April 27, 2014

April 27, 2014

Another week done!  I know I’ve said it before, but time sure does go by fast!

Last Sunday night we had Easter dinner at Bob and Linda Crawford’s house.  It was a great meal and wonderful company!

This coming week we have record highs forecast…..90’s!

Last week was steady, even a little slow, so I took advantage of it and went with Gary a couple of times.  We went to Sacramento on Monday to pick up a mattress for a new senior couple’s apartment, the Crockett’s.  Gary opened that apartment on Tuesday and got them moved in.  Then, on Thursday, I went to some south areas of the mission with him.  He had several things to drop off for missionaries, and things to pick up and bring back.  The trip took longer than he told me, so I felt bad for being gone so long, but I really haven’t had a lot to do.   Plus, it is nice getting out of the office when I know that in a couple of weeks it will be zone conferences, and I will be the lone person who stays in the office while the rest of them have things to do at zone conferences…….it gets lonely being the one left!  The trip took so long because he kept getting more calls after we left…..Elder Yearsley, we heard you were going to be down here, can you bring me this?  Or, Elder Yearsley, we have 2 bikes that you can take back to the office for us.

This week I saw another weird driving experience……I am always amazed that there is still something strange to see in driving around here!!  This time, we were driving to the office on Capitol, and slowing to stop at the light at Seven Trees (a street name).  I was in the right lane.  All of a sudden, a car whips  past me on the right to turn the corner, going fast around the corner and then whipping around and making a right turn onto Capitol, beating the red light we were all sitting at!

Gary had a close call on Friday.  I know you won’t know the streets, but I am going to write them because this is my journal too.  Anyway, he had left the office, was on McLaughlin facing south, getting ready to turn east on Yerba Buena.  He was in the left of the two left turn lanes.  The light turned green, and he paused a second, like you do here in case someone runs the light.  The car, a van, in the right of the turn lanes also paused.  Then they started out, and a car came out of nowhere and slammed into the side of the van.  Gary said he slammed on the brakes, and then put it into reverse because he could see what was happening, and moved back enough so that when the van spun around he didn’t get hit.  Crazy!!  This is just on the corner where the mission office is!  I never even heard it!

I have had a hurt thumb on my right hand for a couple of weeks.  It started at the base of the thumb, and I just thought maybe it was arthritis.  I took ibuprofen occasionally, but it didn’t go away.  Then, the upper knuckle on the thumb started being weird, and started popping when it bent, like the ligament was stretching.  Friday night when we went grocery shopping, I decided to check at Walmart and see if there was some kind of splint or something I could put on my thumb to keep from bending it to see if that ligament would heal.  I ended up getting a thumb brace thing.  I slept with it on, because I would find myself bending it in my sleep.  Well, I woke  up Saturday morning and it felt better than it had for a long time!  So I decided to just keep it on.  Today I decided I needed to call Tim (Melissa’s husband who is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hands) to get some advice about it….like was I doing what I should etc.  He told me it was called Trigger Thumb….where the thumb just snaps like that.  It is inflammation, and I need to keep resting the thumb and taking ibuprofen.  He said a steroid shot is what is needed to get it healed,  so I will ask the mission doctor about it on Tuesday.  So in the meantime, I will keep wearing this brace thing.  He said if it keeps happening, that maybe surgery would be needed in the future.  This is the first time for me, though, so hopefully I won’t have it happen again.  But typing is going to be tricky this week with the brace on!  I have just endured the pain the last couple of weeks with it.

We have had a lot of missionary MSF cards frauded over the past few months.  Well, this week, Bank of America finally traced the problem to theTarget system getting hacked in December, so I got an email this week saying that another 100 cards would be replaced so they don’t get frauded.  So when the cards come, I need to be sure all the missionaries involved get their new cards and then the bank will cancel the old ones.  Hopefully, none of them will have fraud in the meantime!

Lets see…….Sophie turned 6 this week.  We talked to Melissa, Sophie and Natalie a bit when I talked to Tim.  Talked to Kori and Colton and Logan tonight too.  The Michie’s stopped in to visit us also.  And this coming week is Tim’s birthday.  Today would have been my brother Steve’s birthday too.

Tuesday is the Clayton’s last day!  You can tell how excited they are……I don’t blame them, I would be too!!

