November 30, 2014

Last day of the month!  I know it is a constant thing we keep saying, but where did the month go?

Monday, normal work day, except Elder Michie was filling in for Sister Nedreberg as the vehicle coordinator.  She flew last Thursday to Louisiana to help out with a new grandchild.  He was able to fill in for her, as he has been assisting her for sometime.  When she got called to the position, I had made the comment that if I had been called, I would have turned it down!  It would be over my head to deal with cars, repair shops, and everything else the position entails.  She felt she was up to the task, but it has turned out to be pretty overwhelming, which is why Elder Michie has been assisting her.  He has a lot of knowledge about cars that is invaluable to her.

Tuesday we had missionaries in the office for interviews, plus the morning was the Advanced Orientation training for those who arrived a transfer ago.  So, plenty of missionaries in the office. 

Wednesday was a normal day.  President was out doing interviews in other areas.  Elder and Sister Michie headed to Napa for the Thanksgiving holiday to spend with with their son and family, so it was just Sister Wilks, Elder & Sister Conner, and Gary and I in the office.  It was pretty quiet in the afternoon, and we finally shut the office up at about 4:50 and headed home.

Thursday was a nice day!  We slept in an hour, watched some of the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV, Gary watched some football.  I spent time getting the few Christmas cards we send out ready.  We just sent to our children and our parents.  Plus I had several birthday cards to get ready to mail…..December is a busy birthday month for us as well.  It was good to have some extra time to address and write notes in the cards, instead of always feeling so rushed.  We started getting ready at 3 to head to Thanksgiving dinner at Bob and Linda Crawford’s house.  We met Sister Wilks at the office and took her with us.  It was a very enjoyable evening, as it always is at their house.  Great food and great company!  Also present were two of the Crawford’s children and families, and the 4 Vietnamese elders and the 2 employment resource center sisters.  The daughter of the Crawford’s who was present is the one who lives in Klamath Falls and knows Susie!   We ended the evening close to 8, and headed for home.  We needed to get ready for work the next day, so couldn’t stay too late.  Oh, during dinner, we were talking how the employment sisters had Friday off and were heading to the temple.  They had invited Sister Wilks to go along, but as we had to work, she had said she couldn’t.  Well, as we sat there, I said, you know, I’m sure we will be fine in the morning. It will probably be slow, so why don’t you go ahead and go to the temple.  She was excited to be able to, so she took us up on it

Friday, as predicted, was pretty slow.  Which was good, since I was covering for Sister Wilks while she went to the temple.  I was able to answer the phone and take care of my work too.  Gary was in Salinas doing things pertaining to his job, so it was just the Conner’s and I in the office.  President Mella was doing interviews in Monterey.  When the Conner’s got ready to leave at 2 to head to a doctor appointment with a missionary, they expressed concern about leaving me alone in the office, but I told them it wasn’t a problem, I knew Gary would be back soon, as well as Sister Wilks.  In fact, they ran into Sister Wilks outside in the parking lot….she had just returned as they were leaving.  And Gary wasn’t too much later.

Saturday, we did our usual chores in the morning, starting with going grocery shopping right after breakfast to hopefully get done before too many people in the store.  The plan worked fine, but I don’t know about some employees around here….they wouldn’t be able to keep a job out our way.  The cashier was so slow!  She was busier chatting with the person ahead of us that checking out the food!  When it was finally our turn, we told her we would bag the groceries….we wanted to hurry it along!  Seriously, I don’t know how people like that even get hired, or keep a job.  When I say slow, I mean slow.  We got home to do the chores, and I needed to make bread.  Then, we left at about 3:40 to head and meet Sister Wilks again at the office.  We had planned on heading up to Oakland for a Christmas program in the auditorium on temple hill, and see the Christmas lights.  The program was really great!  But, it was raining when we went outside and saw the lights, so we didn’t stay long.  Just started for home.  Plus the drive was better than usual.  After the last 2 times of heading to the temple the usual way up 880, with all the traffic, and being in stop and go traffic heading home, we decided to go the other way up 680.  A little longer in length…..about 7 miles longer…..but the traffic moved so much easier that I think it was faster.  I don’t enjoy that road as well, though, as it is rougher and curvier.  But, oh, well!

Today, Sunday, it was raining again.  I guess I need to say here that it has rained more the last couple of weeks than it did the whole last year.  Last year at this time, we had the one rainstorm in October, then nothing else.  As I have mentioned before, they have been in a drought around here.  In February, all of the area had fasted for rain, which we got right after that, and then nothing much more till this fall.  And, we can see a difference.  Last year, the hills around here were brown until January.  This year, with the rain, they are already greening up.  Anyway, back to today.  Went to Church, during the last hour Relief Society and Priesthood were combined because it was the 5th Sunday.  Sister Shelton, Sister Janette and I were supposed to teach together on Music.  So, we started. Janette was to start and do the basic things about music, and I was going to teach them to conduct while Sister Shelton played the piano.  Well, Janette pretty much covered it all (no complaints here!), and even got into the conducting.  It is so much smoother when she teaches because she talks in Viet, where I would require a translator.  It was an informative meeting for the members of the branch.  As Janette had pointed out to me, they have never had any musical training whatsoever.  In Vietnam, the only people who would get music training would be from rich families, which none of these people would have been.  So, they needed to understand the basics of music to even sing the songs, and we wanted to teach them to be able to conduct if ever called to that position.

