This Week's Comings and Goings

Several weeks ago two companionships invited us to go to lunch with them.  Tuesday is their P day, so that was the day we planned on.  We told them we’d pick them up and they were excited since they don’t have a chance very often to ride in anyone else’s car.  We took them to a nice pizza place we found on our P day a couple of weeks ago.  It was a lot of fun.  We love them.

 I know you won’t believe it was transfers again already.  Here is the transfer picture.  We got one new Sister from the MTC.  She was called Mandarin speaking.  Her name is Sister Wong from Hong Kong.  We already have Sister Wang (pronounced Wong) from Utah and Sister Huang (pronounced Wong with an H on the front) from Taiwan.  Three Sister Wongs, all Mandarin speaking.  We’ll see how we keep them all straight.  We learned today that there are 7 million people in Hong Kong.  It is about half the size of Rhode Island.  Rhode Island has a little over a million people.

This was the last transfer for President Clayton.  He and his wife said some nice things at the transfer meeting.  Our new Mission President, President Schmitt, was Mission President as soon as he came into the mission yesterday.  Craig talked to President and Sister Clayton after picture taking and told them he wishes we had gotten to know them better. But then he said maybe it was for the best that we didn’t, that would have meant we were in trouble.  President Clayton thanked Craig for being a low maintenance missionary.

All of the zones have a schedule to meet the new President and his wife this week.  The seniors will meet them at our monthly FHE on July 7.  The Schmitts are very young (40) with young kids.  We look forward to getting to know them.

Since we got a new Sister, one of our current Sisters was called to go full pross (full proselyting).  It was darling Sister Anderson, who has only been out for 2 transfers.  She was a little nervous about it, but she came in to the Battalion with her companion and an investigator and she is doing great.  She likes it a lot.  She’ll learn good things that will help her in the rest of her mission.

The other day a little boy was very unhappy and shouting at the statue of Levi in front of the building.  “Talk to me!  Why won’t you talk to me?”  His mom had a hard time convincing him the statue would not be saying anything. You can see a picture of the statue on the right side of the blog near the top.

We thought you might enjoy seeing some of the artifacts at the Battalion.

The Old-timey camera that takes old-timey pictures

This cannon actually accompanied the Mormon Battalion on their march.

The lantern and muskets were from the Battalion, the scriptures were from that time period.

Kiosk where you can look up any member of the Battalion and email that info to yourself, plus the large screen has games to play.

Such a pretty room!

Our Sister spotlight this week is fun Sister Baker from Idaho.   

 She attends BYU-I and is still deciding on her major.  Sometimes we call her Sister Macanoodle.  Craig was calling something “macanudo”, which means awesome in Spanish.  She thought he said Macanoodle and since she is awesome, she now has a nickname.  Sister Baker has a unique eating style like ketchup on her salad and this pickle sandwich.  There is ham, mushrooms, avocado and mustard in a dill pickle.

She is a tiny little thing, but is a fireball.  She is always smiling and people like to be around her.

Here are a couple of pictures from this week.

 

Craig's Turn

Today's post was written by Craig.

Summer activity is in full swing! Last Thursday we had over 400 people take Battalion tours during our six hour shift. Thus far many of the visitors have been from Arizona to find relief from the heat  As the summer season wears on we will have folks from all over touring our Historic Site. I have a fun time teasing visitors from Utah, that they are our very first visitors ever from Utah. Some actually believe me!

We saw this cool ship by Little Italy with 19 on it for Tony Gwynn

On Friday we made our way to the Contemporary Museum of Art in downtown San Diego. Contemporary art sometimes can be cool and sometimes just plain weird. Afterwards we visited Little Italy and had some great pasta and gelato. The owner of the gelato shop was sad as Italy had lost their World Cup soccer/football match earlier in the day to Costa Rica.

We discovered a good but inexpensive sushi house in Pacific Beach and the hostess was from Brazil! We find we can hear many different languages when at the mall or other venues, very fun! World Cup football is on every where we go in the San Diego area.

