Missionary Orientation Update. Week one.

I have not given up on this blog. I WILL fill it with interesting and relevant content. Your patience is appreciated.

I suppose you are wondering how the missionary orientation is going. Well, so am I. Have you heard the phrase, "information overload"? Whoever made up the phrase must have been a missionary. I would like to shake his hand and thank him for saving me the trouble of having to make up such an adequately descriptive catch-phrase, because, in my case, it is perfectly accurate.

With one exception, however. He never had to assimilate a load of data heavy enough to derail a diesel train while at the same time handling a brand new computer operating system. The challenge is greater than it seems.

I am computer literate, but for my entire computer-interfacing life I have used Microsoft Windows-based systems. Now it seems I must switch over to Apple-based products, as most interactions with International Missions require it. Another catch phrase that comes to mind is "baptism by fire" and not the Holy Spirit kind, either (more like the spirit of Steve Jobs (maybe that's it...the ghost of Jobs is haunting me!! (and I don't even believe in ghosts!))).

To what shall I liken the experience of using a new operating system? It would be like taking notes on a presentation about Asian monkeys, but using your toes to write instead of you fingers, just like a monkey would (which you would know had you been paying attention to the presentation). You know what it is you want to write, you know the shapes of the letters, and there are similarities between hands and feet (same basic structure, same number of digits, etc.). But try as you might you just can't tell the difference between a gibbon and an orangutan. Such has been my life.

Speaking of monkeys, I miss my kids.