The story behind the pumpkin patch huge pile of pumpkins

What we thought was a huge pile of pumpkins

The truth is revealed!

Pictures from Thanksgiving, November 27, 2014 [Bob & Linda Crawford's house]

Pictures from Gary's trip to the organic farm November 3rd.

Spinach.

Place that the workers turn in the produce they pick.

Plowed field, ready to plant.

Workers in the field, picking romaine lettuce.

This is the brand of organic vegetables.

December 21, 2014

Well, we just finished transfer week again, and as usual, it was full of busy, long days, and not without a lot of stress on some of the days.  But, the week is done.  The next transfer, we should be training someone, so in some ways it is easier because of extra hands to get the jobs done.  In fact, President Mella pulled us aside one morning and said that even though we had volunteered that we could stay longer than our end day, that he has a couple of other plans in mind that he can implement so that we can plan on going home on our original release date, even if no one gets called to take our spots.  He will pull some other seniors into the office to be trained.  We still have time for someone to be called, it is just getting close now, which is why he has come up with “plan B”.  So, that is nice that we can plan now, and call and get doctor and dentist appointments scheduled for when we get back.

This transfer, we lost 20 seasoned missionaries, and received 8 new ones.  The good thing is that with electronic media these days, we can, and do, still keep in contact with those who have gone home.  It is always exciting to see a friend request on Facebook from one of our missionaries who have “returned with honor” after serving their mission.  We love hearing from them all, and seeing the pictures and hearing of the updates that occur in their lives.

I probably have mentioned this before, but the church building we have the mission office in is not in a great location.  We have had homeless people camped in the shrubs at the back of the parking lot before, and before the outlets outside the building were closed up, some used to camp right by the front doors of the church and use the outlets to charge up their cell phones!  Anyway, over a week ago, Elder Michie had noticed that the same car was in our parking lot every day, with a man inside.  He told me that he figured it was a homeless person, just sleeping in his car, but using the parking lot as his place to stay.  Because of the vandalism we have experienced to mission vehicles in the parking lot, and the theft that has occurred during meetings (people just come in the back doors and steal items left in the cultural hall), we are extremely leery of someone living in our parking lot!  Also, since UPS has just left packages at our door after hours, we are afraid that someone hanging around will start walking off with things that aren’t theirs.  Plus, there is the fact that it is posted that you aren’t to just stay there.  Anyway, Elder Michie told me I ought to call the police, which I did.  They said that if we asked the man to leave and he didn’t, then they could do something, but that they would send a patrol car around to check on things.  Elder Michie went out to ask the man to leave, and he was gone already.  The patrol car did come by, but too late.  However, the car was back in the lot the next time we were in the office.  This time, Elder Michie did talk to the man and asked him to leave.  The man said his car wouldn’t start, so elders went out and jumped him.  He still came back another day.  Anyway, on Wednesday, I was late getting to the office after helping with the morning transfer stuff, and when I arrived, there were about 6-8 police cars, a fire engine, and an ambulance!  I didn’t know what was going on!  I couldn’t get close to the office entrance to park because of all those vehicles, so parked on the far side of the building.  As I was walking to the office, I saw Lamar Stuart standing there, and he filled me in.  It turns out that a cop had come into the parking lot to check things, was parked away from that car, elders had come out to help the guy again, then the cop (who must have been checking things) found out the car was stolen, and went to get the guy, had him down, the guy was fighting him off, the cop dropped the handcuffs, still fighting the guy and demanding him to lay on the ground, which he wasn’t, warned him he was going to….I don’t know what he said exactly, but get rougher with him is what it amounted to….the guy still was fighting him, and the cop was having a hard time, I guess he slammed him down hard on the ground, one of our elders had to come assist the cop in holding him down, another elder helped in putting the handcuffs on.  Then the guy, because he had been slammed down, was bleeding, and started complaining he couldn’t breathe, so that is why the fire engine and ambulance were called in.  And I guess the other cops arrived when the first cop had a hard time getting the guy to cooperate….I don’t know the order of things here.  Anyway, one of the elders was talking about it later and said if the guy really couldn’t breathe, he wouldn’t have been able to talk like he was, so it was just an excuse.  Sister Michie was sitting in her car and saw a lot of what happened, and said she saw the cops pull out a bag of white powder from the car, so he was probably a drug dealer, doing his business in our parking lot!    Ah, such is the life in the big city!

