Well, here I am! Whodathunk? Elder Knorrs must be very "official" because this makes #2. We're two-for-two, as it were. Well, I suppose this opens up a whole world of things we can talk about; I'm sure you're dying to know how a mission office is run these days. Let's start with the basicos:
Residency. I think it works more or less the same in all countries. In Spain, a visa is necessary to enter the country. Now, before the visado expires, the person needs to get fingerprinted and submit certain papers in order to get a residency card (which only lasts for 1 year). 90 days before the first card expires, the process must be started to get another one. On the second card, pretty much all missionaries will make it 'til the end of their mission. (There are, of course, ALWAYS exceptions and emergencies.) If a missionary's card expires and 3 months roll by, we get a nice little letter at the mission office telling us that so-and-so has to leave the country in 15 days. Yup. Ouch. There are a few more requirements, ins-and-outs and hangups, but that's the basic idea. Sound familiar? [Christopher hasn't had one deported and hopefully never will.]Then there's References. The mission office is the hub for references that go to other missionaries. Nowadays the missionaries can just send references to other areas by text messages, so we don't have to deal with those anymore. I need to organize them, send them out, and keep tabs on them until they're sent back as "contacted."
Besides that, the Assistants and I do numbers for the mission which we send in weekly to Church headquarters. And I'm in charge of routing email to its intended recipient. It's fun :)
So, there are a few other things. I seem to be the "go-to-if-you-have-an-unresolvable-crisis" guy, so that keeps my blood pressure levels from getting too low. I'm also in on a lot of "transfer secrets," so I'm learning to be very confidential.Your missionary son,
Elder Knorr"
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To Megan:"So, being an office worker is fun but challenging. Computers are really useful for organizing information. Ha, and I used to think that they were for movies and games and music and internet. I laugh at those now. Computers are for making spreadsheets that look this [drawing of spreadsheet] and keeping track of all of the residency information of 140 missionaries. Isn't that great?!?!"
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To Ethan:
"Today is September 1st. That means I have been in the mission for a year and five months! A long time. I like being a missionary, it's really fun! It's the coolest thing I've ever done and it has been a big adventure. Now I'm in the mission office, which is really different. I have to do a lot of things to keep the mission going and keep things working correctly. I've never had so much responsibility, I'm sure it's good practice for future job or whatever...I miss being able to hang out with my awesome little brother.
I want to chill with you a lot when I get home, we'll have a lot of fun. but for now, I've got a lot of missionary work to do over here. Take care, Number One.Your missionary brother,
Elder Knorr"
