Six Missionaries From Nicaragua, Training Meetings, Gifts From the Foot Doctor

The Missionary Department kept sending us missionaries from Nicaragua...one at a time it felt like. We had received our first elder the previous week. This elder arrived on a Sunday evening.

When we got home, Glen interviewed him and then he met his new companions.

Monday evening we had the assistants take a truck to the airport to help haul the luggage of three missionaries reassigned here from Nicaragua. 

We stopped to eat at a restaurant across the freeway from the temple--which called for a photo.

We ate at California Pizza Kitchen. They all comment about how cold it is here coming from such a warm climate.

When we were finished eating, it was getting dark and the temple was all lit up.

Once back home, Glen interviewed the three missionaries. Their companions came to get two of them. The assistants took one of them home with them to their apartment.

On Tuesday we went back to the airport to pick up the 6th and last missionary reassigned here from Nicaragua. We took him to a different restaurant in the same area close by the temple.

By the time we got him fed, home and interviewed it was once again getting late when he met his companions and got off on his way.

The next day we brought them all into the mission office church building to have a meeting and to get all their forms filled out and signed. 

Sister Radford got the traditional California burritos (meat and French fries inside a tortilla) for the missionaries' first lunch with us. It's tradition! 

From lunch we went right into a first trainer follow-up meeting with the missionaries who have been here 4 weeks. We had the sister from Nicaragua and her companions join in with the meeting as she hasn't been on her mission very long.

We met former Elder Clayton Horton for dinner that evening at our favorite ribs restaurant in Carlsbad Village. He was in town on business--thrilled that a work trip took him back to his mission.

What's not to love about this place? The flowers, plants and trees are gorgeous!! 

Here's an update on my feet--same old, same old! More injections. UGH!! Every three weeks more of the same.

This time Dr. Dustin surprised me by giving us a gift. He had hand-crafted two pens and an oil vial out of olive wood he had imported from Jerusalem.

The pens have a little line of red in them which he told us is from an old skateboard. He wrote:

As you know, trees have great significance in the scriptures. I think one of the most important trees is the olive tree. There are so many beautiful cultural and religious representations of this sacred tree. My favorite is in Jacob. 

I wanted to include some local Carlsbad wood. I chose skateboard because the sport has ties to this area. Many of the best and most famous skaters started right here. I used a broken discarded skateboard. I wanted to thank you for reaching out for those in our area; missionaries, members and not yet baptized people that may feel broken or discarded. I hope it makes you think of how you rescued us and encased us in the love of the Savior.

I often think of how Jesus worked with wood and probably used olive wood to make beautiful things. The great and true carpenter sees our true value and creates a work of art in all of us if we allow Him to mold us and sand us smooth. Thank you for being a great instrument in His hands.

There were other things he wrote that makes it sound like he was giving this to us as a farewell gift.

I'm going to have to break it to him that we have another whole year here. Which means he's got another full entire 365+ days to continue taking care of my troublesome feet...!!!

Now on to other more pleasant things besides my feet. That would be Brooke, the girl who just turned 11 years old. I love how she decorated her own birthday cake. Why not?? 

She's clever and creative and knows exactly what she likes. I love it!! And I love her!!

Happy "BirdDay," Interviews, Stress Relief, MLC With District Leaders

This is Glen's happy place--walking near the ocean knowing he'll soon be in the South Carlsbad State Beach Campground. He loves walking through the campground because the scenery changes all the time with new campers every time we are there.

It's rare we get to enjoy an ocean sunset, but we are happy when we do get to see one!!!

Brooke is now into bird watching. Her new interest is reflected in the adorable birthday BirdDay card she made for her grandpa.

I laughed at the asterisk by the number 60 at the top of the cake which directs you to look at the bottom of the page to learn she is just guessing at how old he is. She was only off by 2 years.

I love this picture Natalie posted of herself in our back yard. Natalie has always loved to pose for pictures.

It works out so great that Emma apparently loves to be behind the camera, so Emma takes pictures of Natalie. I am impressed with Emma's photographic creativity with this photo.

