Beach Clean-up, Chicken Legs, Forgiveness, Zone Conference, Institute Party and Hurricane

We're learning more about San Diego and loving it!  The people are friendly, and the weather is amazing!  Except when a hurricane hits the west coast.  More about that later.

We met with the Stake President last Sunday.  There are a lot of YSA's that attend the family wards, and he would like to see them come to our activities and to Institute class.  There are also a few new YSA converts.  We will be working with them helping them to progress on the Covenant Path.  

Monday is our P-day so we decided to go for a bike ride and check out the bike paths.  (We brought our bikes back with us when we returned from Utah last week.) There are bike lanes on most of the major roads, but very few bike trails like what we have in St. George and the Springwater Trail in Portland.  There are some packed gravel paths next to some of the roads, but they don't connect very well, so it seems we were having to find a crossing or go up and down curbs and cutting across streets to get to the other side.  We need to look for other areas to ride that might be better.  We had a fun time and enjoyed getting on our bikes. 

For Family Home Evening, we met at Mission Beach for a service activity.  By the time we found the group, the sun was setting.  So we put on our latex gloves, grabbed a garbage bag and picked up as much trash as we could before it got too dark to see.  It is so amazing to us that a couple of old geezers like us get to hang out with these amazing youngsters.  

Tuesday night is Institute night.  I made Chicken Legs, Baked Beans and Sand Lake Inn cookies.  I had never cooked chicken legs before.  I found a recipe online, and it turned out to be delicious.  The students really liked them.  And, of course, they loved the Sand Lake Inn cookies - they are the best.  I  noticed that I'm starting to remember their names and can associate something with a lot of the students.  I've been wondering if that would ever happen.  

The teacher is starting a new course of study for this Fall.  He is teaching from the book written by Elder Anderson titled, "The Divine Gift of Forgiveness".  I'm excited to be able to participate in learning.  Here's a quote from Elder Anderson"  

"Repentance is the perfect spiritual remedy for sin.  Each sin we leave behind through our faith in the living Christ - both those of commission and those of omission- opens spiritual doors."

Wednesday and Thursday was Zone Conference.  The mission is in the process of trying to update all the apartment emergency back packs.  We helped empty and refill backpacks on Wednesday.  Each apartment should have a backpack and 6 gallons of water in case of emergency.  Little did we know that we would have a Tropical Storm arrive this weekend!  

On our drive home we decided to take a little scenic drive and drove over to Imperial Beach and the Silver Strand.  We have some YSA's that live in this area.  The beaches here are white sand beaches and are beautiful.  

Our District decided to have a District Family Home Evening on Wednesday nights.  So we drove over to the Church (about the time we might be thinking of putting on our PJ's) and had a spiritual thought and games with the missionaries.  It's always a good time when we get to hang out with the missionaries.

Thursday was our turn to attend Zone Conference with our Zone.  We were blessed to hear from our Mission Leaders, our AP's (the Assistants to the President), and the Sister Trainer Leaders.  After lunch we had some break out classes.  I came away with a desire to improve my personal study, Stan and I want to read Preach My Gospel together and practice role playing, and to improve on my personal prayers.  

President Merritt said that when he and his wife were attending the Mission Leader Training at the MTC before they began their service, President Nelson counseled them to pray in their closets often.  Prayer is such an important part of missionary work.  We can't do it without the Lord's help.

This is a picture of the missionaries singing our mission song.  They are so loving and supportive of each other.

On Thursday we saw in the news that Hurricane Hilary is on her way up Baja California and southern California.  We decided to make a Costco run and fill up with gas to be ready.  

Friday was the big back to school Fall Institute Party.  It was held at the San Diego State Univ. Institute building.  We went early and helped set-up and make cookies.  It was a really fun party with food, Karaoke, Axe Throwing, Corn Hole, Fried Twinkies (Yuk!), and other games.  There were about 40 students who attended and they all seemed to have a good time.  After clean up, we arrived home with our weary bodies about 10 pm.  It was a fun day!

The Hurricane was predicted to hit this area on Sunday, so we ran to Home Depot on Saturday to pick up a couple things.  While we were in line, we started talking to the couple in front of us.  I found their comment kind of funny; they said the people in San Diego are pampered with such perfect weather that they don't know what to do with a storm coming in!  I guess it's good to have a little adversity so they can learn!

We just had a couple sister missionaries come over.  One needed a repair job on a torn bag.  Glad I brought my sewing machine.  Missionaries have their own language.  They have an acronym or shortened saying for many words.  Here are a few examples:  Ghosting - this is when they have an initial contact with someone and get their phone #, but then can't get ahold of them later - it's like they are a ghost, never existed!  Sus - suspicious.  This is a person they meet, get their info, and find out all they want is some food or help.  Yellow Dot - kind of like 'ghosting', the missionaries can't get ahold of them.  They have various colors of dots that mean different stages of teaching.  Anyway, we're learning all kinds of things.  

The hurricane had turned into a tropical storm by the time it arrived in our area.  We've had wind and rain this afternoon, but nothing worse than a typical rain storm in Portland.  We are safe and appreciate all your prayers and concerns for our well being.