One thing that Sandy does as mission secretary is schedule missionary interviews with the president. The following poem by Elders Griffin and Hoppie is in response to a scheduled appointment:

We thank thee a lot for all that you do, 

We're excited for this transfer's president interview! 

We will drive so safe and get there so surely, 

Yes ma'am, we'll arrive 10 minutes early! 

Thanks for being the sweetest and such, 

We know you're the best and love you so much! 

-Love Elder Hoppie and Elder Griffin,  your Stettler elders!

I recently took a look at our young missionaries and where they come from. I found the following statistics interesting:

Gender

     Elders       105   (67%)

     Sisters       51   (33%)

                    156

North America      133   (85%)
United States         120   (77%)

Asia                         12   (  8%)

Central America        3   (  2%)

Europe                       3   (  2%)

Great Britain             2    (  1%)

South Pacific             2   (  1%)

South America          1    (  1%)

Canada                    13    (  8%)

Intermountain West

     Utah                 59   (38%)

     Arizona            17   (11%)

     Idaho               13   (  8%)

     Nevada              1   (  1%)

     Colorado           0   (  0%)

     New Mexico      0   (  0%)

                             90   (58%)

As spring approaches, removing snow from the streets is a major project. During the night machines plow the snow into windrows, then other machines come along and blow the snow into large tractor trailers for transport out of town.

Every six weeks a few missionaries return home. Prior to their departure the mission has a lunch for them featuring donair pizza. (For more about donair go to the bottom of this post.) Sandy decorates the tables for the lunch.

Donair is heavily spiced ground beef that's shaped into a large loaf and roasted on a spit, then shaved and seared on a flat top range. Spices include black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, and oregano. (It's something we will miss.)

Two sister missionaries (Mills and Toone) recently had an automobile accident (fortunately there were no injuries). Their car was in the shop eight days for repair. When they got it back they noticed that the odometer had an additional 231 kilometers on it, so they called me. I was impressed that they noticed the kilometers, and that they had the good judgment to inform me.

I called the shop manager and told him about the odometer. He was nice, but told me that his people had been with him for years and nothing like that had ever happened before. However, he offered to do some checking.

He called me back about an hour later and said that he checked three shop vehicles and discovered that they were all low on gas, though he knew they should have been near full. He said that he had one person in mind who might be responsible, and that he would confront him, then let me know what happened.

The manager called me today and said that the employee confessed to taking the gas and driving the mission vehicle. The manager said that as restitution he would deduct $1000 from the cost of repairing the car.