Well, I guess I need to close for the night.  My mind is blank on anything else.  Oh, just remembered…..we headed to Gilroy yesterday to the Premium Outlet Mall there to check it out.  It is the largest outlet mall I have ever been to.

Okay, that’s it for the week!

April 20, 2014

April 20, 2014

Transfer week is done.  Hectic for me while doing my tasks of the week…..yes.  But, I got it done…yeah!  Now things will slow down to a better pace. 

Thoughts from last Sunday’s Outgoing Devotional/Fireside:

Monica Hernandez, a recent convert—Her parents didn’t approve her joining the church.  She had to wait 14 months to get baptized, but she waited and is so happy she is a member now. She said “Heavenly Father picks his strongest soldiers to fight his toughest battles”.  Neat quote, I thought.

Sister Craig said “before I came on my mission I knew OF the Savior. Now I KNOW the Savior.”

Funny statement by Elder D. Anderson---while he was with his trainer one evening, up in the sky an airplane went by.  His trainer asked him “how far is that airplane?  Elder Anderson said, I don’t know, then guessed a number in miles.  Then said to his trainer, how far do you think it is?  His trainer said, “6 weeks from me and 22 months from you!”  He was soon to go home!   Elder Anderson said that missions are the very best thing you will do in your life.  He had started once, hurt his back and had to go home to recover, then he came back after quite some time home.  He was glad he did.

Ruth Yang, a recent convert—She is from China.  She had been searching for God since she was a little girl.  She searched through lots of churches, reading lots of scriptures from various religions.  She got baptized in the Baptist church at one point.  Then, when a friend of hers committed suicide and the church said that the friend would go to hell, she doubted that church.  Then she started going to a Buddhist church….but, she believed in Jesus Christ, so that didn’t work out.  One evening, she drove to Death Valley and prayed.  She started studying the scriptures again, still searching for the church she felt was right.  Shortly after that prayer in Death Valley, she ran into Elder B. Anderson and Elder Woodbrey one day, and was totally shocked that they could speak Chinese!  And not only speak it, but speak it so well after only 6 months of doing so!  They gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon.  She started reading it----almost couldn’t stop!    She said “ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find”.  That is how she felt.  Finally she was finding what she had been searching for.  She had a dream about getting baptized, woke up and sent a text message to the elders saying that she wanted to get baptized.  She said when talking to others about the church, state facts, not just a testimony.  She was looking for facts and found them.  She said people will see the change in you, the light in you, the life you live and know it is true.

Elder B. Anderson—Ruth’s baptism was the best experience on my mission.   I am a product of a mission and experiences.  I have become something different than that kid I was before my mission.

Sister Best—Two most prominent names on the missionary name tag……Family name and Jesus Christ.  Why I am on a mission…..I love my family and I love Jesus Christ.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ keeps us on track.

Sister Billings—I am a child of converts and have seen how the Gospel blesses families.  We need to not only bring others to Christ, but to help them remain steadfast.

Elder Vance—Do not hesitate to make covenants with God….your life will change.  Mine has.

Elder Baldwin—originally from Preston, Idaho, but family has moved to St. George while he was on his mission.  Said he felt he had a near death experience sitting on the stand waiting to talk….saw his whole mission life flash before his eyes. [mission lingo---when you arrive, you are “born”.  When you leave, you “die”]    Had no idea when he entered the MTC what to expect.  What he learned on his mission—Joy.  He was happy at home, but didn’t understand true happiness.  Jesus is so willing to give to us—we just have to accept.

Sister Perez (recent convert…don’t know her first name).  Elder Alvarez and Elder James taught them.  She was so glad her teenage son Danny was learning something spiritual.  Missionaries had a profound  change on their family…..both the elders and sisters.  Dec. 2013, husband and wife baptized.  Danny just recently made the decision to join the church.  They now have peace and harmony in their home.  No shouting.  They try to behave as Heavenly Father would have them behave.  She said, “I know there will be challenges in our life, but we can pray and understand challenges and move forward”.  Her talk was all in Spanish, but President Watkins was translating for us.

Elder Giles—When I started my mission, I thought 2 years was a long time. Now I realize it was not long enough.  I learned a lot.  I thought I knew what service was, then I followed Jesus Christ.  I thought I knew what love was, and then I followed Jesus Christ.

