District Meetings, Glen Working In the Rain With Missionaries, Technology Coming

We went to the Bobier district meeting in the mission office church building.

We stayed at the mission office all afternoon so we could have a technology training Skype call with the Missionary Department in Salt Lake City. It was the beginning of our roll-out of technology to the missionaries in this mission. It is going to take a while to get fully functioning, but we've got to start somewhere. This was step one.

That day was momentous because it rained. Whenever it rains in Southern California, it's a momentous occasion as these elders were exclaiming over the rare occurrence. It was the first time either one of them had experienced rain on their mission. I wanted to capture the moment for them.

Glen had previously scheduled to go work with a companionship in the Escondido zone the rest of that day. Rain or shine, the work must go on!!

Once our Skyping was finished, he dropped me off at home and off he went to work with the missionaries. It rained the whole time he was gone. He came home drenched!!! His suit was a wreck. We put it in a soggy pile to take to the dry cleaner.

Glen got a call from the bishop of one of the elders he had worked with the following week saying the family was worried about the elder as he seems to be struggling. We feel it was a tender mercy that out of all the missionaries, one of the two companionships Glen chose to work with that week was the one that included the missionary whose family was concerned about him.

There was no indication to Glen of a concern of the elder while he worked with him, nor any indication of a concern in the weekly letters he had written to Glen. It made Glen so relieved to be able to report to that bishop that he is very aware of the elder and had, in fact, just gone out to work with that very missionary.

Elder David A. Bednar has taught there are no coincidences, they are tender mercies. "The Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."

I was just re-listening to the last general conference talk by Elder Ronald A. Rasband about how there are no coincidences in life. "Coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by 'coincidence' but ... by 'divine design.' What may appear to be a random chance is, in fact, overseen by a loving Father in Heaven... The Lord is in the small details of our lives."

There are so many times things happen and we just look at each other and shake our heads at how things work out. It is a continuing testimony to both of us that the Lord is indeed in the small details of our lives.

The next day we attended the Washington district meeting in Murrieta. I forgot to take a picture of all the missionaries in the district, but these sister training leaders had stuck around to eat their lunch, so I snapped one of them. Turns out that was a blessing as it gave them a chance to ask a few questions about a sister they were having questions about. See--tender mercies all around!!

Glen drove me home and then drove back up north to Temecula to work with two elders the rest of the day. That turned out to be a blessing as he had gotten a phone call informing us of a death of a grandparent and the parents thought their son would be upset about the news, so Glen was able to stop by and talk with that elder when he was finished working with the companionship since he "happened" to already be in Temecula that day.

The Kopenhefers have finished up their time serving as the car/housing couple and wanted to spend an extra month here going out and working with the missionaries.

They have been going around to all the district meetings and teaching the missionaries how to have a more effective baptismal service. They set up the room as they would for a baptismal service.

He has the missionaries practice how they would do the ordinance. They role play how they would talk to the friends and family of those coming to witness the baptism.

They had set up a display of materials on the table by the blackboard so the visitors would see and know they could take as many materials as they desire. They even had a refreshment table set up on the opposite side of the room.

It was a great meeting and it helped to have Glen there as this was a group of our Spanish-speaking elders. Glen could tell if they were saying the ordinance exactly right. It is a great learning experience as we have so many new missionaries throughout the mission.

Whenever we think we are going to have a few extra hours in the day, it usually means our schedule is free for a reason. This particular afternoon, Glen was able to go meet an elder in Escondido who had requested an interview and then we were able to go to the mission office in the later afternoon to meet with a troubled sister missionary who needed some reassurance and counsel from her Mission President.

We were glad to have an unscheduled morning the Friday of that week so we could enjoy a lovely walk in a new area we had found not too far from our home.

Despite the warning, we are happy to report we did not see any rattlesnakes during our morning exercise.

We were able to watch President Thomas S. Monson's funeral later that morning. It was a beautiful service. He was such a wonderful and loving man and prophet. Such a legacy of service for all of us to emulate. I feel so thankful for his many, many years of dedicated service.

At the mission office later that day we were able to see former Sister Kaitlyn Guiver and her parents who were back in the mission on vacation. She hadn't been gone from us for very long before she came back!

It reminded us of Abe who flew home from serving in the Nebraska Omaha Mission and then we immediately jumped in the car and drove right back to Omaha so he could visit and show us where he'd served.

Date night was dinner with the McBeths at Fish House Vera Cruz in San Marcos. It was nice visiting with them, but we determined the salmon and shrimp are much better at Red Lobster (in our opinion).

The McBeths had been called to serve last year as Mission President and Wife of the Mexico Torreón Mission--the exact same mission where Glen served as a young man. They have a teenage son still at home and after going to Torreón for a visit to check things out, she was terribly afraid to take their son there, so their names were put back into the mix. Need I even have to say how thankful I am we did not get called there???? Or to any other foreign mission????

