Week of June 19 - 25

This week was sweltering with temperatures in the 100's up to 112 degrees. Thank heavens for air conditioning!

Tuesday morning we picked Elder Cruz up at 6:30 am in Taft where he is serving. As he left the apartment he said "I love you" to his companion and the other companionship that were there. That was so sweet! We drove him to Sacramento for his noon appointment at the USCIS (United States Citizenship Immigration Services) to have his fingerprints and picture taken.  His mother also had the same appointment. We arrived early at about 11:15 and Elder Cruz was finished in a few minutes, so we waited for his family. At first, he just wanted to leave without seeing them. We told him that would be mean since they were expecting to see him. They arrived shortly after noon and it was quite a reunion. His mother hugged him and cried for the longest time. She didn't want to let go. He almost had to pry her off. His 17 year old sister, 12 year old brother, and 15 year old cousin were also there. After Elder Cruz's mother finished being fingerprinted, she said let's go eat. James was torn as to what to do, but finally decided it was the right thing to do and I agreed with him. We went to California Burrito nearby and enjoyed our lunch and watching this family interact. When Elder Cruz finished eating, he got up, sat across from his mother, put a very serious face on, opened up the Book of Mormon, and began teaching and testifying to his mother and family. (His brother is the only one who is a member of the church.) Elder Cruz talked about the importance of his mission and shared his testimony of faith, prayer, and the Book of Mormon. He read them some scriptures and invited his mother to also read and ask of God. It was powerful and is mother was in tears as she listened. She said she would. Elder Cruz wrote the steps of how to pray in the front of the Book of Mormon before he gave it to her and signed it, Elder Cruz, "your son". Elder Cruz told his brother to read the Book of Mormon with her. There were more hugs and we all said goodbye and drove off our separate ways.

Elder Cruz has been on his mission for four months. He barely knew any English before his mission, but now he can carry on a simple conversation quite well in English. He is learning English quickly even though he is on a Spanish speaking mission. Elder Cruz told us more of his story all those hours we were driving in the car. He joined the church when he was 14 years old in Mexico; only four years ago. A lady his mother knew introduced him to the church. He made good friends at church with four other boys about his age. On a trip to the temple, they promised each other that they would all go on missions. So far all but one are on a mission. A couple years later his father and little brother joined the church. His family was pretty well off with several businesses and land in Acapulco, Mexico.  The cartel kidnapped his mother and held her for ransom in exchange for all their land and businesses. After they got what they wanted, she was released and told not to report it or they would kill her. She was able to escape the country with her two children, but they lost all their earthly possessions. His mother was granted political asylum here and wears an ankle bracelet to track her whereabouts. It was hard, but they all did what they could and have been able to make it. Elder Cruz worked and handed his paycheck over to his mother. His mother worked several jobs. In the evenings, Elder Cruz and his little brother would collect cans and bottles for the recycle money. His sister now works at a restaurant also. It was a real sacrifice for Elder Cruz to leave his mom and siblings to come on his mission because he was basically the "man" of the house, but he knew it was important and that is what the Lord wanted him to do. His family has been blessed. The rest of the story. . .after the kidnappers released Elder Cruz's mother, they found out his father was part of the cartel. He is still in Mexico and doesn't really have anything to do with his family. Elder Cruz talked to him on the phone last Christmas and said it seemed like his dad didn't care how hard it has been on his mom and the family. We also talked about service and Elder Cruz said that before his mission he never really understood about service or the power of service. On his mission he realized the best way to get along with his companions was to serve them. He started ironing his first companion's, Elder Thomason, shirts. After a couple of weeks, Elder Thomason turned the service around and ironed Elder Cruz's shirts the rest of their time together. Now Elder Cruz likes to make food for his current companion, Elder Barney.

Last Wednesday morning we found out that the Stephenson's, the senior missionary couple coming to replace us and the Balls, wouldn't be coming this weekend as expected. Their 47 year old son died, and they left the MTC to help with the funeral arrangements. President Layton told us he suffered from depression for years and it got the better of him. We don't know if that means he committed suicide or if it had something to do with medications. Nonetheless, it is terribly sad. The Stephenson's said they were still going to come, but it will be a week or so later than expected. We were going to train them in our responsibility areas next week, but that is not going to happen now. We may have one day with them depending on when they get here.

                  

Elder Bankhead and Elder Bennett

Elder Hatchcock and Elder Hulet

Thursday we took the Assistants, Elder Bennett (Pocatello, ID) and Elder Bankhead (Wellsville, UT), out for lunch. That evening we treated Elder Hulet (Cedar City, UT) and Elder Hatchcock (West Valley, UT) to dinner at Black Bear Diner.

