Quotes of the Week

We are living in the most crucial era in the history of the world. As a people we need to be looking and acting like true followers of Jesus Christ.
--Russell M. Nelson

As we honor our covenants and keep the commandments, striving consistently to do good and become better we can walk with confidence that God will guide our steps.
--David A. Bednar

Ask yourself, "Are there things in my life I should start, stop, or continue doing?" Seemingly small actions or attitudes carried on over time can set important long-term trajectories. "Out of small things proceedeth that which is great." Doctrine and Covenants 64:33
--Gerrit W. Gong

Remember, my dear young friends, the future holds everything for you. Be faithful. Believe. The Lord will bless you.
--Jeffrey R. Holland

Quotes of the Week

Remember that any failure is only temporary in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The decision to carry on in spite of disappointment turns the worst circumstance into success.
--Patricia Holland

When He is the center of your home, there is peace and serenity. There is a spirit of assurance that pervades the home, and it is felt by all who dwell there.
--Richard G. Scott

He is Alpha and Omega--with us in the beginning, He is with us to the end.
--Gerrit W. Gong

I believe in God's perfection, and I know we are His spiritual sons and daughters with divine potential to become as He is.
--Jeffrey R. Holland

Dinner with Pages, Senior Home Evening, Mission President Interviews Begin--Interrupted by Foot Surgery

Date night was with President and Sister Page at The Fish Market Restaurant. He is a counselor in the Del Mar stake presidency. They have been called to preside over a mission starting in July.

They are anxiously awaiting news of where they will be serving. As with other newly-called Mission Presidents, he has had a lot of questions.

We had planned to go to the Escondido stake's Bethlehem Walk after dinner, but ended up visiting for a long time with the Pages and decided to opt out of that activity that evening.

We were going to try to go the next evening, but when we went to a baptism in Escondido, a companionship of our sister missionaries needed a ride back to Carlsbad and so we again opted out of the Bethlehem Walk to help them. 

While waiting for the baptism to begin, we pretty much did a Bethlehem Walk when we walked through the cultural hall which was all set up for a ward party. We were very impressed with all the work that had been put into decorating for that activity.

After the baptism we saw a lot of the people from the ward arriving and they were all decked out in robes and looking the part of people from the town of Bethlehem.

Like everything else, it sure seems like our evening with the senior missionaries rolls around quickly. Every six weeks. It's our cycle. Things occur in six-week cycles.

It was fun to see so many of our missionaries decked out in Christmas colors. President and Sister Marín do not usually attend because they still have children at home, but we were glad they came and brought their daughter Natalie with them. They had the opportunity to share with the group that they have been called to preside over a Spanish-speaking mission beginning in July.

Like the Pages, they do not know their assigned mission yet. They are anticipating somewhere in Mexico as that is where they both are from. The Maríns will be taking their two youngest children with them. Natalie says she and her older brother are excited to go and wish they could go now instead of waiting until July.

Michael Maughan always insists on taking the photo (unless he's not there and then I do my selfie magic). So, I snagged a photo of him to document he was there. He's the husband of one of our nurses--the one in the red and white striped skirt.

Our lovely nurses Sister Probst, Sister Maughan and Sister Neal had a fun time going to lunch and shopping for Christmas gifts to give us. I love the gold-thread pillow and throw blanket. The pillow was featured in a previous blog post sitting on the middle cushion of the white couch. Looks so elegant.

Glen was unable to get his letters all finished that day because of me having a pre-op foot doctor appointment that afternoon and then the senior missionaries lingered longer that evening.

He rarely lets the letters run over into the next day, but he had to get to bed so he could be ready to face a long day of interviewing two zones of missionaries.

We spent Tuesday morning in Temecula and drove to Murrieta to interview that zone's missionaries in the afternoon. The assistants spent time with each companionship doing a training with them.

I laughed when I saw the sister on the left reading her Book of Mormon upside down. She said she found this book that had been printed wrong and she has loved using it. A person certainly does a double-take when seeing someone reading a book upside down.

Glen managed to finish up his letters late Tuesday evening. It was very late because two former missionaries stopped by to visit. Hermana Hawkins and Hermana Terrón were sent here by the Missionary Department so they could do some filming for a video. 

They were here to reenact their part of teaching Lorenzo, one of their converts, about the gospel and taking him on a church tour to help him get comfortable with attending church. They are soon to be famous when the video makes its appearance on lds.org!! 