Now we are home, and have had dinner.  I made a pasta salad to take tomorrow night to Senior Family Home Evening, and will make a pan of brownies too in just a bit.  Can you believe that tomorrow is December?  

Oh, good news!  We learned from the Crawford’s on Thursday, that there may be someone from their stake who will be turning in their papers to serve a mission, and they plan on taking our spots!  So, it looks like we will be heading home in February as planned!  Nothing official on that yet, but hopefully things will move along and become official soon.  That was good news…….as we have only 11 weeks to go!  We will keep you all informed as we learn anything.

Thanks again to those who have written or sent cards!  Oh, and this is a reminder for my grandchildren……color us some Christmas pictures so we can hang them up to decorate our apartment for Christmas.  We have no other decorations.  

We have started gathering boxes from the office and bringing them home.  We will be boxing up some clothing items to mail home in a month, after the holidays are over probably.  We have bought some clothing since coming here, and we know we were loaded when we arrived, so we will have to send some home to have room in the car!

For those of you who haven’t heard of the Christmas message the missionaries are sharing this month, check out this site:  christmas.mormon.org

It is a short video clip reminding us all of the first gift of Christmas.  It is a very good message that we all need to be reminded of.  The church has paid for advertising on Youtube to advertise this video too.  I think it is next Sunday that it will be the main ad on the page.

So, my message to end this letter/journal entry today is this:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16

Believe!

November 23, 2014

Almost the end of November….where did the month go?   I sit here and try to think what happened this past week, and can’t even think of anything that stands out!  Well, except for yesterday.  Our Vietnamese branch had a social yesterday…..Thanksgiving dinner!  And it was quite a feast.  About everything you would have at a regular Thanksgiving dinner, with also some Vietnamese food and even corn dogs and pizza!  Lots and lots of food!  I am glad the social began at noon so I had time for the food to settle before bedtime….I was stuffed, and I only took little portions of the food, and I didn’t even take some of everything!

Friday night after work, we came home and dropped off our stuff, got the grocery list, and headed to get groceries.  I was assigned to take sweet potatoes and rolls for the social on Saturday, and needed stuff for that. Plus, we hadn’t been shopping for awhile, since our Saturdays have been so busy the last few weeks, and tomorrow was out too.  We got home and just had grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, and that was about 7:30.  An hour later and we were getting ready for bed.  The hours go way too quickly!  When I got up Saturday morning, I started mixing up a batch of rolls to take.  I had also bought some, because knew I wouldn’t have the time nor the pans to make enough for the social…..or so I thought!  Turns out the Vietnamese people aren’t as big on eating rolls as it would be for a family party!  We had lots left over, and I was sending them home with people…starting with the Elders.  We had about half a casserole dish left of the sweet potatoes too…..guess they don’t really care for them either.  But, we stopped at the Michie’s…..they were going to a Spanish Thanksgiving feast at 7…..and gave them the rest of the sweet potatoes they could take for their dinner.

When we got home from the social, we had to get our chores and laundry done.  We pretty much skipped cleaning last week, and I hadn’t washed the sheets for 2 weeks since I didn’t have time last Saturday.  And, I hadn’t done the ironing for several weeks…..just been wearing the things that don’t require ironing during that time.  I don’t know why so many of my things need to be ironed!  But I am glad when I do the ironing so I have a little more variety in my clothing choices!

Saturday morning, we had a call from Sophie…..she wanted to Face Time with us, which we did, to show us her top tooth was out, and the one next to it was loose and would soon come.  I told her to learn the song “All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth”  so she could sing it to me when the other one comes out.

Saturday was also Christian’s 13th birthday, so we Face Timed with them that late afternoon to wish him a happy birthday.  I have 4 teenage grandsons now……crazy to think that they are growing up way too fast!

Just learned from Shelley today that Hunter, who has been in a little kids cross country group in their town (he is only 8, remember), just ran in a regional cross country meet and qualified for nationals, which they will pass on as it is in South Carolina and close to the time they are heading to Texas for Christmas.  He ran an 8:15 mile……WAY TO GO HUNTER!!!!   Shelley says he outruns her!

After church today, I needed to stay after for a bit……Sister Janette, Sister Shelton and I are doing the 5th Sunday lesson next week together (on music) and needed to coordinate what we are doing.

Last Thursday, Sister Nedreberg left for Louisiana I think it was, where she just got a new grand baby.  The mother had to have a C-section, so she will be gone for about 12 days so she can help some.  Elder Michie is subbing for her as vehicle coordinator during this time.

Well, I must have the gift of gab, because this has turned out longer than I thought it would be!

Oh, we also hit our 15 month mark this past week….crazy!  The end is really in sight now!   Oh, we also learned from our branch high councilman that the stake presidency was discussing the fact that we are in need of a replacement couple for us in the office.  The stake presidencies in the mission boundaries have been contacted to see if any local people would be willing to serve a mission in the office.  We are praying that someone will have a desire to serve.  We have told our mission president that we don’t exactly HAVE to leave on Feb. 19th if they don’t have a replacement yet, so he doesn’t have to worry so much about it.  But we do hope that we will have replacements so that we can go home as planned.  Our mail will no longer be able to be forwarded after the middle of February, and we both need doctor and dentist checkups.  So it will be nice to be able to go home and get those things taken care of.  So, we could use some prayers going up in our behalf……so that someone will have a desire to fill a mission and turn in their papers in time for our normal release time.