It made me so happy to see this picture because the tree is no longer there, so now we have a photo to help me remember its existence. Our next-door neighbor asked if he could pay to cut it down because it blocks the sun to the solar panels which he recently had installed on his roof.

I have always been annoyed at the stuff that falls from the tree. It would get all over the sidewalk and patio out there. I was all for the cutting of the tree so we wouldn't have that mess out there anymore.

Little did I know that the enjoyment the tree gave me of seeing its beautiful branches and leaves outside the small window in the shower every morning would be sorely missed. At least now I have a photo to remind me of the tree--and of the enjoyable visit of Natalie and Emma and their family.

This photo reminds me of Memorial Day weekend. There was a big holiday breakfast going on that day at this church building.

Our long holiday weekend started with a phone call at midnight from a distraught missionary. We ended up going to pick up that companionship in the middle of the night and brought them to our house to sleep. They were able to go out and do some missionary work during the days, but they were back again each night.

Things had escalated to the point where the one needed to go home to get medical attention. But, with the holiday weekend, no one could get a hold of the parents. It was stressful for everyone involved to have the missionary remain here, but the last day in the mission turned out to be a wonderful experience where they were able to teach some great lessons and they had experienced a great day together.

The morning the missionary left for the airport, as we prayed together as a group, Glen had prayed that the missionary would be able to share the gospel, even on the way home. I wondered if that would put more stress on the emotionally struggling missionary, but an amazing report was made about how the missionary engaged a fellow traveler in conversation and had been able to teach him, left an Ensign with him, along with a pass along card so he could contact the Church to get more information. What a wonderful answer to a heart-felt prayer by a loving, concerned Mission President for his early-release missionary.

We were dealing with several big issues at the same time this was going on, so no wonder Glen went straight for the popsicles one evening. As our granddaughter Emma pointed out--they are his stress relievers.

My stress reliever was begging our children to send me photos of what they had been doing over the holiday weekend. I love seeing pictures of the family to know what is going on in their lives.

This was a nice one of Jacob's family at Liberty Jail.

One of the baptisms that weekend was for Roberto.

Glen was the one who did Roberto's baptismal interview. Roberto loved that Glen could speak his language and had felt a strong connection with Glen.

Shortly after the interview, the sister missionaries called. They wanted to know if Glen would baptize Roberto as per Roberto's request.

It's interesting the deep connections that are made at a baptismal interview. The same thing happened when Glen interviewed Cruz.

Now whenever Cruz sees Glen, he radiates happiness and joy at seeing him. He rushes to Glen and gives him a big hug and calls him his amigo. It has been an amazing bond to witness.

It is always so wonderful to see Cruz. He has such a light of goodness about him. He is being a friend to Roberto. He is spending more time with his family. He is serving faithfully in his ward. The gospel of Jesus Christ has made a world of difference in his life.

Our interview week began in Temecula.

These four elders had me laughing as they walked into the church building, each holding a plastic lunchbox.

When I asked about the lunchboxes, they said a member had a lot of them and had given each missionary in their district one so they could be unified as a district. They only use them once a week at the church for lunch after their district meeting.

That evening we met up with President and Sister Ham for dinner. It was a festively decorated restaurant. I really enjoyed the sign on the door after the stress-filled weekend we'd just experienced.

The next day we were at it again doing interviews in Carlsbad and Del Mar.

The last of the interviews were with the Escondido and San Marcos zones.

We went to dinner with former Sister Hannah Petterborg and her family.

On Friday of that week we had Mission Leadership Council. We loved the beautiful, unique flowers sitting on the table.

Elder and Sister Radford always do such a fine job getting the food for our various meetings.

Looks like a thumbs up for the pizza, chicken bake and yogurt fruit cup from Costco.

The district leaders were invited to join with the zone leaders and the sister training leaders for this MLC.

The sister training leaders requested a photo.

This is a fine group of missionaries. We appreciate their willingness to be leaders in the mission.

On Sunday we were able to coordinate meeting up with former Elder Erik Kapp who was vacationing here with his family.

The former missionaries keep coming back because they loved their mission so much.

We'll have to see if we keep coming back to the mission like they do.