72nd & 73rd Weeks—January 27-February 10, 2013

 

 

 

 

We haved passed this sign many, many times on our mission.  Day or
night there is always someone there taking pictures.  I kept telling Dale
we have to take our picture in front of the sign before we leave.  We finally did!

I wanted to go see the Queen Mary for my birthday in September.
I finally got my present!  This is Dale by some anti aircraft artillery.
Queen Mary was a luxury liner.  During WW11 it was used as a transport
ship by the USA.  It was painted gray.  Germany and Japan put a bounty on
it of $250,000 for anyone who could sink it. It never followed the same route twice and
it traveled in a zigzag pattern.  It was called the "Phantom Ghost."  It was never shot at.
 



This is Dale by the anchor.  I have forgotten how much it weighed.
 





On the ship they had a traveling Princess Diana exhibit.  I was  so
excited to see it.  It had a lot of English history in the exhibit starting
with Queen Mary's parents clear up to Kate and Edward.  They wouldn't let
us take any pictures but when we saw this bench made for Charles and Diana,
without thinking we took the picture because it has our initials in it.
 

There were 4 chaplains who served on another ship during WW11.  There were
only life jackets for about 2/3 of sailors.  These four chaplains gave their life jackets
away, held hands and sang hymns as the ship sank.



We didn't take a picture of the ship when we went in.  When we came out,
it was dark so this is me in front of the ship in the evening.  I enjoyed this
day immensely.

Prior to going whale watching at Redondo Beach we had lunch here.
Shakespears, Grovers, Sanfts, and us.





 





Shakespears and us on boat.

 



We didn't get very close to the whales but it was exciting to see them.



Seals warming up in the sun.

 

Pelican

      

February 14—HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

WE LOVE YOU!

February Birthdays

February 19--Happy Birthday Dear Cliff P.—40+ years old!

February 21—Happy Birthday Dear Rachel—5 years old!

February 23—Happy Birthday Dear Ruth—40+ years old!

Missionary Work

          We are back working in the wards fulltime again.  We have coined the word “mapping.”  We have printed ward maps off the internet that shows where everyone in a given ward lives.  We have tried to contact everyone and make sure they live there.  Most of their phone numbers are obsolete so we try to catch them at home.  Many of the people listed have moved.  This isn’t as rewarding as some things we have done, but it is helping the bishops.

          We are now teaching brother Rene Gonzalez about the Book of Mormon.  His mother in law, Thomasa, was baptized several weeks ago and when we went to visit her, he and his wife, Laura, were there.  She had invited them to join with her after we made the appointment with her. Laura is starting to get active again.  We hope he will let the elders start teaching him the lessons before we leave.

          We were able to visit with Jose and Sylvia Campos.  If you remember we were teaching her a few months ago.  We just love her.  She is so loving and so fun to be around.  She got her feelings hurt and hasn’t been to church in a while.  Jose joined and has been active.  (He has had to work Sundays for a few months now.)  She has never been baptized.  This last Monday night we had a great visit with them.  We invited them to the Valentines Day Dinner Saturday night.  They said they would come, so we are hoping they do. 

          Tuesday we went on a 2 ½ hour whale watching trip out of Redondo Beach with the Shakespears, Grovers, and Sanfts.  We ate at a seafood restaurant ( can’t remember the name,)  Everyone except Dale had their “World Famous” fish and chips.  He had a lobster salad sandwich on a roll with fries and a green salad.  Then we went out on the 65 ft/125 passenger excursion vessel “Voyager” to find the whales.  There were only 40 that trip so we pretty much had the run of the boat.  The people on trip before ours said they only say two whales.  So we were fortunate to see 7 or 8 fin whales.  We were told by the Naturalist that they probably weighed  30 to 40 tons and that they can be as much as 80 tons!.  They live along the coast here.

          We also saw seals, sea lions, common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, pelicans, terns, and one grey whale.  After we were out on the ocean for 2 ½ hours looking for whales, we saw a small grey whale swimming between us and the breakwater at the mouth of the harbor.  They are hard to spot here so we were lucky to see one.  We didn’t get very good pictures because they were so far away.  It was a great day and we were frozen when we got back. 

          When we got back, we decided to eat dinner on the pier. While eating Dale discovered a message from President Baker telling  us that the Hurleys had arrived. (They are taking Shumans place.)  He wanted us to meet with him, the Hurleys, Bishop Segovia (Barrio 6), and Bishop Scoll (Adams Ward) in the Jefferson/Vermont Building.  We rapidly finished our excellent Italian dinner and hurried to the meeting.  We didn’t even have time to go home and clean up so we met in our casual clothes.  We had a nice meeting.  Hurleys came down to our apartment Wednesday morning and we oriented them about the 6^th ward.  The next morning they invited us to go the temple with them.  Since we were planning on going anyway, we accepted.

          As we pulled into the parking lot, the Sanfts were just getting out of their car. So the three missionary couples went to the temple together.  The session was especially good for Dale because Sister Hurley gave him a family proxy card for Orlenzo Clark.  (Dale is talking now.) Since Orlinzo was Dad’s; middle name, I felt especially close to him and Mom during the session.  As Connie and I sat in the Celestial Room, we pondered and talked about what they might be doing just then in the Spirit world.  Following the temple all three couples went out to eat at the “Cafe 50”. Its walls were covered posters, magazine covers and other memorabilia from the 50s.  The old time “juke box” played music from that era.  We had another enjoyable day.