We appreciate all the prayers said on behalf of all the missionaries!  

Keep the faith!

November 16, 2014

This past week was a transfer week again….number 11 of 13.  

Monday was a regular work day.    Monday night we talked to Traci and the boys:  Nathan, Kyler and Tristan.  It was great visiting with them!  Scott wasn't home....he is always busy!

Tuesday was the day that the office was full of missionaries for the transfer meeting, and the ones leaving went to the temple after the meeting.  As it was Veteran's Day, there was no mail that day.   It was a late day for me.  I worked until 6:15, and got home just after 6:30.  Gary was already home as he had to take the truck home because we needed it first thing in the morning to help with transferring all the missionaries leaving to the airport.  I had a message to call President Shelton, our branch president.  He wanted to ask me to do the scripture in Sacrament Meeting Sunday……we don’t have youth, so that is sort of like giving a youth talk.  You read a scripture and talk about it for a little bit, explaining more about it or why you liked it, etc.  I agreed to do it, but knew that my time to even think about it was extremely limited with this busy week.  

Wednesday morning, we left before 7 a.m., and took the truck to the mission home to load up the luggage for the airport.  The Michie’s were also helping as well as the Crockett’s.  We got to the airport and got everyone to their terminals.  Sister Mella took the ones to the other terminal (there were just 3 going there).  However, she had forgotten her purse, so she took Gary’s office credit card to use to pay for the luggage for those missionaries.  So we weren’t much help in checking out missionaries.  The AP’s had the other office card, and they were amazing how fast they worked in checking everyone’s luggage!  Plus President Mella had his card and was working with some too.  We finally helped a couple of them who were in a different line for a different airline than the majority of them.  And the AP’s ran over when it was time to pay for the luggage.  When we were helping our last person, there was a glitch.  His itinerary showed him arriving in one city in his state, but the airline person said she showed a different one.  It turns out that the airline had changed the flight after it had been booked, and we didn’t know anything about it.  So, she made a phone call, and then did some magic and got it worked out for him to arrive where he had been told (and where his parents would be waiting!)  

Then we went up where everyone else was, and they started sending missionaries through security at the appropriate times.  They just sat visiting with us until their times came.  Then the good-byes.

We had 27 leaving this time, and 29 coming in…..28 from the MTC and 1 that was being reassigned to our mission after being home for medical reasons.

So after we sent off the missionaries, we waited for the incoming to get there.  Then, loaded up their luggage in the truck and in the Crockett’s vehicle, then we headed back to the mission home to unload, while President and Sister Mella, the AP’s and the new missionaries headed to San Jose Stake to do the initial contacting activity they always do when they arrive.  Then they came back to the office for lunch.  By then we were back working.

Thursday turned out to be a crazy day.  Normally, we begin at 8 with our office orienting.  Sister Nedreberg goes over the cars, I cover the finances and baptism records, and Gary goes over housing and the missionary supplies in the office.  Sister Wilks has a part, and medical has a part.  Well, we got there early to be ready for the meeting.  I wanted to allow plenty of time, as I hate being rushed, and wanted to review what I was covering and get everything ready.  Well, when we arrived there were no missionaries there yet, so Sister Nedreberg and I rushed around setting up the breakfast items in the cultural hall for them, thinking they were really running late.  When they finally arrived, we learned that the time had been changed to 9--only the office staff hadn't been notified of the change!

Then it just went from bad to worse.  We didn't do it in our usual order.  The medical took longer than they usually do (but, we have a new mission nurse, and she probably hadn't been told how long to take).  We are always on a time schedule, because the meeting where the new missionaries get placed with their companions starts at a specific time.  Anyway, it was almost time for that meeting to start and we (Gary and I and Sister Wilks) hadn't been in for our orienting parts yet.  We were told we needed to speed things up, so that just flustered me more.  I only take 10-15 minutes usually, but to cut it even more and to try to decide what to leave out when what I cover is pretty important....their funding cards and baptism records.  Plus, when I was told they were ready for us, I had missionaries in my office doing things, and it was hard to break away.  I had been taking payments from missionaries who were purchasing items, and receiving baptism records and going over them with the missionaries to make sure they were complete.  Then, to leave the office, I have to lock the money box away, and close out the computer enough so that no one can get on and see anything they shouldn't.  So that slowed me down.  And, during my presentation, I realized I hadn't done one thing to get ready for the meeting that I should have done, so that was another fluster.  It all worked out in the end, but just turned out to be a very frustrating morning.  I think that part of the confusion was because we have new AP's who have never been through a transfer before, so they are just learning their jobs too.  I did ask President if next time I can go on earlier.  It just is very difficult for me to be at the end of the time, when all the missionaries are arriving in the building and needing me for one thing or another.  I feel I am being pulled in two directions at once.  I really preferred the 8 a.m. starting time, because I would be done with my part before 9 when the office officially opens up, and the phone calls come in as well as the missionaries.

