Chair Gone; Closet Cleaned Out; Mormon Battalion; New Leadership Meeting; Farewell to Pages

One of our senior missionary couples requested a chair for their living room. We already sent them the couch in our family room. This time I offered one of the brown chairs which matches the style of the couch.

Or the white chair upstairs in the master bedroom. Since they are tiny people, we thought they would prefer this chair. Sure enough--this is the one they wanted.

We hauled it downstairs and had it ready for the truck elders to come and pick it up. Then we decided to save them a trip to our house and we borrowed the mission pick-up truck one day when we were at the mission office.

The next morning we hauled the chair in the back of the truck when we were on our way into the office for a morning meeting.

Now there's a void in the room upstairs where the chair had been. When Sister Baca texted that she was so happy to receive the chair, it made us so happy we had it delivered to them now instead of after we leave.

The other day I spent cleaning out our two closets in our bedroom. I got one closet all packed up. Now we have boxes decorating our bedroom. I should have put them in the spot where the chair was and then that spot wouldn't feel so empty.

I got all the boogie boards and beach toys out and washed all the sand off them so they would be cleaner to transport to Utah.

On the cleaning day where I was making multiple trips to the trash can, I discovered a dripping faucet by the side of the house. After the two floods we have had in this mission home, I was anxious to get the faucet fixed to eliminate any chance of more flooding.

I am crossing my fingers and holding my breath that we don't have any other big catastrophes to deal with in these last days we are here.

Any time we walk outside and I smell smoke, it brings to mind the time we had the fires nearby and had to evacuate dozens of missionaries. Please!!! None of that kind of excitement!! A quiet, calm exit strategy is my dream, hope and desire.

With our shortened 4-week transfer, our trip to Mormon Battalion rolled around awfully quickly. I was admiring the beautiful purple-blossom trees across from the Tequila Factory on our way walking up the street.

We have had such wonderful experiences taking the missionaries each transfer to a quick Mexican buffet lunch before touring the Mormon Battalion. 

The restaurant has given us a big discount each time and they are always so kind to us. They have expressed how much they appreciate our business. It has been a win/win situation.

This time we took two groups with us--our two groups of newest missionaries and their trainers. We wanted them all to have a chance to go to Mormon Battalion before the mission boundaries change.

This sister wanted to get a photo with me since we were both wearing the same color.

The old-time photograph is a favorite among the tourists and also with our missionaries.

On the way home from Mormon Battalion, I help Glen make the phone calls to all the new leaders for the upcoming transfer. He invites them to attend the new missionary training meeting the next morning. This transfer we have five new district leaders and two new sister training leaders.

Former missionaries Hermanas Emily Wilhelmsen and Clawson

Glen met with a missionary and she had a very know-in-all attitude. It put him in quite the rant as we were driving away from that interview. I heard him say, "Down with my demons!"

That certainly didn't sound like Glen at all. I was wondering if instead of counting to ten or something like that to calm himself down, he was trying to oust the frustration from inside of him by chanting that phrase.

When I questioned him about why he said that, he pointed to the car in front of us. It made me laugh at the timing of it all.

We attended a baptism in Temecula of a girl from Japan. We have one missionary from Japan (far right) and he was assigned to serve in Temecula his first transfer. After he had been there for a while, Glen was going to transfer him somewhere else and then felt strongly that he should leave him there.

Shortly after that, this woman wanted to learn more about the gospel and our elder was the perfect person to teach her in Japanese. He gave a talk at her baptism and said, "Who would have thought I would teach in Japanese while serving in California?"

She was so sweet and made special sushi-type food for the elders. They were thrilled!!

We attended our last stake conference. It was with the Del Mar stake and they are always so kind and feed us between meetings on Saturday. Glen spoke in the priesthood leadership meeting. We both spoke in the Sunday session.

They sent us away with boxed brownies for dessert.

President Drew (Holly Eggertz's brother) and Sister Page were called up in stake conference to give their final testimonies before leaving to serve in Indianapolis. They are taking their youngest son with them.

I told Sister Page it was good practice for them as they will surely be called on extemporaneously on their mission many, many times--if it is anything like what we have experienced.

It was wonderful to see them one last time and wish them well before they leave.

Quotes of the Week

With all my heart I want to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. I love Him. I adore Him. I witness of His living reality. I witness that He is the Anointed One, the Messiah. I am a witness of His incomparable mercy, compassion, and love.
--Dale G. Renlund

Quotes of the Week

The Redeemer is the ultimate and only source of enduring and eternal joy.
--David A. Bednar

Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow.
--Mary Anne Radmacher

We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.
--Thomas S. Monson

When you are experiencing personal trials, take a moment to be quiet and pray, and specifically ask Heavenly Father what lesson you are going to learn from this experience. Sometimes your tests teach you that you are much more than you thought.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Safari Park; Training Meetings With Lunch In Between; Marins' Barn Party; Our Eggertz Friends

We did it!! We scheduled an afternoon/evening at Safari Park and we protected that time and scheduled nothing over it!!

