January 11, 2015

What a fun week!  It is always great to see people from home and when those people are people we love it is the best!

We had Kirk, Tiffany and kids here.  Kirk is my brother for those who don't know.  They showed up Tuesday night and we were able to spend some time with them for lunch both Wednesday and Thursday.  I wish we could have spent more time!  I love you guys and it was so much fun to be with you the little bit that we were.

They went to the Mormon Battalion on Wednesday morning and then we drove over to Old Town and went to lunch there with them. We were hoping to be able to go to the beach with them that afternoon but one of the couples in the office was really sick and we had to get back to handle the office.

Thursday, we met them at Phil's BBQ and had a great meal there.  I love you guys and loved every minute we could spend with you.  What a great family.

We also had Kevin and Becky Thayn our dear friends from home, come visit.  They came and joined us at our ward for Sacrament meeting today.  Our Mission President and his wife spoke in our ward and it was a great meeting.  Roger had to teach Gospel Principles class so they went on to the Mormon Battalion without us and we finished church and then had them over for dinner after. Roger made a meatloaf and we were able to catch up a bit, eat and then they took off for Disneyland tomorrow.  It was so fun to see our fun friends and visit!  Love you guys!




We were able to celebrate Elder Soffe's birthday in a different style.  We asked him if he wanted a lunch like we have done for others at the office and he didn't want that.  He wanted to cook spam, egg and pineapple sandwiches for us!  Strange you say?  They were really good and Elder Soffe enjoyed cooking for us.  His birthday was on Tuesday which was Preparation Day so lots of missionaries were in and out of the office that day and many sang to him and ate his special treat.

Tuesday afternoon, Sister Soffe started having kidney stones pain and finally went to the emergency room.  They usually do a shift at the San Diego Temple and play missionaries on the temple grounds.  We took their place and left the Knorr's at the office to cover there.  It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed being there.  There weren't too many visitors but it was nice to visit with those who did come.  We used to have a shift there before starting at the office so it was nice to be back in our old stomping grounds.

As we sat there I was thinking about all of the different opportunities we have had on our mission.  It has been so full of so many different assignments and challenges.  We have been so blessed.

We have had our ward assignment with the good people there and have been blessed to help many.  We have seen several come back to the church and go to the temple.  We have seen several baptized.  We have seen in so many of their homes and been fed by them and loved by them.


We love our ward and have been so blessed by our association with them.  We were given another ward for awhile and got to love them too.  We loved being at the Mormon Battalion.  The opportunity to serve there brought us lots of joy.  Meeting people from all over the world was great but sometimes the most fun is when we met people from good old Utah.  We loved our association with the Sisters there and have adopted all of them.  It was great! We were able to serve in the Institute program for awhile and taught classes to some of the most amazing students.  We made wonderful friends with those kids there and still go see them.

Roger spent Saturday morning surfing with one of them who is a recent convert from China who is going to school at UCSD.  We have now been at the office for over 5 months now and have had a ball there too.  We have learned things we never thought we even wanted to learn!  We get to interact with the President and his family and also get to know and love the missionaries.  We are called upon to help them in so many different ways and to be there for stability.  Roger loves going with the elders and having them help him move missionaries in and out of apartments etc.  They love him and love to get their prize after helping him - one of his lemonade slushies!  There are always a new wrinkle almost every day and it is a great place to serve and be helpful.  We feel so blessed and have enjoyed our mission so much.  And on top of all of it we are in the most beautiful place with the best weather ever.  Wow!

Wednesday was our scripture class in our ward.  We have made great bonds there and enjoy it a lot.  It was a great thing and I am glad that we started it.  Thursday was a Relief Society activity.  It was a Swap and Shop.  Everyone brought stuff that is in good shape but that they don't want anymore and put it out on tables in the cultural hall and then we could go shopping and take anything that we liked.  I took a new member with me, a lady who has been inactive and another semi active lady.  It was nice to get them there and have them interact with those in the ward.

We had been debating all week if we should invite our tour guide friends to church with us for this Sunday.  We knew the Mission President and his wife were speaking and thought it would be a good meeting to have them to.  We kept putting it off because we weren't sure that having them hear talks about how to do missionary work would be a good thing.  That afternoon Vera emailed me and I emailed her back and told her we missed them.  She called and invited us over to play games with them so we went.  We invited them to church but they had other things going on today but we were able to have a good talk with them about God and how they feel about him.  We had given them some CDs for Christmas and they had questions about some of the things in the CDs. Vera believes in God and knows that he hears and answers prayers.  Charles believes that God is a thing - not male or female.  He doesn't feel that God talks to us.  He feels that when we get thoughts to do things it is our conscience talking to us - not God.  It was an interesting talk and good.  Dear good friends!

We love you all and are grateful for the love and support that we get from you.  The gospel is true.

Elder Knorr getting a haircut by the Assistants

The Assistants "bugging" Roger.  We do have fun!