Friday I worked with Sister Layton in the office for about four hours on the 2017 mission history. She was a big help because she can name all the missionaries really quickly. I have to label underneath all the pictures who is in them. I had gotten a lot of the zone conference pictures and other pictures off the CALBAK-Layton Facebook page where she posts them. We decided they were a little blurry, so we went thru and replaced them all with the pictures directly from her phone sent to the mission email. I want to have the mission history finished up through June when we leave so it will be easy for the next person to finish the rest of the year.

James has been calling all of the missionary companionships to tell them what their new monthly mileage amounts are, reminding them of the proper way to fill out their daily mileage reports, and telling them goodbye while he is at it. He has called about three fourths of them, but still has more to finish up.

Friday evening we took Ingrid & Bruce Ball out to dinner and they took us to the movie "Wonder Woman". 

Saturday we moved most of the furniture out of our apartment over to apartment #173 where the Stephenson's will live when they come. We only left the couch, our bed, some folding chairs, and a portable table for our computer. We are packing up our stuff, so everything won't be left to do at the last minute.

Saturday afternoon we went to a baptism for Robyn Rockwell. Apparently she was baptized when she was a child, but went  inactive for many years. She found the church again, but her records could not be located, so she was rebaptized. Her mother and sister and her family came from New Mexico for the event.                                        (Sister Manning played her flute.)















Saturday evening we attended the baptism of Craig Davis who is almost nine years old. His mother and his other five siblings are the ones who live in a hotel room.

James gave a talk in the Spanish group Sacrament Meeting today on "Our Responsibilities as Members of Christ's Church". He has gotten more fluent in Spanish since we have been here because he has been using it quite often. James has been able to use his language skills to benefit the mission. He is the one we all turn the phone over to if someone calls or we need to call someone who speaks Spanish. He has been able to help the incoming missionaries who do not know English understand what is going on, get settled, and answer their questions. President Layton asked us to be the ones to take Elder Cruz to Sacramento this week because James speaks Spanish. It has been a real asset to this mission. In general, James has the gift of being able to talk to people, motivate them, and make them feel good in any language. The Balls, Elder Morris, President and Sister Layton, and others have commented on his connection to people and how he communicates with them. Sometimes James feels bad because he cannot write very well and does not read or write Spanish. However, we happened to read a couple verses of scripture recently that made him realize many great men were better in communicating verbally than in writing. We read in 2 Nephi 33:l ". . . neither am I mighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men." and in Ether 12:33 Moroni says, "And I said unto him, Lord the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing, for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them."






We gave away two Book of Mormons this week. One to Charlotte and Alan, our neighbors, who like to sit out on their patio in the mornings and read. The other one was put in The Villas club house library.

After the baptism on Saturday, Elder Stewart commented on James's nice purple tie and said he really liked it. Well, James took that tie to church today and gifted it to Elder Stewart.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of June 12 - 18 (Father's Day)

We worked at the mission office all week as usual and had things going on almost every night.

Monday night was a going away party at the Bishop Butler's back yard and pool for the Farleys who are moving to Idaho. We stayed for awhile and then went to Family Home Evening at the church. There we watched a video on "The Plan of Salvation" and discussed it. Then we played "Signs".

Tuesday after work we met the four Spanish speaking Elders from our ward at Hodel's Country Dining to treat them to dinner. It was Elders Thomason, Stewart, Solis, and Atkinson.

We attended the Bakersfield Zone Conference on Wednesday. All four Bakersfield zones were in attendance, so it was a pretty big group. President and Sister Layton focused their teaching on "Faith to Find". It is important to focus on faith instead of fear. When we obey and are all in, our faith grows. Obedience brings blessings, which increases faith. God provided miracles in the Old Testament days to the help the people of Israel gather to a promised land. The gathering of Israel in these the latter days is the culminating event of the world, so we should expect guidance and miracles from God. Several missionaries shared their favorite story from the Book of Mormon that is an example of faith and miracles. We learned that faith involves action, doing, and work. 

Wednesday evening we ate dinner with Elder Solis (Chile) and Elder Atkinson (Hyrum, UT) at Melva's house. She and her mother fixed foods popular in their home country of Panama. We had empanadas filled with ground beef, yucca, potato salad with peas and beets, rice and chicken, cantaloupe and papaya. It was all very delicious. After dinner, we took Melva and her mother to the hospital to visit Nilka, Melva's sister. She had been in the hospital since Monday afternoon with a bad infection in her intestines. She has to be really careful with health issues since she had a liver and kidney transplant eleven years ago.

