July 27, 2014

Grandpa's crepes!  

We made it through the week!  Lots of classes and lots of lesson planning but we did it!  Monday was a play day with Brett, Jen and kids.  We went to the beach just down the street from the Institute.  It is nice there because it is a private access so there just aren't as many people there.  Yup, we are spoiled being here at the Institute!  We were able to borrow a surf board from someone here at the Institute and Cayden was able to try his hand at surfing We also borrowed boogie boards for every one else.  It was a nice day to play in the beach.  Not too hot with a nice little breeze.  We then went home and showered and met them for dinner in Old Town and on to the Mormon Battalion.  What a fun day with everyone!  We just love going to the Battalion and hugging our girls there too!  San Diego weather ahhhhhhhhhh.

Cayden going out to catch some
waves!

Tuesday was a busy day with a small group at 10:00 with Mesa College, another small 2:30 class at  UCSD and then a big class at the Institute building here in La Jolla that evening.  Oh my goodness, I have gained so much respect for Seminary and Institute teachers!  It is such a challenge to teach that many different things and have them all in your mind at the same time.  I have to admit that I goofed up a bit and taught things from other lessons but hey, it is all the gospel right?  Tuesday night the kids came over and we had some great card games.  Oh it is so fun to have family around.  We get to feeling like we are a bit forgotten and alone out here!  While we were teaching the classes we sent Brett and family to the cruise of the bay and to the aircraft carrier museum and got them on for free with connections we have made here.  We actually broke tradition by NOT going to Rubio's for fish tacos on Tuesday.  We will have to remedy that next week.

Our personal recital! 

We played hooky a bit on some of the things that we do here to spend more time with the kids.  Brett, Roger and kids went to the beach again and I made Jen go with me to take one of the ladies from our ward to a doctor appointment.  While she was in her appointment. we went to a fun lunch at California Pizza Kitchen!  We took her back home and got some real pampering getting a pedicure (my first while here!) and Cold Stone!  What fun!  I felt like a real girl for a few hours.  It was so nice to have time to catch up with Jen and enjoy her.  We had to say goodbye to them that evening and it was sad to see them go.  We had our own personal recital with Cayden and Ellie before they left.  Quick but fun visit.  Thanks guys!

Ellie singing and playing!

Thursday was two more classes.  We went all prepared to teach the Thursday morning class and no one showed up.  Everyone at the office kept saying it was probably because it was Pioneer Day??  That is a joke because no one really knows about that in San Diego or celebrates it but it consoled us a bit.  The good thing about that is that we are all prepared for Tuesday's class!  We stayed and helped at the office until I had to leave and go to a doctor appointment and Roger had to leave to teach our Thursday afternoon class.  He was able to take one of the mission cars so that we could could two different directions and not leave one stranded.  It made a big difference.  After my appointment, I was supposed to meet with Maurie whose son tried to commit suicide last week but she ended up canceling.  We met Maurie through the tour guide association and have a great friendship with her.  She has always said that she could never be a Mormon but that she admires us and how we live.  She asked us to have the missionaries teach her son who is mildly autistic and needs friends.  So he has been having them over for awhile and has attended church.  He then moved to Escondido - away from his mom and has started smoking pot and not seeing missionaries.  He drove to a public place last week, got out of his car and slit his wrists and stabbed himself in the stomach!  He lived because he did it in such a public place.  What is interesting is when Maurie found out about her son one of the first people she called was us and wanted me to pray for her and to have "those people in the temple pray too".  I had told her a bit about the prayer circle and how we put names in there.  She knows where power is and comes from.  That felt good.  We relaxed that night, took a walk around this beautiful place we are staying in and played some Rummicub!

Friday an interesting day!  Nothing is as consistent as change they say!  Well our mission seems to be a living example of that principle.  Things are going to change a lot for us soon.  We had an appointment with the Mission President at noon.  I know, you aren't supposed to guess what he wants to talk to you about but of course we did.  We thought that he wanted us to bridge the gap between the office couple who will be leaving in August and the new one that is coming to replace them in September.  Some how Salt Lake goofed a bit and the office really can't go with out someone doing their jobs.  The wife is in charge of all of the finances, referrals and needs of the missionaries.  The husband is in charge of all of the apartments, furnitures, supplies, cell phones etc.  But instead of asking us to bridge the gap he asked us to take over those duties after the one leaves in August!

Left of me is Sister Painter, then Sister Van Orman, then
Sister Brown and Sister Van Alfen.

