Feeding, Feeding, and Feeding! Homeless count, Mission Prep Class, and Senior Zone Conference

 This week turned out to be a FEEDING week!  Most of the day Tuesday & Wednesday, we were preparing and feeding approximately 50 Missionaries - Tuesday, it was the new Missionaries that had started their Missions recently, and Wednesday, lunch was for the young Missionary Zone and District Leaders and their companions!  Debbie made her family "sloppy joe" recipe to the delight of the Missionaries and her tasty Sand Lake Cookies and "puppy chow" (Chocolate covered rice-Chex).  Elder & Sister Stringham also contributed a pasta salad & vegetable tray, along with brownies.  We rounded it out with Costco crispy potato chips!

We were pretty exhausted after finishing cleaning up, but happy to be of service!

Tuesday night found us at institute again, helping with grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for the students.  Brother McKay led another great discussion pulling some study material from Elder Nelson's book "Heart of the Matter".  He emphasized that we all need to "begin with the end in mind" as we make decisions in our life.  If we want to live with God & our Family in the eternities, we can't live a telestial life now; we must make the choices that will lead us to the place in Heaven that we want!  President Nelson taught that there are 3 major truths that we must remember:

1. Each of us is going to die,

2.  Because of Jesus Christ, each of us is going to be resurrected, and

3.Each of us will have a personal interview with the Savior during which we will be judged!

Knowing these 3 inevitable facts, how does that influence our choices today?

Brother McKay reminded the students that even though they are single today, they are in a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, and that when they obtain an eternal marriage, the covenant relationship extends to their companion as well, making it a 3 way covenant relationship.  They are not alone!

Debbie loves to keep busy, so she signed us up as volunteers for San Diego County, who asked for people to go survey the "unsheltered" (homeless) in the area, something they do once a year.  We thought it might be unique & adventurous to do.  So our instructions were to go between 4am-8am to an area that they would assign us and first, count the number of homeless, and second, coax them to take a survey giving us their name, social security number, and other personal information, following which we would give them a $ 10 gift certificate and a new pair of socks!  Yes, I was a little skeptical that a homeless person trying to get some sleep outside, in the dark, would be willing to take this survey, so early in the morning, but undaunted, we tried to follow our instructions.  When we received our map of the area to search, it happened to be right where our Chapel is located and a fairly affluent area of homes in Chula Vista, although it did cover a "discovery park".  So we started driving driving around all the subdivisions in this area, mostly looking for suspect cars that might have a body sleeping in them.  Well, there were too many nice cars like Tesla's, Maserati's, BMW's, Mercedes, and nice Trucks parked in front of these nice homes and not any homeless tents in their yards, so we were getting a little discouraged!

So after finishing the houses in the affluent subdivisions, we drove to the discovery park & thought that maybe we would find a beat up looking car that might have someone sleeping in it on the street next to the park that was not in front of someone's house.  We drove slowly up the street & low and behold, we found an older car that seemed to have a body inside, so we parked our car about 30 feet behind the suspect car & got out of our car, slowing walking up when suddenly, a lady opened her door & jumped out of her car with a barking dog & screamed out at us, yelling "what do you want!!" and "get out of here!"  We tried to tell her we were taking a survey from the county, but she continued to yell and scream at us!  We quickly backed away & said we were leaving!!  Well, so much for our homeless survey!  At least we were able to report 1 "unsheltered" person in our whole area back to the county.

We felt bad for the homeless lady sleeping in her car.

We finally took time to sample a Filipino restaurant and their food, since we have a big Filipino population out here - it was delicious and reminded me a bit like Asian/Chinese food.

The YSA's continue to amaze me with their energy and variety of things they like to do.  Friday night was their activity night, and they brought in some pies for their "pie eating" contest.  First to get through the pies would win!  Some were a little reluctant to try, but after a little coaxing, they relented!  Debbie & I got to be the videographers!

We had our Senior Mission Zone Conference that captured our attention on Friday.  We love hanging out with the approximate 15 Senior Missionary couples in our Mission.  We had great messages from our Mission Leaders, with Sister Merritt sharing one of the touching stories of forgiveness found in Elder Anderson's book "The Divine Gift of Forgiveness" reminding us that all of us can access the Saviors cleansing power through His atonement.  President Merritt shared with us about the power of Love that Jesus Christ offers us and with His example of always turning outward in helping others.  Each of the Senior Missionary couples had an opportunity to share with the group some of the little miracles that we have experienced on our Missions, and it turned out to be some tender moments!