They have now been called to duty this go round over the Utah Salt Lake City West Mission starting July 1st of this year. They were full of questions for us and wanted to share their feelings about the whole thing. We felt a little better prepared to share insights with them this year than we did last year when we were so new to the calling and when things were a lot more challenging for us.

Our executive planning meeting we have with the assistants every Saturday morning was a little bit different this particular time.

With the technology roll-out looming over us, Glen wanted to do a strategic planning session with them mapping out exactly each step in the process so he could make a timeline/flowchart/graph (whatever he technically calls it) so we know what we are doing and can keep on schedule.

He uses his favorite sticky-note process to do his project planning. He used this technique to plan his semester homework and projects for college. He used this technique to plan Rebecca's wedding. He used this technique to plan his work projects. It's a tried and true, proven method that he loves to use and was anxious to show Elder Jordan and Elder Eddins.

They were just grinning from ear to ear anticipating having technology in the mission that they were willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done!

We noticed a new plant is now in the spot where we pulled out the dead and decaying plant. I was a little surprised to see it is such a short little thing.

I thought they would put something in with a little more height to hide the yucky-looking wall. Now I'm thinking someone needs to come out and fix that section of the front of the house.

Rebecca sent a photo last weekend of her children enjoying scootering and rollerblading in the 50-degree weather saying they get to pretend it's spring. 

I just had to immediately send back a photo of our temperature. I give thanks in my prayers every single day that we are living in this lovely place with such wonderful weather year round!!!

Sarah sent a picture this weekend of our back deck showing the recent snowfall signifying our daughters are back in deep winter weather after the enjoyment of their 50-degree weather.

And that prompted me to compare their snow view to our yellow flower view here in this wonderful place where we live.  

As Glen so frequently says, "It's just another day in paradise!"

Quotes of the Week

There is always hope.
--M. Russell Ballard

Don't let life's distractions eclipse heaven's light.
--Gary E. Stevenson

God knows you perfectly. He loves you perfectly. He knows what your future holds.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we will love our enemies. We will overcome anger or hate. We will fill our hearts with love.
--Jeffery R. Holland

Quotes of the Week

I don't believe that God wants us to be fearful. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Jesus, who suffered the most, has the most compassion for all of us who suffer so much less.
--David A. Bednar

I wish I had the voice of seven thunders to wake up the people to the truth and power of the Book of Mormon.
--Russell M. Nelson

Turn your soul toward light. Begin your own wonderful journey home. As you do so, your life will be better, happier, and more purposeful.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

New Missionary Training, MLC, a Chair Gift

As usually happens, the departing missionaries immediately get back on Instagram as soon as they get home from their missions and then ask to follow us.

Sister Robinson (next to Klarissa in the photo) went home with our last transfer group and she immediately posted on Instagram to let her adoring fans know she is back home.

I had to laugh so much when I saw this photo as part of her multiple-images post. And I totally laughed when I read what she wrote, especially since she just met Abe's family once.

The assistants always help do the training for our new missionaries. Elder and Sister Kopenhefer are now officially out of the office and are out working with the missionaries. They really enjoyed this new missionary training meeting and suggested all the senior couples go through the training as well.

The missionaries were rewarded for their efforts of going through the training by getting lunch afterward.

We had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) later in the week. At this meeting we had our 12 zone leaders, 8 sister training leaders, 2 assistants and the Kopenhefers.

The meeting lasts most of the day and by lunchtime, the missionaries are ready and eager to get some food.

Glen was thrilled to see it was Chick-fil-A box lunches. Sister Radford keeps amazing us with all the different restaurants she uses when she is in charge of providing the lunches for the missionaries.

The sister training leaders wanted a photo with their mission president. I wanted in on that!! After all, he is my mission president, too!!

One day I saw a stack of large boxes in the housing/vehicle coordinators' office and asked what they were. When I found out they were new office chairs going out to some of the apartments for the missionaries for their study chairs, I jokingly asked if I could get one.

Ever since we got here, I have not been too thrilled with my computer set-up. Although, one thing I really do like is having it in the kitchen area because that is where I spend the majority of my time when I am home.

But, I have missed having a desk with a pull-out ledge for the keyboard. I have missed having work space to spread out papers as I am working on things. And I have really missed having an office chair with good back support. And wheels. WHEELS!! What a great invention!!

One of the kitchen table chairs was being used as a desk chair. It has always driven me crazy because the chair screeched across the tiles. Once we got felt pads put on the legs, it was somewhat better.

The chair is so hard it needed a pad and even with a pad, I would still sometimes get a blanket to sit on for more padding. The back did not give good support, so I would get another blanket and position it for back support if I was going to be sitting there for any length of time.

I had often thought of getting an office chair, but kept thinking it would not look good in the kitchen. The chair matched the other chairs. I thought a rolling office chair would stick out too far into the walkway area.

