We had our Christmas Family Home Evening with the senior missionaries. Glen cooked prime rib. They all seemed to enjoy themselves. My favorite part is when we gather in a circle after dinner and share missionary experiences we have had. This time we talked a lot about Elder Wakolo's visit and teachings.
(From left to right) Brother and Sister Neal; Elder and Sister Radford; Elder and Sister Sattley; Elder and Sister Sweetwood; Elder and Sister Kopenhefer; Sister Atkinson in the green--her husband was sick; Sister Maughan in the white--her husband was taking the picture; Sister Miller in the red
We got an early start driving north to spend the day interviewing the Temecula zone missionaries and the Murrieta zone missionaries.
We had a fun double date night planned at the end of the day when we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant with the Temecula stake president and his wife, President and Sister Ham. He served his mission in Italy and it was fun for him to reminisce about that over dinner.
She has always been so loving and caring since the moment we arrived in the mission. She always offers us their home whenever we are in the area to stop by and rest if we need it.
The next day we started interviews in Carlsbad at the church right around the corner from our home.
One day we were able to time our morning walk so we could go inside the Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park.
It was a beautiful entrance leading down into the walled park. This is where we saw the beware of coyotes sign and had walked all around the outside perimeter of the park a previous day.
Leo Carrillo Ranch--Rancho de Los Kiotes--I think that is Spanish for "there are coyotes all around the ranch"!!!
But don't let the fear of coyotes prevent you from enjoying your visit. Bienvenido friends!
Glen took a moment to reminisce his childhood days when he went hauling cattle with his dad.
Some peacocks were roaming the ranch. (I guess the coyotes stay outside the walls of the ranch.)
Leo Carrillo was an actor who had these adobe and wood buildings built as a retreat, working ranch, and tribute to old California culture and architecture.
The ranch originally covered 2,538 acres and was frequented by Carrillo and his friends until 1960.
Leo Carrillo was a strong, positive, and well-loved role model who sought to celebrate California's early Spanish heritage through a life of good deeds and charitable causes.
And I learned all that information from this plaque situated near the caretaker's cottage.
We went on a teaching appointment with some sister missionaries in the Del Mar zone and enjoyed an Italian meal with them after the lesson. Italian food seemed to be the theme of the week.
We were back at the mission office building at the end of the week for Mission Leadership Council. Sister Radford had the mission office all decked out in holiday attire with a glass nativity set on the end table,
and a big, beautiful wooden nativity on her desk.
Sister Miller even decorated her little corner of the office. She made do with what space she has and I loved her ingenuity.
Sister Penrod is a Young Church Service missionary who comes in every Friday to help with whatever needs to be done in the office. This particular day the tree was bare when we arrived and by the time we had a break in MLC, the tree was decorated. Impressive!
Since then Sister Radford has put beautifully wrapped, matching-the-tree gifts under the tree.
It is always a surprise to see what Sister Radford has "cooked up for us" for our lunches at our various meetings. This day it was sandwiches from Yellow Deli. The missionaries have been trying to get us to go eat there with them since we arrived in the mission.
Since it's a sandwich place, I haven't been that eager to go since I'm trying to not eat gluten. Sister Radford ordered a couple of meals on rice bread and so I can now say I've eaten at Yellow Deli. Well, not exactly "at" Yellow Deli, but I consider this pretty much the same.
We had a wonderful MLC where all the zone leaders, sister training leaders and assistants counseled together to decide which things Elder Wakolo had taught us we should focus on at zone conference. They came prepared to share what they had learned.
After it was all listed on the board, we grouped up the learnings into various topics and assigned them out to small groups of missionaries who discussed together and then presented to the group why their topic would be most beneficial to teach in zone conference.
We voted on which topics were our top three picks and that is the direction we are taking for zone conference.
We made assignments for who will teach what in their respective zone conferences and gave them time to get together and plan what they will do.
For date night we attended Del Mar's musical production. It was very fabulous complete with adult choir, children's choir, orchestra and bells. I enjoyed it very much.
On Sunday we do as we usually do where Glen randomly picks three different wards to attend and then we watch what happens and see the neat things that happen as the day unfolds.
I was a good sport and got up super early to go up to Temecula with him for his 7 a.m. missionary coordination meeting so we could attend a 9 a.m. sacrament meeting.
Since it was fast and testimony meeting, it was interesting to hear various ward members in all the wards sharing their testimonies. One man had been so anxious to greet Glen when we arrived. He got up to share his testimony and told about how he was homesick for his son who had recently left for his mission. When he saw Glen's smiling face, he thought about how he just knew his son had a mission president and wife who would be showing love for him.
At the second ward Glen shared his testimony. Afterward the Goss family came up and asked if we are related to Jacob Thomas in Omaha. He shared with us that Jacob replaced him in the bishopric when they moved to California. They love Jacob's family.
The third meeting it became apparent we were there for the missionaries in that ward. After dinner Glen had a missionary coordination meeting with the Carlsbad stake. Another full and productive day in the California Carlsbad Mission.
1 comment:
I loved how knowledgeable you were about Leo Carillo. I assumed you had gotten your perfectly-worded information from Google. I had to smile when you revealed it was from the plaque.
Yellow Deli? Why have you never suggested we try that place out when we're there? I guess I'm now starting a new list of things I want to do when we visit again - coyote trail, pay homage to Leo, and eat at Yellow Deli.
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