December 29, 2013
Today is Kaden’s birthday.
We called his dad’s phone to see if we could talk to him, but he is with
his mom today. Jeff said he will have
him tomorrow, so we can talk to him them.
What a wonderful week we had! Like I said in the last post, Tuesday
morning, we met at the San Felipe building
at 6:30 a.m. to fix breakfast for the whole mission…..all about 280 of
us! Plus a few extras who came to
help. We had steaks, eggs, pancakes, and
fruit. Oh, and there were pop tarts for
those missionaries who prefer that! I
had never had steak for breakfast before, but it was good! After the breakfast, there was a gift
exchange by zone. It was the game where
you go around and take turns taking a gift, and when it is your turn, you can
either take a new one, or one from someone else, but after 3 times, that gift
was no longer in play. It can be fun,
because some gifts may look appealing but not be that great really! The gifts were all to be $5 or less, so it
was just the thought of giving that counted, plus the game to play. After that, we went to the chapel for a
devotional. It was a very spiritual
meeting. Some of the missionaries sang,
and we have some VERY good singers, I must say!
After the devotional, we headed back to the office. Gary went to clean up…he had put on levi’s to
help cook the steaks, and smelled like smoke,
so he changed back to his good clothes.
That evening, we Skyped with Jeff and his kids, as he said that would be
the best time. Well, he said we could early morning on Christmas Day, but we
planned on sleeping in somewhat.
Wednesday, Christmas Day, we spent the morning either
Skyping or Facetiming our kids and grandkids.
It was so neat to see everyone!!
Then, that afternoon, we headed over to the Crawford’s to have Christmas
dinner. They had a houseful! 2 of their kids and families were there, plus
us, the Clayton’s, Kim Loan-Le and Jimmy Miner from our branch, and 7 young
missionaries I think it was. When we got
there, on pair of missionaries was there already skyping home. We had brought a laptop and an ipad so when
the others arrived, they could use them to also talk with their families, since
Christmas is one of the 2 times a year that they can. After a bit, the others arrived, and we had
kids skyping in several areas of the
house at once…..which, unfortunately, was a drain on the wifi so the
connections weren’t so good. Dinner was
fabulous! Turkey, ham, smoked salmon,
different kinds of potatoes, veggies, rolls, lots of desserts! I was stuffed!! We sure appreciate good friends like the Bob
and Linda Crawford who open their house to all of us missionaries. Good food and good conversations with good
friends! Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay
too late….had to get to bed early to get up to go to work the next day.
Friday after work at the office, we headed to our church
building for the baptism of a young boy in our branch….Clark Nguyen. He is the son of Ann, grandson of Nga. After the baptism, we had a branch
social. After we ate and visited just a
little bit, we left—BYU was playing football on TV and Gary wanted to go home
to watch part of it.
Saturday, we did the usual cleaning and laundry. Then headed out for lunch. I wanted to try In N Out burger, which we had
heard so much about. There was a long
line, but after we ate we said, not that impressive, so we probably won’t go
back again. I wanted to check out Kohl’s
which was right near there, to get a new top.
Well, there were good sales on, so I got several! Then we headed over to the mall to shop at
Penney’s…..Gary wanted to get some more pants, and we had a gift card to use
too. Good sales there as well! Then
home for dinner and relaxation. I
had stroganoff cooking in the crockpot.
Oh, I forgot. One other thing we
did was go for a 2 mile walk before we headed out to lunch. It was the first time in a long time for me
to walk like that. I have got to get
back in the habit of exercising again. I
have gained some weight from sitting in an office all day. But, I have just been so tired, I would
rather sleep in the extra half hour than get up to exercise. But, time to make New Year’s resolutions, and
start the weight loss!!
This week will be similar to last week, in that we work
Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday off, then work Thursday and Friday.
Even though Christmas was different this year in not seeing
family in person, and missing the Yearsley family Christmas party in Swan Lake,
and not having snow (I REALLY enjoyed that part!!.....it has been in the mid
60’s here), we are grateful to be serving this mission. It is hard at times, working a full time job
in the office like this, but we know that it is something that is definitely
needed. Senior missionaries are needed
in several areas of missionary work. In
this mission, besides the office couples, we have a couple who are assigned to
the institute for a young single adult center…the husband teaches some classes
at the institute, and they put on a dinner every Wednesday night at the center
for the young people. I think they said
they plan on about 100 to feed each Wednesday.
We have 2 couples who are MLS missionaries….Member Leadership Support. They are assigned to wards and help in
whatever way is needed there. Even the
office couples are assigned to wards/branches.
We help in the Vietnamese Branch, teaching classes, and the other office
couple is assigned to a Mid-Single adult ward. We also have 2 single senior Sisters who
work at the Church Employment office.
And, we are getting a couple soon who will be assigned to the Fort Ord
military base. So many seniors are
needed! Even if just for 6 months, which
one of our MLS couples are doing. They
are an older couple who really wanted to serve, but didn’t know if they could
handle too long of a time. One couple
who was here when we arrived but have since gone home were assigned to help the
Spanish people get started on their genealogy.
Another couple who have since gone home helped in the ASL program. Just so many ways for seniors to serve. We have learned that some friends of ours
from home (the Fullmers) have received their mission call to serve in
Louisville, Kentucky, and will start their mission towards the end of February. They are going to serve a MLS mission. Another couple (the Hatch’s) are waiting for
their call still. This is an experience
we are so glad we get to have. We have
made some great friends in the branch and in the mission. We love the opportunity to get to know these
young missionaries, and hope to remain friends with them and the other senior
missionaries for years to come…..and hope they will stop in and see us in Arimo
when we are all back to our regular lives and they happen to pass through the
area.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you….our new
friends and our old friends and family who we are away from right now. May this New Year of 2014 be good for
all! And may we always strive to keep
the Savior in our lives, and live as He would have us do.
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