Elder Alvarez—Most of his talk was in Spanish.  At the end he switched to English.  “It is our time to choose what jersey we are going to wear and what team we are going to play for”.  We are to be God’s disciples forever.

Sister Clayton:  Our way of giving back to Heavenly Father is in coming out of our comfort zone and going on a mission.  We serve our missionaries so they can serve you.

Elder Clayton:  How do you describe 18 months in 2 ½ minutes?

President Watkins:  These missionaries change from selfish teenagers to selfless young men and women of God. 

Back to more current…..yesterday was our 40^th anniversary.  I don’t know where the time has gone, it just has gone by so fast!  We decided to skip our usual Saturday activities and have a play day.  We went to Santa Cruz to see what it was like.  The freeway was full of people, stop and go for a while.  Got to Santa Cruz, and it was packed there!  We had a hard time finding a place to park first of all.  I had heard of the boardwalk there, but it was like walking in a fair or carnival.   Food joints with expensive food, carnival games, and rides.  We got us some lunch, then  we walked on the beach for awhile, got our feet wet.  When we were ready to leave the beach, we decided to drive farther down the coast and look for some beaches that we have heard were nice ones to visit, and then we will go another day to them.  We found them.  We drove past Monterey and Carmel to a place called Point Lobos which I have heard is a wonderful hiking area….very beautiful.  So now that we know where it is, we will also do it another time.  Then we headed home, went to get some groceries, and by then it was night time.  Today, we both had lessons to teach….Gary taught Sunday School, and I taught Relief Society.  Tonight we have a dinner invitation at the Crawford’s for Easter dinner.

All in all, it has been a good week!   See ya!

April 13, 2014

April 13, 2014

This week is transfer week again……the 6^th of 13 we will go through.  Tonight is the outgoing devotional, so I need to get this entry finished before it is time to get ready to go.  The Clayton’s will speak at tonight’s devotional.   Also Elder Alvarez, who I really like.  He is from Guatemala.  From now on, we will be saying good-bye each time to some of the missionaries we have gotten close to…..more and more each time.  The Clayton’s will still be in the office until April 29^th, their last day.  Sister Wilks and Sister Nedreberg are doing very well in learning their callings to replace the Clayton’s.  

This week we will also celebrate our 40^th anniversary….where has the time gone??

Our granddaughter, Ashley (Traci’s daughter) will soon be graduating from college.  It has been a long time coming as she was working full time the whole time, so she couldn’t carry too heavy of a load of classes.  We are very proud of her for this accomplishment!

The weather this week was wonderful!  We had several days in the 80’s.  More and more different kinds of trees and flowers keep blossoming.  I have no idea what kinds they are.

We met a young woman in the hot tub not long after we got here, and visited with her a few times.  Then we hadn’t seen her for awhile.  Well, Tuesday night she was there the same time as us again.  As we visited, she asked us “now what church is it that you belong to?”  In the fall, we had mentioned that we were here serving a mission for our church.  She said that her grandmother belonged to our church, but she didn’t think we were Christians.  We had a wonderful discussion, and she said she never realized before that we were a Christian church.  She was amazed that our beliefs lined up with hers.  We asked her when she would be in the hot tub again, and promised to bring her a Book of Mormon she could read.  So, Thursday we did just that, with some scriptures marked for her to read.  She said, “next time we meet I probably will have some questions for you”, and we told her we were in apartment 502 if she wanted to come and chat anytime.  We haven’t run into her since that night, but hopefully this week we will again.  She is a wonderful young woman.  She is a single mom, has one child of her own, and she raised 3 foster children that she adopted.  She has a very loving heart, you can tell.  She is very proud of her children and their activities.  She was telling us how the adopted kids have done so well since they got the stability of life with her instead of going from home to home.  Only she told it in a better way than it sounds here….she wasn’t bragging at all, just very proud of the kids’ accomplishments.

The AP’s gave me the transfer list early this time. I got it Friday.  They warned me that there could still be some changes, but if I can get the majority of it in the computer and only have a few changes, that will make the week go so much better…..less stress and pressure!  It was nice to get it then, too, as I had nothing else to work on except personal things.  It was a very quiet week.

