Post Office Disaster

I went back to the post office today to mail the package to Riitta and Matti. I didn't get over there until about 1:00. That was a big mistake, not going in the morning. But the line wasn't too bad--it was only to the end of the counter with about 8 people in front of me. There were three clerks working (and two empty stations) so I thought it should move pretty fast. Well, I stood in line for 15 minutes and only one person in the line moved up to one of the stations. By this time, the line behind me had gotten quite long. The two other clerks were still helping the same people they were when I came in. I heard one of the ladies being helped say to a person in line whom she knew that she had been there for four hours with something like 76 boxes. Scary. The clerk kept bringing these boxes out to her which the lady would open with a knife and take some stuff out, re-arrange the things in the box, and then seal it back up three or four times with tape. Then the clerk would fill out information for each box. This kept repeating for awhile, and then I realized it wasn't going to end any time soon. At the other station the same person was still there along with the one person who had moved up to the third station. So I got out of there fast. I thought I'd just go back and it would have to be better. So I went back about 3:30, and there were only two clerks this time and about 10 people in line. I thought maybe I'd take a chance and the line might move pretty fast. But after about 10 minutes when not one person had moved ahead in the line I got out of there again, telling myself that I'd come back in the morning, and try for first thing in the morning and maybe I'll be able to mail the package. We'll see.

Our home teachers, Bro. Sanders and his son, Talmadge, came visiting tonight and gave us a message about Elder Oaks' conference talk of "Good, Better Best." Before they came, Steven, Rich, and I enjoyed a nice evening walk at the track. It was a cool, brisk evening--rather nice for a walk, actually. The weather's supposed to change tomorrow, though. I hate to see the nice weather end.

Steven got a call tonight after he'd gone to bed from Elder Carter, one of the zone leaders. This is the second night in a row for such a call. More problems with District B--one of the new districts (from two weeks ago when two new districts, totalling 19 elders, came in). We met with District B on Tuesday night and they all seemed to be doing pretty well to me. I guess two of the three elders who had transferred to an intermediate branch had decided they wanted to come back, plus another elder was wanting to go home. Steven was probably having a foreshadowing about the new missionaries when he was wondering "how are the new missionaries doing?" in his sleep before they even arrived.

A Busy Day

Today I made a couple of trips to the post office to try to mail some things before the Christmas rush. It was pretty busy there, but nothing like it will be in December. I tried mailing a package to Riitta and Matti in Finland, but the postal clerk was afraid it would get crushed (it was kind of a flimsy box), so she went and found me a box in the back which I brought home to repack and I'll go back tomorrow to mail it. (That was nice of her. I was wondering if it was too flimsy and she assured me that it was.)

Next it was off to Curves and then a walk at the track. I got home just in time to get dinner ready so we could eat and then head over to the Provo Temple. The Mt. Timpanogo Temple is closed for cleaning, so Richard was home and was able to go with us to Provo. We saw a lot of Sunset Heights Stake people there. Shirley Robins was there, and I had seen her earlier in the day at the post office. Leslie Hillstrom was also there, and I had seen her earlier in the day at the track. That's funny that we all ended up in the same temple session. We also saw a girl who looked familiar to Steven. I sat by her during the session and she said we looked familiar to her, too. So as we visited later, we found out that she was in the BYU 100th ward in Provo when Steven was in the bishopric about 10 years ago. Her name is Nicole Jensen, and she has recently returned to the Provo area after living in Boston and Washington state.

I sent Tiff an e-mail today and told her that what she made her Christmas tree out of was "duct" tape and not "duck" tape. Then when I talked to her on the phone later, she said it really was "duck" tape. My bad. That's a cute idea for a tree.