Our meeting with the office staff was that morning and Glen worked on transfer planning with the assistants through lunch and for a couple of hours after that. But then he was free. Free enough to change into casual clothes. And off we went to enjoy our date.

The blue bird is the first animal we see upon entering.

The pink flamingos are always worth watching. They peck and squawk and get agitated easily. Reminds me of little children when they fight and bicker and pick at each other.

It was a special event at the Safari Park. Once a year they have their member appreciation night. Those of us who have bought a season pass are invited to eat a free meal and enjoy the extended open hours that evening.

The way they know the free eaters is we wear elephant dork dots to distinguish us from the rest of the crowd.

The free tram ride around the African plains is always a must for us.

The tram station was misting to keep us cool while waiting in line.

They had a couple of different places set up with food. They served hot dogs, sausages, baked beans, chips, and salad with ice cream and cookies for dessert.

We sat close to the band who was entertaining the dinner crowd.

There was an evening show where animals were on display--such as this hog.

Some willing volunteers held out their arms to be used as stepping stones for an orange bird to walk upon.

The cheetahs were brought out with their comfort pet--a huge white dog.

I am still enamored with palm trees. And palm trees against a blue sky--my favorite!! And look at those gray rocks at the water's edge.

Turns out half of those rocks were birds just blending into the scene.

 Speaking of birds...just wondering if this bird has a complex about its BIG nose beak?

These two little birds were walking right along with us on the sidewalk, just minding their own business as if they had as much right to use the sidewalk as we humans.

The elephants are often entertaining when they start pestering each other.

There is a new section called Walkabout Australia at the Safari Park. 

 We are able to walk right into the kangaroo part and get up close to the pouched animals.

 One kangaroo had a little joey in her pouch.

We had a very nice time. How could we not? Everything was free!!   

The next day we were back at it having meetings with missionaries. In the morning we met with the missionaries going home in June.

 And the missionaries going home in August. 

We met all together so Glen could talk to them about what he talks to the missionaries about in their exit interview. There are 20 going home in June and 19 going home in August.

The August group was feeling cheated out of an exit interview with Glen. The June group is so big that Glen felt it would help him with time if he did a group meeting to talk about general after-mission things. Then he would just need to spend 30 minutes with them individually instead of an hour with each one.

Do the math. That's a 10-hour savings for him. And the missionaries really enjoyed the meeting. Glen now wishes he had done exit interviews this way the whole time. Oh well. You live and learn.

We fed them all lunch, along with feeding the group of missionaries who would be meeting with us all afternoon. We had Glen's favorite lunch--Chick-fil-A!!

The afternoon group was the new missionaries who have been here a few short weeks, along with their trainers. They did lots of role plays as we were trying to cram in their first and second trainer follow-up meetings into one meeting.

Brooke was teaching her first lesson in her Young Women class and we set up a time for her to teach us her lesson on FaceTime. She made the cutest animation video to illustrate the subject of her lesson. Nice job being creative, Brooke!!!!

We had a bike accident missionary. Landed on his face. Broke his nose and cheekbone. OUCH!!

 Former missionaries Sister Bailey Bourdos and Sister Hailey Hathaway stopped by for a visit.

That evening we were invited to President Marin's new barn for a farewell dinner party. He is a builder and he builds nice things. He said he built this structure as a horse stable, but then it turned out so beautiful, he decided to use it for entertaining instead of for horses. 

We stopped at Home Depot on our way home to get some moving boxes. The time is drawing nigh when we have to pack up and go back home to Utah. 

We attended church in Del Mar where President Drew Page and his wife Linda were speaking before they leave to preside over the Indiana Indianapolis Mission. Since we have been mentoring them a bit (or shadowing us as he put it), we wanted to be there to support them that day.

As often happens when we are out and about, people will come up to us after the meeting to talk to us. This woman came up to me and stood there smiling. I approached her and she said, "Hi, I'm Holly." And then she looked at me expectantly.

I looked at her and waited for her to tell me whatever it was she felt the need to tell me. Then she said, "Eggertz. I'm Holly Eggertz." I kept studying her face, trying to pull recognition from it.

By then her husband Glen was at her side and when I looked at the two of them together it finally confirmed that they were our good friends from way back when we lived in Clearfield, Utah.

We had two children at the time. Our subdivision of Melanie Acres was one ward and then it divided into two wards. Glen was called to be the bishop in our half of the subdivision and Glen Eggertz was called to be a counselor in their ward's bishopric working with Bishop Joe Perkins.

We were all such young families just doing our best to run those wards while raising our little children. After 2 1/2 years of service as a bishop, Glen got transferred to Kansas City, Missouri. We used to exchange Christmas cards for years, but then stopped. So, we hadn't seen these friends for many, many, many years.

And what a surprise to learn Holly is the sister of President Drew Page. Who knew we would have such close contact with Holly in our early years of marriage and then have such a deep connection with Holly's brother in this stage of our life. SMALL WORLD!!