Hosp Grove Park is really close to our home. It has trails through a eucalyptus tree grove. We have walked on the trails on the playground side of the road. This time we walked on the trails on the picnic table side of the road.
We took a HUGE group of 60 missionaries to eat at Tequila Factory. We always park at Mormon Battalion (the brown building above Elder Hadfield's head--far right). We hike up the hill and stuff ourselves for an hour on the Mexican buffet food. Then we waddle down the hill to go on a tour. We split large groups into two tour groups.
This darling Elder showed us his bike accident wounds which happened the day before. We were so glad it didn't prevent him from participating in the Mormon Battalion excursion.
While waiting for a group to finish the tour, the assistants were enjoying watching Glen try his hand at finding gold on the interactive screen.
After the tour, we meet all together to discuss what the missionaries have learned from the tour and how they can apply it in their lives and how they can use the historic site in their missionary work.
Although they are not able to go to the Mormon Battalion with investigators because it is outside of the mission, they can arrange for their investigators to go with members for a faith-strengthening experience.
Elder and Sister Hemingway always join us in our special after-tour segment.
We finished up with our missionaries just in time to go to the airport and greet our incoming visitors. It was that time of the year when we were scheduled for a mission tour. That means a General Authority and his wife arrives, stay with us for several days, meet with our Mission Leadership Council, teach at zone conferences, conduct interviews with selective missionaries and various other things.
Last year we had Elder Benjamin De Hoyos and his wife visit. This time we were expecting Elder L. Whitney Clayton and his wife...until a few days before they were due to arrive.
Glen got an unexpected phone call from Elder Taniela B. Wakolo informing us Elder Clayton was no longer able to come and he had been reassigned in his place. He was bringing his wife Anita.
After the initial shock of the news wore off and especially after we learned Elder Wakolo would just keep the same agenda Elder Clayton had set for our meetings, I began to get very excited.
At our Mission Presidents' Seminar in Los Angeles, we had been able to enjoy hearing Elder Clayton and his wife teach. This way I felt it would give us a chance to get to know the Wakolos whom we had never met before. And we would get the opportunity to hear them teach.
He was serving as Mission President of the Arkansas Little Rock Mission when he was called to be a General Authority Seventy. So he is pretty new off his mission. I felt they could share valuable insights on that subject.
Also, I was excited to hear their conversion stories and felt the missionaries could benefit from hearing that side of missionary work.
As soon as we spotted the Wakolos and began getting to know them, we knew it was going to be a fabulous few days with them and our missionaries.
Elder Clayton had requested we go to dinner the first night at Chart House in Del Mar. Since we had made a reservation, Elder Wakolo told us to go ahead and keep the reservation. He said Elder Clayton had talked up that restaurant to him, so he wanted to go there and report back to him about the experience.
We had an extra hour before the reservation, so we had the brilliant idea to go back to Mormon Battalion and take the Wakolos on a tour. It was such a wonderful idea! They LOVED the tour.
It was the day of the week that is preparation day for the young missionaries in the San Diego Mission, so the senior couples were the tour guides.
Elder and Sister Hemingway were there and insisted they be the tour guide for our group. Turns out they are not only our friends, but they know the Wakolos as well. Elder Hemingway called Elder Wakolo up to be the soldier model for our group. He very happily jumped up to do as asked.
Elder Wakolo's trademark is always carrying both the Bible (the stick of Judah) and the Book of Mormon (the stick of Ephraim). "And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand." (Ezekial 37:17)
He has always had a great love and knowledge of the Bible. He met and married his wife who was a recent convert. He let her go to her church and participate in her religion as much as she wanted, but he did not allow her to read the "Mormon Bible" in their home.
After 8 years and hearing various missionaries teach the lessons 4 different times, the 23rd and 24th missionaries were able to teach him something that clicked. They taught that the name of a church should be after the person to whom the church belongs. Jesus Christ's church should be named after Him, not after a man. Thus, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--not the nickname Mormons--resonated with him.
He asked the missionaries when he could be baptized. The week after his confirmation, he was called to teach seminary with his wife. The course of study for the year was the Book of Mormon.
He has a deep love for both books of holy scripture. “When joined, …the two records form a unified, complementary
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, His resurrection from the grave, and His
divine work among these two segments of the house of Israel.” (Bible Dictionary)
We must say Chart House was an amazing choice
of a restaurant. The only bad thing about it was it gets dark so early these days that we weren't able to enjoy the beautiful drive to the restaurant, nor were we able to fully appreciate our table with an ocean view.
When I told the Wakolos about my recent bout with shingles on my birthday and the termite invasion/house tenting for fumigation last year on my birthday, I told them I wasn't having very good odds.
Elder Wakolo immediately took hold of that and said he was going to remedy it by having a proper birthday celebration in my honor at the restaurant. The server was very kind and gracious to accommodate his request and produced a delicious birthday dessert for me to share with everyone.
Let's just say that totally endeared him to me! Anything else would be "frosting on the cake" so to speak.
