Hospital Interruption During Interview Week, Spanish Verb Gift, Sarah's Book Plug

The week after zone conference is interview week. It is nice we get to see every missionary both of those weeks.

We got through our longest day of interviews up in Temecula and Murrieta. But...during that day we got a phone call informing us a missionary had been working at a food pantry and had had a seizure. 

His distraught companions had called 911 and an ambulance was there getting him ready for transport to the hospital. Our nurse went over to find out what was going on. We got there that evening after finishing all the interviews for the day.

The elder and one of his companions spent the night at the hospital for observation, stabilization and for more testing to be done. It was looking like the elder had a good-sized brain tumor.

The next day we carried on with our interviews in Carlsbad and Del Mar, all the while very concerned about our elder in the hospital and how we were going to get him safely back home to his family.

The elder got released from the hospital that evening. His companions took him to their apartment for him to pack all his belongings and then brought him to our home to spend the night.

He had been declared stable enough to fly home. Glen had worked wonders staying up late the night before getting all the paperwork done to get approval from the Missionary Department and the necessary General Authorities to be able to send him home from his mission early.

During the day Glen had managed to squeeze in the necessary phone calls during interviews to talk to his parents, his stake president and make the flight arrangements for him.

Glen also made arrangements with our Area Medical Advisor for him to accompany the elder on his flight home.

Glen and the elder were up super early the next morning to make a run to the airport where they were able to meet up with our Area Medical Advisor. We were thankful he had been free and willing to make the flight to Chicago and back again all in the same day.

The elder's mother had gotten him in to see a brain surgeon the following day with surgery three days later. The tumor has been removed and now they are waiting for the results of pathology.

The elder is anxious to get back on his mission. We love it when missionaries are so eager to take care of their issues and come back as soon as possible.

Glen made the early-morning run and was back in time for breakfast and then put in another full day of interviews in Escondido.

One of the Spanish-speaking missionaries came bearing a gift for me. It's the Spanish verb sheet they get at the Missionary Training Center. She said it really helped her and she had an extra one and brought it that day to give to me.

She had a very hard time learning Spanish when she first got here. She knows how I have been trying to learn Spanish (and progressing at a snail's pace, partly because of not knowing the verb conjugations and mostly because there is not a real need for me to learn Spanish).

I love that she wrote my name at the top. Then at the bottom she wrote, "You can learn Spanish!"

Our final day of interviews was at the mission office building in Vista. On each of the days, we had one of our assistants spend the day with us doing training with each companionship.

Sometimes I wish we had implemented that earlier in our mission. But, better late than never! And we are enjoying the benefits of it while we can.

I was working with the missionaries on reminding them about the need for them to complete watching the SafetyZone videos and clicking off each one on their missionary portal. I talked to the new missionaries about their Facebook accounts.

I also showed each companionship how to find a family name to take to the temple on the Family Search app and how they can search for a name by ordinance. They were really excited to learn about that and how they can use it with the people they are teaching and reactivating.

Let's just say it was a very exhausting week, and then we went right into the Carlsbad stake conference weekend of meetings. 

We spoke on Sunday--which is my preference day of speaking at stake conferences because I like the missionaries to be able to hear us speak. They do not generally go to the Saturday evening session unless they have someone they are teaching with them.

Glen has found it beneficial to work through the Addiction Recovery Program with several (...a dozen or more...???) missionaries. It's not so much because of addiction as it is to help them learn how to turn to the Savior and rely on His Atonement to help them with their problems and insecurities. 

This has resulted in LOTS of extra interviews with the missionaries working on ARP with him. He had a day full of those interviews before and after the first trainer follow-up meeting with these missionaries who have been here four weeks and their trainers.

The following day Glen was tied up for hours in the morning at the dental office getting two teeth worked on and re-crowned. We were happy those teeth didn't require root canals. Glen was ecstatic the dentist could make those crowns right there in his office so he didn't have to go back again. Let's hope that's the last we'll need to spend time in the dental office here in California.

He spent more time that afternoon with Addiction Recovery Program missionaries.

Our day started off the next morning with a distressed call from our office secretary, Sister Burris, who told us the water had been turned off at the mission office church building and people were not allowed in the building. 

Since we were having our office staff meeting that day, we changed the location to our mission home. The Van Aarles joined the Burrises here for the meeting. 

That turned out to be advantageous for me as I didn't have to leave the house that day. Glen left right after the meeting to go and pick up lunch at Chick-fil-A for him and the assistants. This has become a tradition to have Chick-fil-A lunch on the first transfer planning day. 

By the time Glen got to the office, the water was getting turned back on, so all was well for them to begin transfer planning.

Former missionary (on the right) Sister Kaytlin Porter came back to the mission for a visit with her friends. She has always reminded me so much of my good friend Chris. Her mannerisms, smile, the way she talks, even down to the way she moves her hands are so much like Chris it is almost like Chris is with me. It's a strange, yet wonderful experience.

So, needless to say, it was fun to see her/Chris again.

Glen always offers tourists the use of the boogie boards and lawn chairs which we bought for our children and grandchildren when they come to visit. The former missionaries have used them far more than our own family members.

Sarah recently put up a post on Instagram of her with the book she wrote. We love her book. It is such a fun gift for us to give as a wedding gift.

I love that she wrote it. I love that it has some of her love stories in it. I especially love that the dedication in her book is dedicated to her parents--US--who have been married for many, many years and are still enjoying weekly dates.

The reason we give it to our missionaries for a wedding gift is it sends a wonderful message that we want them to keep their love alive through the years by making the time to have weekly dates.

The dates don't have to be expensive. They don't have to leave their house. They just have to get in/stay in the habit of making time to connect with each other every single week.

It's a recipe for success in a marriage. Sarah knows. Buy her book. It's available on Amazon. 🌝