Me Sick on Interview Week; Chinese Show; Our Love Month; Kade Blessed; Luke Ordained a Deacon

The month of February started out with the Del Mar stake conference. Elder Scott D. Whiting was the visiting General Authority. We had been invited to have dinner with him, the stake presidency, the bishops, and their wives between the Saturday sessions.

We had been told to be prepared to possibly be called upon to speak on Sunday. When it came time to call on us, Elder Whiting said there was not time for both the temple president and his wife and for both of us to speak, so he asked the temple matron and me to speak.

When he got up to speak, he said he had chosen the roses (us) before the thorn (him). So Glen had a weekend off of speaking. That is pretty rare!

As per anticipated, I did not get out of catching Glen's sickness.

I got sick the next day which was the week of interviews.

Thankfully the sneeziest, runniest nose day was on Monday when we were home doing letters and laundry.

 I took my box of Kleenex with me the rest of the week and soldiered on with work as usual.

I was anxious to talk with each of the missionaries to hear how they had been implementing what they had learned at zone conference.

 I was particularly interested in how they had been using their cleaning supplies.

And what the difference is that they have noticed from having a cleaner apartment and cleaner car (for those companionships who have a car).

As we learn from the Bible Dictionary under the word Temple, "Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness."

They had been invited to do what it takes to help their apartments be like an extension of the temple. Perfect thing to think about and work on as they were all anticipating a trip to the temple the following week.

Glen enjoyed having the missionaries share with him in their interviews about what lies they have identified have been holding them back from experiencing pure light and eternal happiness, and how they have felt as they have repented and turned to Christ and focused themselves outward.

There were activities we did each night that week to make it an extra very full and busy week. The evening we were in Temecula and Murrieta doing interviews, we went to dinner with President and Sister Ham, the stake president of the Temecula stake.

Another night we got invited to dinner at the Bennett home. Sister Bennett (on the right) recently returned home from her Temple Square Mission and was anxious to meet us and visit with us. 

I felt horrible going there when I was sick, but it soon became apparent that the mother (on the left) was in the first stages of a bad cold herself and was not feeling very well at all. 

That same night President and Sister Marín invited us to go with their family to see a Chinese dance cultural event. The costumes were very elaborate and brightly colored and all the acts were very entertaining and beautiful to watch.

We are always amazed at the generosity of the Marín family. Such wonderful people!!

Another evening we attended the baptism of an older woman. It is always so gratifying to hear how thankful people are to have been taught the gospel and choose to be baptized.

By the weekend I was feeling much better. I was so thankful each and every day I was sick that my lungs and my sinuses were not affected. That is a very rare occurrence and the miracle was not lost on me. I gave heartfelt gratitude each day in my prayers for that blessing.

Saturday, February 9th, was our 41st anniversary. Glen showed his undying love for me by frying me up an egg like he does most mornings. I made myself a little token of remembrance of the special occasion by cutting my toast into the shape of a heart. LOVE!! It's all about love!! 

And I sure LOVED the card my mom sent to us. I LOVED that the shirt has 5 hearts on it, which to me represents each of our 5 children that we LOVE so dearly. So cute!!

We went to the Old California Mining Company for dinner to celebrate our anniversary.

I am happy to say we had a very lovely anniversary. It is a very terrific feeling to still be so very much in love with each other after all these years of marriage. Even more in love with each passing year.

We had stake conference meetings with the Escondido stake Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Glen was called on to take a few minutes to teach in the early morning Priesthood leadership meeting. We both gave talks in the general stake conference session on Sunday.

After conference, someone introduced us to this man and said he was some kind of legend or celebrity or something. Glen recognized his name and who he was after he heard his name. Even after he told me who he is and why he is famous, it still meant nothing to me!

We were instructed by the Missionary Department that we need to start holding a Mission Medical Council every month. So, we implemented the first one and felt it was a success.

We had the Burtenshaws come. He is our Area Medical Advisor and lives in Irvine. Kristy is the counselor from LDS Family Services that helps our missionaries.

Dr. Spiegler is a retired doctor. Sister Neal, Sister Maughan and Sister Probst are all retired nurses who do such a wonderful job taking care of our missionaries when they have medical issues arise.

We had a first trainer follow-up meeting with this group of missionaries.

Look at my romantic husband. He went out in the yard and picked a beautiful red flower for me. Ahhhh! He's a keeper for sure!!

Truth be told...I went out and took a picture of that one red blooming flower a few days earlier to document we had gotten a bloom right after Glen's hard work teaching at zone conference while he was feeling rotten.

The plant has bloomed on what we feel is heavenly cue throughout the time we have lived here feeling it signifies a "well done" or an "I am aware of you" or something of that nature.

I had pulled the flower forward a bit so it would be more noticeable in the photo and had bent broken the stem. OOOPS!!! After a few days, Glen couldn't stand seeing the damaged flower and went out to get it.

So, really, no romance involved, but in my mind it had nothing but romantic overtones!!!

And speaking of love and romance, the love holiday was upon us. Valentine's Day seems like such an afterthought as it falls several days after our anniversary, but someone thought it important enough to remember.

And that someone was not my husband. It was some of our sweet sister missionaries taking a few minutes to let us know they were thinking of us and sending love our way.

