January 18, 2015

Well, this past week for me has been quiet.  It was zone conferences, and there were 3 zone conferences combined each day, Tuesday through Friday, for a total of 12.  During zone conference time, as has been mentioned before, everyone has a part during them except me.  My job is to stay in the office, answer the phones, and accept the deliveries.  And, for some reason, Zone Conference week is quieter than other weeks.  Not so many missionaries visiting the office and not so many phone calls.  I enjoyed the quiet.  I also got some work done going over my notebook that I have put together with instructions in the various jobs of my calling.  I needed to make some changes to some of the instructions, as some of the jobs have changed somewhat from when I first got here.

For Gary, the week probably felt long.  He had to leave early several days to get to the locations by 9 a.m.  So, on those days, he brought the mission truck home.  Then he drove it in the mornings, and I had our car to drive to the office at the usual time.  Gary also closed some more of the apartments he has been working on, and has more to finish up next week.  In the closing of the apartments, he has to get all the furniture out of them and put somewhere….either to another apartment, into the storage units, or some he took to the Deseret Industries drop boxes located at some of the church buildings.  He had to take some to the DI because he is running out of room in the storage units, so it was time to start deciding what we would actually need and what he wouldn’t need.

This was the LAST zone conference for us!  And, coming up will be the LAST transfer we have to do.

Our replacements are Elder and Sister Busk from Richfield, Utah.  They are due to arrive here on Feb. 6th, probably like we did, just at the end of the work day.  So, the first day of work and training for them will be Feb. 9th.

This past week we learned that a former missionary who had served here, one that Gary really liked….the young man was from Clifton, Idaho, so just a stone’s through from Swan Lake….anyway, we learned he had gotten married.  So, I did some Facebook searching, and learned who he married…..what a shock!  We actually know who it is!  It is Curtis and Teri Peterson’s granddaughter!  We were so excited to learn this!  What a small world!

Yesterday we did the usual Saturday chores, and rested a bit.  I still have had a cough hanging on and feel tired a lot.  Then, we decided to go to a movie.  We went to see the Night at the Museum sequel.  It was a cute movie.  And very sad thinking it was the last one that Robin Williams did.

Today at church, Elder Golightly played a violin musical number.  He is very talented. 

Elder Hullinger will be leaving at this next transfer.  So, his farewell potluck meal will be next week after church, and we learned that it will be ours also, so they don’t have to have another one shortly after.  Time is flying by!  We know that anything we want to do or see, we are in crunch time….just a few Saturday’s left to do it.

We have 2 ladies from our branch who are going to the temple for the first time this month, January 31st.  That is always exciting news!  We have also learned that there is a baptism planned for Feb. 1st.

Today we Face Timed with Shelley's family.  Of course, Emilie was the most excited to see papa!  It is fun to see her know us, especially as we haven't spent as much time with her since we have been here on this mission.  She turns 2 years old next month.

5 weeks from today we pull out of San Jose.  On Feb. 21st, we pack and clean the apartment.  Then Sunday morning, we go to church, and after church finish loading the car and leave, driving far enough to get out of traffic so that Monday will be a good driving day.  Sunday is the day with the least amount of traffic, though it is still more traffic than we ever have at home.  So we have 3 full work weeks left, then 2 full weeks where we train our replacements.

I took the camera today to church, and took pictures of our 4 Vietnamese Elders.  I will put those pictures on this blog entry.  Next week, we will need to remember to take the camera so we can get lots of pictures of the people of the branch at the potluck.

I want to end with a scripture that was used in Relief Society today.  Romans 10:13-15  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”    This is why we need missionaries……we want everyone to be saved, but they need to be taught….and as it says here, how can they hear without a preacher?  So excited to know some of these young missionaries who are helping to spread the gospel to all the world.  Their time spent in this service as missionaries is priceless.  

Thank you to the many, many missionaries serving throughout the world!

Our Vietnamese Elders:  (left to right)  Elder Randy Kwon, Elder Mitchell Hullinger, Elder An Ho, Elder Gregory Golightly.   And this is the same list with their Vietnamese names: [Anh Ca means Elder]    Anh Ca Van, Anh Ca Long, Anh Ca An, Anh Ca Tien.  Of course, there are supposed to be accent marks there too.

These are great young men!  Elder Ho is the only one who is Vietnamese.  The rest had a tough language to learn.  Love these guys!