The Assistants

The Assistants. Don't you think that would be a really cool title for a movie? It could be a movie about the mafia, or maybe insider politics, or some corporate take-over. Or it could be a comedy about the royal family, or a college campus. It just sounds so intriguing! But if it was a movie about the two missionaries who are the Assistants to the President for President Winn, it would be a very, very BUSY movie! When we first arrived in the mission, Elder Nelson and Elder Campbell were the Assistants to the President. (In mission slang, they are known as the AP's.) They pretty much had to teach us everything there is to know about running a mission - of which there is a lot and we knew NOTHING! Elder Nelson had to go home, but Elder Campbell stayed on and we got a new AP, Elder Beck. Then, Elder Campbell went home, so Elder Beck got a new companion, Elder Dominguez. Six months was more than any human being should have to endure with the Winns, so Elder Beck moved back out to be a regular missionary, and now Elder Dominguez and Elder Evans are the AP's. They have a geographical area that they are responsible for, just like any other missionary companionship does. So, they teach lessons, and give service, and find new investigators, and prepare them for baptism, and baptize them, and are expected to do everything that all the missionaries do. Except that, since they are in a leadership role, we expect them to be the best missionaries in the mission. And they are.

Then, in their free time, they have another forty-hour a week job of administrative tasks. They have to know where every single missionary in the mission is at pretty much any given moment. They go out on splits with companionships to teach and train. They are the first line of defense for fielding phone calls about broken down cars, and companions who can't get along, and apartment problems, and scheduling issues, and special permissions, and any other topic you can possibly think of. They arrange meetings. They set up tables and chairs and take them down again so many times and for so many people it would make your head spin. They put together training videos. They train new missionaries. They keep track of apartment options. They know who needs a car and who is healthy enough to walk. They work around the clock, literally! At 11:00 pm I was driving past the mission office one night and saw the lights on, and their car there. They were still working. See the clock?

Transfer time is especially crazy for them. They seldom have time to eat, so often stop in at the mission home to refuel. Elder Evans is easy to feed. He eats anything/everything. Elder Dominguez is easy to feed snacks. He likes Cheetos and root beer. But he is brown (from El Salvador), and doesn't particularly care for many kinds of American food, so we struggle, he and I. He wants things made spicy, out of beans and tortillas and other things I don't particularly care for/hate. Anyone who knows me well/has ever met me, knows that I am a fabulous cook/disdain the kitchen. I love to spend hours/90 seconds in the kitchen preparing gourmet meals/mac & cheese, Uncle Ben's 90 second instant rice,cold cereal & milk, Ramen noodle soup, Marie Calendar's frozen chicken pot pies. Elder Dominguez has another six weeks left on his mission. He will either learn to love American food or I will learn how to cook beans and tortillas.....what are the odds?

Sometimes, I see things that the AP's do, and I really just have to wonder about them....

But then I remember that they are probably just as crazy as my own boys, and so I just shrug my shoulders and ignore them.

But when I know they've been running on no sleep at all for about a week, and Elder Dominguez sits down for about 30 seconds before he just crashes on my couch, I remember how amazing they are and how much I love them. And I think when I make my movie I will call it

The Assistants:

Superheroes Extraordinaire