Grandpa's Ice Cream, Departing Testimonies, Final FHE, Final Institute, The end has come...

Our Mission Leaders have a tradition.  President Merritt is known for his "Grandpa's Ice Cream".  All the departing missionaries are invited to the mission home for Grandpa's Ice Cream.  We were invited with one other departing Senior Couple, the Anderson's (we were in the MTC with them).  President Merritt  gets pretty creative with his flavors.  We chose from Grilled Peach Ice Cream, Rocky Road, Almond Roca, and Cookies & Cream Ice Cream.  I think Stan is going to start a new tradition!  I'm all for it!

We had a fun scavenger hunt with our YSA for the last Family Home Evening activity.  We had a small group, but we all had fun answering clues and taking pictures throughout the Church building.  We sure have grown to love this rising generation of great young people.

On the last day of every transfer (ever 6 weeks) we attend a Senior Missionary breakfast.  If there are any Seniors going home, after breakfast is over they are given the opportunity to bear their "departing testimony".  We, along with two other couples, shared our thoughts, memories, and testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was an emotional experience to share memories of tender moments, of opportunities for our growth and learning, and to bear testimony of the love we have for our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We were glad when that was over!  

After this meeting, we all moved to the Chapel to join the young missionaries for the Departing Testimony meeting as a whole group.  We were given another opportunity to share our departing testimonies along with 16 young missionaries who had completed their missions.  

When we finished, we all sang the mission song together - it is very touching and powerful!

That same day, we had our final Institute class.  Brother Mackay was working on another assignment, so we were in charge of Institute for our last day.  We served Chicken Legs, Funeral Potatoes (appropriate for our "death" in the mission), and ice cream bars.  Our Elders Quorum president brought a beautiful Carrot Cake for dessert to celebrate our leaving.  We  decided to have a more casual "lesson", so we took turns singing our favorite Hymns and looking up the scriptures that go along with the Hymn and having a discussion.  We had a wonderful class.  Lots of hugs and goodbyes.  We are going to miss this wonderful group of young people that we've grown to love.  (We forgot to take pictures).  

We spent Thursday and Friday packing, cleaning.  We played pickleball with our friends at Mackenzie Creek park one last time.  We brought Banana Nut Muffins so they would be sure and not forget us! We hope and really feel that we've left a positive impression with them.  Stan, especially, has developed some friendships that will hopefully continue.  Some of them are looking forward to the San Diego 
Temple Open House next year.  We hope to go back for that and take some of them with us to the temple.

 We had a wonderful group of Elders that came over and helped us pack our trailer Friday morning.  We've been blessed to work with and love so many young missionaries.

We took a departing photo as we left our apartment, sad to leave San Diego and all that it has meant to us, and happy to return home to be with family, who we miss so much! We drove across California (with temps getting up to 121 degrees at a couple of places) and Nevada, and arrived in St. George just as the sun was setting Friday evening.  

We met with our Stake President Sunday morning to be released from our full-time missionary service.  We both felt a void as he released us from this life changing experience.

We want to close this Blog with our Testimony.  There is nothing like serving a Senior Mission.  We've been tremendously blessed to get to know some amazing young people.  They give us hope for the future.  The young missionaries are the most dedicated, faithful, obedient young people you'll find anywhere.  They begin each day with prayer, study and preparation to go out and  work long hours, finding those who are ready to hear the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the message that will bring salvation to them and their families.  

I don't think there is a better way to strengthen a marriage than to service a mission together.  Our love for each other has increased as we serve each other, practice charity, patience, and help each other to be the best person we can be.  We still have a lot to learn, but we fill like a mission is a great place to learn and grow together.  

We love reading the Book of Mormon together.  It is the foundation of our marriage.  A Book of Mormon class at BYU is what brought us together.  

We love Jesus Christ and are eternally grateful for his atoning sacrifice for each one of us.  And that is why we left our home and family for a year; we want all that will listen to know of the Plan of Redemption that comes through Jesus Christ.

We bear this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sister Camille Johnson - Relief Society General President came to visit!!

 This past week has been somewhat of a spiritual feast.  We had 3 different meetings that President Camille Johnson & her husband spoke.  First a Zone Conference with the Missionaries, 2nd a Regional YSA Sacrament Meeting, and 3rd a "Why I Believe" fireside for members & their friends.  You might ask, how to we get the General Church Relief Society President to come to San Diego?  I'm afraid I don't really know how we got her down here!!  But it was delightful to hear from both her & her husband. 

