Monday, May 28, 2018

Mother's Day, Senior FHE, Puerto Rico Missionaries Depart, Various Meetings, Safari Park Date

On Mother's Day we drove north to Temecula so we could go to three different wards for sacrament meeting. The first one was a Spanish ward and the missionaries were passing out these love notes to all the mothers. I thought it was very sweet and enjoyed receiving one.
At the second ward we attended, they passed out a bag of See's candy--6 pieces!! That was a fabulous gift because I was starving at that point and ate a couple of the chocolates to hold me over until we made it back home for dinner.

I liked the quote picture on the front of the program because it reminded me of Abe. He is the new Elders Quorum President in his ward and he was in charge of getting the Mother's Day gift for his ward. He had sent a photo of what he was giving out and it was a monster cookie with this picture quote attached to each cookie.
The third ward we went to was going to be giving the women brownies and ice cream during the third hour. We opted out of sticking around for me to get that treat.

I enjoyed the Facebook post our Mission President friend in the Nebraska Omaha Mission posted of his wife. They have an artistic missionary who made this beautiful portrait of her for Mother's Day.
It made me recall the portrait one of our missionaries gave us on his last evening in the mission. We love it so much!! What really makes us laugh is he wasn't even a Spanish-speaking missionary, so we still have no idea why he is using the Spanish version of our names. 
It was that time in the transfer for our Family Home Evening with the senior missionaries.


Sister Radford had brought two delicious bundt cakes to put candles on for the birthday people--one of which was Glen. She loves to go the extra mile in whatever she does and we love her for it.
We had another memorable meeting after dinner with everyone gathered around in what we call the celestial room of the house.


We hadn't even finished that meeting before this group of missionaries showed up. They were bringing over the two missionaries who were leaving the next morning headed back to Puerto Rico.

They spent the night with us, got up early for a French toast breakfast and then Glen took them to the airport.
The bugle bushes growing all along the street in our neighborhood is so beautiful this time of the year. There are more bugles than ever this year.
This is a punching tree. If you punch it the tree is soft and it doesn't hurt your fist too much. I am fascinated with the bark because it looks like it's all peeling off.
This is our house on the left and then our neighbor's house.
Just beyond our next-door neighbor's house, there are these two houses. (Notice the tall palm trees.) Parked in front of the white house was a car that caught my attention one morning as we were walking by.
The words "Respect your Elders" made me laugh out loud. Since we work with Elders (missionaries) all day every day, and we hear stories of how people are sometimes mean to them, I would wish everyone would Respect your Elders!

I was getting ready to take a picture and this guy opened up the door and stepped out of the car.
Wow!! Didn't see him and it startled us! He was happy we'd stopped to admire his car and took time to explain it to us. I then told him why I liked the saying and asked if I could take a picture. We took time to listen to his story and we started telling him about what we are doing here when his workers arrived on the scene.

They climb the tall palm trees and trim them. The picture above is what freshly-trimmed palm trees look like. We went back later to talk to him some more and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.

This plant we see every morning on our walk is one of Glen's favorites. All the green leaves/fronds/whatever-you-call-them that are pointing upward are new growths. It's been interesting to watch all the brown stuff in the middle get bigger and then the green shoots started popping out.
We went to the Bear Valley district meeting.
We had a meeting with this group of new missionaries and their trainers.
They did role plays with each other after the assistants did a demonstration.
 Elder Lundquist is getting the hang of being the new assistant working with Elder Jordan.
That evening we had a youth group from Fallbrook come to the mission office to have us talk to them. We were told there would be 6-8 young men there and a lot more than that were there--more than the pictures show.

They really perked up when Glen opened up the transfer board and they got to see every missionary's board card, who they are companions with and the area where they are serving.

We attended the Oceanside district meeting. Glen went out working that evening with some elders in Murrieta.
The next day we had a rescue training meeting with the Temecula zone. Glen brought me home and turned around and went right back to Temecula to spend the rest of the day working with some elders in that zone.
We were able to spend a few afternoon hours at the Safari Park for our weekly date.


 
 

We walked around this area that we hadn't fully explored before. It was so peaceful and relaxing for us.
 
 

We finished our date night at Mike's BBQ.
We always see signs for this place whenever we go to the Safari Park and so we decided to give it a try.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Quotes of the Week

The Lord loves to be with us.
--Ronald A. Rasband

Someday, when the whole story of this and previous dispensations is told it will be filled with courageous stories of our women, of their wisdom and their devotion, their courage.
--Spencer. W. Kimball

The Lord promised peace to His disciples as He was about to leave them. He has made the same promise to us.
--Henry B. Eyring

On [God's] holy day, our thoughts, actions, and demeanor are signs we give to God and an indicator of our love for Him.
--David A. Bednar

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Quotes of the Week

Remember, what you do, where you go, and what you see will shape who you become.
--Gary E. Stevenson