The new couple that is coming has expressed their lack of computer experience and their desire to do other things.  So we are gong to take over those duties and the mission president said that he would have the other couple help us when they get here so that we can still work with some of the people that we are helping in our wards.  No - this isn't a job we aspired to.  We went to the office to help out because we felt sorry for those that worked there because it is hard work and they seem so over worked.  We even talked about telling the mission president no if he asked us to do that.  We both feel that you do what you are asked to do by someone in authority so I don't think we would really ever say no but - we talked about it.  But when he asked it feels like we should do it.  We have been blessed with wonderful assignments and we have totally loved all we have been asked to do.  I don't doubt that we will love this too.  We just have to have the right attitude!  We are bound and determined to love it.

From left to right around the table
 - Elder Brown, Elder Van Alfen, Roger,
Elder Painter, Elder Van Orman

That night we had a Member and Leadership Support Missionaries dinner.  We meet together to talk about what we do because we have such a different calling and we get good ideas from each other.  We also really have enjoyed these people and love meeting with them.  They are great cooks too!  We usually split up with men at one table and the women at the other.  It is easier than to try to talk with 12 people and we each get to learn different things from our group and then share with each other.  We will miss them.  Three of the couple leave in August and September and one leaves in November.

The missionaries praying before a service project.

We inspected apartment of the missionaries on Saturday morning.  I do the sister's apartments and Roger does the elders.  One of the sister companionships asked if I would drive them to a service project they were having that day after I inspected their apartment.  They don't have a car and would have to walk an hour to get there if I didn't take them!  And they don't even complain - they just do it.  I took a picture as the group of sisters and elders were praying before they took off for service.  What a group of great kids!  I just love their commitment to service and love and give the credit to the Lord!  Humbling!

The Institute - If you look closely you can see Roger
walking down the steps from our
apartment above the Institute

Our Sunday was packed full of church meetings, good people, lessons, hugging etc.  We put a roast in the crock pot before we left and had a wonderful "Sunday roast".  Oh it tasted so good.  We were able to eat out on the deck of our little swanky apartment that we are in for about another week.  I took some pictures of the outside.  I will take more this week so you can see how spoiled we are.  Ryan and Tenille come this week so they will also be able to use our apartment while here.  And then we will have to go back to our little place.  We have enjoyed being so close to the students in the Institute here and being able to go on walks around the millions and millions of dollar houses around here.  There is actually one 35 million dollar home a few blocks away and another 25 million dollar one.  All of the rest are over 3 million.

Our little Sunday dinner on the porch!

Well by next week at this time we will probably we a bit nuts trying to figure out all that we are supposed to be doing at the office.  We do have about a month until the couple leaves so we should be able to get up to speed by then.  It will be a change - a big one for us.  We will have more evening time but will be busy all day long doing office stuff.  Wish us luck and keep praying for us!

The church is true!  I love the gospel and the spirit that testifies of it.  There is just joy and happiness in the service of the Lord.

July 21, 2014

Howdy,

"That's why this building has been built to look so old."

We have had a fun week with being able to be with Dave, Heather, Landon and Dalten! We spent Monday getting ready for lessons for the week and moved a few things out of our place to the Institute apartment.  We are staying in a wonderful two bedroom apartment for the next month that is above the Institute to help out until the new missionary couple comes.  The timing is great because Heather and family were able to stay in our place while here.  They showed up Monday night.  Tuesday is a busy day for us.  We taught our Institute class and did our shift at the temple visitor's center.

 We were able to get time to go to dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and then go through the tour at the Mormon Battalion.  Since we were the only ones on the tour at the time, Roger was able to join in with Sister Saathoff and "do his thing" with the first room.  He was a little rusty - we haven't done the tour in over four months but if you didn't know the tour you wouldn't have been able to tell.  It was fun but he didn't quite look the part with his white shirt and tie!

We always love going back there and hugging the Sisters.  It is getting so that we don't know about half of them now though.  We have been gone from there for quite awhile.  That is what happens on missions.  The missionaries come and get into your heart and then they go home and move on with their lives.  One of the sister missionaries Chantel Jarett, that we served with there at the Battalion just called me Saturday and told me that she is engaged!  While she was here, her district leader was a missionary in our ward, that we are assigned to, Reuben Johnson.  I kept telling her that I thought they would make a good match.  I told him too and when she went home they started dating!  I am quite proud of my matchmaking skills!  I think that makes me family and I can't wait to watch what they do with their lives. I love them both and wish the best for them.  

