Quotes of the Week

Most often it is the sacrifices we make to keep our covenants that sanctify us and make us holy.
--Carol F. McConkie

Faith that motivates us to action gives us more access to His power.
--Russell M. Nelson

You cannot speak of the light in the world without speaking of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.
--Mark A. Bragg

Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, ... the Holy Ghost will have a sanctifying and purifying effect on your spirit.
--Henry B. Eyring

Zone Conference and Meeting With Missionaries From MCRD

Zone conference week was upon us. One of the elders had asked me to accompany him while he sang a solo. It gave me the excuse to have to spend time practicing the piano. It is something I definitely enjoy and do not get to do very often. I am so thankful we have a piano in the mission home.

The past couple of zone conferences we have only had two zone conferences instead of three because our total number of missionaries has been down. Next time we'll go back up to three because our numbers are definitely increasing.

Our first zone conference this transfer was with the Vista, Del Mar and Carlsbad zones. It was held at our favorite location--at the mission office church building in Vista. That huge double chapel building is wonderful for meetings.

We always do trainings which include the missionaries breaking off into small groups to do teaching role plays.

Lunch is always a highlight. The ladies prepared a delicious taco salad for us with brownies and ice cream for dessert. The stake Relief Society president in charge of lunch usually will include women who have missionaries out in the field help with the meal.

In my previous post I mentioned how relaxed we felt at Legoland on our date night and how we felt like things were running pretty smoothly...

Well, the VERY NEXT DAY we were bombarded with issues that needed immediate and ongoing attention to try and get things resolved. 

We felt very discouraged, to say the least. Made us even more thankful for our evening's respite from the rigors of overseeing a mission.

On top of all that, we came home to see our front yard was flooded and precious water was FLOWING down our driveway. Glen could not figure out where it was coming from. He called our guy from the church who oversees our property who told Glen to take pictures of it and send to him. 

The next morning the water was still flowing as we departed for our second day of zone conference. 

Glen saw a guy down the street take a picture of all the water running down the driveway and into the street and was sure he was going to turn us in. 

Nothing we could do about it. We were on our way to Murrieta for zone conference with the Murrieta, Temecula and Escondido zones. 

The lunch ladies had some cute centerpieces on each table.

They fed us sloppy joes, salad, chips, watermelon and brownies for dessert.

As the last of the elders were leaving, they asked me to take a picture of them posed on the steps. 

And then a serious pose. Looks like the man in the back wasn't feeling very serious. Can you blame him? Nothing but smiles for us when zone conferences are completed.

One of the sisters jumped in the scene and wanted to be photographed with all the elders. I wasn't feeling it, so her companion joined her.

As I was reluctantly getting ready to take the photo, I had to chuckle when the sister on the right stepped into the pose and photo bombed the picture.

I am happy to report when we returned home that day, the driveway was dry. Someone had been out to deal with the flooding/flowing water problem.

We took an evening walk since we had been unable to walk that morning and also to unwind a bit. Glen wanted to walk through the South Carlsbad Beach Campground. He thinks it is so entertaining. And he grumbles all throughout our walk about how much he hates camping. And don't think for a second we will ever go camping, etc., etc., etc.

This sign caught my eye. His regular greeting to everyone each day is "Just another day in paradise!" Combine his favorite saying with a camper and a couple of pink plastic flamingos and it really tickled me pink!!  

Our missionaries (the 6 on the back left) teach at Edson Range on Camp Pendleton each Sunday. The other missionaries are from the San Diego Mission and do their teaching at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.

The branch president in charge of both locations called a meeting to do some training to make sure both places are communicating with each other about the recruits who spend several weeks at MCRD, then go to Edson Range and back again a few weeks later to MCRD.

No one wants to have any of the recruits get lost in the shuffle. So an ongoing coordination effort is in place to make sure that doesn't happen.

No recruit left behind!!!

Interviews, Mid-Transfer Craziness, Date Night at Legoland

We spent a day up north for Glen to interview all the Murrieta and Temecula zone missionaries. It's a good way for me to see the new missionaries and see for myself how I feel like they are doing.

It seems like every preparation day there is an injured missionary. This time it was this sister. They were playing soccer. When she lifted her leg to kick the ball, another sister missionary kicked her in the leg.