This past week Tony Gwynn the face of the San Diego Padres passed away from cancer. He was a terrific player, hitting .394 one season. I learned this week over a five or six year period, in his career, he averaged missing a pitch he swung at, only three times/week! That is amazing bat control. I recall watching him play basketball while at SD State vs BYU with Danny Ainge. We had come down from LA to see the game thinking BYU would have an easy victory. Gwynn had a great shooting night and almost single handedly pulled off the upset! While he was a super player, I understand he was an even better person. Regardless of stature or position in life, he treated everyone the same. San Diego is mourning the loss of their hero and friend.

Blair and Susan drove down from Los Angeles to take us to lunch.  Lucky us!  Fun to catch up and spend a little time with family.  We went to one of the many good Mexican restaurants in Old Town. Thank you!

We are from....would you like to know more?

This past week four sisters convinced us to join them at In-n-Out. Crazy Sisters having a good time.

 This week we spotlight Sister Owens from Alaska. When you are around Sister Owens you will always be laughing and smiling! Her laugh, sense of humor and way at looking at situations brings out the fun side of everything! She is a professional massage therapist, and the others sisters like to take advantage of that skill. Sister Owens knows how to have fun and to stay busy. She is a wonderful Battalion sister and a delight for visitors!

Last picture from Little Italy

Flag Day

Flag Day is a big thing around the Battalion.  Flag Day not only commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States (1777) and the birthday of the Army (1775), this year is also the 100^th anniversary of the US Marine Corps garrisoned permanently in San Diego. We have buntings hanging on the front porch.  Invitations were sent through the mail and through email for a program out in the back grassy area at the Battalion.  The Marine Color Guard was there, there were speakers, singers and a recognition ceremony.  And let’s not forget cake!  Cut with a Marine saber.  It was quite a busy day for tours, too.

Battalion soldier and Marine Color Guard

Cutting the cake with a saber

Flag Day is also the anniversary of our oldest daughter and her wonderful husband.  Happy number 17!

This week we “volunteered” to inspect some of the mission cars while the missionaries were in Zone conference.  Volunteered means we answered the phone when one of the office missionaries called.  After inspecting the first car, it was pretty easy.  Craig checked outside stuff like fluid levels and tire pressure and tread wear.  I did the inside stuff like making sure all the paperwork is there, the cleanliness of the interior, and mileage.  It took both of us to check on the lights and blinkers.  Each car got a note that said either Good Job or Repent. 

Craig inspecting cars

One evening at the Battalion this week we got two visitors who spoke no English so needed a tour in Spanish.  We didn’t have any Spanish Sisters available on shift.  Craig has not memorized the tour in Spanish yet, but he was all we had.  He took the script with him. I sat in.  The guests were very good with helping him out with words.  They were so nice and the tour turned out quite well.  We’ll see how long before he does another one.

Craig's first Spanish tour

For P day this week, we went back to La Jolla because who wouldn’t?  So beautiful and peaceful.

Remember our computer issues from last week? That wasn't the end of them, but these two were once again in the right place at the right time. Sister Stephens and Larson are now what we like to call the A/V Sisters.  I hope they are always on my shift, every single time.  Not only because we love them, but just in case we have to call Matt in Salt Lake again.

This week’s spotlight is on beautiful Sister Kennedy, from Herriman, UT.  She was attending UVU in Orem before her mission, and is hoping to transfer to BYU after completing her general studies.  She has taken voice lessons and sings like an angel.  She loves jewelry and bling of every kind.  She is soft spoken and very bright, and her facial expressions are priceless.  She and her companion Sister Jack (from last week’s spotlight) won the mission prize for having the cleanest car.  This was decided before we inspected cars and we were not the ones that inspected their car anyway.

Happy Father’s Day!  Especially to my wonderful husband who is a great father. 

I am lucky enough to have one of the best Dads ever and I miss him every day.  He was always the very best of examples and taught me by word and deed.  He always knew the answer to everything.

Craig also has one of the best Dads ever.

I also appreciate my Step Father who takes such good care of my mom.

And I don’t want to forget my Son and my Son-in-Law.  Both great dads.