Our Missionary Preparation class on Sunday went well.  We talked about the Role of The Book of Mormon in the conversion process and how it is the Keystone of our religion.  We taught the students that "The Book of Mormon, combined with the Spirit, is the most powerful resource in conversion".  It is the keystone of our religion, and a compelling evidence that God called Joseph Smith as a prophet and restored the gospel of Jesus Christ through him.  As Missionaries, we must have confidence that the Holy Ghost will testify of the truth to anyone who reads and ponders the Book of Mormon and asks God if it is true with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ.  We had a fun time with the students doing some role playing with an approach introducing the Book of Mormon to "friends".

Have a great week!

Testimonies, Spirit of Elijah

We had our last District Council meeting before Transfers.  It seems I just get used to the missionaries in our group, grow to love them, then they get transferred!  It's the nature of a missionary  - always ready to go where asked.  It has become tradition for us to take our District (6 missionaries and us) to lunch at In 'n Out burger for lunch.  

I think most of you probably know that Stan is pretty competitive when it comes to driving.  So when the three sets of Elders got out of the Church parking lot before us, the race was on.  (It's really not much of a race considering that all the missionaries have a TIWI in their cars keeping them within a few miles of the speed limit!)  So we get to the In 'n Out parking lot and Stan notices that the Elders are just arriving.  So he jumped out of the car and hit the lock button on the door, but it wouldn't lock.  He tried again - no locking!  He asked me if my keys were in the car - they were not.  So he started walking away and said we'd just leave the car unlocked. Well, it bugged me that the car wouldn't lock.  So I opened the passenger door, and realized at that moment that the car was still running!  Stan had jumped out of the car so fast that he didn't think to turn off the engine! I hollered at him and he came back and turned the car off!  We laughed all the way to the restaurant!  

While most all of you were either in an ice storm or severe winter temperatures last week, we were outside grilling Teriyaki chicken for our Institute dinner.  We had grilled teriyaki chicken burgers with grilled fresh pineapple; it was delicious!  Just so you know - we were praying for your safety and well being and hoped you were keeping warm!  

This is Stan in our Institute kitchen with Brother Mackay, our Institute teacher.  

I had a chance to bear my testimony on Friday morning.  We went to pickle ball - and after awhile, I finished a game and everyone I was playing with went to a different court to play, so I decided to go for a walk with the time I had left before going home.  I was nearly back to the car after I had finished my route.  I decided to go on down the hill so I had to come back up to the car so I could get a little more exercise.  I was going to cross the street so I would be on the same side as the car, but then I decided to stay on the shady side instead.  As I walked down the hill, I saw a man working on his car.  As I approached him, I stopped and said "Hi".  Normally I would say "Hi" and keep walking, but this time I stopped.  He stopped his work and starting talking to me.  He told me that he had had a stroke a while back and is still trying to get his brain to think normally.  He told me his wife worked and he has four kids.  He mentioned the love of God and Jesus Christ in his life.  I told him I was a missionary for the Church, and that I would love to meet with his family to share a message of Jesus Christ.  I had a pass a long card with me, so I gave it to him.  It had a picture of Christ appearing to the Nephites.  I told him briefly about Christ coming to America to teach the people here after his resurrection.  I bore my testimony that Christ loves him and is aware of his family.  I invited him to call us to set up a time to share a message.  I don't know if we'll ever hear from him, but it was a good experience for me to share a few moments with him.

We had a rewarding experience Friday evening.  We met with one of our newly baptized young adults, Eric.  We've been trying to get together with him for a while to help him set up his Family Search account and begin adding his family to create his Family Tree.  After his baptism, we gave him a "My Family" booklet that allows him to write in names and memories of his parents, grandparents, etc.  Last week he sat down with his Mom and his 100 year old Grandma, and got quite a bit filled out.  He said his Grandma even gave him a book that has a lot of names of his ancestors. As he was typing in the names of his family, he was getting more and more excited.  He said this could be his new hobby!  You should have seen his face when he put in a great grandparent and Family Search populated his Tree and added several more generations.  As we looked closer, some even had their temple work done!  We are thinking that Eric may have cousins that are members of the Church.  He was thrilled.  We have a date to perform baptisms at the temple in March.  He is so excited.  It was definitely one of the most rewarding experiences we've had on our mission.  

We invited Jay, a newly baptized member, over for dinner last night.  We've been a little bit worried about him, because he's missed Church several times.  He is from Haiti, and we wonder if there is a communication issue, and maybe he doesn't understand as much as we might think.  We were looking forward to spending some time getting to know him better.  I made salmon, roasted potatoes, and a salad for dinner.  Dinner time came and went.  Stan texted him and called and left a message.  We finally ate dinner without him.  He called a bit later, and explained that he had been called  in to work. We'll try again another time.  