 At the Zone Conference, we learned that Brother Johnson served as a young Missionary in San Diego many years ago when the San Diego Mission was leading the Church in baptisms!  They told a very engaging story of how these many baptisms got started:  Apparently Hartman Rector Jr was his Mission President at the time, and the Stake President by Calexico (down by the border close to El Centro, CA) called Elder Rector & said essentially that the Church was dying & was in desperate need of Priesthood Leadership.  So President Rector sent his recently returned-Missionary son and Elder Johnson to go down to Calexico (with an air conditioned car - cause Calexico is HOT) & baptize more Priesthood Leaders!  These two Missionaries set a goal to baptize 25 people in the month of July, notwithstanding there had been NO baptisms in that area for over a year!  They pondered & prayed about this goal to try to come up with ways to baptize 25 people - they committed to exercise their faith by maximizing every minute & putting forth unheard of physical, mental, and spiritual exertion.  They testified with power & asked everyone to be baptized.  President Rector gave them a warning that to be careful, because Satan didn't want this to happen.  Their goal statement was an act of faith in Jesus Christ.

They got to Calexico at the beginning of July and started to visit every member to invite them to Church.  They talked to the Branch President, sang a hymn, and his companion said to the Branch President, "by the way, we are having a baptism on Sunday & we would like you to baptism him/her"  Elder Johnson was flabbergasted because he knew they didn't have anyone to baptize at that moment!  Then the miracles started to happen - they found a lady who had been previously taught the gospel but she had a bad knee and was mortified to be baptized, so they told her that they could baptize her in a lounge chair with a Missionary on both side of the lounge chair.  The lady agreed to be baptized under one condition - that her Branch President would be the baptizer!  There was the first miracle!

They found someone named Francisco who was an evangelical and passionate about spiritual things to help them find "investigators"  They borrowed a big Van & told the Branch President to set up a hundred chairs for Church & then the Elders would drive around, picking up people & families and taking them to Church (early).  They would then keep going out to find & get more people to Church until people were standing because there weren't enough chairs!  After the inspirational Church service, they took people to the Branch President's house that had a pool & talked about the waters of Mormon in Mosiah 18.  Several more asked for baptism including Francisco!

Then a week went bye without any baptisms, so they started to fast & pray.  Towards the evening, they found a man who had come across the border.  The man said that he was told in a dream the night before to cross the border & go to a park and there would be two Missionaries to teach him!  

From then on, it was amazing; they continued to baptize converts until on July 31st they had their 25th baptism!  Out of the 25 baptisms, 22 of them were potential Priesthood holders!  Their faith in Christ had been tested & He had blessed them for their obedience & efforts.

So now it was August & they figured that if they could baptize 25 in July, they should set a goal of 50 for August!  They got the members involved to help them find more people, and they found a lot of success with many of the migrant workers in the fields.  By the end of August, they had baptized 53 more people, so they set a goal of 100 for September.  They ended up baptizing 107 in the month of September.

Well, the other Missionaries in the Mission caught the vision, & pretty soon the Mission was baptizing thousands!  I believe that the Lord loves obedience, effort, & strong faith in Him.  Brother Johnson coined the phrase, "Obedience in the morning, diligence in the afternoon, brings miracles in the evening."

Tonight, Sister Johnson spoke at a "Why I believe" Missionary fireside - she gave a beautiful talk on her testimony of the restored Church of Jesus Christ & a powerful testimony of our living Prophet, President Nelson, the Book of Mormon, & the Prophet Joseph Smith.  She quoted her ancestors, who knew the Prophet Joseph & testified of the mantle & Spirit that came upon Brigham Young as the Lord's next Prophet.  I had the opportunity to play the cello accompanying the choir on a patriotic number & "I am a Child of God".

This afternoon, Sister Johnson also spoke to the YSA's at a regional sacrament meeting & gave a beautiful talk about covenants & preparing to go to the Temple even before going on a Mission or getting Married.  She reminded the YSA's that they are children of God first, and even if Single, they are NOT alone!

As Debbie & I enter our last week as Missionaries, we look back & see the blessings of our Mission.  Serving the Lord on this Mission has blessed our lives - we are better for it, and we hope that through us, the Lord has touched the lives of people we have grown to love!

 HELPING MISSIONARIES, FOOD DRIVE, SPORTS

This is the gift the Relief Society made for the Dad's and men in our ward for Father's Day!  I thought they turned out cute.

