Let's start out this post by mentioning the letter that was sent to us from Elder Uchtdorf. It was a pretty special thing to receive and helped remind us of the nice time we had while they were in town.
I liked the paragraph that said, "We so very much appreciate the attention that you put into preparing your missionaries for the conference. You could feel their power as we walked into the cultural hall for the photo. Your preparation and the missionaries' reverence truly added to the spirit of the meeting." We shared that with the assistants since they worked so hard getting the risers all set up and the missionaries standing reverently in place for the photo.
We saw another rainbow. This time on our way out of our neighborhood.
We were on our way to Temecula for interviews all day with the missionaries. These two companionships were coordinating it up wearing plaid ties.
When we were done with that zone, we traveled to Murrieta--which has diamond designs in the landscape as you exit the freeway.
Here's another sampling of some of the 41 missionaries Glen interviewed throughout the day.
For dinner we went back to Temecula where we ate at the Bluewater Grill with President and Sister Ham.
I was starting to get sick and didn't feel too great that evening. The cough had begun and was about to last for weeks.
The next day we started the interviews in the Carlsbad building right close by our house.
We ate lunch in the car as we drove to the Cardiff building to finish up interviewing the rest of the 44 missionaries for that day.
We fixed dinner that evening for these two former missionaries--Sister Cassie Daley and Sister Brooke Nielsen.
A littler later in the evening we heard a knock on the door and there stood former missionary Sister Marie Miraglia and her mother--who looked just like her.
Go to bed, close eyes, wake up, another day has begun and we were in Escondido interviewing 38 missionaries.
It had been a long and busy week. While Glen was interviewing, I was going over things in the technology booklets to remind the missionaries to read and follow the standards outlined therein.
We drove to Temecula for a Spanish baptism that evening on date night. We tried out Habit Burger for the first time.
Elder LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr. was the visiting General Authority Seventy coming that weekend to the Temecula stake conference. I do not like attending meetings when I have a loud, juicy, frequent cough. It felt like I would not get better without help, so I contacted our mission doctor who put me on an antibiotic.
I was able to get through the stake conference meetings without too much coughing. That stake held two general sessions on Sunday to speak to half of their members at a time (but mostly for space), so we had to speak twice that day instead of once which meant trying not to cough for an extra two hours. Good thing Glen had gotten well from his illness because he was asked to speak in all four of the meetings. He's amazing!!
The assistants have started a collection. The missionaries were in the process of entering all their paper records into their smartphones, so they have no need of the binders anymore. The contents are getting shredded. They are anxious to see how big the binder tower will get.
My brother Mike and Lorene came to visit for a few days. They came on vacation while the Ogden Temple is closed for a couple of weeks. It was good to have them here, although we were going nonstop while they were here.
We had a training meeting with some of our newer missionaries.
It felt like we kept being hit with problem after problem for those few days and we were feeling a little emotionally and physically drained.
I put Glen's favorite saying front and center on his table to remind us we were still having just another day in paradise even when very challenging issues were needing to be handled.
Let's just say it was a joy and a pleasure and really warmed our hearts when Mike and Lorene took time out of their vacation to serve us by fixing a delicious meal for us on one of those hugely busy days.
And look at them feeding us another delicious meal another night. Words were hardly adequate to express the appreciation we felt at being treated so royally--right in our own home!!
As we were in the midst of our challenges, we noticed flowers growing on the bush in our backyard that we can see through our kitchen window. Three big red flowers. Blooming once again just for us just when we needed them the most.
We feel like they have always been our sign from heaven letting us know we aren't alone in this. There is divine help and guidance and inspiration through every step of the way. The beautiful flowers give us a beacon of hope to help us along the way and remind us we are on the Lord's errand in building up the kingdom of heaven here on this earth.
We bid Mike and Lorene a fond farewell before leaving to go to the mission office building for Mission Leadership Council (MLC)--complete with lunch that Sister Radford had gotten for us.
We invited the district leaders, so there were a lot more missionaries in attendance at this meeting than usual.
