October 26, 2014

For me, this week has been pretty slow.  Monday began early.  This week was the Mission Tour by Elder Pino, our visiting member of the Seventy, so we had combined Zone Conferences on Monday and Tuesday.  Monday’s conference was for the northern half of the mission, which consisted of the following zones:  Livermore, Pleasanton, Fremont, Menlo Park, Saratoga and Los Altos.  It was held in the Menlo Park Zone.  The schedule both days had the meeting starting at 9 a.m and going until 1 p.m., then lunch till 2, then the majority of the missionaries were finished and headed back to their zones, while the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders of those zones stayed for another hour for a meeting with Elder Pino.  Tuesday the meetings were held in the San Jose South Stake, with the following zones:  San Jose, San Jose Evergreen, San Jose South, Morgan Hill, Santa Cruz and Monterey.  The same schedule was followed, with an additional meeting after the ZL and STL meeting—-between the Pino’s and the Mella’s as an evaluation meeting.  Both days the cars were inspected like they usually are during Zone Conferences, so Sister Nedreberg and Gary were busy with that, along with other’s who had volunteered to help.  So, for Monday, they were planning on leaving the office at 7:45 a.m. to get to the meeting place on time.  Elder Michie was going along with them in the mission truck.  So, I was at the office beginning at 7:45 that day.  The office was fairly quiet for the most part all day long.  At 2:20, Sister Wilks was flying back from her visit to Flower Mound, Texas where she had been for a long weekend visiting her family.  Her grandson is getting ready to leave on a mission, and it was his farewell.  She had been dropped off to the airport when she left by Sister Nedreberg, but since they were busy with the zone conference and not back yet, I had planned on picking her up.  I had a couple of the Yerba Buena sisters, Sister Busdicker and Sister Gilvarry, come in to man the office while I was gone, to answer the phones and be there in case of any deliveries.  Then I headed to the airport.  When we got back to the office, we learned that there hadn’t been any calls or deliveries, so it was quiet.  Sister Wilks was there the rest of that day, and around 3 or so Gary and Sister N. got back to the office.  When the work day was done, Gary took the mission truck home this time, as he was leaving from the apartment for the conference location on Tuesday, which was just down the road from where we live.  We both left about the same time on Tuesday morning, with me getting to the office at the usual time, about 8:45-8:50 a.m.  Sister W. came into the office in the morning, then she headed to the conference to take pictures like she usually does for the zone conferences, and I was again alone in the office till everyone got back around 3 or so.

Wednesday through Saturday, President and Sister Mella were gone to San Diego for a Mission President Seminar.  Things were okay in the office.  Just one item dealing with a missionary that President Mella needed to be notified about, which he will have to deal with this week.  Also, we got a new couple.  Gary opened a new apartment on Wednesday to ready for this new couple.  The wife is our new mission nurse.  We had an official mission nurse when we first arrived, then shortly after we got here, she was released and we have had others called to handle the position, but they weren’t really nurses, just using “mom” knowledge when dealing with the ailments of the missionaries, and recommending doctor visits as needed, or rest, or whatever.  So, this is now an official real nurse.  Not sure yet what all her husband will be doing besides helping her out with the paperwork part of it all.  He has computer knowledge, so maybe can help us in the office when we have issues with the computers.  Also, maybe he can help with other things in the office.  We just aren’t sure yet.  President Mella will meet them them tomorrow and figure things out.  They arrived Friday night about 8 p.m.  We met them at the office and then took them to their apartment.  Oh, they are from North Carolina, and they are Elder and Sister Conner.

So, for Sister W. and I, the week in our areas of the office were pretty slow.  Nice for a change!  You just never know from day to day how it will turn out.  This coming week is going to be a busy one for Gary.  He is opening up 3 new apartments and getting people moved around.

