Our Mission continues

We have been serving for a while now and getting used to our new duties as Missionaries. Grandpa has been assigned as one of the teachers of the Career Workshop. He teaches candidates how to create a "me in 30 seconds". It is quite cool. Usually employers will ask you to tell them something about yourself. You have around 30 seconds to wow them before their mind starts to wander. This would be the time where you sell yourself. I wish I would have learned that many years ago.

Grandpa has been helping people that do not speak very much English. It makes me so proud of him when I hear him rattle off Spanish. He puts the people at ease when they come in looking for work. He was interviewing a husband and wife the other day. After it was all over he came over and talked to me. He felt bad for them because they were here illegally. They had been here for seven years and he had lost his job. He has a son that is graduating high school this year. I would imagine that they are probably looking over their shoulders all the time for fear someone will find out.

I have been made office coordinator. I get to play office and help people on the computers. When Missionaries come into the Employment office, a lot of them haven't really been on the computer much let a lone know about email and other programs that they have to learn. The employment program on the computer is pretty user friendly. We have to keep track of all the hours that we work. They are called consecrated hours. I made a spreadsheet that keeps each persons hours on a separate sheet and then totals them on a totals page. It automatically calculates the hours.

I have been working with a few people that have just lost their jobs. One lady comes in everyday and gets on the computer because she doesn't have Internet at home. She has applied for so many jobs but never hears back from them. Most companies want you to apply online and so sometimes you never get to meet them face to face. I get so attached to the people and find myself looking and looking for jobs for them. One thing I learned is that after you have an interview, it is good to send them a thank you note thanking them for their time. It really makes an impression on them.

Sometimes we are working with someone and spend quite a lot of time with them and they finally tell us that they haven't graduated from high school and don't have a GED. They feel so bad about themselves and hate to tell us. I didn't realize that their is a program to help them get their GED or even high school diploma. It takes longer to get the diploma but it is done online and can be accomplished as fast as the person wants to work on it.

If I can tell you children anything, get as much education as you can. It is never too late to go back to school. I wish I would have.