We decided that there was too much food for us, so we called the sisters that live across the parking lot and invited them over to get some food.  They are a fun threesome; one from Alabama, one from Japan, and a third (just arrived in the mission Friday) from Tonga.  They are definitely a multi-cultural companionship.

Tonight we held our second Mission Prep class.  Last week we had nine youth come.  Today we nearly doubled our numbers - we had 17!  We were pretty excited as they kept on coming.  One of the young men told us that he graduated from high school last week.  I asked him what he was going to do with his time now.  He said he's preparing to serve a mission.  Loved his answer!

We certainly do love this work that we are about - the Lord's work!  We are truly blessed.  Thank you all for your love and support.

Olympian Peter Vidmar, New Mission Prep Class

 Greetings to all of you!  This week we started back on some of the programs that were going last year, fixing meals for the new institute class on Tuesday nights.  It seems like some of the same people are coming back, with an occasional newby, but we have been happy to see them & welcome them back!  Our District meetings are ongoing each week, and the Monday night Family Home Evening plus Friday night Sports/Activity nights have started back up!!  

On our Family Home Evening night, we were invited to put down on paper some of our goals for 2024,  so the end result for Debbie was a cute visual "Goal" with mini goals in each of the letters to match up with the four areas of development suggested by the Church (Intellectual, Spiritual, Social, & Physical).

Although I had a few goals, I chose to do an illustration of one of my playful ones!

Yes, I think I am a little too addicted to pickleball!!

We always like to support the Young Missionaries, so we had several lessons with their friends during the week.  They have several progressing towards baptism coming up - but we did have one with Michael on Saturday, who had gone back and forth for months, but finally decided to get baptized - he was quite nervous about getting immersed in the water & it took coaxing from our Mission President, the Ward Mission Leader, and the baptizer Missionary before he finally got up enough courage to get dunked ALL the way under - but he did!!  As a side note, they couldn't find someone to play the piano, so they asked me at the last minute, so I played for the service, and played some of my hymn arrangements while waiting for Michael to get changed after the baptism.  I was grateful to be able to participate, and felt really good when the chorister came up after the meeting to say that my music had really touched her.  Baptisms are a sacred ordinance and the Holy Ghost always seems to be in attendance as people enter the covenant path with Jesus Christ at the center.

The Stake invited Debbie and I to teach a Missionary Prep Class for all the high school seniors in the Stake plus any Young Single Adults that are also planning on going on a mission, so we started our first of 6 lessons on Sunday.  Although we had talked to & invited many to come, we ended up with about 9 who "actually" came.  It turned out to be really fun and the high school seniors said that they enjoyed it!

Although it had challenged our "tech" skills to get the projector, power point slides, and laptop all in sync, everything came together well!

To end our week, the Mission heavily promoted a Sunday night devotional that featured 2 time LDS gymnastics Olympic Gold medalist, Peter Vidmar (1984 Olympics) as a featured speaker, along with some inspirational music and 2 new members sharing their testimony.  So we went to work & ended up inviting at least 6 of our friends but unfortunately none of them could come, so we watched it on "Facebook live".  It turned out to be a wonderful spiritual event. Peter Vidmar spoke (and showed a clip) about his training, Olympic experience, & those who helped him along the way. He shared how his coach had a great impact on him to never give up even when the going gets tough - when Peter did his last Pommel Horse routine in the finals, he had to get a perfect 10.0 which tied him for the Gold medal in a difficult moment!  He spoke of the great influence that his Dad (who suffered from Polio) had on him and the family motto that was "Vidmars' weren't quitters".  He spoke of his gratitude for the Gospel, and his love for the Savior & Redeemer as well as many other inspirational insights.  

I would encourage everyone to watch this devotional - It was recorded on the "Come unto Christ in San Diego" face book page that you can find by going to your face book account, and typing in the search button: "Come Unto Christ in San Diego"  followed by scrolling down just a little to the videos and find the "Why I Believe with Peter Vidmar".  It is close to 1 1/2 hours long, but is well worth your time!

We are thankful for the many opportunities that this Mission has given to us and hope we can do more to help the Lord gather Israel during the next 6 months!

 Happy New Year!, Testimony, Rosca de Reyes, Senior FHE, YSA Ward

Here is what I wrote in my Journal on New Years Day!  

