Ward Mission Leader Appreciation Dinner, Roadside Attraction

Glen has the BEST men working with him in his mission presidency--President John Burgon and President Israel Marín.

President Marín suggested they have a Ward Mission Leader Appreciation Dinner for all the ward mission leaders and their wives from all of the six stakes in our mission.

He suggested they have the dinner at his house. We made the invitations and got them out to the missionaries to give to their ward mission leaders.

President Marín's family all ended up chipping in to help decorate, park the cars, cook and serve the meal.

The oldest Marín son (on the left in the family portrait) has returned home from his mission and their middle son (on the right) is now serving a mission. Hence the following decoration hung in their home.

"And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19)

They had the idea to use missionary name tags for all the guests. Natalie was happily greeting the people as they arrived and helped them find their personalized name tags.

Their home is definitely a party-sized home. They were able to fit seven long tables in their family room besides their gigantic dining room table. The flowers they had everywhere were absolutely gorgeous.

There were plenty of seats for all who chose to attend. The chicken dinner was delicious. Glen and his counselors gave wonderful messages to the group. I have the feeling word will get out to those who were not in attendance and they will make it a point to be there next time.

President Marín insisted we take home some flowers with us. He presented us with this lovely arrangement and another huge bunch of flowers in a vase. Their family is so generous with all they have and with their time. They are truly people who consecrate themselves to the Lord's work.

On one of our recent drives home from Temecula, we spotted smoke and fire up ahead. This is what we saw as we drove by. It was a frightening sight. More like something you would see in the movies and not in real life.

Since we haven't heard differently, we're going to assume the people got out safely. And we'll assume a forest fire did not start raging since it looked like the nearby roadside brush had started on fire.