May 25, 2014 - Outgoing Devotional notes

 My notes from the outgoing devotional:

Sister Lindsay—spoke of bravery of her father, joining the church when I think she said 18.  His parents were divorced, and his dad’s new wife introduced them to the church, I believe.  His mother was a minister and very much against him joining the church.  Because of the bravery of her father, it changed the course of her family tree.  Said she has seen bravery in people she has worked with.  Bravery of those who have addictions and overcome them.  She said, I will take off this name tag pretty soon, but I will always wear His name.

 

Elder Melot—visa waiter for Zimbabwe—his dad is a nonmember, his brother is an apostate who kept after him to convince him not to go on a mission.  When he was set apart by his stake president, the president said in the blessing….wherever you serve….which he thought was strange because he knew where he had been called to.  Then, visa problems so he came here for some time first.  Obviously, stake president knew what he was talking about.

Recent convert—Lupe ??—baptized last night, today received the Holy Ghost.  I love Jesus Christ.

(that says it all, doesn't it?)

 

Sister Medeiros—She is from Brazil, in the Spanish program.  Bore testimony.  Gospel brings so much joy.  Testimony of the Book of Mormon.  Invite you to read and pray and have a desire.  If you ever come to Brazil, she will have you over.

Elder Merritt—visa waiter for Zimbabwe—Favorite part of this church…..we can change, we can become better, we can become the person that God wants us to be.

Sister Yeung (pronounced yearn)—Temple Square sister—From Hong Kong.  When she came here, she was first put in the Spanish program---didn’t know the language.  Language has no bounds, could feel the spirit.  2 Nephi 32:3

Recent convert—Katherine Frener—born and raised in Brazil.  Came to U.S. in 2011.  Lived in Livermore.  Sister Medeiros taught her a lesson, then she (Katheine) moved to the South Bay area.  Lost track of missionaries.  One day Elder Lee walked past her and heard her speaking in Portuguese and stopped to ask if it was Portuguese she was speaking (he was a visa waiter for Brazil).    He said, can I talk with you to help me with the language?  Then when she expressed an interest in learning about the gospel, he said I know a sister missionary who just got transferred her who is from Brazil…..it was Sister Medeiros again!  November 23, 2013 she was baptized (in Portuguese!).  Grateful to Elder Lee and Sister Medeiros.

Sister Fuimaono—Her trainer said to her, If you choose to follow the Savior, you choose to be changed.

Recent convert--Gaylen Zepeda.  Testimony.  Baptized March 1^st.  Sister Goodman and Sister Mason taught him.  First thing that caught his attention when he met them was the scent of one of them…nice perfume!  They handed him a Mormon.org card.  They asked him, would you like to go to church with us tomorrow?  He said he had an excuse in his head, but for some reason said yes, I have nothing else planned.  He has been to church every Sunday since.  We are all children of God.

Elder Irvine—This day came way too quickly.  He read a poem; also read one he wrote.  MTC was preparation for my mission.  My mission is preparation for the rest of my life.

Elder Butcher—His dad was baptized at age 20, his mom was one of few members in her family.  Amazing for him to grow up in the gospel and be baptized at age 8.  Most powerful thing is love. Through Love miracles happen. Loved the people he served----saw people change their lives.  Especially miracle with Chinese people.  Bore testimony in Chinese.

Recent convert—Joshua Essex—baptized March 29^th, baptism done in Provo.  He was born into a Baptist family.  Always had questions about the God that the Baptists taught about.  Didn’t seem personable.  Then switched to atheism.  Spent 15-20 years living as an atheist, because he didn’t like the God he was taught about.  Met someone who introduced him to a personal Christ.  Then he met the missionaries.  Elder Barber was one of them.  He was skeptical at first.  Then joined.

Sister Bench—from Austin, TX—told as story about a man who built barges to cross the ocean, needed light, asked God to light the stones, saw the finger of God.  His faith became perfect knowledge.  I feel like this man.  Past 18 months watched the Lord touch your lives one by one and light up your lives.  My faith has become knowledge.  I feel a little sliver of the love the Lord feels for each of you.  My heart is breaking at having to leave you.  Bore testimony in Spanish.

