March 16, 2014
Today is our granddaughter Natalie’s 4th
birthday. So we face timed with them to
wish her a happy birthday. We also had
the chance to face time with Kori’s family……Brendan and Christian I guess
needed some family history information for their Young Men’s meeting this
week. Then we had a quick visit with
Shelley, Hunter and Ayla……they have had sickness in their house starting last
night…..a stomach bug. The kids were
excited to get to bed, because they have set some leprechaun traps, and hope to
catch a leprechaun in one of them. Last
St. Patrick’s Day, the leprechaun had visited their house and left a mess I
guess….along with some treats.
Tomorrow is our grandson Kyler’s birthday. We will call him after work.
Okay, let’s see what to say about this last week. The weather here has been great…..70’s and
even up to 80. Trees, flowers and shrubs
are blossoming everywhere. And
allergies are blossoming along with them!
The Michie’s arrived on Monday. They are a MLS missionary couple who are
attached to 1 Spanish speaking ward and 1 Spanish speaking branch. This is their 4th mission
together. He taught high school Spanish,
and they have served missions in Mexico in the past. They live in the same apartment complex as us….in
fact on the opposite side of our building.
The other couple that arrived I haven’t met yet, though Gary has. They are the Fairhurst’s. They live south of here, and are assigned in
the Monterey area. He is a former
military member, and so I believe they will work with military families, but I
really don’t know the details on that.
Friday one of the senior sisters will arrive that will start training to
be an office worker (Sister Nedreberg), and on Saturday, the other sister
arrives (Sister Wilkes). A week later,
the senior sister that is replacing Sister Chambers in the employment center
will arrive (Sister Robinson). We
learned a week ago that we are getting another senior couple April 12th
too. This will be the most seniors here
since we have come.
We are approaching our 7th month mark this week…..March
19th.
Gary had a busy past week, getting apartments ready for
people. This involves the paperwork of
getting it started and also putting the furniture in. Next week he has 2 more he is opening up….one
for the senior sisters and a new one in King City, which is the southernmost
part of our mission, for 2 young sister missionaries. King City is about a 2 ½ hour drive from
here. President Watkins told Gary that
when he made that trip, he could take me with him, as he would be gone the
whole day. That will be on Tuesday. I doubt we will make it back here till about
7 pm.
I have been told that from what I write on here it sounds
like a vacation. Well, it’s not like any
vacation I would want to take! I try to
sound positive on here, and don’t always put what the full day entails in what
I have to do, but I guess that maybe sitting in the hot tub at night sounds
like we live a life of leisure. Some
days, those 15 minutes of the hot tub (and that is all it is) is the only
relaxation of the day for me. Yesterday,
for example…..we got up, started the laundry, cleaning the apartment, I made
bread, the Michie’s came over for a bit to chat, and then I got to work on
getting our tax information ready to mail in to our accountant. When I finished with that, Gary said we
needed to get our shopping done, and I said I am going to sit in the sun for
10-15 minutes first…..just sit and relax a bit.
Some days it seems I don’t get out in the sun at all the whole day. Then we went and got some shopping done. Both of us grabbed a string cheese to eat as
we left, as it was after lunch time by now. We ate dinner while we were out. Oh, and when we go anywhere in our car, I am
the driver because Gary is tired of driving all week, so that isn’t relaxing at
all to get out in the car. You always
have to be on high alert because of the traffic and the crazy drivers
here. We didn't get all the groceries we needed. First of all, I had
wanted to find a certain popcorn shop to get some popcorn for Sister
Clayton for her birthday this week, since she loves popcorn and is
gluten intolerant so can't eat a birthday cake. And we stopped at Costco, but it turned out they were closing, so we only got a few items, then had to leave. When we got home, I started
ironing, and ironed until time for our 15 minutes in the hot tub and then bed. My back has been hurting this past week, so I
have been trying to doctor it with Ben Gay, massaging it with this thing
Melissa sent us, had Gary massage it a bit, heating pad, and back stretches….oh,
and the hot tub to relax those muscles too.