When Sister Van Aarle mentioned she had bought herself a new office chair without armrests so she could slide her chair up under the desk better, that is what made me think maybe I could use an office chair without armrests in the kitchen. Sister Van Aarle had been enjoying her new office chair so much. I sat in hers to try it out. I think she could sense I really liked her chair. She just knew I would love one, too.

Within days, I noticed an assembled black office chair with a ribbon around it with my name on it. WHAT??!!?? I had only been partially joking about it.

Now that I had one gifted to me, I just had to bring it home with me and see how it looked and see if I like it. With all the black of the computer, the monitor and the keyboard, I feel like the black chair doesn't stand out like a sore thumb as I had originally suspected it would.

With the comfort of the office chair with back support and the mobility of the wheels, I now pronounce it a KEEPER!!!!! I have never been so grateful for a gift being thrust upon me!

Glen had a super busy weekend. With MLC all day Friday, he was doing a lot of teaching that day. He did take me to dinner for date night.

Saturday morning we moved our planning meeting with the assistants an hour earlier so Glen could go on shepherding visits right after that with the Carlsbad Stake in conjunction with their stake conference under the direction of Area Seventy J. Scott Dorius.

Elder Dorius is the one who called on us so many times last time we were at a stake conference where he was presiding. That was many months ago when I was sick with influenza and had been feeling miserable and coughing my head off for literally 3 months. The last thing I felt like doing was being the center of attention multiple times in various meetings.

This time I had been struggling with a sore throat for 2 weeks, but was at the end of the illness and was counting my blessings it hadn't turned into a sinus infection or settled in my lungs. I kept putting cough drops in my mouth and hoped for the best whenever he called on me.

Elder Dorius had called Glen ahead of time and asked him to do a 15-minute training in the Saturday afternoon priesthood leadership meeting. Glen came home from that feeling really good about how that had gone. 

In the evening session Elder Dorius called on both of us to share our testimonies. He also put us on a panel for him to randomly get us to share things if the people in the congregation were hesitant to comment. They did a good job commenting, so only one of us on the panel ended up being called upon and it wasn't us. Then we both gave talks in the Sunday morning session.

Elder Dorius had invited the ward Primary presidents to the dinner on Saturday before the evening session. He did this at both of the stake conferences we have been to with him. 

I think I have figured out why he enjoys so much asking various people to come to the pulpit and share their testimonies of Christ during the meetings where he presides. As part of his conference message, he encourages all Primary workers to always share with the children their testimony of Christ at the end of every lesson--nursery leaders and song leaders included. 

He told about his memories of each one of the buildings where he attended Primary in his childhood. Most vivid in his mind are the testimonies of Christ his Primary teachers shared at the end of their lessons. Those testimonies are tender and dear to him and helped his testimony to grow.

When we got home from stake conference, we noticed the plant on the left side of the garage was half broken off and looked very sick. 

It looked like it had been decaying. Since it was the day we roll the trash cans out to the curb, Glen started pulling out the plant to put it in the trash to get hauled off the next morning. 

We were surprised at how brittle the branches were and how easy to break off. We have no idea what happened to the poor thing. But here's the good part. We just called our contact at the Church and they will take care of getting a new plant planted in that spot.

Tuesday morning we attended a district meeting with a new district leader at the mission office church building in Vista. We didn't realize the assistants had planned to attend that very same meeting or we would have gone to a different district meeting. It felt like we were ganging up on the new leader, but he did a great job and didn't seem nervous at all.

It was a momentous day that particular day because IT RAINED!!! That is an anomaly around here, that's for sure!

We had an afternoon conference call with the Missionary Department for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The purpose of the call was to help instruct us on how we are supposed to implement getting smartphones in the mission. The roll-out for this will happen at our next MLC in a month. In the meantime, the missionaries are being informed they need to purchase a smartphone that meets the guidelines given.

This is exciting for the missionaries as we haven't even been an iPad mission. Our missionaries have only had flip phones. We'll see what exciting things will happen with our new-found technology. We were instructed to have Glen join a MP Facebook group so we can get tips and pointers from the Mission Presidents who are already deeply immersed in technology.

Glen brought me home before he went out working in Escondido for the evening with some missionaries. As I mentioned earlier, it was raining that day and not just a sprinkle here and there. It was RAINING!!!!

He came home SOAKED! Needless to say, we took that suit to the cleaners. Glen was freezing cold the rest of the night. We're hoping it is a myth that if you're out in the rain/cold without a coat you'll get sick. Technically, he had a coat on--a suit coat. I was happy to hear the missionaries he was with were wearing jackets and were staying a bit more dry than Glen.

Today we went to a district meeting in Murrieta and upon arrival back home, walked into a freshly-cleaned home. Oh my!! I can't even adequately express the happiness we feel when we walk into a clean home. It is divine!! The only thing that could possibly be better than having a house cleaner would be having a personal chef. That would be my dream come true!!

Note to self: next year put "chef" on my Christmas list to Santa.