September 21, 2014

Gary was very busy this week.  He opened a 2 bedroom apartment and closed two 1 bedroom apartments.  He also secured 3 other apartments.  I had an average week.

In the office, we had an interesting experience one day while Gary was gone…too bad!  We had a mailman show up and help an elderly gentleman into the office (it wasn’t our usual mailman, someone else).  His car had a flat tire, and he had pulled into the parking lot.  He needed us to call AAA for him.  He said he didn’t have a cell phone on him, it was always dead.  He told us his name and that he was 92 years old.  I looked up the number while Sister Wilks called it.  When she got them, she repeated the man’s name to them to look up his account….he didn’t have his membership card on him.  His name was Pete Wismann. They didn’t show anything under that name.  Then he said his real name was Lawrence, he just went by Pete.  So they tried that name.  Still no luck.  Then he said, maybe it was under his wife’s name, they tried that, asked where he lived, he gave his address in San Jose, and they said they only showed a person of that name in Mountain View.  He said they had recently moved from Mountain View, that that was them.  So, they made arrangements to send a truck to help him.  Shortly after that, some elders came in the office.  Pete wanted to go back out to his car to wait for the truck, so they helped him and offered to change the tire for him, but he insisted he wanted to wait for AAA.  When the elders got back in the office, they said, did you know that that man is the oldest living player who used to play for the 49ers?  I was thinking at first, ya, right!  But I did a google search on Pete Wismann…..and he was!  Too bad Gary was gone, he would have enjoyed chatting with that man!   We (Sister Wilks) and I chatted about it for awhile, then we each went texts or emails to family members telling them about it.  Then I said, we should have gotten a picture with him!  So she grabbed the camera and we went outside, but too late….he had just left.  The truck from AAA was still sitting there.

Here is a link to the article about him:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/wismann-living-link-49ers-golden-start-article-1.1249211

Or, type in a search on Pete Wismann and see what you find.

On Friday we hit our 13th month mark.  When we got home on Friday, we found that someone was parked in our designated spot!  So we took down the license number and drove to the apartment office to report it.  They are supposed to be towed if parked illegally….there are signs all over the place about it.  Anyway, when Gary went in to the office to report it, she said, I will call him and warn him, (obviously she knew who it was) then stopped and said, no I better call the tow truck, this is the 2nd offense in a week for them.  Gary said that we expected to park in our spot in an hour then.  Well, we got back to the apartment, changed, and went outside, meaning to take a picture of this car in our spot, and it was gone!  We walked around and found it was just moved to another spot, not a designated one this time, and not towed!  Which means the lady in the office lied to Gary and called them like she had started to originally.  We watched, and no tow truck came around at all.  That car was parked in the lot all weekend.  And, it was still illegal, even if it was in an unmarked spot….it wasn’t registered to be in our lot at all, but the one across the street!  Gary said to me, well that seals it.  Meaning he was correct in not getting a new apartment in this complex for the new couple who is coming.  We have been very disappointed in how the management here doesn’t follow the rules.  And they have pages and pages of rules!  When Gary opens a new apartment, he has to sign or initial every single one of the pages, and there are 40-50 and up to 70 at some places.  With rules for everything.  We know that other places follow them, because we have had missionaries kicked out of places because of breaking the rules!

On Sunday, we had a baptism after church.  She is the wife of a member who had been inactive, but was recently activated.  Her name is Ut Ngo.  After the baptism, we had the usual meal.  We got some pictures taken with Sister Lien, because she is leaving soon for Vietnam and will be visiting there for 6 months.  So we won’t see her again.  We also gave her a True to the Faith book in Vietnamese.  We had decided some time ago that we wanted to give every family in the branch a little gift from us, so bought several.  Then Gary wrote something up to be put in the book, and had the elders translate it for us.  We will give the others out in a few weeks to the rest of the branch.  We have some in English for those who are English speakers, which is a few of them.  Sister Lien talked to me (through a translator) as we told her we would be gone when she gets back, and told her about the book.  She said she wanted to keep in contact.  Maybe on Facebook?  I said, well, that would be nice, but I wouldn’t have any idea what she was saying!  She had said she talks to Elder Bruggeman (who left in May) and he helps her with translating English from people, and he could tell her what I say.

