Schedule Change, Mormon Battalion, Safari Park

At the 2017 Worldwide Missionary Broadcast, it was announced there would be changes to the daily schedule of the missionaries. We love that it gives a list of things that need to happen during certain hours of the day, but the missionaries can plan and decide for themselves when to schedule everything into their day.

It will be a better schedule for them on preparation day to be able to get started on their activities two hours earlier in the day. The thing the missionaries have expressed great happiness over is not needing to plan at night when they are so tired. I love the opportunity this schedule gives them to go to bed earlier if they feel they need more sleep.

Another change was the reporting of the key indicators. Pretty much since we got here, Glen had run the number analysis to determine the most important key indicators for the missionaries to be concerned about and to report on and he implemented that change soon after we got here.

The missionaries seemed to have a bit of an adjustment with the change in focus of what he wanted reported, but the numbers supported the necessity to concentrate on new investigators and investigators at church which lead to baptisms. The contacting goal which they had been working so hard to achieve each day was no longer tracked.

When the announcement came for which of the key indicators were to be reported, they are exactly the ones Glen was focusing on with the addition of investigators with a baptismal date.

We watched the broadcast in Murrieta with that zone and the Temecula zone in attendance. When this announcement was made, the whole group of missionaries turned in unison to look at their mission president in awe and with renewed respect in his ability to lead the mission in the right direction.

Almost immediately he received this text from a companionship of missionaries in another zone.

The assistants told us there was the same reaction with the missionaries in the building where they were attending the meeting.

Just gives us cause to pause and give thanks for revelation as it pertains to individual callings and the people to whom you have stewardship over.

We had another group of missionaries complete their First 12 Weeks of training and so it was time to take them and their trainers to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. But first it was a Mexican buffet lunch at Tequila Factory.

A few of the missionaries are ones that will be going home soon and have never had the chance to go to the Mormon Battalion.

We found ourselves with a couple of free hours on date night, so we decided to check out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We got in free with our zoo passes. The weather had finally made a change from the unseasonable cold and rainy to a bit warmer and sunny. We just couldn't pass it up.

My niece told us you see an elephant every day if you look for it. Well, I can say this is the only elephant I have seen since the last time I was at the San Diego Zoo... So I'm not so sure I believe that saying.

This zoo differs from other zoos. On the 1,800 acres of land, the animals are exhibited in a natural environment rather than in cages.

There was a lot of cactus growing in this particular part of the zoo.

You can walk around the zoo or you can pay (a lot of money) to take different safaris. The balloon safari was not in operation because of the wind.

This warning sign throughout the park made me want to steer clear of veering off the path.

The African safari tram ride was included in the price of admission (or in other words was free to us), so we took the last African safari ride of the day.

We had such a great, relaxing and enjoyable time at the safari park. We will definitely have to go back again and again until we see it all. It does a body good to get out in nature once in a while.