This transfer was the first time that the AP’s did all the computer transfer stuff.  I just had to remind them to be sure to click submit so that it started processing and I had time to get my reports printed out.  They got the Tuesday one submitted in time, but for that day I just print out a temporary phone list so we know how to reach everyone, and we use the addresses on the computer if we get a phone call asking for new addresses, or for Sister Wilks to print out forwarding labels for mail.  On Thursday, after the transfer meeting, the AP’s were a little slower entering the information than I have been in the past, so I was not able to have the new reports printed Thursday afternoon as I had done before.  I did get a master copy printed at the end of the day, so that Friday morning I could get right on printing all copies out and getting them distributed, and the ones emailed I needed.  Plus, the Advanced Orientation meeting was postponed which actually helped me to get more done on Friday.  I got the apartment manager letters out, and the apartment inspectors information scanned and emailed to them.  And that was even with the confusion that day of having people in the office trying to finally get us networked!  There was a period if time I couldn’t use my computer, and then when I could, a portion of time that I couldn’t access internet while they worked on those things.  And, part of the time I couldn’t access the stamp machine for all my letters.   But, all in all, I did get my work done all right.  We just ended up staying an hour later.

One thing that happened Friday…..the Viet elders stopped by in the afternoon to drop off something from Ann Nguyen.  They just left it in my office and didn’t say it needed to be refrigerated or anything, and as I was busy I never even looked inside the bag to see what it was.  I worked late that day….till about 6, and by the time we got home at about 6:30 I finally looked in the bag and saw it was food!  Since it had been sitting out for several hours, I was afraid to eat it….I didn’t want to take the chance of getting sick.  So, I had to throw it away.  I felt bad, and I told Ann today at church that I had to apologize to her, and explained what had happened.

Then, Saturday, we had a missionary meeting scheduled from 2-5 in Oakland at the Interstake Center which is located on the temple grounds.  We were told to arrive by 1:30 and be in our seats by 1:45.  We were combining with the San Francisco/Oakland mission for this meeting, and were going to be addressed by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve.  He was in town for things having to do with the 50th anniversary of the Oakland Temple.  He was speaking to us that afternoon, and then to the young single adults in the evening.  We planned on carpooling with the Mitchie’s, and they were riding with us.  So, we decided to just go to the temple earlier and go through a session ahead of time.  We left here at 9 a.m.  We planned on going through the 10:45 session and had allowed time for traffic.  We got there fine that morning, moving along well in traffic.  After the session, we planned on going back to the car to eat a sandwich, then walk to the Interstake Center for the meeting.  

Well, as we were waiting in the chapel to go to the temple session, we got a pleasant surprise!  It was announced that Elder and Sister Bednar were going to be in our session too!!  And when we got up to the room, we found that not only were they going to be in our session, but they were the witness couple!  How cool is that!  And we participated in the prayer circle, so that was an experience of a lifetime.

The meeting was great!  A lot of question and answer time for the missionaries.  After it was over, we headed home.  And the freeway was moving very, very slowly.  Like 20 mph for quite a long time, and stopping a lot too.  I will not be sad to be away from these freeways!  The traffic is just horrendous…..doesn’t matter the day or time.

When we got home, I hurried to start preparing for Sunday’s scripture, and reviewing my lesson for Relief Society.  I am so glad I had time a couple of weeks ago to prepare this lesson, as my time available this week was zero, and I knew it would be.

This morning, I wrote up some notes for Sacrament meeting (the scripture and what I wanted to say), gathered up my stuff and headed to church.  All went well.  I was a little nervous about Relief Society because I had planned something that I wasn’t sure how it would go over, as I rarely get any response from the ladies.  Anyway, the lesson, which is from the Latter-day Saint Woman part A, lesson 16, was on Family Home Evening.  I had wanted to do the activity we had done for Senior FHE at the beginning of the month…..have them draw slips of paper with an object written on one paper, and then drawing from another envelope with a Gospel Principle written on another paper, and tying the object to the principle someway.  [I had had the Viet Elders help me in getting the objects and principles translated into Vietnamese ahead of time.]  Since the ladies rarely participate, I knew this part could bomb.  Janette happened to be there in Relief Society today, thank goodness!  I started with her, thinking she would understand what I was trying to explain since she speaks English very well.  The ones who don’t speak English got it through the translator, so I was hoping by seeing it done, they would understand better.  She did great!  Then I went to another person I thought would do great, My Den, and she was super!  So they got the idea I was trying to portray.  I had told them several times that there was no right or wrong answer, that actually there could be several ideas for the same papers.  So, then I got brave and asked for a volunteer, and got one, and I even got some of the very quiet people involved!  Everyone did a great job, and it was the best I have felt after a lesson, that they were involved, and that they gained something from it.  I just hope they got the idea that FHE is for everyone, and even if they are a single person, they can get together with someone else and discuss the gospel, or study, or even play games like we did today.  They did seem to enjoy the lesson today at least!  I told them I have always been one who loves playing games!

So, now we are to this evening and I am typing up my journal and getting ready for the blog.

Today was a monumental day for our family…..Shelley turned 30!  All my kids are now in their 30’s.  However, this day is one Kori said she has been dreading.  Because they are 10 years apart, that means on her next birthday she will be turning 40!   I just don’t know how they can be that old already….where has the time gone?