And, another piece of excitement that same day….the facilities management team (FM) were also at the building, checking out a problem under the gym floor. They said it was like walking on a trampoline, and they figured there was a leak under the floor.  They got big fans in there to dry it out, hired a company to try to find the leak, and closed off the gym, the kitchen, and the bathrooms on the far side of the building.  I haven’t heard if they found the leak or not yet, but we have been told it could be 6 months till the building is fully usable again.  The bathroom on our side of the building is okay to use.  But, we usually use the kitchen and gym during meetings that a luncheon is served, so other arrangements will need to be made there.  Also, I don’t know what is going to happen to the Yerba Buena Ward that meets in the building, since they can’t use those areas.  I will let you know more when I know any more.

I mentioned last week that the woman being baptized was being done again on Tuesday evening because it hadn’t been done correctly on Sunday.   I told the elders we might not be able to make it, depending on how busy Tuesday was for us.  They said it was probably better if we didn’t go anyway, because then it made it less stressful for the man performing the baptism if less people were there.  So, we didn’t go.  The woman was baptized fine, but it was a different person performing the baptism, even though the man had driven down from Fremont (where they live) to try again to get it right.  And now we have feelings hurt……the couple didn’t even come to church today.  I feel bad for the man…..I had so wanted this to be a good experience for him in exercising his priesthood.

Today in church, I taught the lesson in Relief Society.  It was on Missionary Work.  It went over well.  It was something they all could relate to.  In fact, when we started the lesson, I pointed out that in that relief society room, only 1 person had been born in the church….Sister Shelton.  The rest of us were all converts!  So we got some discussion on their experiences, plus the experiences shared in the lesson manual.  I had made a poster to hang up on the chalkboard with a list of 6 ways to be a missionary.  I had copied it from the Vietnamese version of the lesson, but every time I write something in Vietnamese, they are so impressed!!  I said, I can copy anything, but don’t ask me to draw something!  These are letters, so it isn’t hard to copy.  But, they comment on me getting all the accent marks right on the words….still, not hard when I am just copying it!

I picked up Sister Ly for church today, and then after church we dropped her off at the church her husband attends.  Gary told me as we were driving that my phone was vibrating, so when we got home, I checked the message.  It was from President Mella.  Apparently this morning, 2 sisters had been in a meeting at their church building, and the one sister had left her purse in the car.  Well, thieves apparently checked out cars in the parking lot, saw the purse, and broke the back window of the car to steal it.  Inside the purse, for whatever reason, was an  elder’s wallet (this sister and elder are in the polynesian program).  So, I needed to run to the office and call the bank to cancel their MSF cards.  Luckily, it is late in the month.  Neither of them had much money on their cards.  The elder’s card had been fraudulently used, but the thief only got $3 and something off his card.

Oh, the joys of office missionary work!

Yesterday we got an invitation for dinner with the Michie’s today at 4, so we leave in a few minutes to go there.

Just got back from an excellent dinner at the Michie’s….ham, baked potatoes, cole slaw, asparagus, jello salad, and german chocolate cake.  It was yummy!  And so nice to sit and visit with good friends!

Oh, I forgot to mention something…..yesterday was the Yearsley family Christmas party back home, and afterward they were having a surprise 85th birthday open house for Gary’s dad.  We had hoped to be able to Skype with family, but it didn’t work out.  But, Gary had talked to his dad last Sunday, so he had that covered.

