Steven and Patricia Visit; Former Missionaries Visit; Family Photos

We had another rousing evening with our senior couples.

For some reason my phone thinks I am still in Utah because it sends me winter storm warnings all the time. Every time we see one of them, it makes us so happy we are not dealing with winter snow storms!! 

We'll take our blue skies, mild temperatures and flowers blossoming all year round any day of the year, thank you!

Our wonderful friends Steven and Patricia Morgan from Albuquerque came to spend a few days with us. They let themselves in and when we got home, we found them roaming around in the back yard.

After dinner, Pat insisted on ice cream for her evening snack. Steven and Glen very kindly went to the store to buy some for her. They like whole milk poured over their ice cream. Such a delicacy for them. Glen wanted some ice cream, too. Just minus the whole milk.

I opted out. Mint chocolate chip is not my favorite ever! Now offer me some cookie dough ice cream and I would be willing to pop a lactaid pill to be able to eat that yummy flavor!

The next day we took our morning walk at Oceanside Harbor where the three of them ventured clear out to the end of the reef. The jagged rocks and uneven surfaces hurt my feet.

We walked around the other direction past the fishing pier to where the sea lions like to hang out.

Patricia wanted to get a closer look at them.

The big sea lion didn't seem to mind her close proximity.

When Glen decided to go down, the sea lion raised right up and starting barking at him like crazy.

We had scheduled ourselves a whole free day to spend with the Morgans. Off we went to tour the USS Midway in San Diego. With our season passes we were able to get them in for free.

It was hours and hours' worth of fun for Steven who got his pilot's license at a young age and was a traffic controller for his profession. Aviation is his passion.

We really enjoy being around couples who are obviously in love with each other.

We ate dinner at a restaurant on the water.

Patricia wanted to try an "Extraordinary" dessert.

The dessert displays were extremely beautiful. But oddly, none of them even appealed to me.

Patricia picked her favorite, but ordered it to go so she could eat it at home.

We were even able to fit in a game of Qwirkle before bed that night. That made my day!!! Better than dessert!!!

The next morning we went to the temple with them.

We ate lunch together at California Pizza Kitchen, but then had to run. We drove separate cars because we had to get back to the mission office church building for an afternoon training meeting.

Steven and Patricia had packed up and had moved from our house to a hotel in San Diego so they could do some things in that area while we were at our meetings.

We had a second trainer follow-up meeting with this group of missionaries that afternoon, along with interviews with three struggling missionaries. Glen had a mission presidency meeting that evening.

The next day we had Mission Leadership Council all day.

We hooked up with Steven and Patricia that evening at The Fish Market for dinner. We were interested in what they had been doing since we last saw them.

We spent Saturday morning with Steven and Patricia before they had to catch their flight back to Albuquerque. We went to see the seals at La Jolla Cove.

From a distance it looks like there are a lot of rocks on the beach. Then upon closer inspection it becomes obvious they are seals, not rocks.

That was a beautiful part of the coastline we hadn't seen before.

We ate lunch at the Crack Shack, a place that specializes in chicken dishes--and Steven chose fries instead.

The Morgans had a few more minutes left, so Patricia made a mad dash to find some ice cream.

Success!! Since Steven said he was paying, I decided to go for the cookie dough ice cream. YUM!! My lactaid pill worked. No tummy troubles!!

Then it was time to bid our friends farewell. Until we meet again... On a cruise somewhere... After the mission...

On Sunday we attended a Young Single Adult Ward held at the Institute building. Behind the sacrament table was this beautiful painting of Christ. 

It really touched me deeply that day as I thought of how the bread and water that we partake of each week represent His body and His blood which was shed for us. In return, He asks us to always remember Him, take His name upon us and keep His commandments. 

We had former Sister Alexandra Winegar and her friend come to visit us.

Former Sister Camri Richey came to visit and introduced us to her intended--Chandler.

Loved this drawing by Brooke that accompanied a very heartfelt thank you note to her grandpa.

Newland and Wynne looked like they were enjoying the three-dimensional Snoopy sidewalk crossing.

Logan Thomas, also known as Thomas Alva Edison, looks like he did a fine presentation at school with big brother Luke cheering him on.

Cute little Lincoln celebrated his 4th birthday.

Jonah is a model of happiness as he had been enjoying the fun park Sarah has discovered in their new city of Las Vegas.

And here are the Excells having a fun family excursion to Red Rock Canyon. 

They are determined to find all the fun things to do in Nevada.

Quotes of the Week

Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path.
--Russell M. Nelson

What is most important almost always involves the people around us. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.
--Thomas S. Monson

You cannot buy or command joy. You can only receive it by doing things that will make you joyful, such as reaching out to others, serving, helping them, and being a good neighbor and friend.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Mormon Battalion; Farewell to Hemingways; Transfer #23; Aloha!

As is our cycle, it was time once again to take a group of missionaries to the Tequila Factory for a Mexican buffet lunch before walking down the hill to attend a tour at Mormon Battalion.

It was the last day Elder and Sister Hemingway would be there as they completed their mission at the Mormon Battalion.

They had invited us to have dinner with them that evening. They took us on a little guided tour before dinner. Up high on the hill were some monuments dedicated to the Mormon Battalion.

We really love the Hemingways. He was our study group leader from the Missionary Department in the months leading up to our mission. Then shortly after he retired, he was called to be the Director of the Mormon Battalion Historic Site.

Every six weeks when we take our missionaries to the Mormon Battalion, they both would attend our meeting after the tour and each of them would take a few minutes talking to the missionaries. We loved hearing what they had to say and we loved seeing them every time we went.

The next day was our new leadership meeting. This time there were four new district leaders and one new sister training leader. We had three assistants and two sister training leaders there to help with the training.

Another transfer was about to go down in the books. We had a small group of departing missionaries this time.

The assistants did their job cleaning up the kitchen while the rest of us had testimony meeting.

Elders Brenden Stark and Joshua Mann

Sisters Madison Romig, Bailey Bourdos and Jessica Langton

The next morning we took them to the temple before dropping them off at the airport.

We took the assistants to lunch at Tom Ham's Lighthouse Restaurant. We love to eat there by the water. It is very relaxing.

Later that afternoon we picked up our group of new missionaries at the airport.

We bring them back to the mission office two days later to get a picture with them to send to their parents and to do some training.

Glen has gone into major project manager planning mode as we are faced with the consolidation of missions. We met with President and Sister Clark of the Irvine Mission at our mission office and got all these tasks lined out that need to be done. Glen then put them all on a spreadsheet and is working off that to make sure everything gets done.

Their whole mission will combine with half our mission which will include the Vista, Carlsbad and Escondido missionaries.

Another day we went to the San Diego Mission office and met with President and Sister Stubbs who will be receiving our Del Mar missionaries when the consolidation takes place.

We met another day with President and Sister Hammon from the Riverside Mission who will be taking our Temecula and Murrieta missionaries.

We got a phone call in the middle of the night from a distraught missionary. Luckily the missionaries live in the apartment complex at the bottom of our street, so we didn't have to drive far to go and console them and give the missionaries a blessing. Thankfully the middle-of-the-night issues only happen very rarely.

Let's end with some bright, cheerful, happy Hawaii vacationers' photos. I loved seeing Abe and Klarissa's family spending time together in such a beautiful location and thought I would share them.

ALOHA!!!!