Now I give tours, too.

Tuesday I became an experienced tour guide.  I took a small group first thing after opening and am happy to say nothing bad happened!  I gave a total of 3 tours that day and they all turned out ok.  Well, maybe I forgot to say a few things and my timing can only get better, but I lived through it and felt fine about it.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, has their tour guide horror stories.  I am sure I will manage to spring something big on myself when I least expect it. 

Craig snapped this picture at the beginning of my first tour.

 We had a Mission President fireside on Sunday night.  All of the missionaries came in from the back singing Called to Serve.  That was cool.  The fireside was 3 college age converts of less than a year and several short videos.   The Mission President spoke only for a short while.

The next night was a fireside at the Battalion put on by our Director.  It was his cute, young, pregnant daughter-in-law talking about her 3 Cs: Conversion, Cancer and Christ.  Very touching. 

This week was transfers.  That is an exciting and/or difficult time.  However it is, the sisters will learn things about themselves and be better for it.  The three brand new Sisters from the MTC are soaking it all in.  Just two weeks ago, that was us.  But we don’t have ward or branch responsibilities or a new language to learn, too.  Their schedules are still being fine-tuned.  For some reason all week we have only 3 companionships at the Battalion instead of 4.  Thursday one of the Sisters we did have was a new one from the MTC and her trainer was getting sick and had a sore throat.  So they really couldn’t do tours.  It was a good thing I am now a seasoned veteran!  Yes, Elder and Sister Robinson led a couple of tours that day, too.  Too bad there was an issue with one of the servers that controls the movie in one of the rooms.  Right when we were expecting 120 4^th graders!  We made a couple of frantic calls to Salt Lake and we both ended up having to climb up a ladder to deal with it.  Yes, I climbed up the ladder in my period costume of 7 yards of material.  We got it worked out and then I had to climb DOWN in the costume.  Much scarier than climbing up.  But it turned out fine and the school children never knew there was a problem.

Since we are seniors and have different rules than young missionaries, we bought passes to Sea World!  We live close to it and they have a deal right now: buy one day, get the rest of the year free.  Done.  We do love Sea World and went this week on P day.  We used to take the kids every year when we lived in Los Angeles.  (Craig Jr got kissed by Shamu when he was 7!)  

This flamingo kept turning its head back and forth so it could see us with both eyes.

Can you tell this is a shark's mouth?  I wish it was clearer.

 Such cool turtles!                                         

              

It had been years since we last went.  We did get a couple of nice comments from people who noticed our missionary badges.  We learned to always carry Mormon Battalion Historic Site cards, like pass along cards, with us.  Many people don’t know about the Battalion.  But it is a great place that doesn’t cost anything and has free parking, too.  Plus it is a good Sunday activity, and a fun, interactive way to learn a fascinating part of history.

The Sisters are so excited about General Conference.  We show all the sessions in our theater at the Battalion.  This means we don’t have it to show the Mormon Battalion documentary to those who are waiting for the next tour, but some people are really glad to be able to sit in.

We meet so many great people at the Battalion.  We are glad to be able to serve here.