It has been very painful for her and it is taking a while to heal.

These sisters were spending an unusually long time in the entryway between the doors dealing with a phone call. At first I thought they looked so darling just standing there having a conversation with an investigator.

When the call finally ended, they were both a bit shaken. They had been getting an earful of anti-Mormon stuff. It hurt their hearts that the woman was so bitter against the Church.

Turns out it was a blessing for them to have an interview with their mission president right after that happened. It got them back into a better frame of mind.

Another day we spent in Escondido interviewing all the missionaries in that zone.

That was the day I saw this news article and wanted to warn all our future visitors they might want to rethink going into the ocean. You never know what might be lurking in the water!!

We had another day of Glen interviewing the missionaries in the Vista zone. He does that at the mission office church building. 

This is the bulletin board right outside the mission office. These sisters just redecorated it. The other missionaries are now finding their state or country and writing their names on it. Cute interactive display.

The paper that is offered (right hand corner) is the mission newsletter. Glen and I write a little blurb for it each time it is published--which is once a transfer. Glen has the natural ability to just immediately come up with an idea and sit down and get it written just like that. For me, it takes LOTS of thinking and LOTS of effort, but when it is done, I always feel really good about it.

We both get inspired. My inspiration just takes a little more work and a lot longer. I am always thankful Glen is able to work at a lot higher speed than me. He has a lot more work to get done each day.

These elders are by the door leading into the mission office.

I liked how these two companions both wore striped ties. Comp unity!!

We had a huge group of missionaries scheduled to go home at the end of August. Half of them were asking if they could go home early to prepare to go to school.

So Glen did an unprecedented thing. A thing he said he will never do again. He scheduled a mid-transfer go home date.

We fixed the usual roast beef departing meal. We had a testimony meeting. We posed for a photo.

Elders Madero, Denbow, Castleton, Fox and Saxey

Sisters Mitchell, Nielson and Blacker

They spent the night with us in the mission home and we took them to the temple the next morning before dropping them off at the airport.

We have been watching this uniquely shaped building being built not too far from our home. As soon as the words "INDOOR SKYDIVING" appeared on it, Glen immediately wrote in his weekly letter to the missionaries that it is an unapproved preparation day activity.

Don't want anybody getting any ideas...!!!

When we purchased Legoland tickets when we went with Jeff and Sarah's family, we got a season pass to go back an unlimited amount of times until the end of the year. It was no extra cost to do so and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

One date night we decided to go to Legoland. We had figured out a place where we can park on the street (where we park to walk around the Flower Fields) and walk through a gate going into the parking lot of Legoland. By doing so, we can avoid the parking fees.

Legoland here we come!!!!

Almost immediately we saw a brand new Lego creation. They all amaze me as I think about a person laboriously putting together all those Lego pieces just so to form fun and entertaining works of art.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to get our picture taken standing next to Emmet. We thought our grandchildren would think we are pretty cool when they see this photo.

We rode the Lost Kingdom Adventure ride and shot laser blasters as we battled mummies, skeletons and snakes. My blaster did not seem to be registering all the perfect shots I made and Glen's score ended up blasting right past mine.

Oh well! I'm not any good at video games and I'm not that competitive either.

We looked around at our dining options and decided on the Garden Restaurant. 

It was a fabulous choice. We sat outside behind the restaurant where there were hardly any people. It was beautiful, quiet and peaceful and the food turned out to be very delicious.

We were sitting there reviewing our week. We were feeling like things appeared to be going pretty smoothly. We were having less problems and really felt like we were experiencing a bit of a breather. It felt good!

Although the true highlight of the evening was our lovely dining experience, another highlight came after we stood in line for 30 minutes waiting to get on the new Ninjago ride.

We had ridden that ride with Sarah's family and much to everyone's amazement and disbelief--I was the high scorer of everyone, including the two men. 

Glen wanted to redeem himself and insisted we wait in the long line to do so. It turned out to be an enjoyable wait as a family from one of the wards in Temecula was in line behind us so we had a nice visit with them.

Final score at the end of the game:

I think the picture says it all. Still the reigning family champion. 

Anyone else want to challenge me at Ninjago? (But it has to be before the end of the year while we can still get in for free.)

