Long Friday

Friday was a long day. I got up a little after 4 am to call different people in the States and then got ready for work at 5 so I could be working at 6 am. When I came in both sets of dentist were already at work. Evidently an emergency was called in on Thursday night. When Sister Stewart sent out a cancellation to the MTC it wasn’t seen and so four missionaries were there at one time. Two of them had come in at 5:30 am and luckily the Stinchfields came early so everybody was seen and two of them got to talk with each other for a time while waiting.
 The Intake (of new missionaries) was just as busy as ever. I helped out in the chest x rays in the MRC (Missionary Recovery Center) this time and have to say the MTC had a really nice orderly flow of missionaries. We were never overwhelmed with large groups. The dental screening was in the MRC too and we decided to do the dental x ray screenings on Monday and Tuesday of next week instead of trying to do almost a hundred on Friday morning. The Stewarts left early because another field missionary was scheduled at noon. Elder Stinchfield did a good job carrying on with the rest of the dental screening.  I always love seeing the Halls from Cavite, they are becoming a favorite feature as I see them every month with their missionaries. They are a Senior couple in charge of missionary health in their mission. They spend many days taking missionaries to and from the hospital and sometimes the dental clinic. After a lunch the MRC provided, I went back to the Clinic to put together a schedule for Monday. This is when the Chantry’s were missed!  Elder Chantry is a computer programmer and his replacement works in computers but without the same skill set. Something went awry and Elder Chantry – well maybe Brother Chantry now – was called very late at night for help in Ogden, Utah – our morning. 
I ended up making a handwritten schedule for Monday. Wow, our dependence on quick calculating computers is huge. I have a new appreciation level. I set up the patient charts but had to leave early at 3 pm so I wouldn’t miss the baptism of one of my students Andrea Faith.