Saturday, we had decided to try another whale watching trip.  We had gotten a new camera and were anxious to try it out and get some better pictures of the whales.  Well, the weather turned out to be not so good.  The time on the boat was from 10 to 2.  It rained until about noon.  And, the sea was rough.  So, well before noon, I started getting seasick, and the day was pretty much shot for me.  I don’t handle motion sickness too well.  In fact, by the time we got back, I wasn’t even sure if I could drive, as I just felt dizzy.  I never really threw up on the boat, but gagged a couple of times.  After I had gone to find a place to sit down (because on these trips you mainly stand up at the rail to see the whales and other things), so after I sat down and shut my eyes, and leaned my head against a wall, I started feeling a little better.  I think I even fell asleep a little.  I just couldn’t open my eyes to see anything, or the dizziness hit hard.  So, after we left, Gary drove back to San Jose.  The place we went whale watching was called Moss Landing, on Monterey Bay between Monterey and Santa Cruz.  When we drove back, we stopped in Morgan Hill to get a bite to eat.  By then I felt I could eat and hold it down.  We decided to just take it easy the rest of the day, only do a little laundry and cleaning, and then we headed to the movie theater to watch a movie, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”.  Melissa had recommended it.  In fact, she had sent us the gift card to use to see the movie.  Thanks Missy and Tim!  It was nice to relax and watch a comedy.  Just before the movie, my wallet that I have had for a LONG time finally broke.  It has 2 zippers, one for the money section and one for the credit card/driver’s license section, and the zipper has been acting up for a long time.  I knew it was going to go soon.  It broke just before the movie started, and I made the comment that I really was desperate now to find a new wallet.  I had been looking for some time, just hadn’t found what I wanted…which was exactly what I had!  So now it was find something soon, or put a rubber band around the wallet to keep my money from falling out!!  So we decided to look around at the mall, and happened to be right next to Sears, so checked in there first.  Well, I found a wallet just like I was looking for!!! And it was on sale….yippee!!  Then I decided to check purses, because the purse I was using, the strap was started to fall apart.  I found a purse I liked too, also on sale.  Score!! 

Oh, forgot to mention, we did see some whales, not as many as before, but it was hard to see or take pictures because with the rolling of the waves, you might roll down and not be able to see a whale again, and the movement made the picture taking hard.  We haven’t even looked at the pictures yet to see how or if they turned out.  We did see some dolphins on this trip.  I can’t remember the name of the type of dolphins at this time.  If I think of it later, I will put it in. When they were just under the surface of the water, they looked kind of fluorescent.  They were a white color, and nicknamed ghost dolphins I think the lady said.

Today, our branch was combined with the 16th ward that meets at the same time as us.  This is the ward that our primary child goes to and our young woman.  Anyway, today was the primary program, so we had a combined Sacrament meeting.  Then we separated after that for our regular meetings.

This afternoon, we had a chance to FaceTime with Shelley.  She checked in with us at 3, but I didn’t see the message until about 4:30 while I was working on this journal entry.  So I stopped writing and we visited with them for about half an hour.  Shelley and Grant were very tired today.  They had a Ragnar race they ran in this weekend, which I believe she said was a total of 200 miles for the 12 of them on their team over 2 days or something like that.  This race was located from Chattanooga to Nashville Tennessee.  Crazy people!

Well, time to finish up for today.  Catch you next week!

October 19, 2014

Okay, back to my usual schedule of writing on Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday we got up, had breakfast, got some cleaning and laundry done, then headed out about 10:30 to the movie theater to see the movie “Meet the Mormons”.  We had missed seeing it during the mission viewing because we had headed to Indiana last weekend.  So, I was glad to hear that it was still playing in the theaters.  It was great!  If you haven’t had a chance to see it, and it is playing near you, go see it.  Otherwise, I have heard it will be available on Netflicks in the future.

We were glad we went to the 11 o’clock showing, because the parking at the mall was not crowded at that time of day.  By the time the movie was over and we headed out to the car, the mall parking lot was full and you saw people just driving down each and every row looking for a place to park.  

After the movie we headed to Wal-Mart to do our grocery shopping.  Then stopped on the way home to pick up Gary’s suit from the cleaners.  We got home, got everything taken into the apartment and put away, then headed out again.  We went to get a good car wash done for our car….it has been very dirty!  I should have taken a before and after pictures to put on here!  We went to a place that cleaned the inside of the car too, and it made the dash look like new!  While the car was being cleaned, we ran over to McDonald’s which is right next door to the place, and got lunch.  After the car was cleaned we headed back home and finished the cleaning and laundry.