Sister Monical and Sister Arias will be transferred this week.  We have enjoyed getting to know them as they worked in the San Jose Zone, so were close to the office and we saw them often.  All the missionaries that get put in that Zone we get to know well.  Sister Monical, I believe, is from Minnesota.  Sister Arias is from Rhode Island. 

Last Monday was Senior Family Home evening.  It was the largest we have attended….about 33 present.  We had a number of new seniors that night, and two couples who were leaving.  It was our activity this time after dinner.  We had originally planned on 2 things…..Gary had a quick activity to do, and I had put together a Jeopardy game.  Well, when we learned how many were coming, we knew the Jeopardy game wouldn’t work well, as it would be too crowded for all to be able to see the poster board I had it written on.  So we did Gary’s activity, which was a great hit, by the way!   Plus the added benefit of being short and sweet.  Dinner was great as usual, and the company was great too.

We will be getting a new AP this week…..Elder Bracken will be moving out to do regular missionary work now, and Elder Oxley will now be the senior AP, with a new junior AP coming on board.

One other thing we did this week—we went online and got tickets to a Yankee game when they are in Oakland playing in June.  Sister Nedreberg is going to go with us.  So, we had been deciding how to travel to the game that night to make it the easiest with the least amount of traffic.  We decided we will drive up to Fremont to the BART station, and take the train up to the coliseum.  We went on Saturday to try it out, to get an idea of how to do things and how long it would take.  We were so glad we did it then!  Now we know what to do, and it will be smoother on the day we actually go, and especially since there will be more people on the train being a weekday.  We have our tickets for Friday night, June 13^th.  So now we are set!  I think we will take BART one day into San Francisco too, to look around again.  We toured San Francisco in October with Melissa and Tim, but it might be fun to go again and see things.

Oh, another thing we did.  On Saturday evening, we drove a few blocks from here to Communication Hill and walked up the stairs there that people do for exercise.  We were exhausted!!  It has been awhile since I have done any stairs.  But, it was a good workout that we might try again!

Well, that is it for this week.  We love hearing from any who take the time to write!

April 6, 2014

April 6, 2014

First week of April just ended.  We had some rain this week, and started off with some cooler temps…..50’s…….but ended the week in 70’s.  Beautiful weekend!!  And wonderful to have the opportunity to sit and listen to general conference.  We decided to stay home and watch on the computer, which was just fine.  And nice not to have to dress up for a change!   We watched all sessions here.  Gary even watched the priesthood session on the computer.  While he was doing that, I did the grocery shopping.  Earlier, we did cleaning and laundry between sessions.

I had to get some snail bait when I went shopping…….apparently snails like one type of lettuce Gary planted!  About 1/3 of the lettuce was gone!  It was probably 2 inches high by now, maybe 3.  So, we now have snail bait surrounding the pots, and Gary replanted that section of lettuce again.

I can see 3 small green cherry tomatoes now from the livingroom.  Everything is growing just great!  And if the snail bait works well, it won’t be long till we can start eating some lettuce, radishes and cherry tomatoes!  The cucumbers, the Early Girl tomato and the beets will take a little longer.

For Gary, it was a slower week at the office, and he even had some boring time he said.  I do not complain when it is slow…..too many busy times!  I had a steady week.

Tomorrow is Senior Family Home Evening at the Mission Home.  I will get to meet the Fairhurst’s finally.  This is the farewell family home evening for the Clayton’s.  They leave the 29^th.  We will miss working with them, but that is the way of a mission…..always people leaving, and new ones coming.  We are over the activity this time.  We have had one planned since January, but had to skip it that night.  We are changing some of our plans though.  Gary had one activity, and I had a Jeopardy type game, but we decided to just do his activity and skip the game since the numbers are going to be very big for this FHE…….probably 32-35 people, so it will be a VERY full house!  Which would make it a little awkward for doing the game I think, hard for all to see, and hard to involve everyone.  So, if another time comes up that the game will work, then it is prepared and ready to go!

The Clayton’s replacements have been in training for 2 weeks now, and seem to be doing well.