Upcoming events:

Wednesday we will be having a mission-wide breakfast, talent show, white elephant type gift exchange and some speaker or something.  This will be in the San Felipe building, where we meet for church.  The seniors are to help with the breakfast preparation, and are to arrive at 6:30 a.m.  I have Sister Withers, who used to work in the office, to cover the office that morning while we are out of it, to get the mail and packages that are delivered.  So, I will meet her at 8:45 to let her in the building.  Then, if any last minute Christmas boxes arrive for missionaries, she can call me and I will run and pick them up so they can be delivered to the missionaries while they are all together.

Thursday morning, we fly out to Houston for the purpose of being at Logan’s baptism on Sunday.  So, we get to spend a few days with all three of our daughters, who had already planned on spending Christmas together!  We will be flying home early Monday morning.  In fact, our flight gets in at 9:16 a.m.!  So, then we go straight to the office to work.  Because of being gone next weekend, I doubt I will put a blog entry on until we get home.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas!  Remember the reason for the season!  And enjoy your time with family!

The poster I used in Relief Society....written in Vietnamese.

December 14, 2014

Okay, I have to back up here.  I forgot to put some things in last week.  And I don’t know how I forgot!  Friday, Dec. 5th was Gary’s birthday.  After work that day, we headed to Sizzler for dinner to celebrate.  When we got home, we saw that Shelley had sent me a message and wanted to Face Time.  So we did, and talked for a long time, even though she is 3 hours different time zone than us!  Hunter was even still awake to talk to us briefly!

Saturday morning, Dec. 6th, I had a haircut appointment before we headed to the Creche exhibit.  When we went grocery shopping that afternoon after we got home from the exhibit, we got ingredients so that I could make the Shreveport Gumbo that we usually eat during December each year….usually at Hope’s house when we are playing pinochle!  I planned on taking it to work to share with the other missionaries in the office.  I was thinking of taking it for Tuesday’s lunch.

Sunday afternoon, Dec. 7th, I decided it would be better to take the meal on Monday, so that I could have the time Sunday afternoon to start it…..it takes quite a bit of time to prepare, more than I usually have in an evening.  So I chopped up the veggies needed, browned the roux for the required 30 minutes, and mixed up everything except the shrimp.  Then let it cool and put it in the crockpot and put in the fridge.  We Face Timed with Kori and family that evening, so the kids could wish us both happy birthdays.

Okay, now to this week.  I got up the usual time on Monday morning, but instead of going to exercise, I showered and began the rest of the preparation to get ready to take the gumbo to work.  I made rice in my Pampered Chef microwave rice cooker, then put it in another crockpot to keep it warm at the office.  I put the shrimp in the gumbo, and got everything ready to load up in the car to take to the office.  When we got there, I plugged the crockpots in, cooked the gumbo on high for 4 hours, and turned on the other crockpot to low to keep the rice warm.  Well, that turned out to be not such a good idea….it was almost too hot for the rice.  Too bad I didn’t have another crockpot that had a warm setting!  So, I just turned it on and off at various times throughout the morning to keep it warm, but not overcooked!  Then the 6 of us in the office all had lunch……that included Sister Nedreberg, Sister Wilks, and Elder and Sister Conner.  It was a yummy lunch, if I do say so myself!  Way better than the packed lunches we do all the time.

Monday was my birthday, and I had several calls during the day…Morgan Bradshaw, Brandon Bruggeman, Karen Maughan.  I had the Viet elders, Elder Hullinger and Elder Golightly come sing to me.  When we got home from work, Scott called and talked with us.  Then we headed to Red Robin for dinner.  While there, Jeff tried calling, but I didn’t answer because it was so noisy I wouldn’t have been able to hear him.  On the way home, we called him and started talking and talked all the way home and even while we sat in our car in the parking lot.  When we got in the apartment, Traci and the boys called us.  We learned that for Tristan’s 10th birthday next Saturday, he chose to go help at a soup kitchen in the morning, because, as he said, they don’t have as much as he has.  Such an unselfish comment!  Way to go Tristan!  Of course, later in the conversation, he wanted to know why we had to miss 2 of his birthdays while on our mission!  Yes, he is still a kid!

