Japanese Garden, FHE, District Council, Thanksgiving, Trail Walk

For three weeks we've been trying to get our District together to go visit the Japanese Garden in Balboa Park - we finally made it!  We picked up the two sets of Sisters and met the Elders at the Garden.

We had an enjoyable time walking up and down the paths in between all the flora and fauna.  The sites and sounds of the waterfalls and ponds filled with Koi fish were  peaceful and calming.  But we were mostly entertained by the six young missionaries that we were blessed to hang out with for the morning.  Sister Matsushita is from Japan; we could feel her enthusiasm and love for her country as she shared with us Japanese traditions and memories from growing up.  

We had just dropped off Lalo (one of our YSA's) after FHE on Monday evening when I realized that we had spent most of our time hanging out with YSA's or missionaries that day.  I feel privileged to have this opportunity and blessing.  When we were getting ready to leave for FHE at 6:30 pm, I would much rather have stayed home with my PJ's on, laying on the couch.  But I'm glad we got to go to Game Night.  We brought our Swoop cards, and taught the group how to play.  We had a fun time laughing and trying to beat each other in the game.  (We forgot to take pictures.)

We went to District Council on Tuesday morning.  This is a time for the missionaries to be accountable for the previous weeks missionary work.  There is also some training time, and, their favorite, Role Playing!  They love to Role Play with Elder Hardy, he makes it so much fun for them.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday preparing food for Thanksgiving dinner.  We had asked the missionaries in our District and the YSA's if anyone needed a place to go for Thanksgiving dinner.  We ended up with two sets of missionaries and one of their friends.  We invited them to our apartment for dinner.  It was a small group, but we enjoyed talking about our family traditions and sharing our feelings of gratitude.  (Once again, I forgot to take pictures.)

Friday morning we decided we needed to get out.  We found a trail about 15 minutes from our apartment called Sweet Water.  We started at a campground, and thought we were on a trail that was going up a hill to look over the reservoir, but the trail took us to a golf course.  We ended up walking along the edge of the course.  It was nice to get out and get some exercise; we did about 6 miles.  

We took a few pictures of the scenery.

We did some visiting Saturday afternoon. The first house we went to we asked for James; his brother (that answered the door) said he wasn't home.  Then he proceeded to tell us the following:  When we were out visiting the week before, we visited one of James' friends.  While at the friends house, I asked for his phone # and he wrote it down on the paper I had listing all the people we were planning to visit.  Well, apparently this friend told James that he was on our list (must have seen his name when writing his phone #) and that we would probably be coming to visit.  So James' brother told us that when we came to the door, James was going to pretend not to be there so he didn't have to talk to us!  So we told the brother thanks for the info and gave him the chocolates that were intended for James!  

I will end this entry with an expression of gratitude for the Book of Mormon.  Lately, I've been thinking about how grateful I am for the BofM.  My life is changed because of this book.  Not only because Stan and I met in a BofM class at BYU, but there is so much to learn about how to live a righteous life.  There are many prophets and families in the BofM that teach me how to live.  The BofM teaches about Christ, His doctrines, and His eternal plan.  I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon.  I encourage all to read it everyday.