Thursday afternoon, Nilka was released from the hospital and I picked her up and took her home. They do not have a car. On my way back to the office, I had an accident! I was making a U-turn in the middle of the street and a car came out of nowhere and hit our car on the passenger door on the driver's side. It was scary and left me shaking. I don't really know whose fault it was, but we think it was the guy in the other car. Thank heavens, he was very nice. We exchanged information, but did not call the police. The side of our car has some pretty good dents, but since VW is buying our car back in less than a month we won't be getting it fixed.  His car did not have much damage. We'll see if his insurance company contacts us.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Friday night was date night! We double dated with Tim and Nancy Layton to Outback Steak House where we had a good dinner and conversation. All of us except President Layton had changed to our casual clothes. He said he only likes to get dressed once a day.

The first heat wave of the summer started on Saturday with a temperature of 103 degrees. Bakersfield will be in the 100's (up to 113) for at least the next nine or ten days. That is all the further my phone shows. We beat the afternoon heat by watching two movies in the nice air conditioned movie theatre. We saw "My Cousin Rachel" and "Megan Leavey". Then we drove the thirty minutes to Weedpatch to see what is left of Weedpatch Camp. It was built in l936 to house migrant workers during the Great Depression and later farmers who came during the Dust Bowl looking for work. These migrants were known as Okies and were discriminated by the locals. The plight of the Okies and a description of Weedpatch Camp were written about in John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath. There are only three buildings remaining from the original camp; the community hall, the post office, and the library. The Weedpatch Camp continues to assist and house migrant workers.

Sunday was Father's Day. James enjoyed all the calls from his kids and grandkids and being spoiled more than usual!

The Staheli's from our home ward were in Bakersfield yesterday and were hoping to see us. They left  a message on James's phone, but he didn't see the message until today when we got home from church and they were already in Los Angeles. Darn it! Their son, Jonathan, served in this mission a couple years ago and he was showing them around Bakersfield and the other areas where he served.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of June 5 - 11

Family Home Evening this week was about the price our Savior paid for us. He went thru pain and agony to pay the price of atonement for each one of us, and it is up to us whether or not we accept his offering and sacrifice. It was an object lesson that made an impression on everyone. The price of having a donut was 5-10 pushups. Elder Solis agreed to do the pushups for each person who wanted a donut. Even if you did not accept the donut, he still did the pushups. It was a fun activity to make a great point! We also had birthday cake to celebrate Hillary's 22nd birthday.

Ingrid Ball and I started Boot Camp again this week at the park. It is on Tuesday and Friday morning for four weeks. Everyone is young mothers except for us, but we are holding our own. On our walk back home the other morning my foot kicked something on the sidewalk. I looked down and saw a metal object. I picked it up to see what it was, and of all things it could have been, it was a kids CTR ring!

Guillermo Alvarez from our ward and Spanish Group has taken an interest in helping James with his family history. He loves being a family history detective especially in Spanish records. He has spent hours looking thru baptismal and marriage records on line and has found a few of James's ancestors. He found Victor Porras's (great-great grandfather) baptismal record which has his parents names on it. That was exciting! We took him and his wife, Miriam, out for dinner. Miriam is from Guatemala. They have twin daughters and seven grandchildren. The one daughter's family lives in Texas and the other daughter's family is in Japan with the Navy. We are so lucky to have most of out family nearby! He showed us this five generation family group sheet he made on leather bought from the area of Mexico where he is from. It is about 4 ft X 6 ft. Pretty impressive!

Saturday morning we attended Bakersfield Stake 4th Annual Pioneer Picnic at Pyles Boy's Camp next to Lake Ming. Thankfully, it was an unusually cooler day (75 degrees). They had all kinds of fun pioneer activities like; rope making, hatchet throwing, leg wrestling, stick pulling, marbles, stilt walking, and gunny sack races. There was a continuous program on the stage; pioneer ancestor stories, singing, skits, dancing, and cello playing (Jayline). We even went on the stage with a few other missionaries that were there and some young people soon to leave on their missions to sing "Called to Serve". There was also had lots of good food; scones, watermelon, beef (wrapped in foil and burlap bags in the ground on top of smoldering ashes and covered in dirt for about 15 hours), baked potatoes, and pies. We took Sister Hall and a couple of her six children home after. Someone else took the rest of the kids. Their "home" was a room in a rundown motel in a rough part of town. It made you want to cry and certainly count your own blessings.

Later in the afternoon we attended the baptism for 17 year old Max Walden. His twin brother, Matthew,  was there to support him. He is also taking lessons from the missionaries. After Max was baptized, he talked for a few minutes saying how he has been blessed since he first walked in the church and felt the spirit there. Max and his brother live with their grandmother who is blind and has many health problems and their two little cousins who they take care of. He said it was one of his little cousin's birthday and they didn't have any extra money to celebrate, but somehow they were blessed with some money to have a little party for him. They were so happy.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of May 29 - June 4 (Memorial Day)

We have passed by this house many times because it is across the street from Sound Waves where we have the Tiwi's installed in the new mission cars. We always noticed the memorial they had and wondered what it was all about, so on Monday we stopped to take a picture of it. It is quite an impressive, permanent memorial to the armed forces.