We had a couple of opportunities to help out some missionaries with special circumstances this week.  Our District Leader, who is from Japan, had a Tele visit Dr. appointment scheduled. Our Zone Leader asked us if we would be with him to make sure he received the help he needed, since he's never done anything like this before and being from a foreign country.  He's having some anxiety/depression problems that he's been dealing with.  Most young people in this age group haven't dealt with these issues on their own without parental support, so we got to be the "parents".  The appointment went well, and he will be able to get medication to help him.  The missionaries are under a lot of stress, and sometimes they don't know how or aren't able to cope with it on their own.  We're grateful to be here to help out.  

On Friday we got a call from the mission president telling us that our sister missionary from Tonga, Sister Finau, received a phone call from her family that her father passed away.  We got to know Sister Finau when she first came into our mission; she was assigned to our District.  He asked if she could spend the day with us.  He said she needed a day away from missionary work to process her Dad's passing, and since she knows us, he thought that would be a good fit. Stan had committed to helping with a Spanish language practice training at the mission office, so Sister Finau and I spent the morning together.  We had a good talk; she was really close to her Dad; his passing was unexpected.  She seemed at peace, because of the Plan of Salvation that we've been given through Jesus Christ.  The missionaries teach people about this plan, and her knowledge of God's plan was blessing her and bringing her comfort.  One of the things she told me about her Dad was that he loved chocolate; especially chocolate ice cream with peanut butter.  So I texted Stan and asked him to stop at the store on the way home and pick up some ice cream.  After we had dinner, we celebrated her Dad by having a bowl of chocolate peanut butter ice cream.  I think she appreciated it.

After we visited awhile, I asked her if she would like to help me with a project.  We have a Family Reunion coming up in about a month, and one of the craft projects that I want to do is painting the Nativity on rocks.  So we spent some time painting rocks.  You could say it was a good therapy session.

After dinner, Stan played some Hymns on the piano and on his cello, which was some good music therapy.  When we took her back to her apartment in the evening, I think she appreciated being able to take the time away from missionary work and process.  

We signed up to help with a food drive on Thursday morning.  Once a month, a church in Imperial Beach hosts a food drive.  A semi truck full of food was delivered early in the morning from the San Diego Food Bank.  We, along with quite a few volunteers, helped bag up the canned and frozen food items.  We arrived at 7:30 am and there was already a line of people with their rolling cars waiting for the 9 am opening time to get their allotment of food.  It felt good to help out.

We've been waiting our whole mission to be able to go to the Olympic Training Center and see some of the gals in our ward play in a Rubgy game.  Friday morning they had a scrimmage with Canada, so we went to watch them.  The first little bit was a warm-up preparing them for the scrimmage.  Finally, when they started to play, it was fascinating to watch how the game worked.  In fact, I had to come home and watch a YouTube showing how the game works.  What we saw wasn't a full on game, but more of a short scrimmage for practice.  I think their game was on Saturday, but we weren't able to go to that one.  

We were in charge of the Friday night YSA activity, so we set up our Frisbee Golf course.  Lately, Friday nights haven't been well attended, so we made sure and put a post on Facebook early in the week, then Stan decided to get prizes to entice them to come.  Well, it didn't work very well.  The Elders showed up and one young man, Pablo, who said he's coming to all the activities until we leave so he can see us!  The four of us had fun, and everyone took home a prize.  

Today was our last Sacrament meeting with our YSA in our building.  Next Sunday we will be attending a regional YSA Sacrament Meeting.  So, the closing Hymn was "God Be with You 'Til We Meet Again", and they held a Linger Longer after Church to honor us!  We felt honored!  The Bishop and his wife gave us a Charcuterie Board in the shape of the state of California, and all the YSA's signed a card for us.  They have been so welcoming and loving and accepting to us.  It truly is bittersweet to be leaving in just a couple of weeks.  We've loved our experience here, but it's time to get to know our grandkids again and meet our new great granddaughters!  

Beach bonfire, Inspire, & Fathers Day

 Wow, Missions can be really tough sometimes...........  like having to attend a beach bonfire & make smores with the YSA's on the famous Coronado beach!

Even the young Missionaries from the YSA could attend because they had a friend (investigator) show up.  The Mission rule for the young Missionaries is that they can go to the beach but they can't touch the sand - so the Elders creatively had a member bring a big blanket that they laid out on top of the sand that the Missionaries then jumped on, and the members dragged them to the bonfire, technically not touching the sand!!  We got a chuckle out of that one!

