The Pattern Repeats Every Six Weeks

Hello! It's been a while since I posted anything, but that's mostly because there is nothing dramatically new going on. (Which is actually a good thing!) The mission runs on six-week transfer cycles, which create a scheduling pattern like this:

1. Transfer week is the first week of the transfer cycle. This is the week when missionaries move in, out, and within the mission.
• On the Monday of transfer week, we host a nice dinner and Family Home Evening for missionaries who have completed their mission.
• On Tuesday, departing missionaries fly home.
• On Thursday, new missionaries arrive.
• On Friday, current missionaries who are being transferred relocate to their new assignments.
2. The second week of the transfer cycle is usually fairly quiet. (Although sometimes MLC is held this week. See below.)
3. The third week is when Mission Leadership Conference is held. This is for all young mission leaders (about 25 or 30 in total), along with President and Sister Reyes. MLC occurs monthly, so it doesn't fit perfectly within the six-week cycle and is therefore scheduled during other weeks as needed.
4. The fourth week we hold zone conferences for half of the seven zones in the mission.
5. The fifth week we hold zone conferences for the remaining zones.
6. The sixth week is fairly quiet, although it is a busy time for President Reyes and his assistants, as they prepare the transfers and new assignments for the next cycle.

Because of this consistent pattern, nothing has changed much since the last blog post, which is why it's been so long since I wrote. We do miss you all, however!

Although the pattern doesn't change too much, we have recently been very busy with apartment moves, having closed five old apartments and opened eight new ones in the last six weeks. If you've ever moved to a new house or apartment, you know how much work this can be! Since I'm also still in charge of cellphones, technology, and travel, and since we finally joined the rest of the world in providing each missionary with their own cellphone (we were one of three countries where the missionaries shared a cellphone within each companionship), I haven't had much time to breathe.

Sister Cutler is even busier, because she has almost sixty apartments to manage and maintain, most of which needed quite a bit of work once we arrived. Luckily, we've found good handymen in several cities (although we still do our share of simple plumbing, electrical, and carpentry work, along with more cleaning than we should), we know where appliance and home goods stores are that sell most everything we need, we've found clean and safe hotels to stay in during our many road trips, and enough bakeries (breakfast), 7-Elevens (lunch), and restaurants (dinner) to keep us going. Life is good!

We love it here. A senior mission is highly recommended! You really don't know what you're missing.

I'll post again in a few months. In the meantime, here are a few pictures:

Unloading suitcases of newly arriving missionaries.

New missionary orientation.

Awards for cleanest (most "celestial"), most improved, and early-bird apartment videos. These are submitted by the missionaries each cycle and it's helped them be more responsible in taking care of their apartments without their mothers being around.

Preparation day (P-day) on Siquijor Island.

Slightly overloaded pedicab carrying homemade rugs.