Mission Office Duties

We thought you might like knowing a little bit about our office day. We wake up at 5:00 in the morning and go for a walk around the city of Taichung.   There are two different very nice "Walking Park Streets" we walk through in the morning.  After stretching, reading, having breakfast, we get into the office at 9:00 a.m.   Although our duties are quite separate, we do help each other a lot, especially as we are learning our duties.

Elder Liston manages all of the mission finances.  Tasks include reimbursing missionaries for mission related expenses, assisting Elders with their monthly credit cards when they are not working, authorizing purchases of replacement apartment items, paying mission expenses, bank deposits, bank withdrawls, and budgeting and managing the mission budget with President Bishop. The paying of mission expenses includes all that is related to managing over 75 apartments (leases, utilities, furnishings, etc.)  I could go on and on with more details and activities, but I think this will suffice. The church has a sophisticated software program used in all missions making much of the financial work consistent and easier to manage. 

Sister Liston has the more complex and detailed responsibilities.  To put all she does on a work flow diagram would take up too much of Taiwan's real estate and more paper than the mission currently has in stock.  Think of managing the paperwork that goes along with 160 misisonaries, including more than 80 coming and 80 going each year.  Visa's, Passports, Alien Resident Cards, Medical Cards, numerous internal documents used by the President and Assistants, Travel plans to and from Taiwan, phone lists, Letters to parent-- pre missionaries--missionaries--stake presidents-- bishops, Missionary photos for various applications, etc., etc., etc.  The mission has a comprenesive data base which is the foundation for many of the reports, letters, applications, etc.  There are numerous queries which Sister Liston uses to create these letters and reports.
We are supported by two good office Elders who work very hard to support us.  The office Elders have duties outside the office, so we are often alone managing the mission office. We also work together on many tasks like mail, postage, paying bills at the local 7-eleven.    We are also supported by our predecessors, James and Joann Greene who are now back in Rexburg, but so very helpful when we call at least weekly. 
We also have faith that this is the work of our Heavenly Father, and we pray a lot to learn and do our jobs to support our wonderful missionaries who work tirelessly to bless the lives of the people they serve. We get home as early as 6:30 p.m. and as late as 8:30 at night.  Obviously we are tired.  One of the blessings of being so tired is better sleep. We feel like we are on a "crash course" learning how to swim while being thrown into the ocean, but we are learning.  We love working with President and Sister Bishop and all of the missionaries.  Serving our Father in Heaven is always rewarding.

Here are just a few pictures outside the mission office as well:

Looking out the front gate

Flowering tree in front of the mission office

Sidewalk in front of the mission office.