After we got home, I was checking messages and emails.  I saw that Kori had tried to FaceTime us.  I was reading her email, and one from Logan, and started to write back when the FaceTime started ringing, so I answered it.  It was Logan.  He was talking to us as he was walking upstairs.  He gets in their family room and we have a great chat!  He is quite chatty when it is just the 2 of us!  Last time we talked, everyone was taking turns, and it was hard to get things out of any of the boys.  Not a smooth chat like this one was!  It turns out it was him that had tried us earlier.  I said, did your mom call for you?  No, he called us.  He knows how.  I said, grandpa doesn’t even know how to call on Face Time!  Well, he does.  You just push this button, then you look for Wanda Yearsley, and you call!  After we had chatted for awhile, Brendan came up and we chatted a bit with him, then pretty soon everyone was up chatting with us (Gary had come over to chat when it was just Logan).  We had a nice long visit, then said we better go, because we were going to try to call Scott and Traci’s family since it had been so long since we had talked to them.  Then, before I got around to calling them, the phone rang and it was Jeff!  So I had a nice visit with him.  By then, the time was getting late.  So, we started getting ready for bed.   We will have to try for a visit with Scott and Traci another time I guess.

Next week’s post will be later as well.  We have the next Outgoing Devotional next Sunday. Yep, it’s that time again…..transfers are next week!

We hope everyone is doing well.  Be good and keep smiling!  Remember to hold to the rod!!  

Here is a picture:

This is us with Sister Lien

Oleanders and Jacaranda Tree

Some of these pictures you have seen before, but I am putting here because I just learned what they were!

There are some trees and shrubs that have 4 colors of flowers on them......well not 4 colors on each tree or bush, but they bloom in 1 of 4 colors! :  red, dark pink, light pink, and white.  They started blooming in May I think it was, and are still blooming, though with less flowers on them as it gets into fall more.  These are Oleanders.

these two were right next to each other so it looked like they grew on the same shrub.

shrubs that grow along the wall around the apartment complex.

Then, the next picture is one I took awhile ago; it isn't still blooming.  When I took the picture, it was because I had never seen a tree with purple flowers on it, and thought of my sister-in-law, Hope.....she loves purple!  I just recently learned it is a Jacaranda Tree (the J is said like an H...it is Spanish).  So here it is:

I am putting these here mostly for my own benefit, but I hope you enjoy looking anyway!

September 14, 2014

Well, it has been a pretty routine week in the office this week.  President Mella is doing missionary interviews, and has been out of the office most of the time except when doing interviews of the local missionary zone.  Gary had one apartment that we are moving into this week that had an interesting incident.  The management called him last week and told him as they were doing final things to get the apartment ready for us to occupy, they discovered it had termites!  So, they got us into another apartment.  That didn’t turn out to be much change for Gary, but it was a big change for me, as I had already opened that apartment on the computer system, so had to close it out and open the new one, and then do a journal entry (in accounting) to transfer the security deposit from the termite apartment to the new one.  He also got the contract for our apartment, which was coming due, extended until March 1st.  Also, in an apartment we have occupied for 12 years, he talked with management, and they agreed to put in new carpets and paint it for us.  So, he has had a lot going on with apartment managers this week.  Thursday, Sept. 18th, is the moving day into the new apartment we are getting.  We are closing out 2 one-bedroom apartments and getting a two-bedroom.  The ones we are closing are ones that would be on the low end as to how good the apartment was.  In fact, the one was actually just a garage that was converted into an apartment, and was more of a studio set-up without an actual kitchen.  It only had a hotplate to cook on for a stove, and a microwave, so the missionaries are going to be a lot better set up now!  Plus, with the 2 sets of elders that lived in these apartments, the one set was on bikes, and depended on the other set to transport them places that they had to be driven, and they didn’t live near each other, so that added mileage on the driving elders car.  This will help that situation out as well as give them nicer living conditions.

Saturday night was our stake conference adult meeting.  It was a really good meeting.  President Davis and his wife, Terry, were two of the speakers.  President Davis used to be a policeman here in San Jose.  He is the 1st counselor in the mission presidency.   One thing said during this meeting was “brutal consistency breeds believability”.  I think that was Pres. Davis who said that.  I was thinking about that in relation to being a parent or leader…….sometimes it is tough to be consistent about rules, and may even seem brutal at times, but by being consistent about it, children learn to believe what you say, and what the consequences will be!  Then things will run smoother with them.  Another thing said that I liked and wrote down was “we have the capacity to do more than we think we can”.  We always seem to think we can’t do certain things, but when we step out of our comfort zone and give it a try, we find that we can, after all, be successful at it!