Tuesday night was a ward softball game that Roger needed to help the ward out with - missions can be so hard as a senior couple!  Poor Roger.  I stayed and went to the Tuesday night Institute class.  We are supposed to teach that class next Tuesday and we wanted to know where they get to in the lessons and how things go before next Tuesday.

Dalten as a soldier

We were able to get to the beach with Stewarts on Wednesday and then had to head off to plan and then to teach our ward Bible study class after.

Thursday they headed off to play on their own while we taught our Institute class and worked at the office.  There is getting less for me to do there but there is always a lot for Roger.  I have helped the ladies catch up on their things and we have actually prepared ahead of the game too.  So we are all ready for the 21 new missionaries who show up in two weeks.  There are packets of all kinds of things for them to sign and to read along with instructions and hint on how to be a great missionary here in San Diego.  Lots of different languages represented in the new missionaries - Tagalog, English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and Laotian.  Roger helps with getting the "needs" together for the missionaries and that is an ongoing job.  Each week the missionaries call in and have a list of the things they need.  Some of the items are for their apartments -everything from  a new blender because they blew up their old one - yup that really happened, to ironing boards, pans, etc.  They also call in a list of the missionary materials they might need - copies of the Book of Mormon, mormon.org cards, pamphlets etc.  It is quite a job and each Tuesday the zone leaders come pick up the things that they ordered.  It looks a bit like Christmas on Tuesdays at the office!

Anyone that comes has to have a card game
or two with us.  We had some good ones!

They also pick up all of the mail for the missionaries.  All the mail from their friends and family is supposed to go to the office and then we sort it in to the zone buckets each day so it can be taken out to each different missionary.  So if their family mails something that arrived here on Wednesday the missionary doesn't get it until the next Tuesday.  It is amazing to me to see all of the boxes of goodies and junk that is sent to the missionaries.  They say that Christmas is horrible!  I can only imagine.

Friday was a challenging day for me.  Not because I was so busy but because I wasn't.  Everything that I was supposed to do fell through.  There are days like that in my life but out here in the mission field it just seems worse.  We are supposed to stay busy doing good things.  I was going to help at the office but they didn't need me.  I thought that I would stay home and get some things done here but our Internet at the Institute wasn't working well and it made it really hard to get the things done I needed to.  I then was supposed to take 3 ladies from our ward to the family history center but one didn't get done with work in time and we had to cancel.  So I basically sat around all day waiting for things to happen that didn't happen.

This is a picture of Siela at the ward BBQ.
She is the onewho helped me make blankets for the
family babies and keeps bringing more
things to send to them.  She isn't a
member but come to all the ward parties!
She is an angel.  

Friday night was our ward BBQ.  Monthly during the summer, the ward has a BBQ at the shores of Mission Bay.  It is always a great activity to invite investigators to.  Very casual and laid back.  Lots of members came and we had several investigators there.  Afterwards the Stewart gang came over for one last card game.

Saturday we had Heather's family come over for the traditional crepe breakfast before heading off to Vegas.  It was sure fun to see them and hug them all.  It was hard to say good bye.  Roger did the laundry while I took the ladies to the Family History Center.  We got the apartment all put back together for Brett and Jen's family to come the next day and headed off for the Stake Pioneer Day Celebration.

That was a great event!  Lots of people came and we had many inactive and investigators there too.  Boy they will think that all the church does is play!  Roger said the opening prayer for the event.  They had BBQ beef from a great restaurant here in San Diego and then people all brought sides and desserts.  They had a jump house, and a live band.  They won't take over Cory's place in the band world but it was fun.  They were all grey haired and played stuff I know!  They were supposed to have a candy cannon but it broke so they had all of the missionaries at the count of three throw out candy over the hordes of children waiting.  I thought I took lots of pictures but they didn't come through I guess.  Can't find them.

Larry and Rita Nixon

One of the investigators that came is Rita.  Her husband, Larry is a member but has been inactive for a long time.  He joined the church while in boot camp but then left the church.  He was a army photographer and experienced and had to document so many horrible things while in the army he wasn't sure that God was someone he wanted to know.  He has gone through PTSD and has been depressed and for most of his life.  He and Rita were just married and they decided that life is good - they have both worked through so many trials.  Larry  asked Rita if she would like to investigate the church and see if she agreed and she said that she would like to do that.  So Larry got online and "ordered us up some missionaries!"  He said that FOUR HOURS later our two elders knocked at their door.

