The first week of training our replacements went well. They are fast learners….thank goodness, since we have such little time to train! Their names are Morgan and Marsha Busk (pronounced with the sound the “o’s” have in book), and they are from Richfield, Utah. On Monday, we told them to take care of some of their needed things before coming into the office. Such as, they needed to go to the apartment manager’s office and introduce themselves (managers want to know who lives in the apartments), and they needed to get a parking pass. They also needed to get some groceries. It was late morning before they arrived in the office, and we began training after they met everyone. Monday night was Senior Family Home Evening (it had to be changed from last week because of Transfer week conflicts). So, it turned out to be our last, and the Busk’s first FHE. Tuesday we had a full day of training. Wednesday, the building was having the carpets cleaned, and we had to be out of the building about noon. Since this wouldn’t affect Gary and Elder Busk (he is out of the office most of the time), Sister Busk and I decided that we would tag along with them! So the four of us headed to Hollister first for lunch, saw the locations of some of the apartments there, went to briefly visit with some of our Sister missionaries who live there and introduced them to the Busk’s: Sister Dennis, Sister, Gonzalez, Sister Hill, and Sister Pattison. Then we had to head to Salinas to get the last items from an apartment that was closed, and pick up the returned security deposit. Then we headed to Seaside to take a couple of mattresses and frames to an apartment there and pick up the bunkbed frame they didn’t want to bring back to storage. After that, we were getting about out of time, so we started back north for the office, stopping at a fruit stand along the side of the road on Hwy 1, south of Moss Landing. The Busk’s got some items there, and Gary bought 2 really large oranges (they were the size of grapefruits) which were really sweet and juicy. Then we headed towards San Jose. We stopped first in Morgan Hill to drop off items we didn’t want to the DI dropbox located there. Then we continued on to San Jose, going to the storage units first to drop off the rest of the items. After that, we got back to the office, it was about 5:30 I think now, or going on 6, and we ran in the office to drop items there that we needed to leave, then we all headed for our homes. Thursday we had a full day of training, with a break for an office staff meeting in the afternoon. We also had missionaries in the office on Thursday…they were there for interviews. So, there were interruptions in the training as they came in to meet Sister Busk. Thursday night, we chatted on the phone with Jeff’s kids. Jeff had tried calling earlier in the week and left a message saying he would have the kids Thursday night and they wanted to talk. So we had a good visit with all of them. Friday we worked, then at about 1:30 we had the auditor come, and he had questions to ask those of us in the office pertaining to last years records being audited, mostly talking to me, so we didn’t work during that time. Sister Busk starting working on putting the apartment addresses in Elder Busk’s Garmin for him (which I had done for Gary when we first got here). The auditor was there working on items until 6, so Gary and I stayed until he finished with what he was doing that day. He will do some more things from home, and then finish up with us next Friday. He originally had tried to schedule the audit for Saturday, the 21st. When he emailed me with that information, Sister Busk was worried….she said she wouldn’t know what to tell him! I emailed him back, and said our last day was the 20th, so if he wanted to ask me questions, it had to be before then. So, he adjusted his schedule to work with us.
Saturday, we had decided ahead of time to book the day for each other….pretty good since it was Valentine’s Day! We decided to spend the last day we could play here by going to the beach and looking for sand dollars, taking pictures (I had some special ones I wanted to do to post in my last mission blog entry), and just relaxing on the beach for awhile. We went to Sunset Beach, outside of Watsonville. The weather was super! It was around 70 degrees. We could have stayed longer, but decided against it because we were worried about Gary getting burned. Once, long ago, his feet and lower legs got burned pretty bad on a beach outing. So, since his feet never get exposed to the sun, we didn’t dare stay too long, even with sunscreen, especially since we were walking in and out of the water. Also, at the time we decided to leave, I could tell his face was starting to burn. And guess how many sand dollars we found….and I mean good ones…..52! When we got home, only one had been broken. So, I put them on our patio and washed them. We will bring some home for our kids and grandkids. I also wanted to do one other thing while we were down that way…..go to Carmel. We had driven past it before, but never gone into the town. But, probably because of the golf tournament going on at Pebble Beach, traffic heading that way was horrible! We were in stop and go traffic for some time, and it wasn’t letting up, so we got off Hwy 1 as soon as we could. Then, when we tried going another direction, we ran into the same problem, so we changed directions again, deciding to just head for home. When we got to 101, the southbound lanes were that way…..stop and go, and the traffic backed up for about 20 miles. We were glad we were in the northbound lane! We stopped in Gilroy and had dinner at Hometown Buffet, then came home, stopping at the grocery store for milk, bananas, and Gary’s vitamin P first (diet Pepsi). Our grocery shopping list has gotten shorter and shorter these last few weeks as we are trying to finish up what is in the apartment. Then we headed to the apartment, washed the sand off of everything, and got to work on finalizing talks for Sunday, and the lessons we are each teaching.
