New Missionaries arrive from the MTC every 6 Weeks. They are so excited to be here and begin their adventure as Missionaries in Thailand.
I first posted about transfer day back in June of 2014. At that time transfers were 9 weeks apart. At that time it was thought that it was efficient to have transfer days at the same frequency that Missionaries start and end at the MTC. Missionaries enter the MTC for a 9 week course. With 9 week transfers only one set of Missionaries is in the MTC at any one time, thus there only needs to be one set of Thai teaching instructors.
This circumstance created some hardship for the mission. 9 weeks was a long time between transfers.
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| Sister Meeker |
Transfers is where the Mission President reassigns Missionary companions and/or reassigns them to a new proselyting area. So the Mission President had mini transfers about 4 or 5 weeks after New Missionaries arrived and completing missionaries returned home. With the 9 week transfer cycle, the completing Missionaries groups were on average larger groups, These larger groups had a high percentage of the mission leaders (Zone Leaders, Assistants to the President and Sister Training Leaders). This decimated his leadership team all at once, so the Mission President asked the Missionary Department to return our mission to the 6 week transfer cycle (this existed previously). We transitioned back to the 6 week cycle in August of 2014.
During the transfer meeting I make a short presentation - usually some information related to reimbursements etc. It is very similar to a Boeing Management briefing (Powerpoint charts and all)like I used to give.
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| Elder and Sister Meeker Selfie Prior to the Transfer Meeting start. |
After the meeting is over, I deal with phone moves for open and closed areas. I deal with Missionaries changing house leaders. The house leader is the Missionary in each house responsible to pay for all of the common expenses, such as utilities, transportation and house maintenance expenses. I reimburse the Missionaries as they provide me receipts - usually sent in every 3 or 4 weeks. At the Meeting many missionaries house funds are so low that they will need to give me a receipt to reimburse something so that they have enough money tor travel back to their proselyting area.
Thus the reason for the crush around the table after the meeting is over. I do enjoy working with these wonderful missionaries. They truly are on the Lord's errand.
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| Elder Meeker dealing with Many Missionaries simultaneously |
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| Yes, I even have to deal with Missionaries issues for those missionaries that are not at the meeting. |