There were a few days we noticed a phenomenon with the ocean. It's the first time we have noticed it since we have been here.

Usually the ocean is all blue, but one day when we crested a hill and expected to look out and see nothing but blue water, we saw nothing but brown water for miles and miles. Then out beyond all the brown, we could see the blue water.  

It was very weird. The ocean was also looking like it was churning instead of waving. We don't know if that was what was causing the brownness or if it was something else.

We took the ocean drive home from church the week this was happening to see if we could see if it was still happening. Sure enough--it was.

We are happy to report the ocean no longer looks like this and is back to its natural blue once again. Way prettier all blue than with the brown in the forefront.

I just love it when Sarah sends photos of her lineup of little boys. It is also fun to catch glimpses of their new house.

She sent a photo of her newly-decorated master bedroom--with her little sidekick as the model of snow boots in her desert-themed room.

Now let's turn our thoughts to Ben and Haley. They LOVE to play games that have a million pieces to them and that you have to use your brain and formulate plans and figure things out. I've tried playing their kind of games with them. Their brains get all revved up while my brain just wants to shut down.

Give me Qwirkle any day over these intricate mind games, PLEASE!! But I do love to see the happiness on Ben's face when he's involved in a good game. And I love that they both enjoy the same kinds of games. That's what I call unity in a marriage.

And now Ben and Haley have something else in their lives to bring unity to their marriage--a baby boy!!

Let's take a moment to look at the adorableness of this little baby face. We still haven't met this boy in person, but he is on our schedule to come visit us soon. YAY!!

I loved seeing this family photo on Kade Malan Thomas's blessing day. What a beautiful family!

I have heard all about how Kade has a lot of hair and how he has big eyes. I think this photo sums that up perfectly. We know how much Caroline loves babies and she reminds us so much of Rebecca in this photo.

On the same Sunday as the baby blessing was happening in Utah, Luke was being ordained a deacon in Nebraska.

Lots of things to keep up with in regards to our 5 children, their spouses and our 17 grandchildren, that's for sure!!

A Very Clean Zone Conference With a Very Sick Mission President; Snow Happy!

Another round of zone conferences was upon us. Three days of training, teaching, instructing, motivating, reminding, encouraging and loving the missionaries.

The assistants taught about the importance of baptismal invitations and gave different examples of how missionaries can teach toward the baptismal invite.

Elder and Sister Sattley (with her green whisk in hand) instructed the missionaries on how to make quick, healthy and economical meals. With the missionaries now cooking more meals on their own, this gave them new insights and motivation to try new recipes.

I did a presentation entitled "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness" and feel like this photo represents my title very well.

Sister Van Aarle had been the shopping maniac buying all the cleaning supplies needed for all the apartments so each companionship could grab their allotment on the way out of zone conference.

I just loved how the tables looked with all the cleaning supplies lined out in such great order.

The missionaries were excited beyond description when we announced cleaning supplies will now be provided so that we will have a similar policy as the other missions around us.

We are trying to get in alignment with the policies and practices of the three missions our missionaries will be consolidating with at the end of June.

It was practically as exciting as receiving Christmas gifts for the missionaries as they carried away their cleaning supplies and their resolve to put them to good use cleaning their apartments.

On the third day of zone conference the rains began. We have gotten lots and lots of rain around here lately. 

I was impressed these two sisters had brought raincoats and were the only ones well prepared to go out in the rain.

Glen had gotten sick over the weekend right before zone conference week and he was sick all through the week. He was exhausted every single day, but he kept plugging away.

He had been preparing his teaching for months. He had allowed himself all afternoon to teach each day and had even done some teaching first thing in the morning. It was a lot more time than he's ever taken before at zone conference.

Thankfully he never lost his voice with this illness. He was able to teach very beautifully the inspired things he had been working on sharing with the missionaries. They learned a lot as they read through the scriptures with him and as he used a diagram to illustrate the points he was making with the scriptures.

It was all about realizing where we came from--we are divine sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. Light comes from God and darkness comes from Satan. When we start having doubts and thinking less of ourselves, we turn inward and feel darkness.

At that point, we need to recognize the lies, half-truths and deceptions Satan would have us believe and immediately repent and turn ourselves toward Christ. That brings us back into the light and as we focus outward and serve others, we stay in the light.

The message was well received and has helped missionaries since then recognize when they are feeling the influence of the adversary and stop, repent, turn to the Lord and get back on the path to eternal joy instead of eternal misery.

The poor man was exhausted by the third day and fell asleep in his chair shortly after we got home. Job well done, President Thomas!! You deserve the rest!!

The next day we were supposed to drive up to the Irvine Mission and meet with President and Sister Clark for a consolidation of missions meeting, but I had Glen cancel the appointment. I did not want him making the Clarks sick.

So, we had a Skype meeting instead. We got a kick out of the image that first popped up on the screen of the Clarks with the orange cone they had planned to put out in the parking lot to mark our parking space. Love their humor.

It wasn't as effective as meeting in person, but we made the meeting do and were happy we hadn't had to spend several hours in the car that day. Glen was feeling much better and felt like he was finally on the mend.

The Abe Thomas family was off on another adventure. This time to Lake Tahoe so the children could enjoy some time playing in the snow.

 It is very apparent on all their faces that they had "snow" much fun!!!