Thursday night we had the chance to talk to Jeff’s kids…..the first time in a long time.  It was great hearing their voices and hearing what they have been doing.  Jackson sounds so old now…his voice has changed.  He is in 8th grade now, so will be starting high school next year, as will Nathan.  Jackson broke his arm during football, and ended up having to have surgery on it.  He is able to use it now, and has had some therapy in getting it back to normal.  Kaden and Brooklyn sounded great too.  We look forward to seeing all the grandkids again when we finish our mission, and spending lots of time with them, watching some of their activities.

In the meantime, we work hard here, trying to do our part in moving the missionary work forward.  Our numbers are going to start dropping and then leveling off.  The rise in numbers was when the age was lowered.  Now we will get to normal numbers.  So now we will be in the process of having the President and the AP’s figure out area changes, and as apartments come up for renewal of leases, making decisions as to which ones to close.  

In closing, I will leave some thoughts from our meeting yesterday:

Agency is the capacity to act, not be acted upon.  We are agents, not objects.  

When we pray, we need to ask to know, and then DO.  When we have faith in Christ, we act first then the power comes.  When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, the water parted after they stepped into the water.  Objects expect the answer without doing much to get it.

Quit talking about it—go DO it!  (an example of this:  prayers that ask that those who weren’t here this week will come next week.  He said we just go do it….go to the homes. Help them to want to come to church.  Be proactive about it.)

Try to be happy about what your are doing.

Begin with the end in mind.

The Holy Ghost carries the message unto the heart, not into the heart.  We exercise our agency in receiving it into our heart.

Teaching is more listening than talking.  We need eyes that see and ears that hear to discern. 

There are different patterns of learning and teaching.  Try different ones.

Get up and try!   The Lord will help you do things you don’t think you can do.

An interesting question that was asked the missionaries:  What would your mission president teach you if he didn’t have to worry about what you were doing right now?

And, in answer to a question on how to best sustain leaders, specifically our mission president:  To sustain your mission president, make it so he doesn’t have to worry about you.

We are dependent upon Christ.  We need to overcome the natural man—by the Holy Ghost and with the power of the atonement.

In closing, I pray that we can all quit talking about it and DO IT!  Do what we need to do to overcome the natural man, and become more Christlike.  

Have a great week!

November 9, 2014

This past week has been kind of quiet in the office….meaning, not quiet, but slightly slower.  I had time after getting my work done, to work on the next 2 lessons for Relief Society.  I taught today, and I teach again next Sunday.  So, I am glad for the less busy week to get them both done, as this week is transfer week, and those are the busiest of the 6 week cycle.  

Gary is going to sit and type up an experience he had this week:

On Monday I took a trip to Salinas with the mission president to see a farm.  I have been very impressed with how all of these farms out here look.  They all look so neat, clean, and very fertile.  We went to a member’s farm where we watched spinach and lettuce being harvested.  Only the Mexican people would bend over and do this kind of work.  They spent hours and hours picking vegetables.  These vegetables are placed on trucks that go to a processing plant.  From here we went to the processing plant where we watched spinach being cleansed and prepared for packaging.  They process about 15,000 pounds of spinach each day.  That is a lot of spinach.  Popeye would be very happy!  As the weather becomes cooler, farming moves south of Los Angeles and into western Arizona.  Fresh vegetables are being placed on the grocery shelves fresh daily.  There is a lot of supply and demand.  It was great to get out and get a little dirt on my feet.

Okay, this is Wanda back writing now.  That trip came about because one of the counselors in the mission presidency has an organic produce business, and partners with farmers who grow the produce.  So, Gary went to a farm, and then to President Lemmon’s processing plant.  I was glad he got to do that.  As he said, he has been very impressed with the look of the fields south of San Jose.  They are very neat, and it seems like something is always growing.

Last Monday was Senior Family Home Evening again.  Those are always enjoyable nights to be able to visit with other senior missionaries, since we don’t always get a chance to see many of the others during the month.

Tonight is an Outgoing Devotional again….since transfer week is this week.  And this transfer cycle will go faster than usual.  They are always 6 weeks long, but because of holiday travel time being blacked out, we had to move our next transfer up a week (from Dec. 24th to Dec. 17th), so this one will be 5 weeks long.  And the next one will be 7 weeks long to get us back on schedule.   So this week transfers are on Nov. 12th, then next Dec. 17th, then Feb. 4th.

Yesterday we went to the temple with our branch.  Next Saturday we will go again, then we have an afternoon meeting scheduled with our mission and the San Francisco/Oakland mission meeting together at the multi-stake center that is next to the temple.  Elder Bednar is going to be speaking to us.  He will be in town because it is the 50th anniversary of the Oakland Temple, and things dealing with that are going on.

That’s it for this week!  Holiday’s are fast approaching.  

Get to know your local missionaries, and help them in any way you can!  We love our young missionaries!

The church is true!  Keep strong in the gospel—or get your life in order!  None of us knows what tomorrow brings, so don’t put off to tomorrow what you need to do today.

Till next week……..<3  <3   <3

November 2, 2014

This week was crazy busy for Gary.  He opened 3 new apartments, closed 2 apartments, and in total moved missionaries to 4 apartments this week.  One senior couple (the Cattron’s) moved, the senior sisters (Sister Robinson and Sister Hammer) who work in the employment office moved to where the Cattron’s used to be on Woodmoor, one companionship of sisters in the Samoan program moved from San Jose to Saratoga, and 2 sets of sisters in Fremont moved from a house we were closing to an apartment also in Fremont.