Speaking of my son, you might get a little kick out of seeing him at Girl’s camp.  He is a counselor in the Bishopric and they did this little number.  I think they did a great job.  My boy is the one on the left.

Girls Camp 2014 

This Week at the Battalion

On the first Monday of the month, all of the senior missionaries get together for FHE.  This last Monday we had President and Sister Clayton speak to us since it will be their last one. They will be released at the end of the month.  The first and second counselors in the Mission Presidency spoke about them first.  It was great, of course.  The Claytons did a great job speaking to us.  Very interesting evening.  We will miss them.

The first room on our tour has eight picture frames of various members of the Battalion.  Early in the week, Captain James Allen’s picture developed a loud buzz.  Pretty annoying when you hear it for 6 hours at a time.  One of the other seniors called Salt Lake and they said nothing could be done.  Aaaccckk.  Thursday morning we went in and it was LOUD.  Then Captain Allen disappeared!  There was nothing in that picture frame.  Do you remember a couple of months ago when I said I had to climb up a ladder with my costume of 7 yards of material?  Well, I had to do it again.  Not just once, but many, many times.  Craig and I were on the phone with Matt in Salt Lake and trying to do what he told us to do.  It would be helpful if I understood the lingo like extenders, distributors (I think), and well, who can even remember names of things you don’t know?

 Craig is half way up the ladder.

Sister Stephens about to climb up

 At one point I had to go down the ladder and see if there was anything showing in that frame.  Yes, there was a stick figure of Captain Allen.  One of our artistic Sisters put it in the empty frame. Ha!

Sister Stephens and Sister Larson holding the interim picture of Captain Allen.

The real Captain Allen picture

Wonderful Sister Stephens offered to help.  I thought she was just being her usual helpful self and didn’t think she should have to do this kind of thing.  But she really likes doing this stuff.  Ok, then!  She was such a big help.  She lifted one of the security monitors off the wall and helped cannibalize it for parts.  I put those parts where Matt told me to.  Just when I wanted to go home and have a little cry, then take a nap, she took the screwdriver and phone and climbed down the ladder and, with the help of Sister Larson who had been running back and forth checking things for us, took Captain Allen’s frame off the wall and took the monitor out and unplugged stuff and whatever else Matt told them to do.  Then Sister Stephens came back up the ladder and had to fiddle around behind the server. At that point I was simply holding the phone so everyone could hear each other.  She fixed everything!  Hooray!  The first room was out of commission for over an hour, but now there isn’t any buzzing and everything is working perfectly.  Replacement parts have come and I secretly hope they get installed on someone else’s shift! And certainly a shift with Sister Stephens.  I don't think Sister Stephens or Sister Larson even thought about crying the whole morning!

That night we decided it would be good to have a picnic dinner at Mission Bay.  We ate and then took a walk along the beach.  That is a good way to de-stress!

We are getting busy.  This morning we had one family group of 54 and another group of nearly 30. We like to limit groups to about 20-25 for space, but sometimes it can’t be helped and everyone crowds in.  The person I dressed up like a soldier in my big tour today was only 4.  I got out the small musket, but it still towered over him.  He was a good sport.

This week we went to Seaport Village on our P Day.  We love Seaport Village and have been going there for over 30 years.  It is a tradition that we buy address number tiles at a shop there for every house we have lived in.  We each picked up a few things and ate lunch while down there.  That is a nice, relaxing P Day.

The other day some of the Sisters asked Elder Robinson if he could fit in the child-size chairs on the front porch of the Battalion.  The answer is yes.

 

This week you can get to know Sister Jack, from Monticello, UT.  She attended Utah State, majoring in Geology (she likes rocks!), but is also drawn to ceramics.  She enjoys harmonizing and is a natural rapper!  I just found out last night that she and I share a love for musicals and the Mission: Impossible television show.  That is a strong bond!  She is always in a good mood and she is a pleasure to work with.

Here is a video taken one night just about closing time.  Sister Jack is on the right doing the rap.  This is all ad-libbed.  Beatbox provided by Sister Owens.

We get to look at this every Sunday afternoon.  It is a treat!