We love our senior missionaries. These are the Kopenhefers. He is in charge of the vehicles and she is in charge of housing. She also mans the supply closet (which is called the cave where they are now standing) where the missionaries can get pamphlets, pass along cards and other supplies.
The week after general conference consisted of me attending zone training meetings while Glen did mission president interviews. This day we were in Escondido and Glen interviewed 14 missionaries from the San Marcos zone during the meeting and then he interviewed all these missionaries all afternoon.
I loved reading the following which had been set at the table in front of each missionary for us to look at and contemplate before the meeting started.
These two sisters were looking so cutely, colorly coordinated we just couldn't pass up the photo op.
That evening we went to Temecula to attend the Spanish branch's missionary-focused FHE with the sister missionaries planning that fun evening.
Glen had the group do an activity that he used to do with the families he used to teach in Mexico on his mission and tied it into a spiritual message. Then it was time for musical chairs and I found myself right in the midst of the fun.
Next day was the Temecula zone training meeting I attended while Glen drove to Murrieta and spent the morning there interviewing 17 missionaries.
Back in Temecula, he interviewed all these missionaries all afternoon long. Plus he hadn't finished responding to all the missionaries' letters on Monday when they wrote, so he had letters to do when we got back home.
Third day of zone training meetings I spent with the Fallbrook zone. Glen interviewed a total of 28 missionaries that day.
Our friends from back home were in the area vacationing and stopped by for a little while. It was nice to see Mike and Karlyn Busdicker and catch up on what has been going on with their family and in our neighborhood in Utah.
Lots of missionaries to see the last day of interviews--23 from the Carlsbad zone and then we moved to the Cardiff building for 16 more interviews.
We did manage to get in a date night dinner at Coyote Grill after we finished up the interviews. The ribs at that restaurant are fall-off-the-bone delicious!
Life was getting a little more full and a little more crazy, so I find when I take the time to enjoy all the beauties in nature, it really helps calm me and makes me feel so thankful we live in this absolutely lovely and beautiful part of the country.
I saw this flower blooming in our back yard. I was told there are different things blooming year round in our yard and I am now totally believing it.
We had a packed day the weekend of the Temecula stake conference. We generally try to have our weekly planning meeting with the assistants on Saturday mornings. So, we did that. We ate a sack lunch while driving to San Marcos for Glen to do a baptismal interview.
We drove to Temecula where Glen had to be at the priesthood leadership session at 4 p.m. When Glen walked into the meeting, the Area Authority J. Scott Dorius asked him to give a 12-minute talk on the priesthood, so he quickly began to prepare for that.
In the meantime I was out in the car wondering what would be in store for us during the evening meeting and the meetings the following day. As I walked into the building, this poster caught my eye.
I never feel fully prepared when I go to these meetings where I know there is no set program. I know we will randomly be called upon to say something on the spot, never knowing what direction the meeting will take, not knowing what the subject will be for the meeting, always wondering if we'll be asked to speak in only one of the meetings or more.
It is nerve-wracking for me. I know I need to have more faith on this subject!!
As the evening session began, I was taking notes as I always do, and I felt a prompting to talk about the hymn "When Faith Endures" if I were to get called upon to speak that evening. I wrote it down right in the middle of the talk I was taking notes about and found the page number. Then BOOM!! Right after that talk, it was announced that we were to share our testimonies.
With that one-minute warning, I shared basically the story I told in my last talk before the mission about feeling so nervous for this calling. The day before we announced our new calling over the pulpit to make it publicly known, I had been practicing the organ for the following day's sacrament meeting.
I decided to take a few extra minutes and practice a few other hymns before I left. I turned to "When Faith Endures" and as I played it, I felt the words penetrate deep into my soul giving me a message I really needed to hear at that exact moment.
I will not doubt, I will not fear; God's love and strength are always near.
His promised gift helps me to find an inner strength and peace of mind.
I give the Father willingly my trust, my prayers, humility.
His Spirit guides; his love assures that fear departs when faith endures.
Then I shared how the hymn's author is Naomi W. Randall, the same person who wrote the beloved Primary hymn, "I Am a Child of God." Her maiden name and mine are Ward. We are distant cousins and it was as if she had written the words to that hymn all those years ago just for me at this time in my life.
I shared how I have been trying to have more faith to do hard things that are required of me, like serving a mission. I also have been in the habit of saying a quick prayer each time I get up to give a talk or something like that, to help me get through the challenge at hand.
As I finished and sat down, I felt such a sense of gratitude that I had received that little prompting right when I needed it. Following Glen's message, the standing hymn "How Gentle God's Command" really touched my heart.
