the mission. I hope that enlightened your understanding.

One last thing. One other stressful thing happened this week here in the offices, but President asked us not to say anything about it to anyone. I just wanted to say that the offices could really use your fasting and prayers right now. I might tell you guys after the mission, but right now that's all I wanted to say.

Sorry for venting, once again, I think this week should hopefully be better. I hope all of your guys' weeks were better than mine. Love you guys!

Elder Bingham