Easter Weekend

The Saturday before Easter we had been invited to the Spanish ward in Escondido to help the missionaries with a fabulous missionary activity for the children. It was a little mini mission experience.

When they arrived, the Primary children were given a missionary name tag with a different colored star on it.

The star color indicated which class they started in at the MTC.

This room is the plan of salvation class. In another room a woman taught the children about good nutrition. 

The sisters taught them how to take care of and fold clothes.

They opened up their mission calls and boarded an airplane where one of our elders provided in-flight entertainment.

Upon landing, the children went to their various mission destinations. Glen filled in at the last minute in the Mexico mission room.

The children went back into the Primary room where we did an activity with them.

Glen read Doctrine and Covenants 18:15-16 "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father?"

He went over to one child and gave the child a pass along card and invited him to come to church with him and brought him to the front of the room. That was one soul and they had joy. Glen had them both jump for joy.

Then continuing on with the scripture, "And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"

So then Glen and the boy took pass along cards and invited more children and they came to the front and everyone jumped for joy. That group took pass along cards and invited more and more. And a bigger group jumped for joy. We continued it until every child was standing in the front and had jumped for joy.

The kids loved it and hopefully they will get the message to use their pass along cards to invite their friends to come to church with them. When they do, they will be filled with joy!

Closing prayer and then time for the Easter egg hunt. The smallest of the children were sent out into the inner yard to hunt for their eggs.

The older children lined up to be let outside the fenced area to do their Easter egg hunting.

This group of elders and sisters did a wonderful job helping the children have a terrific experience at their activity that day.

Soon we had our recovering appendectomy elder and his companion dropped off to us by their zone leaders.

We were on our way to the Murrieta stake conference, and were driving right by Temecula where the Burgons live and where our elder was going to be recovering under their watchful care.

But first, both elders were starving and a request was made to stop at IHOP. No one could tell that one of these elders had just gotten out of the hospital from surgery. Not by the way he ate. Maybe by the way he walked...very slowly and trying not to jostle his stomach too much.

How wonderful it was to see our sweet Burgon friends and know how well they had been caring for our previous sick elder.

Now here they were taking in another one in need of rest and supervision. It turned out to be a blessing for both elders to have each other as companions at that time. Their companions became companions for a few days so they would not be stuck in the sick house all day.

This is our Monday morning walk around the Flower Fields. We are taking full advantage of the beautiful scenery for the few months the ranunculus are in bloom.

I had Glen drive us to the neighborhood across the way again so I could get another picture of the American flag. The yellow border flowers were looking beautiful.

The strawberry field has become our stop after the Flower Fields. Glen loves the taste of the fresh-picked strawberries each morning with his ham and egg English muffin and chocolate protein shake.

He has always said he doesn't like chocolate-covered strawberries. I tease him about how he's pretty much eating chocolate-covered strawberries with his chocolate shake/strawberry morning combo.

Upon opening the Church News, I noticed immediately the photo of the beautiful man and his radiant son in the picture. He is Glen's counselor President Marín. We love our counselors so very, very much!! They both epitomize the words 'Kindness, Charity and Love' in all they do and say.

We are blessed to be able to associate with them and their families.

Look how our Costco shopping experience turned out this trip.

This mission president wants to have something fun for his children and grandchildren to look forward to when they come to visit us.