Quotes of the Week

Life is a competition, not with others but with ourselves.  We should seek each day to live stronger, better, truer lives; each day to master some weakness of yesterday; each day to repair a mistake; each day to surpass ourselves.
--David B. Haight

Essential to the plan is our Savior Jesus Christ.  Without His atoning sacrifice, all would be lost.
--Thomas S. Monson

Jesus loved all and He served all.  Centering our lives on Jesus Christ will help us acquire this attribute of benevolence.
--Mary N. Cook

Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face.  Love life.
--Gordon B. Hinckley

Aunt Helen's Brother, Transfer Week #6

My Aunt Helen had been telling me to be on the lookout for her brother who is a stake patriarch and a temple sealer. We had one more stake conference to attend before we had been through the circuit of the 6 stakes and it was the Del Mar Stake where Owen and Gloria live. It was wonderful seeing them.

We saw Owen at the temple later in the week and wanted to say hello to him but he was deep in conversation with a cute young couple. Aunt Helen wrote the day after and told me her grandson and his new wife were honeymooning in southern California and had gone to the temple to do sealings with Owen. So I'm pretty sure that was who he was talking to. If I had known that at the time, we would have gone over there to talk to all three of them.

Glen was set to go to an early morning physical therapy session on his shoulder on preparation day, but he got a phone call right as he was leaving to notify him that his therapist was sick. So we put the free time to good use and drove to Oceanside so we could walk around the streets near the ocean.

This is our latest group of new missionaries. One was coming in on a later flight, so we had an assistant and one of the elders stay behind to collect him while the rest of us made our way to the church so Glen could get started on interviews. I also met with each one individually to talk about their medical needs and any medications they might be taking.

This is a very tired group of missionaries by the time they have emailed their parents, met with both of us, done paperwork and listened to the housing information. And we fed them lunch. Sister Christensen always does a nice job ordering the traditional California breakfast burritos for the incoming missionaries. The secret ingredient in the burritos is French fries.

It is always a good moment when the new missionaries have been paired up with their trainers and they are ready to go out into the mission to their various locations.

We breathe a sigh of relief for just one moment before we dash from the mission office to our home and begin to peel potatoes, fix fruit, set the table and do what it takes to prepare for the departing missionaries to have a nice home-cooked meal that evening. Glen always insists we make his favorite meal--roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy.

With our able assistants in the kitchen doing clean up after the dinner, it makes for a very lovely evening. The sparkling cider was courtesy of one of the departing elders.

Here is Elder Ruhl teaching Glen the finer points of taking silly selfies.

This time we ended up having a segregated dinner with the sisters in the kitchen and the elders in the dining room.

More photos of the group after testimony meeting prompted another selfie. Elder Romney hasn't caught the hang of the silly/scary look yet.

 Elder Shiver, Elder Dressman, Elder Ricks, Elder Dowda, MP

Sister Martin, Sister Palmer, Hermana Ingram, Sister Haire, Sister Froisland, MPW

I brought pictures of our family to have on display in our home here. As an afterthought, I also decided to bring one picture of Glen and me in our younger years. I thought the missionaries would enjoy seeing the younger version of their mission president and wife.

The other groups have commented on it, but never did we get the reaction we got out of this group of sisters. They LOVED this photo!!! When I asked if they wanted us to pose with the photo so we could have a before and now picture, they shrieked an emphatic YES!!!

Elder Ricks came with his two suitcases, his shoulder bag and Scooby-Doo. The stuffed animal was left behind in one of the apartments where he lived and little did we know the affinity he has for Scooby-Doo. He couldn't have been happier to haul his luggage and that thing through the airport and onto the plane to greet his family.

We always get a little teary-eyed thinking about telling missionaries good-bye. They have been a part of our life for the past 7 months.

The next morning we all got up super early so we could get to the temple for a special chapel session before the 8 a.m. endowment session. The flowers were in bloom for my happiness.

Time for a last photo with the departing missionaries.

And a selfie of the undeparting missionaries. We took these two to In-N-Out for lunch. It was tradition to go there after the temple before we came to the mission and we thought it was a good tradition to continue.

It is a relief when the missionaries get on their way, although this time Glen got notified that 6 of them had a 2-hour delay in their flight. I'm sure their families were very anxious by the time the missionaries finally arrived home.

Quotes of the Week

Please do not lose hope in the Savior and His love for you.  It is constant.  He promised that He would not leave us comfortless.
--Joseph B. Wirthlin

Each daily decision will either limit or broaden your opportunities.
--Robert D. Hales

You can center your home and your life on the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the source of true peace in this life.
--Richard G. Scott

Stand for right, even if you stand alone.
--Thomas S. Monson

Schedule Change, Mormon Battalion, Safari Park

At the 2017 Worldwide Missionary Broadcast, it was announced there would be changes to the daily schedule of the missionaries. We love that it gives a list of things that need to happen during certain hours of the day, but the missionaries can plan and decide for themselves when to schedule everything into their day.

It will be a better schedule for them on preparation day to be able to get started on their activities two hours earlier in the day. The thing the missionaries have expressed great happiness over is not needing to plan at night when they are so tired. I love the opportunity this schedule gives them to go to bed earlier if they feel they need more sleep.

Another change was the reporting of the key indicators. Pretty much since we got here, Glen had run the number analysis to determine the most important key indicators for the missionaries to be concerned about and to report on and he implemented that change soon after we got here.

The missionaries seemed to have a bit of an adjustment with the change in focus of what he wanted reported, but the numbers supported the necessity to concentrate on new investigators and investigators at church which lead to baptisms. The contacting goal which they had been working so hard to achieve each day was no longer tracked.

When the announcement came for which of the key indicators were to be reported, they are exactly the ones Glen was focusing on with the addition of investigators with a baptismal date.

We watched the broadcast in Murrieta with that zone and the Temecula zone in attendance. When this announcement was made, the whole group of missionaries turned in unison to look at their mission president in awe and with renewed respect in his ability to lead the mission in the right direction.

Almost immediately he received this text from a companionship of missionaries in another zone.

The assistants told us there was the same reaction with the missionaries in the building where they were attending the meeting.

Just gives us cause to pause and give thanks for revelation as it pertains to individual callings and the people to whom you have stewardship over.

We had another group of missionaries complete their First 12 Weeks of training and so it was time to take them and their trainers to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. But first it was a Mexican buffet lunch at Tequila Factory.

A few of the missionaries are ones that will be going home soon and have never had the chance to go to the Mormon Battalion.

We found ourselves with a couple of free hours on date night, so we decided to check out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We got in free with our zoo passes. The weather had finally made a change from the unseasonable cold and rainy to a bit warmer and sunny. We just couldn't pass it up.

My niece told us you see an elephant every day if you look for it. Well, I can say this is the only elephant I have seen since the last time I was at the San Diego Zoo... So I'm not so sure I believe that saying.

This zoo differs from other zoos. On the 1,800 acres of land, the animals are exhibited in a natural environment rather than in cages.

There was a lot of cactus growing in this particular part of the zoo.

You can walk around the zoo or you can pay (a lot of money) to take different safaris. The balloon safari was not in operation because of the wind.

This warning sign throughout the park made me want to steer clear of veering off the path.

The African safari tram ride was included in the price of admission (or in other words was free to us), so we took the last African safari ride of the day.

We had such a great, relaxing and enjoyable time at the safari park. We will definitely have to go back again and again until we see it all. It does a body good to get out in nature once in a while.