Setting Apart of New Missionary

We went to the stake center last night and my daughter was set apart to go on her mission to the Taiwan Taipei Mission. Our appointment was for 7:45p.m. after a bishop's training session with the area authority seventy. Of course the stake leadership was operating on Mormon Standard Time so we had to wait thirty minutes. The interesting thing is that originally the appointment was for 8:45p.m. but the stake president was hoping to be done sooner so he could go home since he had spent the whole day on Sunday there.

I had set up the appointment on Friday with the stake executive secretary. He was an interesting man who had worked for a Greek shipping line and he told me stories of going all over the Middle East. His company had done work for Kaddafi in Lebanon even when the country was under seige after the bombing of a U.S. ship. He told me how some man from Charleston helped them grow tomatoes when they set up an elaborate irrigation system. He was given a $250,000 bonus. The executive secretary says he helped the man get the job when he purchased a John Deere tractor from him in Walterboro, South Carolina. The man ended up working for the Lebanonese for about $2 million dollars a year. The secretary says the man once offered him a $28,000 Rolex but he turned it down since it was against company ethics policy.

The stake president talked to my daughter for about four minutes since he wanted to get to know her. Since she had gone to school at BYU--Idaho she had turned in her papers under her campus bishop and stake president. Later when she needed to submit them they had our local bishop and stake president sign them but since she wasn't here neither one had met her.

My wife and four of my children went in with the stake president. He made a brief remark to us and got right down to the setting apart. He set her apart as a missionary and most of her blessing was about her learning the language and getting along with companions. He encouraged her to stay in touch with former companions, members, and converts she would convert. The blessing lasted about eight minutes. He thanked us for coming and we left. It was a very economical blessing. I guess since we are new to the area and he was tired that he didn't have much to say to us.