Mission President interviews were the week following zone conference week. It is wonderful to see all the missionaries both of those weeks.
The first day we do interviews with the Murrieta and Temecula zones.
Day two we do interviews with the Carlsbad and Del Mar zones.
There is an inner courtyard at the Cardiff building and I spotted these big, beautiful flowers blooming. I cannot express enough how much I love the vegetation here!! Beauty all around!!
We had Elder Garner, one of our assistants, with us one evening. Each of the three assistants rotated through spending a day at interviews doing training with each companionship, with one of them spending two days at interviews.
On Elder Garner's day, we brought him home for dinner with us. We stopped at the strawberry stand--which had just opened for the season--to buy some yummy strawberries.
Day three we spent the whole day doing interviews with the Escondido zone.
By the time day four rolls around, we are glad it is the Vista zone interviews which are held at the mission office.
As often happens, we had a former missionary--Sister Caroline Jackson--stop by to introduce us to her fiance Taylor.
Standing right behind them is the transfer board that when opened up looks like this. Each one of the missionaries is shown with his/her companion.
The yellow strips show which district they are in and the zone name is at the top of each section. The blue and pink cards represent the Spanish-speaking missionaries.
On Saturday we went to a baptism in Fallbrook and decided to eat dinner up there. We picked a restaurant based solely upon the catchy name.
Upon arrival at the restaurant, it looked a little disappointing.
The other side of the house was where the restaurant was happening.
I was glad we didn't get seated in the huge log chairs which reminded me of adults sitting in a child's high chair.
Our table was half a booth where we both sat on the same side and looked out the window. It was peaceful and beautiful.
The owner came over to talk to us and offered us a free dessert as it was our first time there. We were very impressed with that restaurant and must say we enjoyed it very much.
Just as I was thinking we hadn't had a missionary in the hospital for a long time...
We had a sister whose health had been declining for months. She didn't want to go home and was trying her best to hold on and complete her mission. Glen decided to send her to our mission doctor to have some comparison blood tests done and he put her right in the hospital.
She had the sweetest companion who had been watching over her trying to help her figure out things to do to help her get better. While in the hospital, she was so loving and kind to her.
After spending one night in the hospital, we went over to relieve them. We had to admire the beautiful scene they had out their window--the Torrey Pines golf course with the ocean in the background.
Since it was a Monday, Glen spent the day in the hospital working on his letters while I took her companion with me to my foot doctor appointment. The doctor said I could wear my regular shoes once again. Hurrah!!
We stopped to pick up some things at the grocery store, drove clear up to Fallbrook (remember Oink and Moo??) to let her shower and change clothes and grab some things they would need for another day or two at the hospital and then stopped for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.
It is so disappointing that the road construction scaffolding is now ruining the view of the temple.
Glen ate his pizza at the hospital and then we left the sisters to spend another night in the hospital.
The next day we had to be at the mission office for a trainer follow-up meeting with these new missionaries who have now been here 4 weeks and their trainers.
Two of our mission nurses took turns spending time at the hospital with the two sisters. One of the nurses sent me a photo of our sick sister "doing her morning exercises lifting weights." Haha!!
By that evening, the doctors still hadn't figured out what was wrong with our sister, so they released her with a heart monitor. She still couldn't eat much of anything, but she always had a smile on her face.
The rest of us were hungry, so we decided to go to CPK again because it was close and we had enjoyed our pizza the night before and because Nurse Maughan really wanted to go there.
Notice my "shoe." After wearing my regular shoe the day before, my foot was pretty sore, so I wore my smaller surgical boot off and on for a few more days.
There was too long of a wait at CPK, so we went next door to Islands Restaurant. It took forever to get our food.
It was nice when we were finally finished and we all went off to our respective homes. The sisters insisted they would rather stay in their apartment when we offered to have them stay with us.
The next morning as we checked on them, they had had a long night with the heart monitor going off sometimes and decided they could use the moral support of staying with us the next few nights until we could get the arrangements made for her to go home.
The sisters were able to get all the 12 SafetyZone videos watched while they were here, so they were still accomplishing missionary tasks while taking it easy.
We sure went through a lot of strawberries while these two sisters were with us.
It was about the only thing our sick sister could eat besides her nutritional shakes.
We felt like it was a tender mercy that we had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) on the day before our sister went home.
She was able to share her testimony with the other leaders of the mission. She was able to tell this group of missionaries good-bye. It brought a bit of closure to her mission, which we feel was a blessing for her.
These two have become the best of friends. It was very difficult for them to say good-bye to each other the next day.
But before the farewell, we had a little bit of time that evening to play Qwirkle. They enjoyed learning how to play my favorite game.
Saturday morning we drove our sister to the airport. Nurse Probst and her husband were flying to Utah the same day and she offered to fly with our sister. The Missionary Department okayed that and she was able to get her flight changed to accompany our sister home.
It was a sad farewell for all of us. It is always so sad to send a missionary home early--for any reason.
In this case, it was a relief to know our sister had arrived home and is now in the care of her own family.
We continue to pray for her and the doctors that will be working with her that they will be able to find out what is wrong with her and be able to help her.