Sister Mason—Sister Goodman and I will be coming out with a fragrance line called Come Follow Me. (laughs)  Looked forward for a long time to be able to go on a mission.  4 older brothers served.  Filled out papers, had to wait till 21^st birthday to go.  On her 21^st birthday, President Monson announced the age change!  She was upset…she had had to wait all this time!!!  Talked about her dad, didn’t know how to be with a daughter, but when she was getting ready to leave, put his hands on her shoulders and said, Now you go to work and you work hard!  And then softly, I am proud of you.  The gospel of Jesus Christ can be hard, but it brings more joy than anything else.

Elder Barber—1^st lessons with Joshua went over an hour (which president says you should never ever do!).  He said lessons were long because Joshua used really big words—had to ask what they meant!  He is going back to Utah.  He said his family is so large they take 2 big cars whenever they go anywhere!  Testimony.  Says he has attended church for 8 hours every Sunday since January.  A 21 year old boy wouldn’t do that unless he knew it was true.  Asked those in the audience:  take the next step---baptism, next ordinance, next covenant---whatever it is.  You will be happy as I am happy.

Elder Bruggeman—from South Jordan, Utah, which is a Mormon factory, manufactures missionaries and sends them out.  My life changed forever.  Love the Vietnamese people I served with.  Jesus Christ changed the world forever.  Gave us the opportunity to change as well.  Push the reset button, change yourselves.  The world says we will take the man out of the slum.  The gospel changes people so they take themselves out of the slum.  Make a determined decision to change.

Elder Clarke—Many fond memories to take home.  Remembers first day, meeting people on the SJ campus.  He didn’t want to talk to the people that badly, yet Elder Fakava was in tears because he didn’t know the language well enough to tell people what he believed and share the gospel.  Bore testimony of Book of Mormon.

Video Presentation:  for President and Sister Watkins.  People telling what they will miss about them leaving.

Sister Watkins—Could say I’m speechless, but the missionaries would know that is a lie!  This release is bittersweet.  Dec. 8, 1903, Langley set out to be the first to fly.   Head of the Smithsonian, important person, yet his Aerodrone A plummeted into the Potomac River.  Simple bicycle makers, Wright brothers, on Dec. 17^th in Kitty Hawk, NC changed the world forever.   Just like everyone else, we are trying to do our best.  Done our best to live our covenants.  Got up every day determined to do my better.  I can be perfect today.  Price paid—dept erased.   3 Nephi 17:17

President Watkins—We are nothing without you.  Feeding missionaries, taking them places when needed.  You cannot serve someone without loving them.   Times when he thought, I could not do what I am asking you to do.  They were common ordinary people who came here and experienced the extraordinary.  I will be forever changed by this.

May 26, 2014

What a difference a week makes……last weekend, some neighbors in a building across from us were being loud and pretty much took over the pool with lots of friends of theirs, and stayed in the pool after hours and kept being loud even though it was late….both Friday night and Saturday night.  This weekend, we don’t know for sure what happened, but they had a death in their apartment on Saturday.  We saw the men take the body away on a gurney.  The family was very somber and in tears.  How quickly our lives can change!

Our week was pretty ordinary.  Getting ready for transfers this week.  Saturday, we did the usual cleaning, laundry and shopping.  I got a haircut……I asked for an inch off the back and then blend it all in layers.  Well, I got about 2 inches off the back….VERY short!  Oh, well, at least it will grow.  I just have to work with it this way till it gets to where I can fix it better.  Many say they like it this way, but I don’t like it this short.

On Sunday, Elder Bruggeman spoke in Sacrament meeting since it was his last Sunday with the Branch.  After church, the Branch had a social for him with potluck sweets and fruit.  When we got home, I decided I needed a little nap since I hadn’t slept too well for the past 3 nights, and I was finding myself almost dozing off in church.  I set the alarm to only sleep an hour.  When I woke up, the Michie’s stopped by to visit.  When they left, I quickly fixed dinner, we ate, then we headed to the Outgoing Devotional.

Today, we had the day off.  We headed to Point Lobos State Reserve to hike some trails there.  (It is located on Hwy 1 just south of Carmel)  We took Sister Wilks and Sister Nedreberg with us, and met up with 4 young sisters:  Sister Fischetti, Sister Bradshaw, Sister Zidek and Sister Mehr.   Sister W. and Sister N. hiked just a little then looked through the museum.  Gary and I hiked with the younger sisters.  Afterwards, we all went out to lunch in Monterey at a Mexican restaurant.  By then it was time to start for home.  Traffic was horrible!  We were barely moving, so we got off the main road to 101 and headed back to 1 and headed north from there and followed the GPS to get to 101 by another route. The other roads were busy as well, but not as bad as the first part.  We got home about 5:30, and I have been typing up my notes from the Outgoing Devotional and doing this since then.  So, time to come to an end!  Hope to sleep good tonight and be ready for a busy week!  Transfer number 7!

