The Big Chicken, Zone Conferences, Children Start to Arrive

Whenever we are driving on El Camino Real and see this big chicken sitting on the top of this building, it makes me think of the Big Chicken in Marietta, Georgia.

The Big Chicken is a KFC restaurant which features a 56-foot-tall steel-sided structure designed in the appearance of a chicken rising up from the top of the building. It is located at the city's biggest intersection of Cobb Parkway and Roswell Road and is a well-known landmark in the area. (All these details are courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Constructed in 1956, it was built over a restaurant as a method of advertising. The owner later sold it to his brother and it became a franchise of KFC. In 1993, storm winds damaged the structure and rather than tear it down, KFC was forced by public outcry to re-erect the building. We were living in Georgia at this time and I remember the public outcry. By then we were pretty fond of the landmark ourselves.

Among those who complained about the Big Chicken being torn down were pilots who used the building as a reference point when approaching Atlanta and Dobbins Air Reserve Base. The new Big Chicken includes the original design of beak and eyes which move. 

The Big Chicken is commonly used as a landmark for driving directions. When Glen was on the high council and was on the committee for ward boundary changes, he wanted to name one of the new wards the Five Miles North of The Big Chicken Ward. Ha ha!! Instead he named our new ward the Allatoona Ward. As if that was any better...?!?!??

Glen is in heaven now that the missionary department has changed zone conferences from every quarter to having them every transfer cycle. As excited as he was to be able to be with and instruct the missionaries more often, the stake Relief Society sisters who feed us were probably just as unexcited to know they will be asked to feed us twice as much.

Our first day of zone conferences in January were with the Escondido, San Marcos and Del Mar zones. I have been telling the sisters that we are used to using plain church tables with no tablecloths or decorations on them, but they generally like to do some decorating.

These "fishers of men" edible centerpieces were so clever and adorable!

They served us a Mexican salad meal. The women love it when the missionaries sing "Called to Serve." You can always tell who has a missionary out because they are the ones who are crying.

The assistants love it when I take their picture.

Day two of zone conferences was with the Carlsbad, Vista and Fallbrook zones held at the church close to our house. The aprons say "Called to Serve." We are sure glad they were happy to serve us!

It was another Mexican salad kind of meal. It works great for the missionaries who have special dietary needs (like me) who can pick or choose what to add to their salad to make it tummy friendly for each individual.

Day three of zone conferences was up north with the Temecula and Murrieta zones. Inspirational quotes were displayed on each table.

These sisters asked the missionaries what they would like to eat for lunch and they were told they wanted breakfast for lunch. They said they never eat a substantial breakfast and it would be a real treat to have a waffle breakfast for lunch. Complete with fruity toppings and bacon, sausage and cantaloupe.

They were even so sweet as to make gluten/dairy-free waffles for the special eaters. AHHH! So nice of them!

Ben and Haley had arrived in town the week of zone conferences and we pretty much ignored them. They went to the temple one day and were so kind as to pick up their sisters at the airport really late the next night.

We had left early enough in the morning that we hadn't even seen our daughters until that evening. What a welcome sight!

The four of them had a great time during the day playing lazer tag, going to a movie, eating pizza and playing games in our absence.

We had planned to grill chicken that evening. Sarah insisted we eat dinner outside on our patio. After all, she had come from freezing cold, snowy Utah and wanted to take full advantage of our warm, sunny California weather.

Except for the fact it was cold and it was rainy and no sun was shining at all. We turned on the heaters and strategically placed the table to avoid the water drips coming from the roof which should have been water-proof, but we learned it doesn't stay completely dry under there.

 Yummy dinner and great conversation and playing Qwirkle was a great way to end the day.

Interviews for Every Missionary, Cute Kid Notes, Bear Misses Us

There is a week during each transfer cycle dedicated to Glen interviewing every single missionary. That means while he's interviewing, I'm talking to every single one of their companions.

One of these is not like the other... He's one of about 35 short-term youth missionaries from the Murrieta Stake who was assigned to various missionary companionships during the school break the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Generally the interviewing works out okay, but... more often than not, some of the missionaries take way more time than their allotted 10 minutes and then the missionaries start stacking up. That makes it the perfect photo op for the ones sitting around waiting.

Glen has them choose a goal every transfer cycle that they write down so they can discuss it with him in the interview and review how they did on their previous goal.

Elder Friend is one of the California Carlsbad recently returned missionaries who returned to his mission and spent the night with us so he could attend the baptism of a person he had taught. 

Little tidbit of information is his previous mission president and wife, Hal and Julie Kendrick, now live in his ward in Texas. They had sold their home before the mission and after their mission they chose to buy a home in the part of Texas where Elder Friend lives. 

Let's face it. Sometimes this calling just really takes it out of you. We generally go to bed totally exhausted and wonder how we can ever have enough energy to face a new day. Then in the morning we jump out of bed, bounce out of bed, get out of bed ready to get at it once again.

With the rough couple of weeks we had just had, one day I found Glen on the computer looking longingly at the screen.

He was thinking how much we would enjoy going on a 60-day cruise. No phone calls, nobody needing us, people waiting on us hand and foot, leading the life of leisure. It sure looked appealing...