Amazing huh?  What happens is the second that the church gets the request - their address is put into the system and the missionaries who have the cell phone for that area get a text.  That quickly.  Kinda cool huh?  Rita is enjoying the gospel lessons and the people that she is meeting and has set a date for December to be baptized!  The elder's job is to teach the investigators and it is our job to help fellowship them.    Pray for Rita that she will keep the feelings that she is experiencing now and follow through with baptism.

  Sunday was a hard day for us.  It seems that both of us were exceptionally tired and eight plus hours of church are hard to get through when you are so tired!  But we did it and when we got home, Brett, Jen, Cayden and Ellie were here!

What fun!  We fixed a dinner and were able to play some card games before they left to go home.  Ellie played us a wonderful song on her guitar and Cayden played the piano for us.  Wow!  They are amazing and it just makes us so proud to hear how all their hard work - and their parents hard work has paid off.

We both tried to work on our lesson plans for this week but we didn't do too well.  Kept falling asleep so we went to bed by 10:00!  That is early for us but we were pooped.  Hoping for better concentration tomorrow!

This week scares us a bit with 6 lessons to teach but I am sure we will get through it.  There won't be much missionary work done this week.  Please keep praying for us.  We feel your prayers and are sustained by them.  Life is good.  We love our mission.

July 13, 2014

Sundays seems to come closer and closer together each week.  We are getting excited to have Dave, Heather and boys here this next week!  We are moving to the apartment over the Institute building to help out there and Heather and family will stay here in our place - the timing works well!

Our new Mission President and his wife.
President and Sister Schmidt

The first Monday of each month is set aside for a Senior Couple's Family Home Evening.  This last Monday was the first one with our new mission president so we were able to have them come and introduce their darling family and each other to us.  It was a delightful evening with a great family.  They have 4 kids and they are amazing.  They showed us the video of when they opened up the email that said were they were going to be assigned for THREE years!  They were all so excited.  They are from Texas have come to San Diego for their family vacation each summer for many years.  It is their favorite vacation spot.  They were all yelling, "We are going to be on vacation for three years!"  They have traveled all around the mission this last week and each one of the kids has given a talk at "Meet the President" meetings.  We are all excited to be a part of this new era in the mission.  They seem like such a wonderful family and Pres. and Sis. Schmidt are amazing.  Both about 40 years old.  They have left their jobs, sold their home and really put everything aside to come and serve the Lord.  Amazing.

Next week we will be teaching several big Institute classes for the director because he will be out of town in meetings.  We are a little nervous about that.  He is teaching a series of lesson on patterns from the scriptures that help with solving problems.  Yup, how do you step in and teach one of those lessons?  No manual.  So we decided that we would go to his lesson this last Wednesday night and see how it goes.  There were over 30 wonderful, intelligent students - many who are in doctorate programs here at UCSD - and he gave a great lesson on Joseph Smith's prayer and vision and the challenges that came from that.  It wasn't the typical Joseph Smith story though because he talked about the problems he had individually and then how he was able to learn skills along the way to solve the problems that came along.  It was beautiful and scares us even more to try to teach that group.  The classes we have been teaching have been so laid back with 1-5 kids each time and we are able to relax and enjoy them.  This will be like real teaching!

Some of the tour guides at our meeting.

Along with all of the regular assignment we had a San Diego Professional Tour Guide meeting on one of the ships in the Maritime Museum at the harbor.  It was a great place to have a meeting. After, we were able to tour the other ships and submarine in the museum collection.  It was a beautiful night and so fun to be with our friends.  Actually it was only me that was there because we also had a meeting with the Ward Missionary council.  We had to divide and conquer.

Our dear Vera!  

I have to come and sit in the front and take notes of each meeting and then read my notes from the previous meeting at the first of each gathering.  I also keep the email lists up and send out emails when we have events and meetings.  I help put together a newsletter which goes on our website to keep everyone informed.  There are over 100 guides in the group and they are such an interesting group of people.  They sent us a gift card the other day for $50 to spend at some great restaurants in town.  I was amazed.  They keep being so impressed that we would just donate our time to help them and are so generous and grateful.  I told them that the blessings won't be there if I get gifts for serving but they just laughed!

This is Irina.  She is another guide who we
have grown to love and admire. She is from
Russia.