We have had storm warnings for several days.  Wednesday evening it was supposed to arrive.  When we got up Thursday morning, it was still ok here, but the wind was, and had been, blowing.  We went to exercise, and I noticed that the apartment managers here didn’t heed the warnings on the news to make sure things were taken care of so they didn’t blow around.  The umbrellas at the tables by the pool hadn’t even been closed, and one of them had blown out of the center hole of the table and was on the ground blowing around.  After we got done showering, I turned on the news to check on the storm.  It was in San Francisco already, and moving south towards us.  As we left for work, the rain started, and it rained hard all day long.  There had been warnings of flooding and possible mudslides.  We did hear of areas that had flooding, and some of our elders told us that they had to help push cars out of flooded areas, with the water being almost to their knees….why people drove into that, I don’t know!  We learned that a Safeway store near the office had part of the roof collapse because of the rain.  We were fine.  The storm was to continue into the night, and still rain on Friday, which it did, but not as hard.  

It is really green around here now!  You wouldn’t know they had had a drought.  So different from last year when it was so brown everywhere.  

Saturday we slept in a little…we have been so tired.  Of course, sleeping in means till around 7:30.  After getting some laundry going, and starting on the grocery list, we decided to try calling Tristan to wish him a happy birthday, and we said we may be able to Skype with them later in the day, depending on our schedule and theirs. Tristan told us he was going to be going to a jumping place for part of the afternoon with a friend who had the same birthday.   Then, we went grocery shopping, and did laundry and cleaning.

During the afternoon, I decided to lay down for awhile and rest.  I could have fallen asleep, but luckily Gary came in and asked if I wanted to go to a movie or something.  I knew I needed to get up….too late in the day to nap….and we decided to go to a movie.  The movie we chose to see was the new Dumb and Dumber sequel.  We should have skipped it….most sequels just aren’t as good as the first, and this one was pretty crude.

There have been changes in the numbers of missionaries….not only here but all over.  This transfer is a big one for change.  We lose 15 sisters and only get 2 coming in.  Total missionaries going home this time is 20, with 8 coming in.  The numbers of all the missionaries is going down, but more so in the numbers of sisters.  We got so many when the age change happened, and now those girls are the ones leaving.  The numbers are leveling off now.  But, because of the dropping in numbers of missionaries, it is time to make adjustments in areas and housing.  President Mella and the assistants had a difficult time working through this transfer because of all the changes.   Gary is going to be closing 6 apartments now in places we won’t have so many missionaries.  He still has to open 1 or 2 in areas that have been crowded, and those numbers haven’t changed.  It will be a busy January for him.  We are still hopeful that we will get replacements.  However, it won’t be in time to do some of the work of closing and emptying out those apartments, so he has his work cut out for him.

This coming week is transfer week, so the Outgoing Devotional is this evening.  This transfer will be 7 weeks long instead of the usual 6, because of the adjustment for Christmas travel and this current one moved up a week.  The transfer just finishing was only 5 weeks long.  So, the next transfer is Feb. 4th.  For that transfer, we will have 23 going home and 9 coming in.  Another loss in numbers.

Today we had another baptism in the Vietnamese branch, with a meal afterward.  Church was kind of strange today, as the opening prayer was said by a recent convert, and he didn’t start it in the usual way, but it didn’t seem bad, considering he is just learning (and that is our estimation from listening to the translation).  Anyway, after the prayer was finished, the branch president was conferring with his counselor, and the next thing we know, the counselor gets up and says another opening prayer!  So, I guess they didn’t figure the other one counted!  The rest of the meetings went okay, then afterward, we had the baptism.  To start the baptism, the same recent convert who gave the prayer in Sacrament Meeting was the one to give the opening prayer for the baptism, and the same thing happened…he prayed, then the counselor prayed!  Strange….I don’t know what exactly happened, so I need to ask the elders.  It must have been something that we missed in the translation.