Today, Sunday, was stake conference. It was a great meeting!!  I took several notes of things that were said, and I will share them here.  Our stake president is Will Hoggan.  The theme of the conference was “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (this is from Alma 37:6).  In his talk he spoke about his father-in-law, who is over 80 and has always been a marathon runner. In fact, he has run a marathon to start each new decade of his life!  When he runs, he says he starts slow and then tapers down!  Pres. Hoggan then talked about Frank Shorter, who was a 1976 olympic marathoner.  When asked what his philosophy was to be successful, he said, “I start running as fast as I can, then I speed up”.  Pres. Hoggan said, “no offense (to his father-in-law), but I think that Frank Shorter’s advice will help us to be more successful”…..of course, at his father-in-law’s age, slowing down may be the only way to have the energy to complete the course!  One cute tradition of his father-in-law that I thought I’d like to include here is this:  before every race, he counts out 26 regular M&M’s and puts them in a zip lock bag, which he carries in the waist band of his running shorts.  Then, as he reaches each mile marker, he takes one out and eats it….kind of a little reward for reaching those marks.

Let’s see, another thing said concerned our memories we have of our parents, grandparents, maybe great-grandparents.  Unless we take the time to write those memories down so that our children and grandchildren can read about them, those precious memories will be lost.

Another scripture mentioned:  Doctrine and Covenants 64:33  “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.  And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”    That hit me hard.  There are many days that I feel so tired and “weary”.  I need to remember that I am working to do my part in performing a great work.  We are working to help hasten the work of the Lord during these last days.  While we keep things running in the office, and keep the young missionaries needs met, they are able to go out and do their part to find and teach the people who have had their hearts touched and have a desire to learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There are some wards out here that are on fire with the missionary zeal.  Our missionaries say that the people are finding and bringing people to them to be taught in large numbers, and then are doing their part to help fellowship and teach these people.  This is what we all should be doing…..finding the people so the missionaries can do what they do best….teach and baptize.  Then we also need to step it up in our fellowshipping of these new members as they learn how to live this new life, so that they are comfortable coming to church and have a desire to keep coming and learning.

One talk today was about attending Sacrament meeting.  She said that we need to prepare to listen to the talks in Sacrament meeting with an attitude of wanting to learn.  Take notes.  She said that in her struggles of getting her 9 year old daughter to want to come to church, she needed to change her approach….instead of trying to get her THROUGH it (Sacrament meeting), she needed to get her INTO it.  She said they have discussions about what they learned in Sacrament meeting when they get home.  Sometimes, she uses talks and hymns from Sacrament meeting as the theme for Family Home Evening.  She said she recently went to the temple to receive her endowments, and when she came home she was telling her daughter how beautiful the temple was, and telling of her feelings of going to the temple.  Her daughter said that when she grew up she wanted to go to the temple too.  Then, the mom had a thought….to tell the daughter about the temple recommend questions, how you need to be attending your church meetings to qualify for a recommend.  That got her daughter to thinking about attending church, and now she can attend because she wants to someday go to the temple, and it is her choice, not mom nagging at her.  Just a simple thing.

The Oakland Temple recorder spoke next as the representative of the temple…the temple presidency all had other speaking engagements.  He said there are 3 reasons to attend the temple: 1) it is a healing and cleansing experience; 2) if you are attending the temple and doing family history work, it is a protection from the intensifying  influences of the adversary; 3) participation in the temple is a place where we can feel the Father’s love for us.

So, healing, outpouring of the spirit,  & service are the 3 things we obtain by attending the temple.

Next we had a young mother of 3 young boys, ages 6,4 and 2 talked about worshipping as a family.  She told how they do scripture study as a family….that it changes depending on the mood of the kids and how rambunctious they are.  Sometimes, they may only read one verse and have the boys repeat after them.  Sometimes, she may tell them to listen for a particular word, and raise their hand when they hear that word. Sometimes, she may tell them to count how many times they hear a particular word.  Sometimes, they may tell the kids to listen carefully to the scripture story they are going to read and tell what the person in the story had to touch, etc. and answer that question after.  If a story is about soldiers, she lets the boys march.  She said some stories have a lot of imagery in them, and they discuss the images.  She said they have been reading the Book of Mormon for 4 years and are just in the Book of Ether now.  She said that the boys may not understand a lot of what they read, but they enjoy the time because of the approach they take on it.  Then she talked about Family Home Evenings.  She said that the stake President once said that there were just 3 ingredients needed for it to be a bonafide FHE……1) the whole family must be there; 2) someone must say, this is family night; 3) and you must have a treat!     Then she said that the most important thing with children, though, is be consistent and keep plugging away.

The next speakers where sister and President Lemmon….he is the 2nd counselor in the mission presidency.  Sister Lemmon just spoke a few minutes, and mentioned how technology is a help in studying the scriptures.  She said she just started doing Instagrams, and there is one she recommended:  bom365          She said this has so many scriptures per day on it so you can read the Book of Mormon in 1 year.  After you read the scriptures of the day, there is discussion on there that people participate in.

