Sarah's Family Arrives In Town, Soon Joined by Abe's Family

Sarah loves having a California vacation home to visit and she has declared she is going to come here as often as possible. So, as soon as we wrapped up with zone conferences and welcomed a new sister from the Philippines to our mission, it was her turn to be in our spotlight.

We took her family to Texas Roadhouse. Jonah almost made it into the photo. At least his foot is proof he was with us.

Sunday morning Glen was serving up French toast to the little grandboys.

We tried taking photos in my favorite photo-taking spot in front of the palm trees, but the light was not quite right at that particular time of day.

We decided to attend one of the wards that meets in the Cardiff building. While there, we happened to see Stephanie Gwilliam. She is serving with her husband over the Chile Santiago Mission. She was in town for her father's funeral.

They are the couple we met on our Holy Land vacation who lived here and he was serving as a counselor in the California Carlsbad Mission presidency with President Kendrick, the prior mission president.

He also served a mission in the same mission at the same time as our friend Steven Morgan who was on that same vacation with us. Small world!

Here is our attempt at getting a family photo taken with all of us in it. We were trying to find a place in the shade and it didn't make for a good background. But the plus side of it is we are all in the photo. But only half of us look happy to be photographed.

Never fear! Sarah had worked her magic to get a happy pose out of her four boys when we were in the center courtyard before church began.

That evening we went to a baptism of this young man who had been taught by the assistants.

Monday = FUN DAY!! At least in the morning before Glen got busy answering 162 missionaries' letters the rest of the day.

We went on a hike at Guajome County Park. We were going to see if we could see any bunnies on the bunny trail.

But, alas!! The bunny trail was closed for some reason. So we just made our way straight to the lake.

We found our feathered friends.

Eli had a great time feeding them.

Lincoln and Carson preferred to watch them from a distance.

We stopped at Oceanside on our way back home to take a look at the sea lions.

Carson is quite the little artist drawing a good depiction of Mario.

Family activity of making gingerbread houses with graham crackers commenced that evening with Lincoln as the frosting taster.

Although we had guests, missionary work must go on!! Off we went to the mission office church building where we had a trainer follow-up meeting for this group of missionaries who have been here 4 weeks.

A delicious grilled chicken dinner had magically appeared when we walked in the door thanks to Jeff and Sarah. We were under a tight time crunch as Glen needed to get back to the mission office for a presidency meeting with his counselors.

Abe's family arrived in town from San Francisco. We got a kick out of the little Santas that appeared at bedtime.

Newland and Wynne got into the French toast making action the next morning.

Everyone needed lots of strength to go hiking at Annie's Canyon. Sarah's family had not yet been on that adventure and were anxious to see what it was all about.

It was a good thing I hadn't planned on doing the slot canyon part of the hike because Wynne became very interested in playing in the sand and just stopped in her tracks to play while everyone else had gone on ahead.

We were happy to be bringing up the rear with our little explorer who was taking her own sweet time.

 Meanwhile, Eli and Newland were anxious to get to the canyon part of the hike.

 Glen decided to join in with the little boys when they were doing a second walk through the canyon.

 

 

We got back to the trailhead with everyone intact. But, we were getting hungry.

Next stop--a Mexican restaurant.

Later in the day we went to Chuck E. Cheese's.

The grandboys were anxious to show their grandpa what prizes they picked from earning all their tickets.

Chef Wynne and Chef Carson got busy the next morning helping their grandpa fix French toast breakfast.

Then it was time to bid farewell to the Excell family. They were making their way back home--stopping in Cedar City for a couple of days to be with Jeff's family before getting home in time to host the Ward family Christmas Eve dinner party.

It was so nice to have them here and see them having fun with their California cousins here in California.

Quotes of the Week

I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in life.
--M. Russell Ballard

Choose your love. Love your choice.
--Thomas S. Monson

If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues.
--Thomas S. Monson

The rich Restoration gives us added ways to understand the dealings of God with His children.
--Neal A. Maxwell

The Van Aarles Arrive, Zone Conference Week

We were happy to have Pete and Patti Van Aarle join us for Sunday dinner after having recently arrived in the mission.

They are our newest senior missionary couple who will be replacing Don and Barbara Kopenhefer. He will be the vehicle coordinator and she will be the housing coordinator.

This decoration in a doctor's office had me laughing. Come on!! It's southern California!! Nothing frightful about it!!

Zone conference week was upon us once again. The Mission Leadership Council had decided which of the teachings we had received from Elder and Sister Wakolo they wanted the mission to focus on and then we had the zone leaders and sister training leaders doing trainings on those subjects.

I took a few minutes at the beginning to share a little bit about the Wakolos so our newest batch of missionaries would know who we were referring to as we continued on throughout the day.