It is such a huge miracle that we were able to meet these people.  Vera got really sick after the 4th of July and called and asked us to pray for her.  She has shingles and was in lots of pain.  I told her about Priesthood blessings and how they work on faith and asked her if she would like one.  She was thrilled and we were able to go over and teach them about blessings and faith and then Roger and our high councilman gave her a beautiful blessing and blessed her that she would be healed.  The Spirit was so strong in their home!  What a sweet experience.  It is now 5 days later and she is feeling so much better already.  She has so much faith and trust in God and his ability to perform miracles.  She is amazing and it was a highlight of our mission so far.


 Our ward has a softball team and Roger has been able to play with them on it every now and then.  It is, of course, not "real" softball because it is slow pitch but he is enjoying playing with the other guys in the ward.  

He is getting the reputation of "the guy to beat" at the Institute Ping Pong table.  We stopped in to the Institute tonight to take a few things over to our new little home away from home and they were having a birthday party for one of the kids.  It turned in to a bit longer stay than we thought when the ping pong games started!  I think that we won all but one game tonight and that was a gift to the birthday boy!  He was also asked to give a blessing to a darling new convert from China.  She is going back to China in a month and trying to get geared up to be able to handle the challenges that are sure to face her there.  

I got called to go on splits with the sister missionaries in our stake.  They are in a trio and needed to get lots done.  But the day that we were supposed to go out, one of the sisters wasn't feeling well.  So I ended up going over to their apartment and babysitting her while the others went out visiting.  It was nice because I had a lesson in Relief Society on Baptism to prepare for and it gave me lots of time to put the finishing touches on it while she slept.  There was a baptism that night that she didn't feel she should go to either  so I brought her to our apartment and fixed some chicken fried stake and mashed potatoes with country gravy for us all.  It is always nice to have time to cool a real meal.  These sister missionaries are wonderful and it is always so enlightening for me to spend time with them and hear their hearts.  They all three came today and sang a song for my lesson, "If the Savior Stood Beside You".  Oh it was beautiful and Sister Thaler was feeing so much better.  She sang like an angel.  Must have been the chicken friend steak!  

It is very late - so off I go to bed to start a new wonderful week in the morning!

Moon over San Diego

July 6, 2014

Wow!  This week went really fast!  Busy, busy, busy.

Our week schedule is starting to feel a bit like a routine.  Tuesday and Thursday is a Mesa College Institute class.  Tuesday is always temple visitor's center from  12-3.  Wednesday night is our Ward Bible study class and Thursday and Friday we work at the Mission Office.  We spent a lot of time studying for the three different lessons that we had this week.  I don't know how those Institute teachers do it.  Not this week but the next one we will have 6 lessons in one week - all on different subjects!

The highlights for the week:  We got to meet our new Mission President.  He seems a little overwhelmed and full of energy.  It will be fun to get to know him.  Here's the church's write up on him and his family.

California San Diego Mission

Jonathan S. and Alexis U. Schmitt

Jonathan Stephen Schmitt, 40, and Alexis Swain Udall Schmitt, four children, Silverlake Ward, Friendswood Texas Stake. Brother Schmitt serves as a stake president and is a former counselor in a stake presidency, high councilor, bishop and missionary in the California Fresno Mission. Attorney and litigation counsel, Baker Hughes Incorporated. Born in Mesa, Ariz., to Robert Edward Schmitt and Dianne Lyda Farley.

Sister Schmitt serves as a ward missionary and is a former counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency, ward Relief Society teacher, gospel doctrine teacher, stake public affairs specialist and missionary in the California Anaheim Mission. Medical doctor, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Born in Santa Fe, N.M., to John Nicholas Udall Jr. and Iris Roslyn Lillywhite.

Monday night was FHE with the YSA ward.  We had a picnic at the La Jolla shores beach.  There is always a lot of food at these things and lots of great kids to talk to.  We will be sad when the summer is over and the new senior couple comes.  We love this assignment to be involved with them!

Most of these kids in this picture are our Mesa College Institute class.  KK (front right) is a convert of about 6 months
and is amazing.  

 Tuesday night was ushering at the White Theatre in Balboa Park.  There are several theaters there and we usually usher at the Old Globe Theatre.  But this play was in the newly renovated theatre in the round.  It is a beautiful facility and a great place to see a play.  No seat is bad there.  We got to see a premier of the play "Dog and Pony".  It was a fun musical.

The walkway from the theatre.  Balboa Park is wonderful.