Sunday, we went to church, I led the music for the opening and sacrament hymns, we each gave our talks. My topic was on “True to the Faith”. Gary’s was on “Enduring to the End”. Bob and Linda Crawford, our trainers when we first started our mission, came to hear us….kind of like full circle for them, seeing the people that they trained, finishing up and getting ready to leave now. During Sacrament Meeting, we were given a plaque in commemoration of our service to their branch. Some of the members thought that this was our last Sunday…..which it originally was. But, since we aren’t leaving on the 19th now, we have one more Sunday to attend. In Sunday School class, the Viet Elders, Elder Kwon and Elder Ho, were substituting for Phat Le, who was out of town. They did a really good job. The lesson was #7, on the miracles that Christ performed. During the lesson, Elder Kwon told a personal experience. A man was in the hospital in Pleasanton. He had been in Vietnam and been bitten by a spider. The doctor didn’t have much hope for him. His wife had called the elders to come and give him a blessing. For the elders to even go in the room, they had to be gowned and masked. The day after the blessing, the man was healed, and his doctor was so amazed he told the patient’s Bishop to tell the elders about it, so they received a phone call telling them that the man was healed. (This was Elder Hullinger and Elder Kwon that had given the blessing)
Oh, and just to show how much we did today…..I gave the opening prayer in Sunday School, and Gary gave the closing. Then, in the last hour, Gary taught in Priesthood meeting. In Relief Society, I led the opening song, and I gave the lesson. Mine was on lesson 20 in the Latter-day Saint Woman part A, on managing our homes well….being organized with our time, basically. I had a poster with D&C 88:119 written in Vietnamese, and asked someone to read it. The lady who volunteered had it memorized, and after she said it, she said she had it memorized in English also, so said it in English too. It was Sister La (she is the one who brings flowers to church). Gary’s lesson was from the Priesthood manual part A, and was on the duties of a Priest.
Oh, I forgot to mention….there were 6 flower arrangements brought today and set up front during Sacrament meeting…..it is obviously springtime! These come from their own flower gardens.
As I was typing up this entry today, the FaceTime on the computer was ringing….it was Natalie! Well, Melissa called because Natalie wanted to talk to us. So we got to see each of them in the family and chat briefly. Natalie is excited that our mission is almost over so that we can come visit them for a longer visit soon.
Well, I think that about covers it all. I will do my next entry Friday night, as our internet is going to be turned off on Saturday. We have tomorrow off since it is President’s Day. No mail delivery, and Salt Lake offices are closed. We had told the Busk’s that if they felt they wanted that extra day of training we would be happy to go in the office and train. However, if they felt they needed that day to do personal things, that was okay too. So, we are not going in, unless we receive a phone call either tonight or tomorrow morning. Which means we have 4 days of training left. Gary turned over his office keys to Elder Busk when they arrived. I still have my keys. That way, all of us have a way into the office. Gary also turned his mission phone over to Elder Busk on Friday as they were leaving the office. Kind of a passing of the torch. It still seems a bit unreal. Melissa asked us if we are getting excited. It just seems surreal….yes, we know we are leaving. We are packing some every day. But, until we actually pull out of here, we just do our usual things each day. Things we have done since we came and began this mission life.
Oh, during Sacrament meeting today, Peter Ly, the first counselor, commented on the fact that the Crawford’s were in the audience, and said they (the branch) hoped we would come back and visit them sometime like the Crawford’s (they live in San Jose—a little easier for them!) Gary told me as we left church today that Jimmy Miner was going to be starting the temple preparation classes in March….so, when he gets ready to go to the temple for the first time, we probably will be coming back to go to the temple with him. And, there may be other things that we want to come back for in the future too dealing with our friends in the branch.
Well, I just had a little break here….our friends, the Michie’s just stopped in for a visit. So, now I need to finish this up and get it published so you can read it.
Since our lesson was on miracles in Sunday School today, I just want to close with a reminder that miracles happen all the time. And the greatest miracle is that through the Atonement we can all return to live with our Heavenly Father again.
See you all soon!
[the following pictures are of our outing on Saturday]
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| This is a farm field overlooking the beach....what a view while farming! |
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| Gary walking in the water looking for sand dollars |
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| Gary picking up a sand dollar. |
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| Wanda |
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| You can't see my "W" very well, but for Valentine's Day, I thought I should put a heart on the beach with G + W in it. |
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| A selfie of Gary and Wanda |
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| Campground at the beach. In the background is where the farm begins, right next to the campground. |
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| This was very unique, cactus growing right on top of the stump. |
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| Another view of the campground area, with farm in background. |
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| A farm with a strawberry field (there were ripe strawberries in it too) |
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| On 101, showing the southbound land backed up. |
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| Farther north on 101, an accident. |
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| Another view showing backed up traffic on the southbound lanes |
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| And another view of the backed up traffic |