Our faith can reach beyond the limits of current reason.
--Rosemary M. Wixom

I love our Savior Jesus Christ. I marvel that He loved the Father and us enough to become our Savior and Redeemer.
--Stanley G. Ellis

Fear and faith cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time.
--Neil L. Andersen

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Quotes of the Week

There is no middle ground. We are followers of Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in His Church and His gospel, and we should not use a visa to visit Babylon or act like one on its citizens.
--Dallin H. Oaks

One cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God. Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one.
--Thomas S. Monson

Faith never demands an answer to every question but seeks the assurance and courage to move forward.
--Neil L. Andersen


Friday, May 11, 2018

Blessing at the Foot Doctor; Transfer #17; New Missionary Training; MLC

It is surprising how quickly 3 weeks rolls around. I go in to the foot doctor on an average of every 3 weeks. Once again he shot up the neuroma stumps in my feet. He did one injection in the left foot and two in the right foot.

And as usual, my loving attentive husband is ignoring me as he puts all his efforts and energy into reading and answering the missionaries' letters on his iPad.
When we walked out into the lobby, what did we behold but the sight of two of our missionaries who were there waiting to be seen by the doctor.

It seemed a little ironic that they are companions who both have an ingrown toenail on their big toenail on their left foot.

Both of them. Same problem. Same toe. Same foot. How random!!
Turns out those two elders were our blessing from heaven at the moment we needed them.

We had taken our car into the shop and had gotten a shuttle ride to the foot doctor. Glen was going to call Uber to take us back after my appointment, and that's when we saw the missionaries.

Glen was perfectly happy to sit there answering letters while they went back and got their toes worked on and then they gave us a ride back to the Toyota dealership. It worked out magnificently well!! We felt very blessed!!

It was a busy day for us. Glen worked hard on his letters, but was unable to finish them all that day.

We were the entertaining MP and MPW that evening as five missionaries (plus the assistants) came over for dinner, testimony meeting and to spend the night.




Later that evening we had to drive to the airport to pick up this elder who had arrived in town from Switzerland. We had one other elder from Switzerland serving in our mission and turns out they are best friends. That's pretty random.
These two elders came over to pick up the new elder. He was hoping he would be able to sleep despite the big time difference between here and Switzerland.
The next morning we were up early to take the departing missionaries to the temple.

After the session, I had to take a picture of this young couple. She is the sister of Sister Langton, one of our missionaries. They are being good family members and not trying to hook up with Sister Langton while they are here on vacation. 

We were getting such a kick out of her because as soon as she started talking, she looked and sounded just like her sister.
Off to the airport we went to tell these missionaries good-bye.
Then we had a few hours to wait until our batch of incoming missionaries arrived. We went with the assistants to Tom Ham's Lighthouse Restaurant by the water.
We had our lunch out on the deck by the water. The servers are starting to recognize us now as we're there every 6 weeks like clockwork.
Instead of going to the library as we have done before to wait out the time, Glen and I went to Del Mar (the southern-most part of our mission) to meet up with some missionaries who needed to see Glen as soon as possible.

We got back to the airport in time to see these five new sister missionaries descending the escalator all eager to meet us.
Three of them are from the same stake and two of them are from the same ward.
When we arrived at the mission office, Sister Radford had their California burrito dinner all ready for them. Our new elder arrived shortly after so he could eat with them and get in on the interview with Glen and the training done by me and the office couples.


There have been some unique changes this transfer. Elder Lundquist (left) is the new assistant who will be companions with Elder Jordan (dark suit).

Elder Eddins (middle) is no longer an assistant. He will now be companions with Elder Hadfield (red tie) and Elder Hall (right).
These three are now the trio of traveling trainers. This whole transfer they will be traveling around the mission going on exchanges with missionaries. We want to capitalize on their expertise as older missionaries to help train and improve the skills of the newer missionaries. 
The day following transfers we took two missionaries to the airport. They had made some poor choices which resulted in their missions ending early. It is always heart-breaking for us when this happens.

On Thursday the new missionaries and their trainers came back to the mission office building where we did new missionary training with them.

During one part, Glen gives them an assignment and has them walk around the building as they work on the assignment. It is a bit of a wake-up exercise for them.

This particular day, our new assistant decided to walk them around the outside of the building a couple of times rather than walking them around the building. Why not!! It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!

 
 After their training, we fed them lunch--provided by Sister Radford again.
Today was Mission Leadership Council. President and Sister Treadway, recently called as MP and MPW to the Utah Orem Mission and will start serving July 1st, came to our meeting to see what MLC is all about.

It was a great meeting for them to attend. Sister Radford once again provided our meal for the meeting. 
After MLC we had a short meeting with the sister training leaders. 
We love all our leaders and appreciate their willingness to be leaders in the mission.

Date night followed MLC--which consisted of eating our favorite rib meal--and then we went to a baptism in Escondido. One of our former missionaries had flown into town for the baptism.