I was sick on Wednesday.  Tuesday night when we got home, I wasn’t feeling too good, and then after I changed my clothes, I started feeling really chilled.  I put a jacket on, didn’t have much of an appetite, so just opened a can of soup.  After I ate, I got a quilt and laid down trying to get warm.  When morning came, I knew I wasn’t going to work.  I had been so cold all night I had to sleep with pajamas on and socks…..and that is not normal for me.  I usually am a sheet with a light blanket and a fan blowing on me to keep cool!  I slept till around 1, and then decided I better try to eat a little.  Then I took a shower to see if that would perk me up.  After that, I lay on the couch and watched TV and at one point I finally had the feeling that the chills had left….it was so noticeable that I even looked at the clock!  It was 3:30.  After that I still had a fever, but felt hot and felt yucky.  I had some aches too, but not as many like usually with the flu….don’t know if it is because I had a flu shot or not.  At first, I didn’t notice the aches because it was my fingers and wrists that ached, and my thumb has been hurting for weeks (I think arthritis) along with my back that acts up off and on over the last couple months.  So, since I was already feeling some aches, I never noticed the other ones at first.  Then when I did, I could tell that each joint of my fingers hurt and my wrist and touching my head hurt.  So, I finally realized it must be the flu.  Wednesday night, when I got up about 2 to go to the bathroom, I realized that I finally felt fine, so I knew I would be able to go in to the office on Thursday.  I have been fine since then.

We chatted on Face Time with Shelley’s family Sat. night.  It is always fun seeing the kids!  I kept thinking some of the others would want to chat on Sunday between sessions, but we didn’t hear from any of them.  Scott called this evening.  He told us that he won some special guns at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation thing on Sat. night.  It was nice talking to him.  He has been getting his greenhouse going.  His greenhouse is so much better than the one we have at home.  It is smaller, but built better, more sturdy, and it has power (it pays to be an electrician I guess!), so he can add heat if needed when he plants things early.  The Michie’s came over and visited a bit this evening too.  Gary and I took 2 walks today, which was nice.  It is just so beautiful outside, and smells so nice with the flowers growing!

Some excerpts of favorite things mentioned at general conference:

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, member of the 12 apostles:  man creating God in their own image (instead of use changing to be in God’s image); forgive sin, don’t condone it; be strong—live the Gospel—defend your beliefs with courtesy and compassion, but defend them.

Linda S. Reeves, 2^nd Counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency:  the importance of fortifying children in the home….most important thing we can do.  Importance of daily family prayer, daily family scripture study, and weekly family home evening.  Search out our ancestors, do family history.

Elder Neil L. Anderson, member of the 12 apostles:  all things shall be in commotion before the 2^nd coming (and we sure can see it already!).  Challenges will come to all of us.  The world redefines marriage, the Lord has not.

President Henry B. Eyring, member of the first presidency:  If results were immediate, choosing the right would not build faith.  

Elder Russell M. Nelson, member of the 12 apostles:  Faith is the antidote for fear.  Increase your faith, proclaim your faith, let your faith show.

Claudio D. Zivic, member of the Seventy:  it is easy to follow the wrong path.  Don’t fear man more than God.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, member of the first presidency:  seek gratitude as a disposition—a way of life.  Gratitude is an expression of Hope and Testimony.  Gratitude is a catalyst to Christ like attributes.

Jean A. Stevens, 1^st counselor in the Primary General Presidency:  talk on prayer, and her example of following prompting to stop and help a boy, who it turned out had just prayed that someone would help him.  The Gospel is not a weight----it is wings----wings to carry us.

Gary E. Stevenson, Presiding Bishop:  talked about athletes at the Olympics, and their training for their 4 minute performance.  This life is OUR performance.  “This life is the time to prepare to meet God”.

Elder David A. Bednar, member of 12 apostles:  story of friend and 4-wheel drive truck.  It is the load that helps us.  Don’t haul around so many unnecessary things that you are distracted from the important things.  Yoke---means pull together.  By keeping the sacred covenants, we are yoked with Jesus Christ, and he helps carry our burdens.

President Thomas S. Monson, prophet:  We cannot love our fellowmen if we don’t love God.  Love is the essence of the Gospel.  Blame keeps wounds open, only forgiveness heals.

Lawrence E. Corbridge, member of the Seventy:  The truth will always be opposed.

President Thomas S. Monson, prophet:  May we ever be found doing the work of the Lord.

That is my brief synopsis of conference.  These are my reminders to go and read the talks again, but those are the things that popped out at me during the talks.  There were many others too, but like I said, that is a brief synopsis.

Well, time to call it a night!