Eating Mexican food at Olamendis at Dana Point.
(One of President Nixon's favorite restaurants. George W. and George Bush also ate here.)
Our
mission was half over June 5th.
It is a bittersweet feeling. We
are so thankful we are here but we are looking forward to seeing our family and
friends again.
June Birthdays
Happy Birthday
Dear Zack—June 8—7 years old!
Happy Birthday
Dear Ray—June 12—39 years old!
Happy Birthday
Dear Nate L.—June 27—40+ years old!
Congratulations!
Cliff Cole was
sustained as bishop June 3.
Missionary Work
May 28-June 2
Here we are trying to catch up on 4 busy weeks. We are still working with the Olasavas, the
Arzus, Andres Asención, the Campos, Celso Castillo, and the Guzmans. Everything is progressing steadily and well
with all of them except Jose Guzman is still struggling with the beer drinking.
We had an
exceptionally great meeting with Sylvia Campos this week. She opened and told us about her past life
and how she has always had a prayer in her heart for many years. She told us how her year old baby died. She said she knows the Book of Mormon is true
but has a hard time accepting modern-day prophets. So we talked to her about
the fact that some of the Apostles in Jesus’ days were fishermen and one was a
tax collector, and then asked for the copy of her husband’s Liahona. We opened
it to the centerfold showing the General Authorities. She was quite surprised
and very impressed when we explained that President Uchtdorf was in the German
Air Force and German Airlines, Elder
Nelson a world renowned heart surgeon, Elder Scott an Engineer and Elder Oakes
a Federal Judge and that they all left their professions when were called to
be Apostles just like Peter, James, and John. She still needs a stronger
testimony of the Joseph Smith but says that she will be baptized but isn’t sure
when it will happen.
June
2-June 6
Saturday evening, June 2,
Jennifer, Dallin, Claire, and Kate came to see us. It was so fun to have family again. Kate was a baby when we left and now she is
talking and running around. When they
stayed in St. George, Claire called their motel a “home ‘otel.” She called our apartment the same thing. I think that is a fairly good description for
it. They had a 14 hour drive to get
here. That is two days to get here and two days to return for three days here
with us! Thank you so much Jen and
Dallin.
Sunday after
sacrament meeting everyone wanted to meet them. Everyone was so happy to meet
part of our family. After dinner we went
over to the Los Angeles Temple Visitors Center.
The girls had fun doing some of the activities for kids there. We watched the John Tanner movie. It is a great movie about sacrifice and
generosity. If you haven’t seen it, we
highly recommend it.
On our way home
we stopped in front of Graumans theatre in Hollywood to see the footprints and
signatures of the stars. Of course there
were several people dressed up like movie heroes. They were hoping to have you take pictures
with them and tip them between $15 and $20.
Claire said it was like a “Halloween Circus.” She reminds me so much of Jennifer when she
was that age.
Monday we drove
to Long Beach Aquarium. It is a fairly
large aquarium and lots of hands on things for the kids. The girls enjoyed seeing all the fish and
displays. They touched the jellyfish but
Claire was a little shy about touching the sting rays until it was closing
time. They especially enjoyed the water
cycle display and making it rain. They
had parrots we could feed nectar to that was fun to watch. We took a boat ride of the harbor and that
was fun. Afterward we ate at Bubba Gump
Restaurant.
Tuesday we
spent the day at Dana Point at the beach.
The tides were exceptionally high that day so we didn’t get to see the
tidepools. We had fun in the water and
sand all day. That evening we ate at
Olamendi’s Restaurant that has delicious Mexican food. It was a favorite place of President
Nixon. Gorge W. and George Bush also ate
there. Wednesday morning they started
the long ride home.
June
7-June 17
We visited a
less active member, Rosa Baires. Her
sister, Isabel Chicas, was there and seemed interested as we read in the Book
of Mormon about Jesus to them. This
week we had a sweet lesson with them.
Rosa came to church Sunday but Isabel had to work. We all felt the spirit as we read from the
Book of Mormon.
We decided to work
with Evelin Ramirez to help her become more active and get to know some of the
members better. They were very happy to see us again. Once more we are trying
to work with Carlos, the non-member husband-friend of Laura Escalante. (He had
told the Elders that he was not interested in getting baptized.) Hermano Sostre
showed up in church with his brother and was happy to see us, so we made an
appointment. They were Home! This is the family that we tried without success
to visit countless times around Christmas time.
Wednesday, June
13, we went with the other three mls missionaries—the Shumans, Coopers, and
Sanfts to the J Paul Getty Museum. It
was phenomenal. The buildings are
wonderful. They had many paintings from
many famous artists. They also have fantastic
gardens. We spent a great day there. We
hope to go again sometime.
We also
inspected Elders’ apartments again this week.
Somehow we
missed 3rd Ward’s Father’s Day dinner but we did attend the 6th
Wards dinner. They had a wonderful beef
(for the first time) and rice dinner.
They even had a small dish of ice cream for dessert. They had a nice program with several singing
over the PA system to their spouse, and then dancing. We had a long week and were very tired so we
came home about 9:30.
June 18-June
24
This week was a
bit of a downer—the Sostres were not there for our appointment nor for the
elders´appointment just like they did around Christmas. Isabel Chica was not at Hna. Baires either. She isn’t interested. The good thing is Rosa Baires, has been to
church 3 weeks in a row now. Celso
Castillo and Reyna Portillo aren’t getting married and we aren’t teaching him
anymore. He did some things we won’t
discuss.
The highlight
of the week was zone conference. We had
a general authority visit—Paul Johnson from the 70 and Commissioner for the
Seminary & Institute programs of the church. I am sure most people love their mission
presidents. We have the utmost respect
and love for President and Sister Baker.
Sister Baker is
a very intelligently spiritual, woman. I
just love her talks and her insight. She
talked about the Good News—the atonement.
The purpose of the atonement is:
l. To restore
all that was lost because of the fall.
2. To provide
for repentance.
3. To provide
the power to resurrect and to exalt.
Christ did not
just endure all things but he conquered all things. He knows all trials we have intimately and
personally.
President Baker
talked about recognizing and understanding the Holy Ghost. The more we have the spirit, the more we want
it. The Holy Ghost has the power to
change us. He read and discussed the
following scriptures:
1Kings 19:11-12 3Nephi
11:3 2Nephi 1:15
3Nephi 19:9 D&C
6:14-15 D&C 8:3-4
Elder Bednar’s talk from April 2011 general conference
BE OBEDIENT AND LISTEN CAREFULLY—YOU WILL FEEL THE HOLY GHOST.
1Thessalonians Chapter 2 speaks of the love of missionaries.
Elder Paul V. Johnson started his talk by stating “When we
submit our lives to the will of God it changes our lives.” This really
impressed me because I have been wondering about the great changes that the
newly baptized members have to make their everyday lives, and that so many only
do it for a short period of time. Then become “less-active”. I have asked
myself many times: “How can we help them submit their lives to the will of the
Lord?!” I am still not sure how this is done.
Maybe the clue is what Elder Johnson said next, when he referred to 1Ne 11:11
& 27:13, 14 and D&C 93 where John the Baptist talks about Jesus going
from grace to grace. We still have a lot
to learn as we strive to help them.
| 
Thanks again for all you did for us that week. We had a lot of fun! And it was so good to see both of you.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that Jen & Dallin and girls could come from idaho to be with you for a few days! What a great family!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your mission ups and downs.
Love the highlights of your zone conference.
Wow....your mission is now a month past half-way.
Carry on...
Love, Walt & Eileen