Anyway, I was excited that one of our recent converts was going to be doing the baptism!  I like to see them being involved and part of the branch instead of just sitting in meetings and not helping the branch to progress.  Anyway, I guess he didn’t get a lot of training on how to do the baptism, and it was done 3 times because each time some part of her was still above water.  The third time, they stopped, so we all figured it was finally done right. I even commented to Gary that when he baptized Kori, she had to be dunked 3 times.  Well, when the people changed and came back into the room, and it was time for the confirmation, the branch president was in the hall and motioned for either his counselor or the branch mission leader who was conducting the meeting….can’t remember for sure who it was….to come in the hall.  After a brief meeting, they came in the room again, and the next I knew, it was being announced that the closing song was next, and who was giving the prayer. We had no idea what was going on.  Then everyone went into the gym to set up for the little meal.  While there, the branch mission leader came and talked to us.  It turns out that even the 3rd time the lady was baptized, part of her was above water, and the missionaries didn’t know how to handle things without embarrassing the man performing the baptism or the lady being baptized.  So, what we have been told is that it will be redone on Tuesday evening.  I don’t know if the same man will be doing it, or someone else this time.  We were told what time to come if we can.  We said if we didn’t show up, it would be because we are in our busy week, and never can predict what time we will finish each day. 

Okay, that gets us to this point.  Gary plans on calling his dad today to wish him happy birthday, and then we will head to the Outgoing Devotional. 

I can’t remember, did I tell you all to look at the site, christmas.mormon.org and watch the short video?  I know I mentioned it on Facebook, but I don’t think I did here.  A good reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.  I hope that we can all remember the reason for the season, and not get caught up in the commercialism.  

Stay true to the faith! 

December 7, 2014

We just finished watching the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional.  We hooked up the computer to the TV and watched it there.  It is our family tradition to always make sure we watch this.  It is a great way to get the Christmas Spirit going……and we enjoyed it very much!

Last Sunday in church, it had been announced that there was going to be Christmas party in the branch on the following Saturday…..a big meal at noon.  This was the first we had heard of it, so we told them we wouldn’t be able to go, as we had already made arrangements to take Sister Wilks with us to go and see the Creche exhibit in Palo Alto on that Saturday, and wanted to leave in the middle of the day.  We had heard how nice this exhibit was, and hadn’t been able to go to it last year, so we for sure wanted to go.  We planned on inviting Sister Nedreberg too when she got back.  Anyway, I am not familiar with that area, and wanted to be driving in the middle of the day when I could find my way around, not after dark.  Especially if it kept raining!  

When Sister Nedreberg returned from her trip to Louisiana, we asked her, and she was glad to have a ride to go and see it.  So, we made plans to go at noon.  Luckily, the weather cleared up….in fact, when we returned home I noticed the thermostat in the car said it was 72 outside.

The exhibit was really nice!  They set it up in one of the churches up there, and it is up from Saturday till Wednesday.  We learned that the wards that meet in that building just attend other wards during that Sunday that the exhibit is up.  There are musical numbers going on each day too.  While we were there, a woman was playing Christmas songs on a harp….very lovely!

After we got home, we dropped the other two ladies off, and then headed home to change out of our dress clothes so we could go grocery shopping.  

