End of Summer Slow Down

Summer vacation is over.  Most schools have started or will start this coming week.  We haven’t had nearly as many visitors.  Well, this Labor Day Weekend is our last hurrah and we have had a lot of holiday visitors so far.  September should be a nice break.  School tours won’t start until October.

 

A friend of Craig’s from high school came into town.  Peter is living in Japan and comes back once a year.  He was in Long Beach and made the trip to San Diego.  Peter and Craig played freshman baseball together.  They hadn’t seen each other since 1969!  But it was fun for them to catch up and to talk baseball together. 

They visited the Midway, the longest-serving Navy Aircraft Carrier of the 20^th century.  They also visited the beautiful temple grounds and then went to La Jolla.  It was a fun day for them.

 Last week we took a drive through beautiful Coronado Island and down the coast a ways.  We have to soak up the beaches as much as we can while we are here.

Going over Coronado bridge

Famous Hotel Del

Fun statue on the community center

How fun is this bench?

We like bringing dinner to the beach and then walk for a ways.  Heaven!

Today you get to meet fun Sister Bermudez.  Originally from Mexico, she grew up in Utah.  She is an EMT and wants to be a Forensic Nurse.  She has a scholarship to BYU, but is a Ute fan!  What?  How does that work?  She loves her family more than anything.  She also loves Latin dancing, football, camping and the beach.  She is a Training Leader, which is a lot of responsibility.  She is a Spicy Latina!

Baptisms and a Birthday

This has been quite a week for the Battalion Sisters.  There were three baptisms yesterday!  A few weeks ago some of the Mandarin-speaking Sisters asked us to pick up an investigator and give him a ride to church.  Jiang Ping Yuan is on an extended visit from China.  We picked him up at the beautiful temple grounds and drove him to church.  He spoke no English and you may or may not know that we don’t speak any Mandarin.  We all tried to talk a little, but it was a pretty quiet ride as we couldn’t really communicate.  But we did smile a lot!  We took him back to the temple grounds after church. We saw him several times after that at church and the Battalion, as we give tours in Mandarin, and the Sisters would translate for us.  Sometimes he would have missionary lessons there. He really loves Craig.  He says Craig is the nicest man he has ever met.   He got baptized yesterday!  We were on shift, but our Director and his wife took our place while we attended, which was very nice.  Jiang Ping Yuan is a very nice man.  He often spends time at the temple grounds and if there are Asians with questions and the Mandarin-speaking Sisters are not there, he will talk to them and tell them all about the temple and the gospel.  This was before he was baptized!  One of the reasons he wanted to get baptized is because he feels welcome and not discriminated against.  Most of the baptism program was in Mandarin, and some parts were in English. I’ll have to ask Sister Huang and Wells what their talks were about.  It was a very nice baptism.

This week was Craig’s birthday.  We had the morning shift.  Two of the Sisters had prepared a little treasure hunt for him.  There were rhyming clues and the treasure at the end was a plate of brownies!  He had Happy Birthday sung to him in English, Mandarin, Kiribati and Spanish!  They also wrote notes and cards to him. 

That night we went to our favorite fancy restaurant for dinner.  MMmmm!  Then off to La Jolla for the sunset, as that is Craig’s favorite place.  Delightful!

For P day last week, we went to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.  It was built in 1855, but was only operational for 36 years.  It was built at a point 422 feet above sea level.  Too bad low clouds/fog often obscured the light.  They built a new lighthouse closer to the water.  The old lighthouse has been restored and it is quite cool.  Not your usual lighthouse design.

Craig going up the spiral staircase.

Looking down the spiral staircase.

The lantern.

It is in the Cabrillo National Monument Park.  What a beautiful place!  We will go back in October when there is a negative tide to see the tide pools.

Coast guard housing.  Good gig, if you can get it!

Craig with the Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo statue.

The other night we were on Crystal Pier.  While we were looking at the sunset, see what was looking at us!  A drone with a camera. 

I think it is kind of creepy.  Our phones were in front of our faces taking pictures of it so I hope it didn’t get very good pictures of us or any of the other people on the pier.  It stayed for a while.  It did not prevent us from enjoying the gorgeous sunset.

Today we’d like you to meet delightful Sister Wong from Hong Kong.  She attends BYU Hawaii, studying Marketing.  She is the first missionary in her family.  She really would like to backpack around the world – South Africa, Pacific Islands, everywhere. She tells me one of her favorite things to do is to eat.  I just found out at the baptism yesterday that she plays piano.  She is a hard worker, very patient and always has something nice to say.  

Select San Diego Neighborhoods

This post was written by Craig.

Pacific Beach

We are fortunate that we live about 7 minutes away from Pacific Beach.  We enjoy early morning walks along the surf.  Pacific Beach is a popular surfing area.  It is also home to Trader Joe’s, The Fish Shop PB, Ichiban sushi, Bus Stop Gelato and Crepes and Brueggers Bagels.  Ok, we like to eat! 

Kid's surf camp

 

 

shovel head fish caught on Crystal Pier

crepe with nutella and bananas

Ocean Beach

We discovered Ocean Beach when we were introduced to Azucar, a Cuban style patisserie.  And it’s delicious.  There is a cool antiques shop next door where we found a fun bird candle holder.  One of the cool things about Ocean Beach downtown area is that it is all small Mom & Pop stores.  It has an eclectic small town feel.

 

Ocean Beach has the longest concrete pier on the west coast.

La Jolla

La Jolla is my favorite.  La Jolla means “The Jewel”.  I enjoy La Jolla cove and the excellent grass park adjacent to the beach.  The turquoise water is absolutely stunning.  The sea lions and pelicans are always entertaining.  Linda and I have become friends with a local La Jolla artist, and don’t tell anybody, but I am getting one of his prints for my birthday!  The La V restaurant serves a scrumptious paella.  We have eaten there several times in their outdoor patio.  Naturally, we found another gelato shop.  We like to browse in non-food shops as well.

 

Whenever we visit La Jolla, I always feel relaxed.

This week we re-introduce you to Sister Dunaway.  We mentioned her in our Mother’s Day post, but now you can learn a little more about her.  She is from Longview Texas and wants to go into Occupational Therapy.  She enjoys jigsaw puzzles, rollerblading and laughing.  She plays the saxophone (alto and soprano) and enjoys singing.  We are glad she is back from full pross and we can work with her again!