As I sang those words, I felt a heavenly reassurance that God knows me and will help me.
How gentle God's commands! How kind his precepts are!
Come, cast your burdens on the Lord and trust his constant care.
Beneath his watchful eye, His Saints securely dwell;
That hand which bears all nature up shall guard his children well.
Why should this anxious load press down your weary mind?
Haste to your Heav'nly Father's throne and sweet refreshment find.
His goodness stands approved, unchanged from day to day;
I'll drop my burden at his feet and bear a song away.
Although I often have an anxious load and a weary mind, if I will cast my burdens on the Lord and trust his constant care, I will be able to handle the things that come my way.
I had a woman come up to me after the meeting and, with tears in her eyes, told me how my cousin's hymn had helped her get through a very hard time in her life. Another person told me about how his grandmother had known Naomi personally and how highly she had spoken of her. The comments are always fun after we speak.
We got home late that night after the hour drive back home (always giving thanks that the farthest we have to drive in our mission is an hour from the mission home). As we go to bed so exhausted every night, I always wonder how we will ever be able to get up and do it all over again the next day. I remember a friend telling me she and her husband felt this same way. And then each morning you are renewed and are able to get out of bed and start all over again.
Perhaps I was feeling particularly weary because I was getting sick again that weekend. I had gotten Influenza A the end of January and had been coughing and struggling to breathe for many weeks to try and get over that. I felt like I had finally conquered that illness and then I was being hit low again with another sore throat with a wet, deep, frequent, disgusting-sounding cough. The cough is so obnoxious in meetings. I feel like a walking gigantic germ spewing upon everything and everyone I see. YUCK!!
Upon arriving at the Temecula chapel Sunday morning, I took the time to admire the enormous flower arrangements that were displayed on each side of the chapel to try and get my calm going on through enjoying nature.
We were given a little warning before the meeting that we would be asked to speak again. I asked if he meant give a talk or share a testimony. He asked which would be easier for me and I said a talk and I had a really good one prepared.
I am not boasting of my own goodness in preparing the talk, I am boasting of the inspiration I received while writing the talk and know it came to me directly from above and that is where I am giving all the credit. It was written and meant to be given through me as the vehicle not me as the author. I have given it in four of the six stake conferences in our mission and have been eager to share it with this stake. I was given the okay to give the talk. Hurrah!!
The stake was doing two sessions of the conference, so we had to speak to half the stake in the morning, were served a lunch in between, and then spoke to the other half in the afternoon.
My talk is about how I'd re-listened to Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk and the story of Helen Keller really caught my attention because I had written a school report on her and I had loved watching the movie about her, especially the part of when she recognized w-a-t-e-r spelled into her hand by her loving teacher Anne Sullivan meant the cool something running over her hand at the moment.
In her own words, she said, "That one word, w-a-t-e-r, awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy; set it free!" I likened our missionaries to the teacher Anne Sullivan who go about teaching people in the world who are metaphorically deaf and blind to the ways of our Savior. Then as they are taught the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ--the living
water--they might very well be able to echo Helen's words, "That one word,
water, awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy; set it free!"
I absolutely LOVE this talk and was so happy I was able to give it. As we sat down in the afternoon session, I noticed a deaf woman on the front row off to our right. Her interpreter was sitting close by helping her be able to understand what was going on in the meeting. I wasn't quite sure if I should use that talk with her there or if I should choose another one. Glen and I discussed it and decided I should go ahead with it, which I did. The woman smiled through the whole talk.
After Glen's talk, it was announced that after the standing hymn, they would like to call on the woman sitting on the front row off to the right to share her testimony. WOW!! Talk about an inspired decision! It was so tender to see that woman stand up at the pulpit, and with her hands share her testimony to all of us. Her interpreter sat on the front row, watching her signing and speaking into a microphone as the woman's voice for all to hear. Fabulous! Great meeting!
Mondays are wonderful when we get to go walking outside of our neighborhood. The past few months we have been going to the Flower Fields to check on the progress there. This was the lovely view we spied this particular day as we looked over the flowers, down onto the Carlsbad By the Sea Resort (the windmill and surrounding buildings) and beyond to the sea. Exquisite view!!
Then it's always back home for Glen to park himself in his office for as many hours as it takes to try and get all the missionaries' letters read and answered before bedtime. The goal is always to get them done on Monday so he gets a full week's break until the next Monday.
Looks like he was working well into the nighttime hours this particular Monday. Truth be told, he didn't get them all done and they were hanging over his head for a couple of days going into our zone conference week of the transfer cycle.
