Roger and Martsy's California San Diego Mission: August 3, 2014

Oh my! It has been two days less than one full year that we left on our mission! Wow! It seems like it has been forever since we have been home and it hardly seems any time at all that we have been here. Strange. We have totally loved our mission and are looking forward to our new adventure in the office. Really I am a bit scared about the office thing but am going to have a good attitude and all of you are going to pray for me that I will be able to have the brain power to do it all and I will be fine! I really believe that the Lord knows who he has called to do this work and knows that He will have to help me so that I can do it. It isn't my strength. I am good with talking to and loving people. I can do that easily because I really do love people. But finances for a huge organization! Oh my!

P-day needs

We started out the week with our first FULL day at the office. We got there at 8:00 am and had a devotional with the other office couples. They I started on packaging the "needs" for the missionaries. This is what a part of it looks like after we are done. All of their mail for the week and any of the things that they called in to order is placed on these shelves and each zone takes their stuff and delivers it to the missionaries in their zone. It took me most of the day to get everything packaged and organized. I will get faster when I know better where things are stored. We were pooped when we got home 9 hours later and got a phone call from one of the ladies in our ward and she needed a ride to urgent care so I took her. We fell into bed tired that night.

Kilee wasn't really great at pool but she had
tons of fun and had us all laughing!

Tuesday and Thursday we had Institute classes and office. Ryan, Tenille and family showed up Tuesday night! It was soooo good to see them and hug them. We were able to spend some time during a couple of days with them at the beach and they came over one morning for Grandpa's crepes. We also played games several nights and spend Saturday afternoon with them taking advantage of all of the fun things at the Institute. We were able to see a DVD of their dance performance on the big screen there too. We just couldn't figure out how to make the sound work..... Oh well. They were able to stay in our apartment too and have some free rent.

Emmie and Seth enjoying the Institute games

Too bad we can't keep up this arrangement much longer! It has been great to have a place for family to stay and a great place to play too! We were able to take them down to the same private access beach so that we were there without all of the crowds. We hear that the other beaches are just wall to wall people so we are thrilled we can be spoiled this way.

This week was full of time at the office trying to get up to speed there and time with Ryan and family. Wednesday night Bible study class went really well. Every one, including us, are really enjoying studying the Pearl of Great Price.

Seth

We had an assignment on Saturday at the Clairemont Family Day Celebration. Clairemont is the area of San Diego where our ward is and they had a fun event that day. The Mormon Battalion had a booth at the event and we went dressed in our Pioneer Clothing from the Battalion and were able to give information to the people at the celebration.

It is usually a well attended event but Saturday was a very unusual day in San Diego - it rained! So it really wasn't that busy. We still got to talk to many people and share the Mormon Battalion story and encourage them to go there with their family. Ryan and family came by and were able to win some half off coupons for a nearby subway sandwich place where we all ate lunch at that afternoon!

It was hard to say goodbye to Ryan and family. We love having them here and being able to be with them a bit.

We aren't sure how our new assignment will pan out. How busy we will be there and how much extra time we will have to put into our wards. We are hoping that we will be able to do a little of both.

This next week will be really busy! Again we have to teach the 6 Institute classes and work full time at the office along with doing things with and for our 2 wards. After this week the Institute classes will be over and that will be good and bad. We have absolutely loved the association with the kids there! They are intimidating with their knowledge and faith. We have grown to love so many of them. But we really can't keep up all of this and stay sane. We are pooped and feel a bit overwhelmed right now.