Zone Conference, Marriage Among Missionaries, Rome Temple Dedicated

The week of zone conferences was upon us. We spent our first day in Temecula with the missionaries from that zone and the Murrieta zone.

We love when the Temecula stake feeds us lunch. They always serve breakfast for lunch. We can smell the bacon cooking for an hour before lunch. What a tease to our senses!!

Glen sat down and realized he had not put any whipped cream on his waffle. I was surprised he had loaded up his waffle with chocolate chips.

Glen taught the missionaries about repentance--the doctrine, the principle and the application--the why, the what and the how.

The assistants built upon that and had the missionaries role play how to teach repentance by teaching the why, the what and the how.

I showed all the videos our children and the grandchildren had made of the various sections of the white handbook. That is always a hit with the missionaries. 

The Church is putting a big push on safety for the missionaries having them watch the new SafetyZone videos, so this was getting them ready for watching those videos.

Second day of zone conference was held in Escondido with that zone and the Del Mar zone. 

There were two sisters there with foot problems, so we had to get a photo of us three gimps.

President and Sister Marin and President and Sister Page (two Mission Presidents and wives in training) attended the meeting. The Marins left halfway through, but the Pages stayed for the whole day.

Brought back memories of us when we were anticipating our mission and attended a zone conference in the Ogden Mission so we could see how things are done.

Third and last day of zone conference was held at the building close by our house with the Carlsbad and Vista zones. 

It is always nice to complete zone conferences--breathing a sigh of relief that everything came together and we felt like it was a worthwhile day for the missionaries.

Glen was in dire need of new athletic shoes as he was wearing the heels of his shoes right down to nothing. We were on our way to the grocery store and I suggested very vehemently that Glen turn into the sporting goods store right then to shop for shoes.

I was so glad he did just that as we were able to have this sweet woman help us with his shoes. She saw our name tags and told us her husband and child had just moved back to the area and wanted to know which church building was closest to their home. She was happy to hear the Sattleys are still working as a missionary couple on base as they love them so much and had been working with them before they moved away.

The photo was taken so I could send it to the Sattleys to let them know this family is now back in the area. We ended up going back to the store again so Glen could get some other shoes and we saw her again. It doesn't feel like coincidence that we have seen her twice now as she had expressed a desire to start going to church again. We know how much the gospel can bless her family.

It is always interesting to see which missionaries end up marrying each other. We love it when that happens. And it has happened again.

These two decided to get married in the San Diego Temple since this is the place where they met. A family in Fallbrook gave them a wedding gift of letting them use their guest house to stay in while they were here and it was the place they hosted a wedding dinner for the friends they made while they were serving here as missionaries.

We had filled our plates with food and sat at a table with no one sitting across from us. Eventually the McClellans arrived and came over to eat with us. They are a local couple who were working as missionaries in our mission over housing and vehicles when we arrived in the mission. It was very enjoyable visiting with them for a while.

The super bloom of flowers and the super green of the vegetation has been crazy around here with all the rain. These bright flowers stand out wherever they are and these are some we saw when we were driving home from the mission office one day. 

It was an exciting event when The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were in Rome all together for the dedication of the Rome Temple. 

I love both of these photos that were taken of them. I also love the photo taken of the wives who had accompanied their husbands. 

USS Midway, San Diego Zoo With Ben's Family

Glen went with Ben, Haley and Kade to the USS Midway one day while I rested at home keeping my foot elevated and iced.

At the end of the week I was feeling like I could venture out with the group. We went to the zoo and were happy the rainy days had ceased and we could have a dry day there.

Glen pushed me around in a wheelchair. He said that would be better than leaving me home alone while he spent the day with the family.

It was actually pretty chilly that day. I was glad I had worn three jackets. It's not like I was working up any kind of a sweat just sitting around all day!

We decided to play a little prank on Eli. Sarah's family was here shortly after I had one of the surgeries on my other foot and we went to the zoo with them.

Glen was pushing me around in a wheelchair and while going down a hill, he jokingly told the grandboys that he was afraid we were "going to lose Grandma" on that hill.

So we had to re-enact the scene as if it really happened.

No worries!! No Grandma was harmed in the making of these photos!

It will always be tender and dear to us to remember how from that moment on, Eli kept a firm grip on the wheelchair through the rest of the zoo to make sure I didn't go flying down any hills.

What a tender-hearted grandson!

 

 

The last little while we were there, it felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. 

 Despite what it looks like here...we had enjoyed a very splendid day at the San Diego Zoo.

Off to Benihana we went to have some dinner to finish off our day together.

 

Saturday morning we took Ben's family over to look at the colorful display of ranunculus at the Flower Fields.

We had just enough time to go to lunch with them at California Pizza Kitchen (I felt like pizza was the theme of many of our meals) before we had to head off to the afternoon and evening sessions of the Temecula stake conference.

We were excited to make the drive north as we had been anticipating the beautiful display of yellow and orange poppies along the highway.

We were not disappointed!!!

This year was a banner year for the super bloom of wildflowers because of all the rain.

What a sight to behold! Nature is amazing.

It was interesting to see people stopping along the freeway to jump out of their cars to go stand in the flowers for a photo.

We had forgotten that we had received an assignment to speak in stake conference. But, since we are pros at getting called upon wherever we go, we were able to come through with flying colors.

And we had a little prize waiting for us upon our arrival back home--baby Kade and Sunday popcorn!

Then game time!!

Monday morning was foot doctor day. Again. For the millionth time. It feels like.

The stitches were removed.

Three bandages this time with instructions to wear the big boot for two more weeks. He didn't want any chance of my big toe bending down which could cause the stitches in the tendon to pop out.

Back home for Glen to spend his entire day doing letters as usual. His reward (and ours) was dinner at Coyote Grill.   

We had been telling Ben and Haley all about our favorite ribs restaurant and they wanted to give it a try.

The next morning we were all up bright and early. We were beginning our busy zone conference week. Ben's family was heading out to catch their flight back to Utah.

We very much enjoyed spending my recovery time with this sweet little family.