Last day of the month! I know it is a constant thing we keep saying, but where did the month go?
Monday, normal work day, except Elder Michie was filling in for Sister Nedreberg as the vehicle coordinator. She flew last Thursday to Louisiana to help out with a new grandchild. He was able to fill in for her, as he has been assisting her for sometime. When she got called to the position, I had made the comment that if I had been called, I would have turned it down! It would be over my head to deal with cars, repair shops, and everything else the position entails. She felt she was up to the task, but it has turned out to be pretty overwhelming, which is why Elder Michie has been assisting her. He has a lot of knowledge about cars that is invaluable to her.
Tuesday we had missionaries in the office for interviews, plus the morning was the Advanced Orientation training for those who arrived a transfer ago. So, plenty of missionaries in the office.
Wednesday was a normal day. President was out doing interviews in other areas. Elder and Sister Michie headed to Napa for the Thanksgiving holiday to spend with with their son and family, so it was just Sister Wilks, Elder & Sister Conner, and Gary and I in the office. It was pretty quiet in the afternoon, and we finally shut the office up at about 4:50 and headed home.
Thursday was a nice day! We slept in an hour, watched some of the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV, Gary watched some football. I spent time getting the few Christmas cards we send out ready. We just sent to our children and our parents. Plus I had several birthday cards to get ready to mail…..December is a busy birthday month for us as well. It was good to have some extra time to address and write notes in the cards, instead of always feeling so rushed. We started getting ready at 3 to head to Thanksgiving dinner at Bob and Linda Crawford’s house. We met Sister Wilks at the office and took her with us. It was a very enjoyable evening, as it always is at their house. Great food and great company! Also present were two of the Crawford’s children and families, and the 4 Vietnamese elders and the 2 employment resource center sisters. The daughter of the Crawford’s who was present is the one who lives in Klamath Falls and knows Susie! We ended the evening close to 8, and headed for home. We needed to get ready for work the next day, so couldn’t stay too late. Oh, during dinner, we were talking how the employment sisters had Friday off and were heading to the temple. They had invited Sister Wilks to go along, but as we had to work, she had said she couldn’t. Well, as we sat there, I said, you know, I’m sure we will be fine in the morning. It will probably be slow, so why don’t you go ahead and go to the temple. She was excited to be able to, so she took us up on it
Friday, as predicted, was pretty slow. Which was good, since I was covering for Sister Wilks while she went to the temple. I was able to answer the phone and take care of my work too. Gary was in Salinas doing things pertaining to his job, so it was just the Conner’s and I in the office. President Mella was doing interviews in Monterey. When the Conner’s got ready to leave at 2 to head to a doctor appointment with a missionary, they expressed concern about leaving me alone in the office, but I told them it wasn’t a problem, I knew Gary would be back soon, as well as Sister Wilks. In fact, they ran into Sister Wilks outside in the parking lot….she had just returned as they were leaving. And Gary wasn’t too much later.
Saturday, we did our usual chores in the morning, starting with going grocery shopping right after breakfast to hopefully get done before too many people in the store. The plan worked fine, but I don’t know about some employees around here….they wouldn’t be able to keep a job out our way. The cashier was so slow! She was busier chatting with the person ahead of us that checking out the food! When it was finally our turn, we told her we would bag the groceries….we wanted to hurry it along! Seriously, I don’t know how people like that even get hired, or keep a job. When I say slow, I mean slow. We got home to do the chores, and I needed to make bread. Then, we left at about 3:40 to head and meet Sister Wilks again at the office. We had planned on heading up to Oakland for a Christmas program in the auditorium on temple hill, and see the Christmas lights. The program was really great! But, it was raining when we went outside and saw the lights, so we didn’t stay long. Just started for home. Plus the drive was better than usual. After the last 2 times of heading to the temple the usual way up 880, with all the traffic, and being in stop and go traffic heading home, we decided to go the other way up 680. A little longer in length…..about 7 miles longer…..but the traffic moved so much easier that I think it was faster. I don’t enjoy that road as well, though, as it is rougher and curvier. But, oh, well!
Today, Sunday, it was raining again. I guess I need to say here that it has rained more the last couple of weeks than it did the whole last year. Last year at this time, we had the one rainstorm in October, then nothing else. As I have mentioned before, they have been in a drought around here. In February, all of the area had fasted for rain, which we got right after that, and then nothing much more till this fall. And, we can see a difference. Last year, the hills around here were brown until January. This year, with the rain, they are already greening up. Anyway, back to today. Went to Church, during the last hour Relief Society and Priesthood were combined because it was the 5th Sunday. Sister Shelton, Sister Janette and I were supposed to teach together on Music. So, we started. Janette was to start and do the basic things about music, and I was going to teach them to conduct while Sister Shelton played the piano. Well, Janette pretty much covered it all (no complaints here!), and even got into the conducting. It is so much smoother when she teaches because she talks in Viet, where I would require a translator. It was an informative meeting for the members of the branch. As Janette had pointed out to me, they have never had any musical training whatsoever. In Vietnam, the only people who would get music training would be from rich families, which none of these people would have been. So, they needed to understand the basics of music to even sing the songs, and we wanted to teach them to be able to conduct if ever called to that position.
Now we are home, and have had dinner. I made a pasta salad to take tomorrow night to Senior Family Home Evening, and will make a pan of brownies too in just a bit. Can you believe that tomorrow is December?
Oh, good news! We learned from the Crawford’s on Thursday, that there may be someone from their stake who will be turning in their papers to serve a mission, and they plan on taking our spots! So, it looks like we will be heading home in February as planned! Nothing official on that yet, but hopefully things will move along and become official soon. That was good news…….as we have only 11 weeks to go! We will keep you all informed as we learn anything.
Thanks again to those who have written or sent cards! Oh, and this is a reminder for my grandchildren……color us some Christmas pictures so we can hang them up to decorate our apartment for Christmas. We have no other decorations.
We have started gathering boxes from the office and bringing them home. We will be boxing up some clothing items to mail home in a month, after the holidays are over probably. We have bought some clothing since coming here, and we know we were loaded when we arrived, so we will have to send some home to have room in the car!
For those of you who haven’t heard of the Christmas message the missionaries are sharing this month, check out this site: christmas.mormon.org
It is a short video clip reminding us all of the first gift of Christmas. It is a very good message that we all need to be reminded of. The church has paid for advertising on Youtube to advertise this video too. I think it is next Sunday that it will be the main ad on the page.
So, my message to end this letter/journal entry today is this: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Believe!
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