"Happy New Year!  It's like opening a very large container and you can't see what is inside.  You just have to jump in and, one day at a time, and in 365 days, we'll view it all!"  Kind of crazy, but that's how I could best describe what beginning a new year feels like.

The missionaries experienced a fun treat for New Years Day.  Half of the mission (the other half of the mission did these same activities on Christmas Day, a week ago) all met at Ocean Beach.  The missionaries have a hard and fast rule of no touching the sand!  That means no beach for them.  But on this one day of exception, they all swarmed to the beach, wearing their casual clothes, ready for a beach cleanup.  After the clean up, there were donuts and hot chocolate and beach volleyball and other games.  It was such a fun joyful afternoon for them, and us, too!  

Can you see Stan out their on the court?  He just can't resist playing with the youngsters!

When we were ready to leave, Stan suggested we find a place to get some dinner.  So I pulled up my phone to see what I could find.  When I saw "Hodads" listed, I knew we had to go there.  The Allen's, from our Northbridge ward who served  at the Mormon Battalion, had told us about this restaurant.  This is how they described it:  "It looks grungy, but just beachy, and so good and worth it.  All the missionaries know about it."  It's a local hamburger, onion ring and milkshake kind of place.  So we went there.  It was exactly how they described it.  As you can see from the pictures, the walls are covered with license plates, etc.  The food was great, but as I laid in bed that night with my stomach girgling, I decided that meal was a heart attack in waiting!  I sure can't (or shouldn't) eat like that anymore!  But it was fun, and we're glad we did it once!  Thanks Allen's!

We had several opportunities to meet with the Elders at their teaching appointments this week.  This is one of our favorite things to do; to meet with and help to help teach and bear testimony to the friends of the missionaries.  One evening we received a call from a set of Elders asking if we could meet with them in 30 minutes to help with an appointment.  We were at the grocery store at the time, and by the time we finished and got home to put the food away, we would be too late.  So the Elders suggested that maybe they could call and we could bear testimony at the end of their lesson on the phone.  I agreed.  

So after we finished at the grocery store, I dropped Stan off at our apartment with the food, and headed to another store to get a few things they didn't have at the first.  I had just finished my purchases and got in the car when my phone rang.  It was the Elders asking me to share my testimony.  I asked them what their lesson had been on, and he said it was on Temples.  Well, I love to talk about the temple.  So as I bore my testimony of my love for the temple, I could feel the Spirit.  When I finished, I told them I felt a sweet spirit and asked them if they felt it as well.  They said they did, too.  I commented on how distance doesn't matter, we could all feel the spirit together.  As I drove home, I pondered over what a sweet spirit I felt in the grocery store parking lot.

It's been three weeks since we've had a YSA activity (because of all the Holidays).  It was so good to get back together again, with the few that came.  We were wondering where everyone was, when three Hispanic young men came in; none of us knew who they were.  Apparently the Elders had visited with them earlier in the day and invited them to our activity.  I'm so glad they came, we sure needed them.  The gal  in charge of the activity found out that one of them is her neighbor.  It seemed like a few of the YSA's had some kind of connection with them.  I think they had a positive experience.  

We also celebrated Rosca de Reyes, Three Kings Day.  The Hispanic culture  has a tradition of "eating the decorated bread 12 days after Christmas, marking the day when Christians believe the Three Wise Men followed the star to Bethlehem and arrived with gifts for baby Jesus."  There is a plastic baby baked into the cake, and whoever gets the baby, they are supposed to make homemade tamales for their friends.  Guess who got the baby?  Me!  I told them they have to teach me how to make tamales.  

We had a fun time playing Telestrations.  One thing we learned is that the young adults have a different language and thought process than us Seniors do!  Sometimes we just don't get what they're talking about!  It's all fun! 

Last night we enjoyed a gathering with all the Senior Missionaries for a yummy meal and some musical games and activities.  My two favorite things about serving a mission are rubbing shoulders with the young missionaries, and gleaning from the older and wiser Senior missionaries.  At least we know their language!

Today we taught our last Temple Prep class.  I wish we had taken a picture.  We've loved this opportunity to teach these choice young people about the temple, and share our love for the temple with them.  I look forward to seeing many of them make the decision to move forward on the Covenant Path.  

This morning at Ward Council, I was sitting by our ward Mission Leader, Charlie.  He is in the Navy.  I turned to him and asked him how he felt about all the activity that is going on in the Middle East right now.  He said "That's what I signed up for."  It stirred my heart to hear his reply and see the  determination on his face to serve our country.  I thanked him.  I'm grateful for young people like Charlie.