On Wednesday we were back at it doing interviews all morning with the Carlsbad zone and then we drove to the Cardiff building where we spent the afternoon doing interviews with the Del Mar zone missionaries. 

Glen had gotten a text from a distressed missionary asking if she could meet with him. We rushed to the mission office after the interviews were completed so he could meet with her for a while. By the time we got home and were eating a late dinner, Glen realized he had not gotten anybody to help him give me a blessing. He was going to ask one of the missionaries to help him at the end of interviews, but then we rushed out of there so fast we forgot.

Ahhhh! What to do?!? He called some missionaries who live nearby and they came over after they finished up Christmas caroling. Four of them stopped by and I insisted they sing a Christmas carol to me right then and there. They sang a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells," much to my delight, and I thanked them profusely for that bright spot in our evening.

Then we had a lovely, spiritual experience with them as they helped Glen give me a blessing in preparation for my foot surgery the next day. It always makes me feel so much more calm going into surgery when I have received a priesthood blessing. 

Generally we do interviews for four days in a row to get all the missionaries done in the same week. But this week was not an ordinary week. We had only enough free days that week for two days of interviews.

Surgery on Thursday and recovery day on Friday prevented us from keeping our regular schedule. It was off to the surgery center for me. I was not up first on the schedule, so I didn't have to arrive until 9:15. Traffic was horrible and we didn't get there until 9:30.

I was a nervous wreck about that, but then they didn't call me back until 10:15 to change into a hospital gown.

Dr. Dustin came in and chatted it up for a while with us. He marked the surgery spots on my foot and put his initials on my foot and then in came the anesthesiologist. 

I had happened to see this cartoon come up on the computer a few days earlier and thought it was so funny in lieu of my impending surgery. I was hoping to get the same anesthesiologist for this foot surgery as I had last foot surgery because it was the best surgery experience ever! 

  

In he walked and he was the SAME ONE!!! I was SO HAPPY!!! My biggest memory was I did not get an IV line put in until I was back in the surgery room and the anesthesiologist put it in first try, slick as a whistle. 

It was going to be happening the same way this time! Hurrah!! I love this surgery center!!

BUT!!!! There is ONE THING I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT LIKE about this surgery center. Both times I have been there with foot problems. Both times they have had me walk myself down a long hallway to the surgery room only wearing hospital socks and it causes me excruciating pain! 

BOTH my feet have problems! BOTH my feet hurt! BOTH my feet are in need of constant cushioning! At all times! Even in the shower! I NEVER walk on a hard floor without shoes or sandals. EVER!!!! 

But, I lived to tell the tale. I was warned that I would be aware of what was going on in the surgery room. That is always a freaky thought for me. But, if I could survive having my pacemaker implanted while being awake, I figured I would survive having my foot worked on while being awake knowing that he would be doing local deadening. 

I remember the first part of them getting ready to begin working on me and I remember them finishing up and getting me ready to transport (note: I did NOT have to WALK myself) to the recovery room, but other than that, it's a blur (thankfully!). 

It made me happy to have a good view of the festively decorated nurses' desk as I was recovering. Then it made me happy to see my dear husband/soon-to-be-doting-home-care nurse come in and sit down by my side. 

This is the view he was looking at...

It took no time at all (it felt like to me) before I was recovered enough to get dressed and wheeled out of there (note: thankfully I did NOT have to WALK myself out of the surgery center!).

We got settled at home with my foot propped up and my able nurse close by to feed me meals and put ice on for 20 minutes every hour. He's like clockwork with the ice. I have learned to be ready because there's no stopping him when it's time for the ice!!

The first few times I had to get up to go to the bathroom, he was right there ready to put on my big boot. I looked at him as my Prince Charming with the glass slipper. So handsome!! So romantic!!

I've come to love this boot of mine. This is now the third surgery for this poor right foot. It is going to be cushioning my left foot before too long.

I had a good two days of resting and recovering before I faced reality again.

This was a small dose of reality when the three assistants came to our house for our weekly planning meeting. That way I didn't have to get dressed in church clothes and go out. I could be icing and elevating my foot while we had our meeting.

The assistants came bearing flowers.

President and Sister Marín had brought us a red poinsettia the other night and the assistants brought me a white poinsettia with a cute snowman stick in it. I thought it was so kind of them to do that.

I haven't been the only family member in stitches these days. 