But he refrained from pushing the "buy" button and everyone can rest assured there will be no MP and MPW jumping ship to get on a ship any time soon.

It just takes something like a wonderful zone training meeting to help remind us of why we are here and what our responsibilities are to help lead, guide and direct our missionaries. I always go away from their meetings feeling uplifted and spiritually edified.

These are two of our zone leaders who wrote some lyrics to the song "Nephi's Courage" which they sang to their zone. It is all about the standards of excellence Glen has set for the mission monthly goal for each companionship to have four new investigators a week, four investigators at church a week, and have one baptism a month.

It was such a cute song that I recorded them singing it to show at the upcoming zone conferences. It was a hit! I loved it!

Another zone training meeting with the selfie stick selfie taken at the end of the meeting.

Since we have now been here over 6 months, it seems weird that we hadn't already spoken at all 6 of the stake conferences. We just had our first one with the Carlsbad Stake. Bishop Gérald Caussé was the visiting general authority. He is a delightful man and we really enjoyed the time we were able to spend in his presence.

This is probably one of my favorite perks we have in this calling. We are always included in the meetings with any visiting authorities. I love it! All except the part where we aren't given an assignment beforehand and we get called on to speak extemporaneously. ONE OF MY LEAST FAVORITE THINGS TO HAVE HAPPEN TO ME!!!!

Sure enough, in the Saturday evening session, he called on the Jergensens (San Diego Temple president and wife) and then us to come to the pulpit as a couple and share the answer to this question "What evidences do we see that this is Christ's restored Church?" The subject had already been talked about for an hour previous to our comments.

Thankfully there was not enough time for us to speak get called upon to say something in the Sunday session. He asked the Jergensens to say something again, though. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind very much speaking if I have been thinking, praying and pondering about what to say and then come prepared to speak...

But the spur-of-the-moment stuff is so nerve-wracking for me.

To get to the Carlsbad Stake Center we drive up our street, turn right and as we drive down the hill a short few blocks to the church, this is the view we see. The ocean! So cool!

The assistants and these three missionaries spent the night here one night mid transfer so we could get one of the missionaries to the airport the next morning.

That evening we met up with another of these missionaries so we could drive him up to Murrieta where he met up with some family members who were driving him to Utah for his father's funeral. It was the second time we had to tell one of our missionaries about the death of a parent. Not a fun thing to have to do.

Glen is such a nice guy and fixes a French toast breakfast if it's not a huge group here. The missionaries love to get breakfast because they never fix themselves a substantial breakfast. 

This is the room where I spent an entire day while Glen interviewed missionaries from the Escondido zone. There was a viewing and funeral going on for two children from a Spanish branch who died in a house fire. So sad!

Glen found out there is a man in the Escondido Stake who is one of the newly-called mission presidents who will be serving in Glen's exact mission--the México Torreón Mission. We got together with the McBeths after the interviews were other and went to dinner with them. They had lots of questions about what to expect.

Sister McBeth has a lot of concerns about their 12-year-old son they will be taking to Mexico with them. Yet again Glen and I gave thanks we did not have to bring any children with us on our mission. The 160 missionaries we deal with are plenty enough "children" for us!!

Here's some cuteness that I love so much. It is kid writing. Sarah had Eli sit down and write a thank you note to us for the Christmas money we sent him.

He wrote "Blah Blah love Eli" and thought that would suffice. Well, suffice it to say, Sarah did not feel it was sufficient and made him write more. 

Carson is quite the sounder-outer.

Caroline's note made me laugh when she referred to the bugs. They made quite an impression on the Golden family since they were the ones who discovered all those pesky flying termites.

Glen has been complaining of his shoulder never being pain-free since his shoulder surgery a couple of years ago. He had an MRI last year to see if he needed more surgery and things looked fine in there. Well he had another MRI last week to see what is going on in there.

Doctor saw him today and told him the MRI showed the same rotator cuff tear not all the way through like it was when he had his surgery before and the doctor just cleaned out some stuff in there and hoped for the best.

The doctor suggested a cortisone shot and physical therapy for a few weeks to see if that gives him relief. This is very discouraging that he is still struggling with this same problem.

Brooke sent me some pictures of Bear wearing a tie, sitting on some copies of the Book of Mormon, holding his scriptures, wondering when we are going to be home from our mission. 

I guess a 3-year mission seems like a very long time!

Quotes of the Week

By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.
--Gordon B. Hinckley

We become more Christlike as we are more virtuous, more kind, more patient, and more in control of our emotional feelings.
--Ezra Taft Benson

Of this be sure: You do not find the happy life...you make it.
--Thomas S. Monson

Whatever problems your family is facing...the beginning and the end of the solution is clarity.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Quotes of the Week

Because He came, there is meaning to our mortal existence.
--Thomas S. Monson

All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
--3 Nephi 22:13

If you decide to make a difference in the world, you must be different from the world.
--Elaine S. Dalton

As we come to trust rather than resist our divine teacher.  He can work with us to enlighten and lift us to a new reality.
--D. Todd Christofferson