Exciting Week for Genna!

This week has been so exciting!  Genna graduated from Western State Law School!  Three years of lots and lots of hard work paid off.  We could not possibly be any prouder.  We drove up to Fullerton after our shift on Thursday.  We had dinner and visited with Genna and Jeff. 

 Jeff has been there supporting everything she does from the beginning.  He has been such a great help to her and we are grateful to him.

Sorry to tell you I was severely lacking with cameras this entire weekend so I am begging other people to send me the ones that they took.  Some pictures I just didn’t think to take (my fault), some turned out so terrible that I have no other option than to blame the camera.  Or maybe it was my fault again for buying a terrible camera.  My apologies.

 

Heather and her family came into town the day before we did.  They spent a fun filled day at the magic kingdom. 

Friday we spent the day with them and Genna and Jeff.  Craig Jr flew in Friday evening.  We just wish the rest of his family could have come, too.  We missed them.  We all had a late dinner on Friday and talked, laughed and caught up. 

Saturday Susan and Blair met us at the Long Beach Performing Arts center where the graduation was held.  It was so nice of them to make the trip.  Jeff’s parents and sister were there and kindly saved some seats for us.  It was pretty exciting when the graduates filed in.  The talks were good!  Jeff walked up with Genna since he was the one that hooded her.  It is not possible to be any prouder of her than we are.

That night 21 of us had a celebratory dinner together.  I was so happy that Clementine and Van wanted to sit on either side of me.  Grandma heaven! 

We stayed with Jeff and Janeen Redd, as did Craig Jr.  What a treat to spend time with them.  They are so welcoming and fun.  We love spending time with them.  Their son Bryan is graduating from high school on Tuesday.  He is Valedictorian and has a giant fistful of cords to wear.  Brainiac!  We also got to see two of their daughters that came in from AZ for Bryan’s graduation.  So fun.

Perhaps I should write a few things about the Battalion as this blog is supposed to be about our mission.  Would you like to meet some of our Sisters?  I think we’ll do a little spotlight on the people we work with.  This is Sister Romero.  She is from South Jordan.  I think.  I just cannot keep South Jordan and West Jordan straight.  Sorry.  She is beautiful, smart, sassy, very talented and mistaken for Sacajawea and Pocahontas more often than you might think.  She is a hard worker and a lot of fun.  She does keep us laughing.

Some bigwigs from Salt Lake came while we were gone to Genna’s graduation.  We’ll find out if any new and exciting things will be happening as soon as we see our Director.

Transfers Again Already

This week was transfers.  How did that come around again already?  We had to say goodbye to two wonderful sisters: Sister Harris and Sister Amendola.   

We got three new Sisters from the MTC, all Spanish speaking, we got two Sisters back from full proselyting and 4 went out on full pross.  Lots of changes.  New companionships, new trainers, new schedules, new areas, and new adventures.  I must say, I am quite impressed with the new Sisters and the way they jumped in to help give tours the very first day they got their scripts! 

While the Sisters were in a meeting with the Mission President (President Clayton) hearing their new assignments, Craig and I were asked to give the tour to two other new non-Battalion missionaries.  There was an Elder from Honduras and a Sister from Hong Kong.  We were called out in the middle to take a picture of all the Battalion missionaries.   Sorry the sun is casting a glare.  President Clayton and his wife are the ones in the upper right.  Everyone is laughing because right before this, Sister Clayton simply could not hold a sneeze anymore!

 It has been SO HOT this week!  High 90s, and the inland areas were over 100.  Plus all those bad fires.  Some of the schools were closed due to the fires so some of our school tours were cancelled.  This is way too early in the year to have these fires!  Our Costco fans got a workout.  We are happy it is back to the beautiful nice and cool San Diego weather now.

Our dear friend Judy came over for dinner.  She was in town for her mom’s birthday and stopped by.  It was such fun to catch up!  Now she can picture us in our little apartment.

We went to Sea World one morning until it got too hot.  The best thing was when we went in the shark exhibit and we were the only ones in there besides the guy that works there.  So we got to ask him as many questions as we wanted and could be right up by the glass with no one obstructing our view.  We only spent a couple of hours in the park, but that was nice. 

We had the shark exhibit all to ourselves!

How cute is this?

Two Orcas close up!

Last week was not Craig's best week.  The Battalion is open every day and after four years, things are starting to give out.  Someone stashed a small wooden stool next to the room divider where it did not belong.  When Craig needed to open it up, the divider pushed the stool right IN TO the wall.  Then it was stuck.  Nothing could move.  He got out the saw and had to saw the stool in pieces to get it out.  Then the keys to open and close the divider went missing. He worried and worried over that and we made a special trip to the Battalion to search for them. Nothing.  They ended up in the pocket of one of the Sisters' costumes.  And she only gave back one at a time! Next, he was opening the door to the theater so the people could come start the tour and the auto-close mechanism on top broke, splintered wood around the top of the jamb and then the door could not close.  We are still waiting for parts for that.  It was a happy day when the old-fashioned hand water pump gave way on Elder Rasmussen's watch.  The baton has been handed off!