Wednesday, the carpets in our office were being cleaned, so we had to be out of the office at 1.  Gary was out all day anyway doing his thing, so the other 2 ladies and I decided to head to the outlet mall in Gilroy and do some shopping with our free afternoon.  Afterwards, we went to Foster’s Freeze and got burgers and shakes for dinner.   I got home about 5:30 and Gary wasn’t here yet, so I called and he said he would be done and at the office about 6, to meet him there.  Well, it was about 6:30 before he got back….long day for him.

Gary’s computer has been acting up for awhile now.  Every time he tried to get on, it just started flashing.  So, Friday he decided to take the plunge and get a new one.  After work, we headed over to the Apple store and he got one like me.  His old one was even too bad to transfer the data, so it had to be taken to a repair place to extract the data, and then reformat the old one and start it all over again and put the data back on.  So it is like new.  Of course, all our disks, like the Word disk, are home in Idaho, so we don’t have the codes or whatever it is, to put in to show we have the right to run those programs.  Which means we can’t open them.  So now we just have to take it back to the Apple store to have them transfer all the files for us.  Then we will see who wants this old one!  Gary was so tired of the hassle of Windows and their constant updates.  

This weekend we have mostly hung out here and done computer stuff….getting Gary up to speed on his new computer, and he has been working on a talk for next Sunday.  Plus the usual cleaning, laundry and shopping.  So it was kind of restful.  Friday after getting the new computer, we went out to Denny’s for dinner, and got home about 7:30 or 8.  Never had any trick or treaters after we got home….don’t know if we would have had any anyway.  Last year we had just 1.  At the mall where the Apple store is, we saw tons of kids trick or treating there.  Makes sense…safer for them.

Saturday we also Face timed with Shelley’s family.  

Sunday, after church we had another baptism in the branch, and a meal afterwards.  Not long after getting home, we learned that Logan wanted to Face time with us, so we got that time figured out and had a nice chat with their family.

Oh, this weekend we also got our flight scheduled to go to Houston for Logan’s baptism in December.  His birthday is December 28th, and he is being baptized on his birthday.  We weren’t sure how flights would be at Christmas, but I guess the big crunch was for those wanting to be somewhere before Christmas.  

Tomorrow is Senior Family Home Evening again at the Mella’s.  Also, Gary has plans to tour some farms south of here that President Lemmon, counselor to President Mella, is affiliated with….he has an organic food business and is partnered with a guy that does the farming.  So, Gary is leaving early in the morning, and going with Elder and Sister Michie, and President Mella, to tour the farm and the business.  

Next Sunday is the Outgoing Devotional….yes, another transfer is about here again!

Thanks to those we heard from this week….it was good to hear from you!

Remember, help the missionaries out whenever you can….with food, referrals, rides.  They appreciate it more than you know!  Being out here you can sure see ways to help more!

Oh, our friends, the Daly’s in the 16th ward, leave this week to Utah to visit family before going to the MTC next Monday to begin their mission.  They have been apartment inspectors here for the mission, and a great help.  They are heading to Guatemala, and will be teaching English.  We wish them the best!

Elder Barbosa returned this week…he had been home to have knee surgery done.  It was great to have him back!

We know the church is true!  It is so great to rub shoulders with all the missionaries here.

October 26, 2014

For me, this week has been pretty slow.  Monday began early.  This week was the Mission Tour by Elder Pino, our visiting member of the Seventy, so we had combined Zone Conferences on Monday and Tuesday.  Monday’s conference was for the northern half of the mission, which consisted of the following zones:  Livermore, Pleasanton, Fremont, Menlo Park, Saratoga and Los Altos.  It was held in the Menlo Park Zone.  The schedule both days had the meeting starting at 9 a.m and going until 1 p.m., then lunch till 2, then the majority of the missionaries were finished and headed back to their zones, while the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders of those zones stayed for another hour for a meeting with Elder Pino.  Tuesday the meetings were held in the San Jose South Stake, with the following zones:  San Jose, San Jose Evergreen, San Jose South, Morgan Hill, Santa Cruz and Monterey.  The same schedule was followed, with an additional meeting after the ZL and STL meeting—-between the Pino’s and the Mella’s as an evaluation meeting.  Both days the cars were inspected like they usually are during Zone Conferences, so Sister Nedreberg and Gary were busy with that, along with other’s who had volunteered to help.  So, for Monday, they were planning on leaving the office at 7:45 a.m. to get to the meeting place on time.  Elder Michie was going along with them in the mission truck.  So, I was at the office beginning at 7:45 that day.  The office was fairly quiet for the most part all day long.  At 2:20, Sister Wilks was flying back from her visit to Flower Mound, Texas where she had been for a long weekend visiting her family.  Her grandson is getting ready to leave on a mission, and it was his farewell.  She had been dropped off to the airport when she left by Sister Nedreberg, but since they were busy with the zone conference and not back yet, I had planned on picking her up.  I had a couple of the Yerba Buena sisters, Sister Busdicker and Sister Gilvarry, come in to man the office while I was gone, to answer the phones and be there in case of any deliveries.  Then I headed to the airport.  When we got back to the office, we learned that there hadn’t been any calls or deliveries, so it was quiet.  Sister Wilks was there the rest of that day, and around 3 or so Gary and Sister N. got back to the office.  When the work day was done, Gary took the mission truck home this time, as he was leaving from the apartment for the conference location on Tuesday, which was just down the road from where we live.  We both left about the same time on Tuesday morning, with me getting to the office at the usual time, about 8:45-8:50 a.m.  Sister W. came into the office in the morning, then she headed to the conference to take pictures like she usually does for the zone conferences, and I was again alone in the office till everyone got back around 3 or so.