I also shared with them the last part of a talk given by Spencer J. Condie at a BYU devotional in 2010 entitled "A Disposition To Do Good Continually" where he tells an experience he had with Elder Wakolo that demonstrates how Elder Wakolo has a true disciple's soul.

While serving in the South Pacific, I received a letter from the First Presidency with an assignment to travel to Fiji and deliver a letter to Taniela Wakolo, president of the Nausori Fiji Stake. After I handed the letter to him, he read aloud the call from the First Presidency to serve as an Area Seventy, and tears flowed freely from his cheeks and those of his lovely wife, Anita.

After discussing with him the nature and duties of his new calling, I observed the tattoo on Brother Wakolo’s large right hand. Now, tattoos are very common throughout the South Pacific, and long before he joined the Church, Taniela Wakolo had the back of his hand tattooed with a large, garish design.

I said, “Brother Wakolo, in your new calling as an Area Seventy, you are going to be speaking to the youth on many occasions. I would suggest before such meetings that you put a large Band-Aid on the back of your hand to cover your tattoo. It’s hard to discourage our youth from getting tattoos when the speaker has one himself.”

He smiled a broad smile, and with a radiant expression he said, “I’ll take care of it. I want to be a good example.”

A few weeks passed, and the next time we met, his hand was heavily bandaged as if he were preparing for a boxing match. I asked, “What in the world happened to you?”

He smiled with glistening eyes and said, “I followed your counsel and had the tattoo removed.”

“Was it laser surgery?” I asked.

“No,” he replied with a big smile, “they don’t remove tattoos with lasers in Fiji. I had it surgically cut out.”

A month later Elder Wakolo and I were assigned together to reorganize a stake presidency in American Samoa. As we met at the airport, I immediately noticed an unsightly scar on the back of his hand where the surgeon had removed several square inches of skin and then very crudely sutured the gaping wound closed. This had not been performed by a plastic surgeon.

I apologized for having been the cause of the large scar on the back of his hand. He responded with a radiant Christlike countenance: “Not to worry, President Condie; this is my CTR ring. Now the Lord knows where I stand! I’ll do anything the Lord asks of me.”

Elder Wakolo has become a disciple who keeps his covenants and strives to do good continually.

As we spent several days with Elder and Sister Wakolo, we could feel of their strong dedication and commitment to serving the Lord and doing all they can to magnify their callings as they are out and about ministering to the people they come in contact with each day.

I reminded the missionaries of how Elder Wakolo had ended the mission tour with his strong, fervent testimony as he stood a little taller and spoke with deep conviction when he quoted 3 Nephi 5:13.

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

Then he added, "That is what and who I stand for. And that is what makes me be careful for what I do and stand for."



ZONE CONFERENCE - DAY 1 - ESCONDIDO AND DEL MAR ZONES

The rotating training classes were all good, but I think I must say the highlight was the Christmas tree made out of the KFC boxes Elder Radford brought to us for lunch.

Every now and again, we have to provide our own lunch for zone conference. Sister Radford figures it out and then gets Elder Radford to pick it up and deliver it to us. These two Elders were so proud of their holiday display.

The Radfords even made the effort the night before to drive to Escondido to put some holiday decor on all the tables. They really go above and beyond when they are given an assignment!

ZONE CONFERENCE - DAY 2 - CARLSBAD AND VISTA ZONES

Some more wonderful classes taught by the zone leaders and sister training leaders.

We got to enjoy the leftover decorations from a previous Christmas activity which made the gym very festive for eating our lunch. 

ZONE CONFERENCE - DAY 3 - TEMECULA NAD MURRIETA ZONES

Yet again more wonderful trainings by our missionary leaders with a delicious waffle lunch the Temecula Stake Relief Society sisters always provide for us.

Glen finished up the zone conferences teaching the missionaries what Elder Cook had taught us at our last seminar. It comes from Preach My Gospel, page 20, "Learn what someone should know, feel, and do because of your teaching."

Doctrine is the know; baptismal interview questions are the feel; and keeping commitments is the do. He wrote know, feel and do in three separate circles. As each of those circles come together, the overlapping part of the circles is conversion. The more you know and feel and do, the more the circles intercept and the deeper the conversion.

When all three circles come together, to make one full circle, that is total and complete conversion. Christ lived all three fully. He is our ultimate example in everything.

Thankfully the fire situation did not affect our zone conference schedule. With all the fires in the area, the Church sent a truckload of cleaning buckets that the missionaries helped unload and distribute.

Christmas packages were overflowing from the mail area into Glen's mission office.

HO, HO, HO!!! Christmas was fast approaching!!!