Feeding the Missionaries, Lake Calavera and the Volcano

We have been so blessed to have Glen remain well the whole year plus that we have been in California. Not so much as a sniffle. Until recently.

It started the Saturday night before we went to church on Camp Pendleton. Sunday morning he woke up feeling terrible with his nose running like crazy. But he insisted we go there anyway. His feeling was the recruits are always sick anyway. Which was true last year when we were there. Not so true this time when we went...

Anyway, off we went to spend the morning with the recruits. He had lined us up another couple of sacrament meetings to attend the rest of the day as he usually does. When we finished up there and got in the car, he basically said he didn't think he could do any more meetings.

We came home and he went straight to bed for a 2 1/2 hour nap. The poor guy was SICK!! His coughing and nose blowing continued straight into the next day. We were both so happy it was a Monday and we didn't have to go out of the house for anything. He could stay nestled around his computer in his sweat pants and t-shirt with a tissue box nearby working on the missionaries' letters all day long.

He didn't feel that great when he woke up Tuesday morning, but we were off to the races--meaning off to do missionary work as usual--all day long.

The sister missionaries serving in the ward where we live told us of a couple of nights they did not have dinner appointments and asked if we could feed them either of those nights. I felt like they were taking a gamble walking into our germ-laden home to eat dinner, but in they came.

This cartoon made me laugh when I first read it.

It would probably be more funny if the missionaries we fed were elders instead of sisters. We actually had plenty of leftovers after the sisters had eaten.

These two elders had given "the shirts off their backs" or in this case the ties off their necks to an investigator to get him to church.

The Radfords (office couple) mentioned to the elders that they were going to Nordstrom Rack so Sister Radford could buy Elder Radford a Penguin tie (popular brand with the elders) and the elders asked the Radfords if they would buy new Penguin ties for them and they would pay the Radfords back.

They are all sporting their new Penguin ties.

We frequently have visitors stop by the mission office. This day we had RM Elder Kyle Willes make a visit bringing along with him his mom and his sister.

Here is President Thomas taking a very short few minutes out of his busy MLC (Mission Leadership Council) day to shovel down his lunch. He was tied up with a long phone call.

We had RM Elder Jason Parkinson and his parents also wanting to visit with Glen for a bit during our lunch break.

This is our MLC. They are all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission.

After zone conference RM Elder Bryan Ellis and his wife Alecia were waiting outside the door to visit with us for a few minutes. It is so sweet of our former missionaries to want to bring by their beloveds to introduce them to us. It is a joy to see when a good match is happening--or has happened as in this case.

We knew RM Elder Clayton Horton was coming to town. He arranged to meet us at a baptism he had come to attend. He had his parents and two sisters traveling with him.

One evening I went out to collect the mail and found a box with cookies carefully cushioned inside. They were from my niece Rachel. She knows Glen loves burnt cookies and was sending him a care package.

Her note and letter really brightened our day. So cute! So sweet of her!

And Glen loved them! He ate them the next day. She was hoping they would arrive unbroken. We assured her she had done an excellent job protecting them with her excellent package packing.

This particular Sunday we attended a YSA ward up in Murrieta and ran into RM Sister Lauren Middleton who is now back in the mission boundaries working for a member and attending the YSA ward.

One of our Monday morning adventures took us to Lake Calavera and an inactive volcano which is not very far from our home.

It's a bit of a fake out as you begin on a very nicely paved path which takes you down by the lake.

Pretty soon we were on a trail which took us all around the inactive volcano.

This is the trail on the back side of the volcano.

Glen was feeling adventuresome and decided to climb straight up the volcano to see what he could see. I didn't feel like my lungs and knees and feet could handle the climb, so I enjoyed the scenery while he was gone.

Once he got to "the top" he discovered there was another big hill to climb and he didn't feel like tackling that one.

Meanwhile, as I was waiting for him, I discovered this cave.

This is a good view of the volcanic plug--which is when magma from an existing volcano builds up in the neck of the volcano and solidifies and the surrounding sediment is eroded over time.

This is a look at the lake on our way back out when the sun is shining.

We love discovering new places to go and new things to see. So amazed at all the unique things we see in nature.