Wednesday through Saturday, President and Sister Mella were gone to San Diego for a Mission President Seminar.  Things were okay in the office.  Just one item dealing with a missionary that President Mella needed to be notified about, which he will have to deal with this week.  Also, we got a new couple.  Gary opened a new apartment on Wednesday to ready for this new couple.  The wife is our new mission nurse.  We had an official mission nurse when we first arrived, then shortly after we got here, she was released and we have had others called to handle the position, but they weren’t really nurses, just using “mom” knowledge when dealing with the ailments of the missionaries, and recommending doctor visits as needed, or rest, or whatever.  So, this is now an official real nurse.  Not sure yet what all her husband will be doing besides helping her out with the paperwork part of it all.  He has computer knowledge, so maybe can help us in the office when we have issues with the computers.  Also, maybe he can help with other things in the office.  We just aren’t sure yet.  President Mella will meet them them tomorrow and figure things out.  They arrived Friday night about 8 p.m.  We met them at the office and then took them to their apartment.  Oh, they are from North Carolina, and they are Elder and Sister Conner.

So, for Sister W. and I, the week in our areas of the office were pretty slow.  Nice for a change!  You just never know from day to day how it will turn out.  This coming week is going to be a busy one for Gary.  He is opening up 3 new apartments and getting people moved around.

Saturday, we had decided to try another whale watching trip.  We had gotten a new camera and were anxious to try it out and get some better pictures of the whales.  Well, the weather turned out to be not so good.  The time on the boat was from 10 to 2.  It rained until about noon.  And, the sea was rough.  So, well before noon, I started getting seasick, and the day was pretty much shot for me.  I don’t handle motion sickness too well.  In fact, by the time we got back, I wasn’t even sure if I could drive, as I just felt dizzy.  I never really threw up on the boat, but gagged a couple of times.  After I had gone to find a place to sit down (because on these trips you mainly stand up at the rail to see the whales and other things), so after I sat down and shut my eyes, and leaned my head against a wall, I started feeling a little better.  I think I even fell asleep a little.  I just couldn’t open my eyes to see anything, or the dizziness hit hard.  So, after we left, Gary drove back to San Jose.  The place we went whale watching was called Moss Landing, on Monterey Bay between Monterey and Santa Cruz.  When we drove back, we stopped in Morgan Hill to get a bite to eat.  By then I felt I could eat and hold it down.  We decided to just take it easy the rest of the day, only do a little laundry and cleaning, and then we headed to the movie theater to watch a movie, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”.  Melissa had recommended it.  In fact, she had sent us the gift card to use to see the movie.  Thanks Missy and Tim!  It was nice to relax and watch a comedy.  Just before the movie, my wallet that I have had for a LONG time finally broke.  It has 2 zippers, one for the money section and one for the credit card/driver’s license section, and the zipper has been acting up for a long time.  I knew it was going to go soon.  It broke just before the movie started, and I made the comment that I really was desperate now to find a new wallet.  I had been looking for some time, just hadn’t found what I wanted…which was exactly what I had!  So now it was find something soon, or put a rubber band around the wallet to keep my money from falling out!!  So we decided to look around at the mall, and happened to be right next to Sears, so checked in there first.  Well, I found a wallet just like I was looking for!!! And it was on sale….yippee!!  Then I decided to check purses, because the purse I was using, the strap was started to fall apart.  I found a purse I liked too, also on sale.  Score!! 

Oh, forgot to mention, we did see some whales, not as many as before, but it was hard to see or take pictures because with the rolling of the waves, you might roll down and not be able to see a whale again, and the movement made the picture taking hard.  We haven’t even looked at the pictures yet to see how or if they turned out.  We did see some dolphins on this trip.  I can’t remember the name of the type of dolphins at this time.  If I think of it later, I will put it in. When they were just under the surface of the water, they looked kind of fluorescent.  They were a white color, and nicknamed ghost dolphins I think the lady said.

Today, our branch was combined with the 16th ward that meets at the same time as us.  This is the ward that our primary child goes to and our young woman.  Anyway, today was the primary program, so we had a combined Sacrament meeting.  Then we separated after that for our regular meetings.

This afternoon, we had a chance to FaceTime with Shelley.  She checked in with us at 3, but I didn’t see the message until about 4:30 while I was working on this journal entry.  So I stopped writing and we visited with them for about half an hour.  Shelley and Grant were very tired today.  They had a Ragnar race they ran in this weekend, which I believe she said was a total of 200 miles for the 12 of them on their team over 2 days or something like that.  This race was located from Chattanooga to Nashville Tennessee.  Crazy people!