Besides our normal weekly District council & dinner for the Institute group, we had a special evening Friday night at the Mission sponsored "inspire" night at the Mormon Battalion Historic Site.  Sister Merritt asked me to play with a trio a nice arrangement of "Consider the Lilies of the Field".  With the weather warming up to 72 degrees, we used the backyard of the Historic site for an outdoor gathering.  President & Sister Merritt gave some moving talks with various musical numbers in between.  As our Mission Leaders, the Merritt's are some of the most dedicated & consecrated people I know and are doing a wonderful work helping to gather Israel on this side of the veil through music & the spoken word.

We were asked to speak again in Sacrament Meeting before we finished our Mission, so today was the day.  Debbie spoke movingly about Fathers and some advice for the YSA's as they move forward in their lives & then I got to play the piano for a men's quartet singing one of our new Hymns "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".  Following the musical number, it was my turn to speak to the YSA's.  I felt the need to speak to them about our Heavenly Father & the value of the beautiful covenants we are able to make with Him.  It is certainly a "plan of happiness" to follow the covenant path starting with baptism progressing to the Temple & beyond and receive that extra measure of love & mercy through Jesus Christ & His atonement.  It has been a blessing to be of service here in San Diego & see the progress that many of the YSA's have made in their lives - we have come to love them.

 Missionary Meetings, Primary Principles, Susan visit, Big Surprise

Missions are amazing for teaching incredible life skills.  In our Zone Council and Zone Conference meetings we learned the importance of setting well intentioned goals and making a plan to make them happen.  The steps we learned are:

I have the best of intentions to make this a practice, not only for my mission, but for life.  I can think of so many areas that I could put this into practice.  One step at a time....

Our Institute teacher, Brother Mackay, began a new course of study for the summer.  He has titled it "Primary Principles".  He chooses a Primary song  to be the focus of his lesson.  Last week the song was "I Lived in Heaven".  Our discussion centered around scriptures that go with the song.  We discussed the Pre-earth life and life after death.  He really is good at engaging the students and creating lots of discussion.  We enjoyed Sloppy Joes, watermelon, and cookies for our dinner.

Stan's sister, Susan Brady, and her grandson and his girl friend flew in for a wedding, so we met up with them in Old Town and at a late lunch and then visited the Mormon Battalion.  It was a quick but very enjoyable visit.

 

Stan has a big birthday coming up.  In January the kids and I decided to pull a surprise on him and have them all fly down here for a weekend.  After planning and waiting for six months (and keeping a secret), our three daughters, Misha, Cristin & Kayley, and one son, Kyle all flew in on Friday.  Our youngest son, Josh, got sick and wasn't able to make it (we were soooo sad).  We rented a VRBO and enjoyed a quick weekend of visiting Balboa Park, kayaking near the La Jolla Caves, and watching for a hopeful sunset.  The clouds didn't cooperate, but it was a beautiful evening anyway.  It was such a great weekend and so much fun to be with our kids again.  

Samoan war dance, feeding, and ministering

 Things are now rushing by here in Chula Vista, with only a little over a month until we conclude our Mission here.  One of the highlights of the week was the Senior Mission family home evening dinner & get together at the Mormon Battalion historic site.  Usually once a month, the Senior Missionaries get together to share experiences & visit.  Besides great food, a few of the Missionaries planned a little surprise for us and did the Samoan war dance that involves tongue's, shouts, and fierce faces - it was highly entertaining!

They even talked the Mission President (in the middle) to join them!

This was also our week to feed 2 groups of young Missionaries & the 1 YSA institute group in the course of 2 days - it seemed that Debbie spent a lot of time cooking meals!!  At least all the young Missionaries seemed to really like her sloppy joe's ( with her special ingredient that we had to order on-line to get!)

We helped the young Missionaries in our Ward teach a young man named Uriah over the last few months who decided to get baptized.  We were a little worried at first that perhaps he wasn't understanding the gospel principles, but at the baptism we found out from his Mom that he was autistic, which helped to explain a number of things & his sometimes puzzling behavior.  I got to give the talk on the Holy Ghost & there was a good spirit during the meeting & the baptism.  In fact, I don't remember going to a baptism where the Holy Ghost wasn't present!  It is true that the power of God is manifest in His covenant ordinances!

We know that this is the Lord's work & that He cares much for His "sheep".  One late afternoon, the Spirit prompted us to go visit a new member (Jay) who hasn't been to church for a few weeks, so we quickly jumped in the car & drove out to see him, not knowing if he would even be there.  Fortunately, he opened the door with a big smile on his face, so we visited and shared a message about Alma & the people of the Lord in bondage to the Lamanites & how they were delivered by God.  He could relate to the story - he is Haitian & is here on a work visa trying to get away from a horrible political situation in Haiti. He works 3 jobs so he can send money home to his family.  He works so much & hasn't had much time to do anything else!  We are hoping that we can help him understand that as we give some time to the Lord, He will bless us & support us in our trials - we all do so much better when we let "God prevail in our lives"! He is such a wonderful young man.

