Finances, Facts, Fiction and the Future
We are now well underway with November, so I thought I had better get all of the paperwork done for October while there is even a remote possibility that I can remember all of October. I'm talking about turning in receipts and reporting expenses.
We report to two different presidents: The mission president and the stake president. For all expenses relating to the missionaries, as well as our expenses, we turn in receipts to the mission office in London. The mileage and gas used to get from one missionary apartment to another to do inspections is reported and reimbursed. The money we spent buying replacement light bulbs, shower curtains, wall mirrors etc. is also reimbursed by the mission.
The money we spend on cooking for the YSAs is reimbursed through the Reading Stake. Up until this last week, even though the powers that be were quite willing to reimburse what we had spent, with no bank account, it would have been just a little more complex. So now everything is lined up and we are on target.
Nevertheless, to order all receipts, label and talley them took awhile this afternoon, not to mention filling out the forms. Ah paperwork! I don't mind, really. But I don't think I would have done well as a CPA.
Today is Monday and that means Family Home Evening. It was held at the Bishop's home this evening. It is every month on the Monday after Fast Sunday. Knowing that dinner is at our flat on Fast Sunday, the Bishop and his wife thought it would be nice to host dinner, lesson and activity there. And it was very nice.
Sister Felin seems to carry off the meal and everything else with such ease. She always uses crockpots, which I think is wise. I'm going to start using them more. Both she and her husband are attractive people in their 40's. He is a professor of business at Oxford. Their home is filled with books, and is a very comfortable environment for students.
For the activity, the Bishop asked that each person there ask any question, and he would answer it. So there were a variety of questions, most very serious. I thought some would be funny, but the young adults there wrote very thoughtful queries, and the answers from the the Felins were equally as thoughtful, with a touch of humor. I very much enjoyed it.
Someone asked if it is possible to balance two careers (husband and wife) with a family, another asked how to deal with gospel questions with faith, and another how will you know when you have found the right person. Some things don't change. Those are questions you might have gotten from any group of young single adults in the world.
After that activity, we were divided into 2 groups and given trivial pursuit questions, a game I always enjoy. I was actually able to help my team, but I felt bad because one question was "Which Puccini opera was Mimi in?" I should have known La Boheme, but I said Tosca. Argh!!! We lost by one point.
I have had a little time to do some reading today, and so opted to read about this wonderful city we are residing in. A very kind ward member loaned me several of these and the other ones were here when we got here. They are full of all kinds of interesting things.
Among others, are the books that have a close kinship to Oxford:
You almost certainly know that J.R.R. Tolkien living and wrote here, and that his good friend C.S. Lewis did as well. Lewis Carroll lived here 33 years and wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Oxford, inspired by the Dean's daughter Alice. T.S. Eliot lived here for a couple of years, Henry James, T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of of Arabia), and John Ruskin were also famous residents, and a whole host of lesser known authors, not to mention academics of all sorts.
This city is steeped in an atmosphere of learning Our YSAs, who are studying Anthropology, Korean Studies, Pharmacology, Business, American Literature, European History, Tax Law, among other things, still make studying the gospel with faith a priority. I love that about them.
.
We report to two different presidents: The mission president and the stake president. For all expenses relating to the missionaries, as well as our expenses, we turn in receipts to the mission office in London. The mileage and gas used to get from one missionary apartment to another to do inspections is reported and reimbursed. The money we spent buying replacement light bulbs, shower curtains, wall mirrors etc. is also reimbursed by the mission.
The money we spend on cooking for the YSAs is reimbursed through the Reading Stake. Up until this last week, even though the powers that be were quite willing to reimburse what we had spent, with no bank account, it would have been just a little more complex. So now everything is lined up and we are on target.
Nevertheless, to order all receipts, label and talley them took awhile this afternoon, not to mention filling out the forms. Ah paperwork! I don't mind, really. But I don't think I would have done well as a CPA.
Today is Monday and that means Family Home Evening. It was held at the Bishop's home this evening. It is every month on the Monday after Fast Sunday. Knowing that dinner is at our flat on Fast Sunday, the Bishop and his wife thought it would be nice to host dinner, lesson and activity there. And it was very nice.
Sister Felin seems to carry off the meal and everything else with such ease. She always uses crockpots, which I think is wise. I'm going to start using them more. Both she and her husband are attractive people in their 40's. He is a professor of business at Oxford. Their home is filled with books, and is a very comfortable environment for students.
For the activity, the Bishop asked that each person there ask any question, and he would answer it. So there were a variety of questions, most very serious. I thought some would be funny, but the young adults there wrote very thoughtful queries, and the answers from the the Felins were equally as thoughtful, with a touch of humor. I very much enjoyed it.
Someone asked if it is possible to balance two careers (husband and wife) with a family, another asked how to deal with gospel questions with faith, and another how will you know when you have found the right person. Some things don't change. Those are questions you might have gotten from any group of young single adults in the world.
After that activity, we were divided into 2 groups and given trivial pursuit questions, a game I always enjoy. I was actually able to help my team, but I felt bad because one question was "Which Puccini opera was Mimi in?" I should have known La Boheme, but I said Tosca. Argh!!! We lost by one point.
I have had a little time to do some reading today, and so opted to read about this wonderful city we are residing in. A very kind ward member loaned me several of these and the other ones were here when we got here. They are full of all kinds of interesting things.
Among others, are the books that have a close kinship to Oxford:
You almost certainly know that J.R.R. Tolkien living and wrote here, and that his good friend C.S. Lewis did as well. Lewis Carroll lived here 33 years and wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Oxford, inspired by the Dean's daughter Alice. T.S. Eliot lived here for a couple of years, Henry James, T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of of Arabia), and John Ruskin were also famous residents, and a whole host of lesser known authors, not to mention academics of all sorts.
This city is steeped in an atmosphere of learning Our YSAs, who are studying Anthropology, Korean Studies, Pharmacology, Business, American Literature, European History, Tax Law, among other things, still make studying the gospel with faith a priority. I love that about them.
.
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