Mormon Battalion, Beaver Utah Youth Group

It was time for another Mormon Battalion visit. The historic site is the brown building in the center of the photo. But first stop--Tequila Factory for a Mexican buffet lunch. We always park at the Battalion and walk half a block up the hill to the restaurant.

 The purple trees were in full bloom across the street.

We had a relatively small group this time of eight missionaries and their trainers just finishing up their First 12 Weeks of training. The assistants go with us as well to drive the van.

Who knew waffles were included in the Mexican buffet as dessert? Two sisters chowed down on that delicacy.

Panning for gold is a must after the tour.

This is our group of new leaders at the new leadership training meeting. The three assistants (back left) and two sister training leaders (front left) helped do the training.

Yes, that is a missionary in an arm sling. Elbow injury. Preparation day activity. I am always telling the missionaries to be careful on p-day. Sheesh!!!

The Beaver Utah stake had a high adventure activity in our area and had asked if two missionaries could speak to their group of young men ages 14-18. They specifically asked if one of our elders and his companion could be there because the elder had two brothers in the group.

Glen said no. He doesn't allow people to visit the missionaries. There are too many people who come here on vacation and he gets asked about visits all the time. He just has to give a flat no to every request. But he said we would show up and speak to the group.

They were staying on Camp Pendleton and had been given a tour about what goes on there and learned all about the marines. They ate in the mess hall and had been impressed with the recruits and the marines in uniform. They were very respectful and looked them right in the eye when they spoke to them.

As the young men arrived at the church that evening and took their seats, I kept thinking about what a difference it must be for them to now be in a very different environment. They were sitting in a chapel and looking at our men in uniform--the three assistants wearing their missionary attire.

The second best part of the evening was the question and answer session where the young men asked the assistants questions about being missionaries. The very best part of the meeting was when the assistants taught a short restoration lesson to the group. It was powerful and the young men listened intently. I was very touched by the spiritual experience.

We received a letter later from the stake president letting us know the young men felt something as well. They discussed it in their individual ward groups as they separated afterward for their nightly meeting with their bishops.

We made sure to take a couple of pictures with the brothers of the elder in our mission. 

It was proof to show the elder that his brothers had been well taken care of in his absence.

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.