We went to the temple this week and I made sure to look up at Moroni through the top of the atrium.  I didn’t know you could do that until someone told me about it when we were working at the Temporary Visitor’s Center.  This is the only temple where you can see Moroni from the inside.  Pretty cool.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Things are always better when your Mom comes!  I was lucky enough to have my Mom come to visit two days ago.  Hooray!  Mom and LaMar met us at the Battalion when it opened.  Darling Sister Dunaway from Texas led our tour.  Both Craig and I agreed she did a great job and taught us how it should be done!  We both plan on adopting some of the ways she does things.  LaMar was the one in our group who dressed up.  He was a good sport and made a darn cute soldier.

After our Battalion tour, we went to a late breakfast.  We almost went to breakfast first, but Craig remembered we have school tours scheduled every school day morning in May. As well behaved as they school kids are, and they are, you don’t really want to be surrounded by 25 or 30 10 year olds on your tour.  Breakfast was good.  It is hard to believe, but we talked a mile a minute since we didn’t have much time together.  Boo.  They had an appointment at noon so they had to go.  I was so glad to see Mom with my own eyes after her hospital scare.  She looks great.

Monday Craig and I celebrated our 37^th anniversary at a fancy restaurant with personalized menus and, not one, but two fancy desserts!  They also took a picture of us and put it in a frame for us.  We all know the first 37 years are the hardest!

 

This week we were invited to go to the Sisters’ weekly training meeting.  The son of our Director spoke about his experience swimming the English channel.  He attempted it with his brother in 2005.  His brother was able to complete the swim, but he was not.  He tried it again the next year and made it.  Very interesting to hear about all about it.

Here is your bit of trivia about the Mormon Battalion for today.  Once the Battalion made it to Santa Fe, many of them were ill.  The standard treatment of the time was calomel, later found out to be toxic. Three sick detachments, plus most of the women and children, were sent to winter in Pueblo.  There the saints learned desert farming and irrigation methods.  They arrived in Salt Lake not long after the first companies and were able to put their new knowledge to use.  The saints had some crops before winter.

It is a busy day today.  All of the Sisters will be calling home and are excited that they can skype or facetime.  The computers at the Battalion will be in constant use and many of the Sisters will be using computers of ward members and one will be using Craig’s ipad.  I am pretty sure the Moms are more excited than the Sisters, if possible!

Southern California

This week is Cinco de Mayo.  Tomorrow is the actual Cinco de Mayo, but people have been celebrating all weekend.  We had heard how busy it would be in Old Town and the Battalion was prepared!  Old Town was certainly a lot busier than it usually is.  (One of our Sisters calls it Drink-o de Mayo.  Yes, pretty much.)  There were a lot of fun activities and various vendors at the Old Town State Park.  Our Sisters were assigned to be at one booth that showed how to make rope.  You may have seen the contraption they use to make rope if you have been to Nauvoo.  Sorry, I don't have a picture of that.

Several of the Sisters were sad they were not able to participate in a churro eating contest each day since they are so busy.  They work 6 hours most days at the Battalion and another 6 hours in their areas. You have to admit, a churro eating contest does sound good.

The Battalion was not as busy as it could have been, but it was busy enough and that is ok.  It was hotter than we thought, though!  When it is over 90 degrees, it is a bit too hot for me.  It is especially hot when you are wearing a lined, long sleeved, long dress.  HOT.  But it is much cooler today and we are back to our usual beautiful weather that San Diego is known and loved for.

Weather isn’t the only thing we like about San Diego.  Here are just a few things we have enjoyed since coming back to Southern Cal:

Lily of the Nile.  My father-in-law thought this should be the state flower of California

 

 

Hibiscus as big as your head!

 

Fun bikes

 I love, love, love jacaranda trees and have missed them since we moved from So Cal  25 years ago.

 Craig jogs along Mission Bay whenever possible

 Beautiful star jasmine.  It smells SO good!

Gorgeous succulents

 Our Sisters!  Here are some of the 23 we work with.

Of course, there are a few things that we could do without:

Traffic

 Overhead wires.  I know these are not exclusive to So Cal, but I am not a fan.

Tomorrow Elder Ballard will be speaking to all of the missionaries in the San Diego Mission.  By "all of the missionaries" I mean except the seniors that work at the Battalion.  We are open every day of the year and so we'll be holding down the fort while the Sisters attend.  Elder Ballard's daughter is our Mission President's wife.  The missionaries will get to shake his hand when it is over. 

Do all of the senior missionaries carry this sort of stuff in their cars?  These boxes just live in our car.  There is no other place for them.  It has actually come in handy to have access to these boxes at various places.  So they will stay there for now.

How fun is it to be able to park here?  This is at the temple and we park here on Sundays.  I think it is probably needed more on days the temple is open, but I can feel important parking here anyway.

Have a great Cinco de Mayo!  It is my favorite day. Tomorrow marks 37 years married to the love of my life.