The 4th of July was a great day here.  It started at 7:00 with our 12th ward Flag Ceremony.  We had great talks a nice choir and a wonderful breakfast of eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy (yes, I thought of my boys as I ate the biscuits and gravy) fruit, juices etc.  Lots of the ward showed up - amazing huh? 7:00 AM ?????    But it was so well done and a great way to start the day.

























The office is still open on holidays so we went over and worked hard to get some things done early so that the regular senior missionaries could get off early and play a bit.  We did take a minute for a flag ceremony of sorts of our own!  Elder Trotter wasn't in to it much so he just sat at his desk while we said the pledge of allegiance.

Notice the flag taped on the back of the chair!  It was all we had.  Elder Trotter is in the chair being the 4th of
July Scrooge.  His wife in the one in pink.  Elder and Sister Soffe are on either side of Roger.  They are all
fun people who do a ton of work for the good of the mission!  

 Our friends Vera and Charles invited us to their home for a BBQ, games and fireworks!  What a treat that was.  It is always nice to be in a real home and theirs is full of love and nice people.  They put on a feast of fish, chicken and beef kabobs, lots of summer salads and yummy appetizers.  We love these people and feel honored that they invited us to celebrate with their family.  It felt so warm and cozy.

My friend Vera and her grandkids, Nicole and Michael.  And of course the food!  This was just the starters!

 We ate till we were chuck full and then played some games while waiting for the fireworks from their patio.

To the left of Roger is Vera, then around the table is her grand daughter Nicole, daughter Michelle, son Michael, husband
Charles and son-in-law Neil.  

The view from the porch.  That is Mission Bay in the background.

There were five different firework shows going on at the same time.
Four of them were synchronized to each other and music.  I know
my picture isn't that good but you get the point!

This is Sister Teanoa.  She is a part of the family by the way!  I am hoping that she will come
stay with us for a bit when she comes to BYU to college.  She is from Kiribati.  Look that one up!

Sister Teanoa, Cree Amendola and brother

 Sister Amendola came back for a visit and I was able to go to the Battalion and meet her family!  What a beautiful family and it was so fun to be able to see her again and get a tour from Sister Teanoa!  Love that girl!  

The old lady and Cree

The Amendola's live in Eagle Mountain and Cree works for DoTerra.  She is adorable and talented (beautiful voice) and I am accepting interviews for possible dates for her!  Really I don't think she will have a hard time getting dates on her own.  It is always so much fun to see the girls as they return.  And yes, I know that I look awfully old when I take a picture with them but for some reason I still want one!

Amendola family!

We were able to get in several good visits with people that we have not been able to find to visit before.  So many times people hide from us or don't answer the door.  Some are not friendly at all.  Those ones are scary at times.  Here in San Diego everyone has these metal screen doors that are horrible.  They can see you through them but you can't see them.  So often times people just talk to you through that door and you can't even get a visual of who or what you are talking to!  But every now and then ........you actually get someone who opens the screen and talks to you on their porch.  Now we are getting somewhere......  But this week we actually got a man to let us in his home in to the entry way and talked to us.  We didn't get the invite to sit but hey, it is an improvement.  Then a great lady actually invited us in her home, had us sit down and talked to us for about an hour.  Wow!  We scored!  It was good to talk to her.  She has some concerns about her activity and is about to marry a non-member.  She is questioning if the church "is a good fit for her".  It was good to hear her concerns and be able to relay them back to the ward to see if we can help her.

I got a call from Vera this morning and she has shingles that has just showed up today!  She is in a lot of pain.  Will you do me a favor and offer a prayer for Vera Held?  She is such a wonderful, giving person and I hate to see her suffer.  She called to ask us to pray for her and I told her about Fast Sunday and what we do and told her we would fast for her and pray too.  I explained that there is great power when you both fast and pray for something.  I explained about blessings and she is going to get one tomorrow.  :)

We are excited to have Heather and Brett's family coming in the near future!  Can't wait.  And our friends Ron and Linda Snowden will be here in August!  It is so nice to have some faces from home.  Yesterday was our 11 month anniversary!  Wow!  It is hard to believe that we have been here that long.  We love our mission and the opportunities and that we are getting to be involved in so many different ways.  People ask us what we are doing while here and we say, "One of everything!"  We seem to be getting so many different assignments and we love it that way.  Never a dull moment and when it looks like there might be one Roger heads to the ocean and I head to the pool!

We pray for you at home and miss you so much!  Letters, emails and texts are always appreciated!  Fill us in on what you are all doing this summer.  Well - off to the races...............