Well, time to finish up for today.  Catch you next week!

October 19, 2014

Okay, back to my usual schedule of writing on Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday we got up, had breakfast, got some cleaning and laundry done, then headed out about 10:30 to the movie theater to see the movie “Meet the Mormons”.  We had missed seeing it during the mission viewing because we had headed to Indiana last weekend.  So, I was glad to hear that it was still playing in the theaters.  It was great!  If you haven’t had a chance to see it, and it is playing near you, go see it.  Otherwise, I have heard it will be available on Netflicks in the future.

We were glad we went to the 11 o’clock showing, because the parking at the mall was not crowded at that time of day.  By the time the movie was over and we headed out to the car, the mall parking lot was full and you saw people just driving down each and every row looking for a place to park.  

After the movie we headed to Wal-Mart to do our grocery shopping.  Then stopped on the way home to pick up Gary’s suit from the cleaners.  We got home, got everything taken into the apartment and put away, then headed out again.  We went to get a good car wash done for our car….it has been very dirty!  I should have taken a before and after pictures to put on here!  We went to a place that cleaned the inside of the car too, and it made the dash look like new!  While the car was being cleaned, we ran over to McDonald’s which is right next door to the place, and got lunch.  After the car was cleaned we headed back home and finished the cleaning and laundry.

Today was church.  We picked up Sister Ly today because President and Sister Shelton (branch president) are out of town still.  Sister Ly lives closer to them now, so Sister Shelton will normally be picking her up.  [side note:  Sister Ly is going to Vietnam for a visit for a month or so, leaving next Sunday.]  When we got in the car this morning, we noticed that a cat had been walking on our nice clean car and left little paw prints, so Gary took a rag and cleaned it up again.  After church, we had dinner, and I was a little tired so planned on taking an hour nap.  Well, I must have been more tired than I realized because I slept for about 2 1/2 hours!  After I woke up, I heated up some leftovers for dinner, and then our friends the Michie’s came over for a visit.  They just barely left, so I am getting this done now before it gets any later.

This week we have special Zone Conferences going on.  Half the mission meets on Monday, the other half on Tuesday.  We have Elder Pino of the seventy coming for a mission tour, and he is speaking.  However, for the office staff, we don’t really participate in the meeting part of it.  I always stay in the office to answer the phones and handle the deliveries.  Gary and Sister Nedreberg will be busy the whole time doing the car inspections that take place every zone conference.  I have heard that there will be 40 cars inspected on Monday and 50 on Tuesday, so they will be lucky if they get them all done.  Hopefully they have lots of help lined up.  Elder Michie is going to be helping too.  

Sister Wilks has been gone to Texas to be a part of her grandson’s farewell before he leaves on his mission.  She left Thursday morning, so Sister Cattron subbed for her in the office on Thursday to answer the phones so I could meet with Mark Andromidas from Salt Lake on the finances, and be undisturbed by phone calls.  Sister Wilks gets back here tomorrow (Monday) afternoon.  I have some young sisters coming in to the office to watch things while I run out to the airport to pick her up.  Then on Tuesday, she will go to the zone conference that day to take pictures.  That is her job every zone conference, which is why I am usually behind manning the office.

Because they need to leave fairly early tomorrow morning to get to the location on time….they plan on leaving the office by 7:45…..we will leave here by about 7:25 tomorrow morning.  We know traffic will be bad heading the direction they are going at that time of day, so I hope they have allowed enough time.  I sure hope my nap today doesn’t make it hard to fall back asleep tonight!  I’m still yawning, so hopefully I can fall back asleep okay.

Oh, guess what I just realized?  I just looked at the date.  Today is our 14 month mark…..4 months to go!  We are glad we have had the time and finances, and the health and strength to carry out our tasks to help the work move forward, but we look forward to going home again and getting reconnected to all our family members.  

Remember to help the missionaries whenever you can.  Feed the young missionaries often….they don’t get much funding each month to cover all their meals.  Be an example to those you come in contact with.  Give any referrals you can to the missionaries.  Help in the work in any way you can.  Maybe you can offer to do some mending for the missionaries.  Or give them a free haircut, if that is your skill.  If you are a senior, think about putting your papers in to go on a mission.  Maybe you can serve from home, which cuts down on expenses a lot.  We look forward to getting back into genealogy again when we get home……and do our part to help with the work for those on the other side.  That is an ongoing work that we can all be working on.  Some of the talks at Conference were about getting involved that way.

There was another talk at Conference that said the Church was for all to come unto Christ and be perfected.  We don’t go to church because we are perfect, but to become perfected.  Going to church enlightens your mind, brings healing to your heart and joy to your days.  So my challenge to those who have stopped going to church is to come back.  We all need the healing that the Gospel can bring to our lives.  The more we seek the light of the Gospel, the more light we will receive.   [from President Uchtdorf’s talk]      This is why so many people, young and old, put their lives on hold for a time period…..to help bring people unto Christ.  To help them heal their hearts.  And we have heard of the experiences that some of these missionaries have, and the stories of the people who have had the Gospel brought to them.  Some didn’t even know what they were looking for, but were so grateful when they met the missionaries and were able to learn about the Gospel and become a part of it all.

So let’s always remember to do our part to help in the work!

Love to you all!