Then President Lemmon spoke.  Talked first about love—Matthew 22:36-40….1st and great commandment, love the Lord thy God, and 2nd love thy neighbor as thyself. Then, he said that the night before the crucifixion, Jesus changed it a bit:  this is found in John 13:34-35….Love one another.     We need to pray for the gift of love—it will change our attitude and our perspective.  Second he talked about hastening the work being a small and simple thing: 1) read the Book of Mormon every day, and the Lord will endow us with power; 2) pray for opportunity and look for the opportunity to share the gospel; 3) give service.  Ask the missionaries in your wards if you can help them.

Then a man talked about joining the church when he was 41.  He was unmarried at the time.  Was befriended by a man at church.  This man helped him as he learned about and then joined the church, and as he grew and progressed in the gospel.  Talked about the power of kindness.  He said the world teaches a “me first” attitude.  Many don’t even know they have a savior.  The Savior was the perfect example of kindness.  We need to reach out in kindness to others.  He said kindness is how a Christ-like person treats others.  The church is not a place for perfect people.  It is where imperfect people gather to help each other and get encouragement.

Well, that is it for my notes.  I don’t know if you can feel the spirit I felt when I heard these words, but they made an impact on me.  Now, if I can only remember and do.  In fact, as the meeting was first starting, President Hoggan said we would hear many things that impressed us, and feel the spirit, and what we needed to do was to decide on one thing that we were going to take to heart and DO after conference.  So that is my next step, to DO.

May the Lord be with you all!  Let’s all try to be a little kinder, and try to DO one thing to improve ourselves these next days, weeks, months, or whatever time period we need.

Till next time!

September 7, 2014

Well, this week I can't think of anything much to tell.  We had Monday off, though we did go in to the office for a few minutes for me to get something done, but then it turned out I couldn't do my Monday  Key Indicator report because I didn't have the information from the AP's........when they compiled the information on Sunday, the network was down, so they didn't get it to me till Tuesday morning.  Oh, Monday night was Senior Family Home Evening.  We had a nice evening with President and Sister Mella and the other seniors.  The one Senior couple, the Wahlen's, were in charge of the activity, and for part of the activity they showed a short video on the history of sister missionaries.  I had no idea they were sending sister missionaries in the late 1800's!  It was very interesting.  Then we played a short game (paper and pencil).  We had hamburgers and lots of salads, fruit and desserts.  The new senior couple, the Tusieseina's, met everyone.  We heard the next day that it took them 3 hours to get home because they got lost......this week they went and bought a GPS!   I don't know how anyone new here can get along without a GPS.

And can I just say, we really enjoy President and Sister Mella!  They are awesome!

Since I don't have a lot of new stuff to say today (work was just a typical work week), I will put some pictures on here of our apartment and the office.

Our apartment (taken early morning when I was walking).  Bottom left here.

Looking at our patio.

Our patio.

Our bedroom window (see the pool to the left).

Our apartment door.

Dumpster diver......every day occurrence...sometimes several times a day.

Dumpster diver again.

We are in the flight path.

Every time I see purple flowers growing, I think of Hope!  This is in the complex.

Our car in our parking spot.

Parking spot.

Mail boxes.

Our box, 502.

Our building.

Mission truck that Gary drives.

Sign in front of the office.

Front door of office.

Hallway of office.

Vehicle coordinator's desk.

Gary's desk (housing coordinator).

Proselyting supply closet.

Mission Secretary's desk.

Me in my office (financial secretary).

Gary sitting at his desk.

Pointing to location on map of our apartment.  This map shows all apartment locations and church buildings.

Bigger view of the map.

Map showing our mission boundaries.

My office.

AP's....Elder Oxley on the left, Elder Rich on the right.

Sister Wilks, Mission Secretary.

Bulletin board in hallway, shows new missionary pics with Pres. and his wife and with their new companions.  Also baptism pictures are on here.

Map in hallway, with push pins showing locations where our missionaries come from.

Transfer board in President's office.

Another map showing mission boundaries.

Our board tag.

Sister Nedreberg (vehicle coordinator)....caught her on the phone!  Nothing new there....she spends a lot of time on the phone speaking to the missionaries.

Well, time to close this week's entry.  I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures!  

Oh, one last thing to report for the week....we had some face timing we did with kids....Saturday with Shelley's family, and today with Kori's family.  Always nice to talk to family!!

Bye for this week!