May 18, 2014

May 18, 2014

Well, this is it……….tomorrow is our half-way point!  Wow!  This time is going fast!

This past week has been Zone Conferences, so I was alone in the office for a part of each day Tuesday through Friday while the others headed to the conferences to do their things…..well, when I say alone, there was actually only a short time of being totally alone, as missionaries drop in each day off and on.

The weather was hot this week, which made it hard on Gary and Sister Nedreberg and those that also helped with the car inspections.  At least they got done by 11 a.m. each day, before it got way hot.

Saturday we had a branch picnic at Kelley Park.  It is a large park, they have picnic areas, the zoo is there, a Japanese Friendship Garden, and a History Park.  We just did the picnic area…….and ate and visited.

The last 2 nights have been rough.  We are hoping that security around these apartments do what they are supposed to be doing.  We had been told that they lock up the pool area at 9 pm at night, but they haven’t been doing it yet, and we hope they get things under control before summer really hits.  The last 2 nights there have been kids in the pool later than 9, yelling and screaming.  We live right next to the pool, as do another couple, so it makes it hard to relax and get to bed early.  And I know that most apartments really enforce their quiet time rules just for that reason…so people can relax and go to bed.  We have had apartment managers call us before to complain about our missionaries being too loud, or doing laundry after the quiet time and disturbing their neighbors.  You can be evicted from apartments for breaking the quiet time rules, so we sure hope they enforce them here, or it will be a long summer!  We can see the apartment that caused the problems the last 2 nights….they are across from our bedroom window.  I counted about 15 people going back and forth between their apartment and the pool, and we know they don’t all live there, because when it gets about 10, some of them head out.  I heard one kid say last night, “this is cool, it’s like your own private pool”……and I know why no one else would be in the pool, they were loud and pretty much taking up the whole pool area with their playing.  Another lady who has lived here for some time said that during the summers in the past they also enforced the rule that you have to wear your wristbands to prove you live here, because that stops things like last night from happening….someone just inviting tons of friends to a swimming party.

Well, enough complaining! 

Good news!  We have 2 cherry tomatoes that will be ready probably tomorrow!  And, we can see some cucumbers growing now.  Bad news--the heat we have had this week and a couple of weeks ago didn’t do so good for our radishes and beets…..they look a little sad.  The radishes are just going to seed, no radish under the dirt.  Our tomato plants are taller than they used to get in the green house---it is just crazy!  They got above the tomato cages, and so Gary had to rig up some yarn to help them stay upright.

Today, Gary taught in Priesthood and I taught in Relief Society.  Plus I led the music in Sacrament Meeting.  I pick up Ly Le every Sunday morning to take her to church…she lives near us.  Gary is already at church, he goes early for meetings and rides with the Vietnamese Elders.

Tonight, we are going to a musical production in the Saratoga Stake.  The Michie’s invited us to attend with them.  That is their stake.

Next Sunday will be the farewell to Elder Bruggeman in the Bayshore Branch.  After church we will have a little social for the branch members to say good-bye.  That night is the Outgoing Devotional……the start to another transfer week…..number 7 of 13 for us.  It will be the first for Sister Wilks and Sister Nedreberg on their own……last one they were in training.

I have got to get some pictures taken and put on here…..I have actually seen several trees with purple flowers on them!  And I need to put pics of some of the other unusual flowers and trees I have seen.

Well, I guess I better close…..I can’t think of anything else to put here.  Have a good week, all of you!!

May 17, 2014

May 17, 2014

Today, Buddy (our son-in-law) ran his very first Ironman competition in The Woodlands, Texas where they live.  He had to first swim 2.4 miles in the lake, then bike 112 miles, then run a full marathon (26.2 miles).  His total time was 13:08:20.  The breakdown on the events went like this:  swim time was 1:46:45; bike time was 8:31:52; run time was 4:27:52.  The other times were the transition times between the events. 

We sure wish we could have been there to watch this event and celebrate with them.

We are very proud of him for this great accomplishment!  Way to go, Buddy!

May 11, 2014

May 11, 2014

Mother’s Day!  I have spent the afternoon talking with my kids and grandkids……yeah!

