Quotes of the Week

Even if you cannot see that silver lining on your clouds, God can, for He is the very source of the light you seek.
--Jeffrey R. Holland

I promise if you will listen, the Lord will tell you what to do with your life.
--Robert D. Hales

Marvelous is the power of women of faith.
--Gordon B. Hinckley

Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Quotes of the Week

The perfect place to begin is exactly where you are right now.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Come what may and LOVE it!!
--Joseph B. Wirthlin

The first, the middle, the last thing to do is to pray.
--Henry B. Eyring

He asks us to be His hands.
--Cheryl A. Esplin

Mission Leadership Council, Cruisin' Grand Escondido

Glen rearranged the mission office to make more room in there. Before the rearranging, the desk/credenza with the lamp on it was along the wall under the baptism picture.

There was room for his chair between that and the big desk which had him facing into the room. He felt like the desk was a barrier between him and everyone, so he never sat on that side of the desk. He always sat on the opposite side.

At the other end of the room was the small round table which the assistants used. Glen would always sit at the round table whenever he did interviews. One day he just decided to rearrange the whole set up (with my help with furniture placement so it looked a little more pleasing to the eye than if he had done it all on his own...).

He moved the big desk over to the other side of the room and is now using the small table as his desk/interview area. It does make it a lot more roomy in there when we have meetings.

Speaking of meetings... We had been planning our Mission Leadership Council and were going to be talking about communication and confrontation and how to deal with those things in a Christlike manner.

With that on our minds, I thought it was funny when one day we walked into the mission office and saw these two chairs back-to-back. The assistants assured me there was no animosity going on between them.

In MLC we did an activity where the missionaries had to keep their finger touching the rod and were trying to work together to get the rod lowered all the way to the floor. It is much harder than it looks.

This team was trying a different technique to see if they could be more successful at it. There needed to be productive communication going on the whole time to succeed.

Besides the two topics Glen and I were discussing, the assistants were training on how to have effective district meetings (since the district leaders were invited this time) and exchanges.

 This cute sister wanted to get a picture with me since we were twinning this particular day.

Date night was Cruisin' Grand Escondido. All these old vehicles congregate on or near Grand Avenue in Escondido every weekend and people walk around oohing and aahing over them. We looked, but that's about it. Not so much oohing and aahing from the two of us.

We LOVE where we live!!! I have exclaimed over and over again about the palm trees and the flowers. It flowers all year round here and I LOVE IT!!!!

This is our morning walk route. The mission home is one of the red-roofed homes down the road. We walk up the street past these beautiful trumpet vines. They are blooming like crazy right now.

Another thing blooming is the agapanthus flowers. They are tall purple flowers that were blooming when we arrived in Carlsbad last July. They have just started blooming again. I guess that means we are coming full circle on being out close to a year.

The white flowers with just a little purple on them are also blooming like crazy. I couldn't find what they are called.

The white ones are also growing in the back yard. I love our totally private back yard. There is a bush out there that was growing one red bloom on it when we first arrived here. It went dormant for some months and now it's growing another flower.  

There is one flowering plant that I'm not all that fond of that is growing in our back yard. It is a black bird of paradise and they are huge!

I much prefer the smaller, colorful birds of paradise that are growing in the front yard and have continued to blossom every month of the year.

We have a magnolia tree by the front door that produces the most elegant, large white flowers.

I continue to be amazed at the beauty all around us every time we go outside. I am thankful to be serving in this beautiful part of the country.

Happy Birthday To Glen...and Clint

The purple trees are in bloom all around us. There is one in front of our mission office church building.

These multi-colored flowers were blooming right by the mission office door when we first arrived here the first of July. They are in bloom once again.

 Cute love note from Eli.

Date night at Oceanside Pier. It was very entertaining watching the photo shoot going on below us. While the one girl was being photographed, the standing girl was taking selfies of herself (was that redundant using selfie and herself in the same sentence?).

We spoke in the Carlsbad stake conference during the Sunday session.

Sam, Kathy, Clint and Wes were coming to visit us and made a special effort to arrive in town for stake conference. They were a little late to the meeting, but they made it in plenty of time to hear our talks.

I was so happy to have them here. I quickly recruited them to play my new favorite game with me. (Thanks again to Andy's family for introducing me to the game!!)

We played it every night. They tolerated it. I loved it!!!!

Wes had a nice run of beginner's luck and almost beat me 95-96.

Glen insisted on cooking everybody breakfast every morning--even on his birthday. Sam's family left for the day to go sight-seeing while Glen worked on reading and answering all the missionaries' letters.

He did take a break to go with me to do our weekly grocery shopping. When he discovered his favorite candy, Starburst jellybeans, were on sale for a mere 49 cents a bag, he went back to buy 4 more bags! Best birthday present ever!!!

It just made my day to see Elder Radford at the front door bearing gifts of a birthday balloon and a birthday card. I knew it was all his wife's idea and he was just doing her bidding. She was sitting right out front in the car watching it all play out from the comfort of the car.

My only regret in this priceless photo is that Glen is not wearing his company apron to greet his well-wisher. Now that I think about it, he should have been wearing his company apron because he was grilling meat for Sam's family for dinner that evening. I guess Sam qualifies as family and not company.

Glen was able to give himself the best birthday gift ever of completing all the missionaries' letters on his birthday. No carry overs to the next day. Hurrah!!

It made it easier to enjoy going to the Mormon Battalion with this group of missionaries the next day. No letters left to read and answer hanging over his head when he got back home.

We have been working on getting all the older missionaries to the historic site (complete with Mexican buffet lunch right before).

This makes it our last and final trip with older missionaries. The Mormon Battalion is half a block down the street from this restaurant. You can see the Mormon Battalion building in the far right window in this photo.

Well of course we played Qwirkle on our last evening together. Sam even got in on the fun the second and third evening. And I mean FUN!!!

The next morning Glen did his usual nice guy thing and cooked Sam's family breakfast once again before they headed off on their way back home. It was the right thing to do considering it was Clint's birthday that day.

Little did I realize when the trip was planned that their visit would span two birthdays. I'm sure Clint considers our spirited games of Qwirkle more than enough gift to him from me. I know I was sad when they left knowing it will be a while before I get to play my favorite game again.

We had a new missionary training follow-up meeting with these four missionaries and their trainers.

Here are some birthday greetings to Glen.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños mi amor!