Today was church.  We picked up Sister Ly today because President and Sister Shelton (branch president) are out of town still.  Sister Ly lives closer to them now, so Sister Shelton will normally be picking her up.  [side note:  Sister Ly is going to Vietnam for a visit for a month or so, leaving next Sunday.]  When we got in the car this morning, we noticed that a cat had been walking on our nice clean car and left little paw prints, so Gary took a rag and cleaned it up again.  After church, we had dinner, and I was a little tired so planned on taking an hour nap.  Well, I must have been more tired than I realized because I slept for about 2 1/2 hours!  After I woke up, I heated up some leftovers for dinner, and then our friends the Michie’s came over for a visit.  They just barely left, so I am getting this done now before it gets any later.

This week we have special Zone Conferences going on.  Half the mission meets on Monday, the other half on Tuesday.  We have Elder Pino of the seventy coming for a mission tour, and he is speaking.  However, for the office staff, we don’t really participate in the meeting part of it.  I always stay in the office to answer the phones and handle the deliveries.  Gary and Sister Nedreberg will be busy the whole time doing the car inspections that take place every zone conference.  I have heard that there will be 40 cars inspected on Monday and 50 on Tuesday, so they will be lucky if they get them all done.  Hopefully they have lots of help lined up.  Elder Michie is going to be helping too.  

Sister Wilks has been gone to Texas to be a part of her grandson’s farewell before he leaves on his mission.  She left Thursday morning, so Sister Cattron subbed for her in the office on Thursday to answer the phones so I could meet with Mark Andromidas from Salt Lake on the finances, and be undisturbed by phone calls.  Sister Wilks gets back here tomorrow (Monday) afternoon.  I have some young sisters coming in to the office to watch things while I run out to the airport to pick her up.  Then on Tuesday, she will go to the zone conference that day to take pictures.  That is her job every zone conference, which is why I am usually behind manning the office.

Because they need to leave fairly early tomorrow morning to get to the location on time….they plan on leaving the office by 7:45…..we will leave here by about 7:25 tomorrow morning.  We know traffic will be bad heading the direction they are going at that time of day, so I hope they have allowed enough time.  I sure hope my nap today doesn’t make it hard to fall back asleep tonight!  I’m still yawning, so hopefully I can fall back asleep okay.

Oh, guess what I just realized?  I just looked at the date.  Today is our 14 month mark…..4 months to go!  We are glad we have had the time and finances, and the health and strength to carry out our tasks to help the work move forward, but we look forward to going home again and getting reconnected to all our family members.  

Remember to help the missionaries whenever you can.  Feed the young missionaries often….they don’t get much funding each month to cover all their meals.  Be an example to those you come in contact with.  Give any referrals you can to the missionaries.  Help in the work in any way you can.  Maybe you can offer to do some mending for the missionaries.  Or give them a free haircut, if that is your skill.  If you are a senior, think about putting your papers in to go on a mission.  Maybe you can serve from home, which cuts down on expenses a lot.  We look forward to getting back into genealogy again when we get home……and do our part to help with the work for those on the other side.  That is an ongoing work that we can all be working on.  Some of the talks at Conference were about getting involved that way.

There was another talk at Conference that said the Church was for all to come unto Christ and be perfected.  We don’t go to church because we are perfect, but to become perfected.  Going to church enlightens your mind, brings healing to your heart and joy to your days.  So my challenge to those who have stopped going to church is to come back.  We all need the healing that the Gospel can bring to our lives.  The more we seek the light of the Gospel, the more light we will receive.   [from President Uchtdorf’s talk]      This is why so many people, young and old, put their lives on hold for a time period…..to help bring people unto Christ.  To help them heal their hearts.  And we have heard of the experiences that some of these missionaries have, and the stories of the people who have had the Gospel brought to them.  Some didn’t even know what they were looking for, but were so grateful when they met the missionaries and were able to learn about the Gospel and become a part of it all.

So let’s always remember to do our part to help in the work!

Love to you all!

October 16, 2014

I just wanted to write a little to keep up with what has been going on.