I have to tell of a couple of things that happened this past week.  One day, we had a call from a missionary who had lost their keys.  What had happened, we learned, was that when they had come in one day, they put the keys in the door, had their arms loaded, got inside and shut the door, forgetting that the keys were still in the door.  By the time they remembered….and I don’t know if that same day or the next morning, the keys were gone.  They checked to see if they had been turned in to the apartment manager, but they hadn’t.  So, some quick things needed to be done, as on that ring of keys was the car key too.  So, they got a replacement key up to them (we keep extra car keys and apartment keys in the office because occasionally they lock them in cars or apartments), and then had the zone leader come over and trade vehicles with them, as they live a little ways away.  The car needed to be somewhere else, because whoever took the keys could now walk through the parking lot and just click the keys till he found the one it belonged to.  So that was taken care of.  Then, the apartment manager needed to rekey the door and get them the new keys.  The keys also included one to the laundry area, and their mailbox.  The policy is that when missionaries loses keys, when they get towed, when they get tickets—they are responsible to pay for them.  So, this missionary had to let his mother know.  I don’t know how that went about, but I imagine someone in the office called the mom to let her know.  That is usually what we do.  The mom called the office Friday morning, pretty worried about how she was going to come up with the money.  At that point, we had been told that the rekeying of the apartment, along with the new keys was going to cost $110.  We had already paid it, and so that just means the family has to pay the mission back.  To replace a key costs over $400.  The mom couldn’t believe it could cost that much, so Elder Michie agreed to call her back and explain why it cost so much.  When he finished talking to her, she again made a comment about how to afford all that.  He said to her that when families have problems like this, they should go to their bishop, as wards have a missionary fund they can draw from to help families out, and if the ward didn’t have enough, the stake also has a fund.  So, he said, you need to go and talk to your bishop.  She said, can’t you talk to him?  He said, no, it is your responsibility to talk to him.  She said, but he’s my husband!  We all got a chuckle over that one!  But I do feel for the family, and for the young man involved.  I think a lot of that young man.  Things like this happen…..they still are young when dealing with life.

Another experience this past week was Senior Family Home Evening on Monday night.  The new couple, the Conner’s, didn’t show up.  I kept thinking, did they forget?  Should I have said something else to them just before we left?  But we thought we had mentioned it during the day.  We didn’t have their phone number on us, so we couldn’t call.  Anyway, as we left, we consoled ourselves thinking that maybe a phone call came up and so they missed the home evening to talk to family or something.  We didn’t learn until the next morning what had happened.  They had gotten into a car accident on the way home from the office.  It was dark and raining, and as they were driving on Blossom Hill Road, getting ready to go onto the freeway (85), the car in front of them slammed on the brakes to avoid some people who were crossing the street right at the freeway on ramp!  So, the Conner’s slammed on their brakes and veered to the right, and for one second felt like they had just avoided a disaster, when they got slammed into from behind.  Sister Conner said she called 911, and was told by the dispatcher that the cops don’t come for accidents like that, since everyone was okay.  The girl who slammed into them, her car was undrivable, and had to have a tow truck.  She was very distraught, and Sister Conner was trying to console her, all the while the girl kept saying how sorry she was that she had hit them.  When the tow truck driver got there, Sister Conner was talking to him, saying she was surprised the cops didn’t come, he wasn’t surprised and was amazed when she said that back home in North Carolina they would,and she was saying that the people who had stepped into the road in front of them, crossing at an on ramp like that, ought to be ticketed because they had caused the accident.  The tow truck driver said that stuff like that happen all the time….some people look at it as a way to make a lot of money if they get hit.  So strange around here!  The Conner’s are okay, they were just a little sore at first, and they have to get the car repaired……but they are okay, thank goodness!

This last week we also had a guest speaker come to the MLC (mission leadership council—which consists of the Zone Leaders and the STL’s — Sister Training Leaders) meeting on Friday…….Steve Young!  I heard he was an amazing speaker.  He lives in Palo Alto I believe, and I have heard he is the Gospel Doctrine teacher in his ward.  Well, President Mella has known him for years, and so got him to come and speak.  After he spoke, the missionaries headed into the gym to get a group picture with him.  Gary came to get me, because I usually miss any group pictures while I am working in the office, and I always miss the group pictures at Zone Conferences, as I am the only one behind manning the office.  So, he figured I ought to be in one before we finish our mission!  We had been standing off to the side, and were told we weren’t in the picture, so we were working on scrunching in closer together when Steve grabbed us and moved us to the front, where we kneeled down by him!  Cool!  

Here is the group picture with Steve Young.