Abe and Klarissa Cook for Elder Klebingat and BYU B-ball Game With Him

It was a joy to have Abe's family come for a visit again. We were super busy with our General Authority visitor, but the few minutes here and there we got to be with the family was wonderful.

Newland arrived all excited about his recent hair cut.

Smiles from Wynne show how much the two look like each other.

It was nice to see baby Magnus again and see how he's growing and smiling and is such a happy baby. 

Despite it being Valentine's Day, Elder Jorg Klebingat was arriving in town so he could spend a few days with us and our missionaries. 

As we picked him up at the airport, Abe and Klarissa were at home cooking our dinner. Now that's what I call romantic!! Or at least I call them very good sports to help us out in that way.

Turns out the men shoveled their food down as they were in a hurry to get to a ball game that evening. (Take a moment to notice the lovely dining/living room. It was soon to get a transformation...)

In no time at all, the men were gone, leaving Klarissa and the children with me. Yay for me!! I would much prefer spending time with them rather than going to a ball game!!!!!

Cutest little Valentines opening up the gifts they had brought with them.

Meanwhile, the men were having the time of their lives at the ball game. 

On our drive home from the airport, we knew Elder Klebingat was anxious to get dinner finished so he could settle down with Glen to watch the BYU ball game on television. He had requested that and we had our marching orders.

As they were talking about it, Glen suggested they actually go to the game since the traffic had cooperated for us getting home at a good time and there would be plenty of time for them to get to the game. 

When Elder Klebingat heard that, he jumped all over it. He got on the phone to see if he could somehow get Dave Rose's number (the coach). He made that connection and was told tickets would be waiting for them at the stadium. 

Look how thrilled Elder Klebingat is to be right in the midst of all the basketball action. He told us that they rarely get opportunities to do things like that and he was eating it up!!!

The exciting thing is BYU made a big comeback and the game went into overtime with BYU coming out the victor. So not only did they get to watch the game, but they got extra game time as well. They were happy fans with that outcome.

The next day we had a special zone conference with three zones--half of the mission. It was a real treat to be taught for hours on end by Elder Klebingat. He is a master scriptorian having thousands of scriptures memorized.

He taught for a while, had us teach for a little bit and then took the rest of the morning and all afternoon and an hour past when we had planned for the meeting to end.

The missionaries were very excited to learn his method of how he memorizes scriptures and their references using mnemonics and mind palaces and then dedicates time each day to learn new scriptures and review already-learned scriptures. It was a fascinating thing to learn.

Glen is now making his own mind palaces and is excited about expanding his repertoire of memorized scriptures to use in teaching, training and interviews.

Elder Klebingat was exhausted by the time he was through teaching that day. We had decided to cancel our reservations at The Chart House, a really nice steak and seafood restaurant where we have taken other General Authorities.

He is not a fan of steak or seafood, so we had the idea to take him to Tip Top Meats. It's a German store/restaurant that was located close to his hotel. We knew it wouldn't be busy and we could get right in and out. That made him happy.

But more than the speediness of it, he absolutely LOVED the fact that he was going to get to eat German food. He is a German and this food and the store was a blast from his past. He ordered sauerkraut, cabbage and spaetzle with gravy. And he ordered two desserts. One to eat there and one to take to the hotel with him.

The man sitting behind him in the blue shirt is the owner of the restaurant. Elder Klebingat enjoyed conversing with him in German for a few minutes. He kept exclaiming what a wonderful idea it had been to take him there. He was overjoyed with happiness about it.

While we had been busy with Elder Klebingat, the rains were coming down. You know what happens when the rains come down.

"The rains came down, and the floods came up. The rains came down, and the floods came up. The rains down down, and the floods came up. And the house on the rock stood still." (The Wise Man and the Foolish Man, Primary Songbook).

That's exactly what happened! We got flooded! And who discovered it? Newland and Wynne!

When they weren't busy playing puzzles and Legos, they were running around the house barefoot and felt the carpet wet in the living room.

Abe made a demarcation line in the carpet showing us how far into the room the wetness had spread.

He went outside to take a look around (don't be fooled by the blue sky--this photo was taken a few days later when the rains had ceased). 

He sent us this photo showing where he believed it was not sealed at the base of the house where it connects to the tile.

We called our connection at the Church and they got a company to come out the next day and survey the damage and set up their ever-whirring, humming, roaring machines to dry out the carpet and the walls.

The blue tape marked how high up the walls were wet.

It was a very unpleasant memory of the previous flood we had where we listened to the roaring of two dozen machines for nearly 2 weeks. This time these four machines, and the plastic make-shift walls cordoning off the affected area were with us for 10 days.

Tubing from the dehumidifier was run from the living room to the kitchen and up into the sink where it remained all those days the machines were here. 

Remember how I previously said to take note of the dining room and the living room? So thankful the flood happened AFTER our dinner with Elder Klebingat!!

It was a good thing we got a picture when we did before the house was turned into a plastic-walled fort.

We spent two full days with Elder Klebingat as he taught the other half of the missionaries the next day. We were happy to get back home and catch a few more glimpses of Abe and his family.

The children enjoyed a French toast breakfast before we bid them farewell. They had come to Southern California because Abe had a work trip here.

So off they went to spend a few days in Palm Springs.

Adventure always happens with the Abe Thomas family.

So long. Farewell. Until we see you again.