I have an addition from last week that I forgot to put in.  On Monday, April 28^th, the Crockett’s invited us along with the Michie’s to come over at 7 for a little Family Home Evening.  They had a brief lesson, some cookies, and mainly we visited.  It was fun, but when I started yawning, it was time to leave so I could get to bed.

This week on Monday it was our Senior Family Home Evening.  It was the first one for the Crockett’s and the Wahlen’s.  We had an enjoyable evening, as we usually do at these.  It is nice to be able to visit with the other seniors who we rarely see.

This week was pretty basic.  Oh, we had another close call…….we were driving home on Capitol (speed 50 mph) in the far left of the 3 lanes, going over the overpass that crosses Monterey, when all of a sudden there was a car just stopped and sitting there with no one in it.  I slammed on the brakes, and, looking  in the rearview mirror, saw a car heading straight at us.  I kept saying, please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me……and they slammed on their brakes and swerved into the other lane.  Gary said he was glad he couldn’t see that car coming.  On another day, we checked out the skid marks that car had made.  That’s 3 close calls I’ve had.  I really hope we don’t have an accident here, but I told Gary early on after seeing how the driving was around here that if we survived this mission without an accident it will be a miracle!!  I bet we have an accident a week in the mission with the missionaries and their cars…..it sure seems that way anyway.  There are a lot of accidents.

We have enjoyed reading what friends of ours also on missions have to say in their weekly news email. 

Oh, the Michie’s gave us a cactus leaf to cook.  I haven’t done it yet, and I think they guessed we probably wouldn’t, so Sister Michie made up a dish and brought us a sample.  It had cactus, hamburger, tomatoes and I don’t know what else in it, but it was pretty good!  Gary was so-so about it.  Still, I don’t know if I will use up the cactus or not.  Especially if he said only so-so.  The Michie’s served several missions in Mexico, so learned some other food dishes while there.

Yesterday morning we went to the temple with our Vietnamese Branch.  We invited the other 2 office workers, Sister Nedreberg and Sister Wilks to go with us.  We had a good day, stopping for dinner at Applebee’s…….Gary said he was buying, as it was his Mother’s  Day gift for all of us.

Oh, a funny of the week.  I had one of the sister missionaries who used to be in the area near the office, so we saw her a lot, Sister Arias, call and ask about ordering a back foam roller for therapy like Sister Fischetti had gotten on Amazon.  I said I needed to have Sister Fischetti in the office to make sure I picked the right one, and asked her to text Sis. Fischetti about it.  Well, later that day Sis. F came in, but hadn’t heard from Sis. A.  So I called her to get going on the order.  I logged in (the missionaries can’t do it because it is against the rules for them to get on the internet except on P-days to email family).  As I was doing the order, I needed to get her credit card information to pay.  She said her companion was buying it, Sister Boyd.  So, we got that all straightened out—it wasn’t for Sis. A after all.  Okay, back to the story----Sis. Boyd gives me her info., and I need billing address.  She starts giving me the address of her home town……it is Flower Mound, Texas!  I say, you are from Flower Mound?  I have a daughter who lives in Highland Village!  And in the next office, Sister Wilks says, who is from Flower Mound?  Turns out her son lives in Flower Mound, and her daughter-in-law is a counselor in the stake Relief Society Presidency…..which is the same stake Melissa is in.  Small world!!!

Well, today in Sacrament meeting, the talks were all about mothers, naturally.  But, I have to say it was the strangest feeling to be in a Sacrament Meeting on mother’s day where there wasn’t a Primary chorus singing Mother’s Day songs!  We only have 2 primary age children (only 1 after this month…..Kara Nguyen turns 12) and they attend primary with the 16^th ward which meets at the same time we do.  So it was a little different.  Kara was one of the speakers, and did a really good job.  Clark Nguyen (age 8), the other primary age child, brother of Kara, also spoke.  His talk was cute.  He talked about all the things he loved about his mother, then at the end said something like, “PS, I love my mom but I love my grandma too, and without my grandma, my mom wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be here either.”   His grandma is in our branch also.  We also had I think it was 3 other speakers.  Each spoke for 5 minutes or less.

Well, that about sums up the week!  Next week we have Zone Conferences.  So, I will be spending the majority of the week in the office alone, as the rest of them have duties to do at the conferences.  They go Tuesday through Friday, with three zones meeting each day at a location near to those zones.  

Oh, and the temperatures are supposed to be in the 90’s again this week, close to 100 on Wednesday.

Bye!