Any time we go anywhere, the time involved is way more than you would
think it should be because of the traffic and difficulty in finding parking…….no
matter where we go, there is just not enough parking. And there is always traffic on the road.
We had hoped we could show the Michie’s
around a bit, but there just was no time to fit it in……I HAD to get the tax
stuff done so I can mail it off tomorrow.
Time is just getting away from me now.
So, even though we have had occasional things that are fun, like the
trip to the Monterey Aquarium, and we did enjoy it, it just adds the work load
to after work on the week days. Laundry,
ironing, cleaning and shopping still have to fit in somewhere. Also, I have to fit in time to prepare my
lessons for Relief Society. I have been
doing twice a month lessons for the last 2 months, and have another month to go
until the lady I have been replacing gets back from Vietnam and is ready to
start up again. Then I will only have
the one lesson a month to prepare.
None
of the other senior missionaries here teach lessons in the wards they
attend. But we are the help for our
little branch, so we are helping with those things. The other seniors just attend their
meetings. They may do one talk in
Sacrament meeting while they are out here.
We have already each done a talk, and I am sure we will probably have at
least 2 more to do, as the numbers are so few in the branch.
Some days during the week it may be slow, but
I still sit in the office to do what needs to be done as it comes in. The slow days are as hard as the busy ones….hard
in the sense that the day seems slow!
And I think of things I could be getting done at home. The sisters who work in the employment center
are sort of like us…..they have busy times and slow times, but they have a set time
that they are required to be in the office.
The MLS missionaries plan their own schedule, and they have the time to
do their personal study just like the young missionaries have. They move at a slower pace, not the hectic
one we move at on the transfer weeks, or the times Gary is moving furniture
around or getting new apartments.
And our schedule doesn’t always end at 5 on
the week days. There are many days in
the office that we are there till 6 or so.
Oh, this past week, it was time for the audit, so we left the office a
little early, had dinner, and had to be back by 7 to meet the guys who were
coming to do the audit. We got there at
6:30 in case they happened to get there early.
We didn’t get home until 10. So
yes, we lead a busy life here. Our brother-in-law,
Kelley, put it this way to Gary…..so you
retired from your busy work life to come here and be even busier!! The busyness is good in the sense that time
goes by quickly and we don’t have time to miss our kids and grandkids too much. But sometimes I sure would like a Saturday to
just sit and chill!
Gary’s
leg has been hurting him this week too, so I don’t know if he has pulled a
muscle or something with the lifting of heavy items he does.
But, I know we need
to be here serving this mission. There
is so much that seniors are needed to help with. And we love the people we have gotten to know……those
in our Vietnamese Branch, and the other seniors we serve with, and all the
young missionaries! We have loved the
weather here. But the good weather isn’t
enough to make me want to come back……the traffic is just too crazy here! There are many people who live here who say
they would never leave because the weather is so great. The cost of living and the traffic are enough
for me to say “not for me….I would rather live somewhere else”.
I had a picture taken of me with our AP’s this week. They said they wanted me to post it on my
blog so that those who know me can see them.
So, I will get that on here soon.
Well, this is a lot of rambling, and I hope it doesn't sound like complaining......I just wanted to share that we aren't just playing here, we actually are working hard.....harder than we have in our past life.
Now, the day is about done, so I need to close once again.
One
last addition: 2 of our Vietnamese elders, Elder Hullinger and Elder Kwon stopped by to visit us just now. It was a nice visit, and they left a very
powerful message…the one of Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s last talk in General
Conference in April 1985, where he said:
“I am one of his witnesses, and in a
coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall
wet his feet with my tears.
But I shall not know any better then
than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and
Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no
other way.”
What a powerful testimony!
And now on that thought, I will
close for the week.
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