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.