We were touched to hear that President Nelson, who is turning 100 years old in September has encouraged us to celebrate his birthday by helping the "one" in his 99+1 birthday!   He always has so many uplifting words for us as God's prophet on the earth today!  We are grateful for his example.

Here is another amazing flower we discovered this past week:

 Questions, DC & Institute, Temple, & Camp Wildwood

Elder Hardy, Stan, had the opportunity to answer lots of questions this week.  When we walked into the Church for FHE on Monday evening, Marco, a young man that the missionaries are teaching, came up to Stan and told him that he had a bunch of questions.  So they sat down in the foyer and started talking.  Marco had read the first 12 chapters of the Book of Mormon (we found out from the missionaries, that he did this much reading in just a day!), and had several questions about his reading.  They talked for 20 minutes or so, answering questions.  It was great to see Marco's excitement for learning about the Book of Mormon.   

Two days later, the Elder's invited us to meet with them with a young lady named Jacklynn.  She was a referral from the Sister Missionaries.  The Elder's weren't sure what to expect.  We met at a park.  Apparently her Dad was going to come, but wasn't able to, so he called and was on speaker phone.  He basically took over telling us of his beliefs and asking questions geared towards what day of the week we practice the Sabbath, and if we believe in Christmas and Easter.  He basically took over the conversation and didn't allow for many comments.  The Elder's got pretty quiet so Stan tried to share some of our beliefs, which didn't go very far.  After he got off the phone, Jacklynn apologized  for her Dad.  I think she felt bad that he had taken over the conversation.  The missionaries didn't really get an opportunity to share a message.

Then, two days later, the Elder's called us again to meet with a young lady named Jean.  When we arrived at her home, I recognized her from a previous meeting.  She also had lots of questions.  You could tell she had come up with her questions from things she had read on the internet.  Her questions took the whole time, and the Elder's didn't have an opportunity to teach or share much of a message.

That night, I was thinking about these three experiences.  I felt like with the last two experiences, we should have talked about our purpose as missionaries.  We should have shared our personal testimonies of the Doctrine of Christ; at least this would have left them with something to think about.  I realized after talking with Stan and the missionaries, that it is not uncommon to have this type of experience in meeting with people.  Everyone has their right to their ideas and opinions and beliefs, but I felt that I should have opened my mouth and shared my testimony.  

Tuesday was a day of cooking and being fed by the Spirit.  We held District Council in our apartment; there were 8 of us; two of the Elder's were sick and not able to come.  We had our DC meeting first, including the bearing of testimony, since it was our last meeting for the Transfer.  I love to hear the testimonies of the missionaries.  It's a sweet experience.

I made a Sausage Egg Casserole and Pancakes and melon for our Brunch.  

We were in charge of Institute again so we decided to show the YSA Fireside with Elder and Sister Godoy.  We had our dinner of Lasagna, Salad, and homemade bread, then moved into the RS room for the video.  Elder & Sister Godoy did such a great job of sharing their experiences (when they were young adults) of Loneliness, Dating, Spirituality, Missions, and Marriage.  I prayed that each of our young people in attendance felt the Spirit prick their hearts with what they needed most.  

We were able to drive up to the Newport Beach Temple on Thursday and attend a session.  It's about an hour and forty-five minute drive, but so worth being able to attend the temple and be taught by the Spirit.

This weekend was a Regional YSA campout and Sacrament meeting.  Camp Wildwood is a Church owned camp, and has lots of fun activities to do.  Some of the young people went up Friday night for the evening activities, camped overnight, and spent the day Saturday.  We drove up Saturday morning and spent most of the day with them.  They enjoyed axe throwing, archery, volleyball, soccer, etc., and a couple of Devotionals.  And food, of course!  Those who attended had a great time, mingling with young people in their age group.

The Sacrament Meeting was held up in Poway, about a 45 minute drive for us.  They had a Linger Longer afterwards with refreshments.  It's so good for these young people to meet their peers and realize there are many their age in the area that have the same goals and desires.  They are blessed with lots of great leaders and missionaries to support them.  We are blessed to be a small part of this.

We enjoy all the spring colors and blooming plants.  These purple trees are just gorgeous!