We got the horrible news that Mark's son Caleb was hit from behind by a truck as he was walking along a road in the dark in Honduras. His head was cracked open, but through miraculous events, his life was spared and he is able to function normally. What a blessing!!!!

Dad had surgery on his eyelids to repair the droopiness of his lower lids which he apparently inherited from his father. He sent some photos of how he looks after surgery and it's pretty grotesque. I will spare him the indignity of posting those online for the few followers who read my blog. 

Just take my word for it--he's got some eyes only his wife could love right now. Mom, you're a good woman!! Take good care of him!! He will soon be that handsome man you fell in love with once again, I am sure!

Transfer #22, Aboard the Midway, O Child Divine, Abe's Polar Express Children

We had a small group of missionaries going home with this transfer--just three elders and one sister. We fed them dinner as usual--the regular specialty of the house--roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn and fruit.

We took the traditional photo on the stairs of them after we had testimony meeting. They spent the night in the mission home.

The next morning we took them to the temple.

It was a bonus photo session that day as the nativity was up and I thought it would make for a great photo. I was right!! It did!!

From the temple we went to the airport to bid the group farewell.

This time we didn't have any missionaries coming in from the Mexico MTC, so we had an extra hour more than usual to wait for our incoming missionaries. 

We decided to go to the USS Midway again, only this time we bought tickets and went aboard. We ate lunch at the Fantail Cafe. The hamburgers were pretty delicious. 

We had a lot of photo ops all throughout the time we were there.

It looks like we are always on the phone, but we were given a little device that we could activate at various spots all throughout the carrier and listen to information about what we were seeing.

The USS Midway Museum consists of the aircraft carrier Midway. The ship houses an extensive collection of aircraft, many of which were built in Southern California (this and any other information is courtesy of Wikipedia).

The wings bent up to preserve space. That fascinated me. It seems like that would have made the wings weaker, but apparently it works out okay.

USS Midway was the United States' longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century, from 1945 to 1992. Approximately 200,000 sailors served aboard the carrier, known for several naval aviation breakthroughs as well as several humanitarian missions. 

The different colored life vests on the men on the flight deck represent the various individual roles of the flight deck facilitators. 

This is the view from one end of the runway on the flight deck with the city of San Diego in the background at the other end of the runway.

The USS Midway was the only carrier to serve the entire length of the Cold War and beyond.

These are the parachute pilot seats that would launch them out of their aircraft if it was headed for disaster. We are sitting there watching video footage of bad take-offs and landings where the pilots got ejected.

This is a look at the kissing sailor from aboard the carrier.

We bought season tickets to the USS Midway which got in two other people for free. That took care of two of our assistants. Elder Burris, our finance secretary, had gotten us two other free tickets which we appreciated. We used one this time and will save the other one for another time.

The assistants really enjoyed being able to look all around that huge aircraft carrier. It was a very interesting way to spend the time waiting for our incoming missionaries which consisted of four elders and two sisters. 

The numbers of missionaries coming and going are so random and never the same, which makes for lots of adjusting of areas each transfer. Good thing Glen's got a smart brain to figure those kinds of things out. The assistants do a great job in helping him with that as well. 

We took the missionaries to the mission office and got them fed. Glen interviewed each one, I talked with each one about medical issues and the senior office couples talked with them about their stuff.

It's like the first day of school for them. Lots of paperwork and boring stuff. They just want to meet their trainers and go about being a missionary, which happens around 8:00 p.m. and then we bid them farewell.

We bring them back two days later for a new missionary training meeting. We had a couple of very rainy days, so we were happy it cleared up enough that day for them to take their midway-though-the-meeting-walk break to wake them up.           

It was POURING down rain when we left to make our way to Temecula to attend the Christmas musical play they do every year. I had my doubts as to whether we would make it or get whisked away in a flash flood on the curvy, dippy back roads we were on part of the way there.

We were able to stop at a restaurant we have never tried before for dinner in the rain. We are certainly spoiled here because we rarely have to deal with inclement weather.

The Temecula stake had done their usual beautiful display of lighted Christmas trees as the back drop for the many varieties of nativity scenes that were on display. 

They are fun to look at as we are waiting in the chapel to go into the gym which they had a beautiful stage set up against the middle of one wall and chairs lined up on three sides of it. 

I'll end this post with some cute photos of Abe and Klarissa's children having a Polar Express experience.

They are candy cane delicious! Sweet little people!! Love them!!