We left last Thursday afternoon (October 9th) to fly to Indiana.  We had a layover in Salt Lake…..oh, I missed those mountains!  They sure looked good!  I mentioned to Gary that I was half tempted to just go get a car and head home, we were so close!  But, we wanted to see our Indiana kids and grandkids.  We got in to Indiana after 10 pm, and by the time we got our rental and then drove to Shelley’s, it was nearly midnight……which wasn’t so bad since it would have been 9 pm back here.  But, morning came way to fast!  It sure was great seeing Shelley, Grant, Hunter, Ayla and Emilie!  We had a fun time getting to know Emi, since she was only 3 weeks old last time we were there.  We do chat on FaceTime, though, so she knew who we were, and it didn’t take too long for her to warm up to us.  It was faster with Papa, though.  She was hesitant with me, but went straight to him!  

We were excited to see Ayla and Hunter, and hear how they were doing in school.  We had them all to ourselves for most of the day, then Grant’s parents arrived that evening, and also Grant’s brothers’ wife and their 2 girls.  So, we had a houseful, but it all worked out well.  Saturday was the baptism, and then visiting that afternoon and evening.  Sunday, church started at 8 a.m., so it was up early to get ready for that.  We got up at 5:30 to get a head start in the bathroom before the rush (I had showered the night before to help alleviate the demand on the bathroom), and we made it to church on time.  After church, we had dinner, then Grant’s parents needed to head to the airport to catch their flight.  The rest of us visited.  That night, I again showered to save time in the morning.  We again got up at 5:30 to begin getting ready to head to the airport.  It was pouring rain, so we were glad we left fairly early.  Plus we had no idea what traffic might be like heading into Indianapolis to the airport.  Things worked out okay, got to the airport and checked in just fine.  This time, our layover was in Los Angeles, and was a little longer.  I said to Gary, hey, too bad we didn’t have a longer layover, and we could have gone to Disneyland!!  We got in to San Jose at shortly after 2, and headed straight to the office and got right in to work.  When the day was over, we called it a night early, as we were tired!  It had been two early mornings, which was like 2:30 a.m. to our bodies.  We really had a hard time adjusting to the time zone difference this time.  In fact, one day we had a late lunch, and so I wasn’t hungry at dinner, so didn’t eat, but in the middle of the night I got really hungry, and got some snacks out of our bag…things I had for on the plane.  Gary said it sounded like a squirrel was in the room!

The weekend went well, but way too fast.  We look forward to seeing them again in the spring when we can stay longer!

Today, I had a planned visit from Mark Andromidas from Salt Lake City.  He works in the finance department for the church.  He was there to go over some finance things with me, and also with Gary and Sister Nedreberg…..maybe a half hour total with the two of them, so the majority of the day was with me.  I learned some things that can help make my job easier, as did Sister Nedreberg.  It was a very beneficial visit.  There will be some changes coming in how the office does some things…..after he visits with President Mella tomorrow.  Apparently there are several things we do that we shouldn’t.  So we need to make some changes to get on track with the approved program.

Well, that’s about it for now.  I will put some pictures on here of Hunter’s baptism day.  

Hunter

Hunter

Emilie, Shelley, Grant, Ayla, Hunter

Grammy and Papa with the kids

Emilie

Pretty fall colors

More pretty colors

Looking down at Bountiful from the plane

October 9, 2014

I missed last Sunday…..got too busy and ran out of time!  

Last week was transfer week again, and you know, I’ve decided it is like having a baby…..after it is over you forget how bad it was!  But when in it, you remember it all again!  During transfer week sometimes, I wonder if I will get through the week and get all my part done.  I made it, but on Thursday I had a 8 am to 7 pm work day to do it all.  I was exhausted when the week was over.  It mainly gets tiring for me because of all the reports and things I have do to when the transfer part is over.  Run off and get to everyone the new rosters, and the things for the apartment inspectors, and for the apartment managers the letters telling them who now lives in their apartments.  And everyone wants them immediately, it seems!  I work as fast as I can, but it doesn’t seem fast enough.  But, it is done, 2 more to go then we train the last one.

Monday night was Senior FHE again….great being able to see the other seniors and visit with them!

We had a missionary pretty sick and in the hospital over the weekend.  He is finally out and doing okay.

This week I had some pants to mend for an elder too, well he gave them to me a week ago, but last week was out for doing that kind of stuff!

We are heading to Indiana for a long weekend to attend Shelley’s oldest child’s baptism….Hunter!  So, my next entry will be a little late too.

I just wanted to get this on really quick this morning before we head to the office so that people didn’t wonder what we are up do.

Oh, and Colton hit the double digits this week!  Growing up too fast!

Love to all!