Monday, Memorial Day, we welcomed 7 new missionaries to the Bakersfield California Mission. Five of those missionaries flew into the airport from the Provo MTC at noon and the other two came from the Mexico City MTC and did not arrive until about 3:30. We fed them lunch (Chinese sundaes, rolls & fruit-watermelon stars & blueberries and strawberries) and gave them their orientation.

 That evening, after the other two missionaries had arrived we had dinner at the Mission Home with all of them.

President & Sister Layton, Elder Moon, Elder Pitcher, Elder Spunagle
Hermana Ruiz, Sister Reed, Sister Pankratz, Sister Willyerd

Monday later in the evening, we went to Family Home Evening at Hermana Medina's house. Monday was a big day!      

The next day we made lunch again for the new missionaries, their trainers, and the departing missionaries also. There were 32 of us. We had our standard baked potato bar, sweet potatoes, salad, and fruit.         

That evening we had dinner again at the Mission Home with the 6 departing missionaries who leave early Wednesday morning. We had Chinese food in honor of Sister Kuang. Actually, Sister Kuang is from Taiwan. She gave us a lesson on how to use chopsticks and the proper way to eat the food. The lone elder going home is Elder Markwalter from Missouri City, Texas. His grandmother is not a member of the church and was very opposed to him going on a mission. She tried to talk him out of it by saying he was making a bad mistake and he should focus on his schooling. He invited her to church to hear him give his talk before he left. After the meeting, she told him, she now understood why he was going. Well, about a year later he sent the missionaries to visit her. On Saturday she will be baptized by her grandson, Elder Markwalter!    

Wednesday evening we attended West High School graduation to see Grace and Jayline Martinez graduate. Grace is the valedictorian and Jayline is the salutatorian in a class of 393 students with only three hundredths of a point separating them! Grace gave the "welcome". We sat by Philip and Karla Lewis, my Logan High classmate, who were also there to support the girls. Karla is their cello and violin teacher. Both of the girls received some more scholarships, so now they have enough grants and scholarships to cover their first year at BYU with some left over for the next year. Grace, Jayline, and their mother were on the early morning KGET news. It was a nice story about twins graduating at the top of their class, their love for education, and how they have inspired their mother to get an education also.

We met  a very interesting, nice man who was sitting in front of us at the graduation. Mr. Grasso will be 100 years old in August! He was pretty spry getting right up several times so people in his row could get in and out. His mind was sharp as a tack and he loved to talk. He served in World War II. He started smoking at 14 and quit at 65 only because it was getting so expensive. He worked until he was 90 when his kids made him quit. He drove until he was 97 and his kids made him stop. He said that was okay because he knows his reflexes aren't quite what they used to be. He worked as a cement contractor all his life. He recently was asked and put up a flagpole at an elementary school near where he lives. He is pretty amazing and looks like he has quite a bit of life left in him!

Friday many of the elders who came into the office were sporting flower ties. I commented how pretty they were and I was reminded it was "floral Friday". I took a picture of Elder Kent and Elder Werrett when they came in to bring their monthly mileage report.

On our P-day Saturday morning, we got up early and left at 6:00 am for a day trip to Death Valley National Park. The park is about four and a half hours from Bakersfield. It is one of the hottest places on earth and holds the record for the highest recorded temperature in the world of 134 degrees on July 10, 1913. It has mountains that are about 5,000 feet high and also has the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin. Only about eighty-four miles to the east/southeast is Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States at 14,505 feet.  Death Valley National Park has sand dunes, salt flats, minerals, volcanic rocks, colorful mountains, etc. It was stifling hot! At Furnace Creek Visitor Center it was 113 degrees about noon. It got up to 118 degrees a few hours later. Wow! We drank a lot of water as was advised. In several places along the road we felt like we were on a roller coaster ride with all the dips. It was kind of fun. We really enjoyed seeing another part of this beautiful world that was created for us to live on.

High on the mountain straight ahead of us we could see a big sign "Sea Level". It was kind of weird to be so much below that. 

President Carter, our stake president, was at our Spanish Group Sacrament today. After the meeting, he asked James if he could translate for him in temple recommend interviews. James said yes, and he did three of them. That was a good experience for him since it had probably been twenty five years or so since he had been a branch president and had the opportunity! President Carter thanked us for our service and wished us well in case he didn't see us again before we go home.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of May 22 - 28

We ate dinner in the "wine cellar" at Frugati's with our Mormon senior dinner group. It was a lovely place to have dinner and we were not required to drink wine thankfully.

James had to suspend driving privileges for two of our missionaries. When they get too many Tiwi violations like speeding or aggressive driving he gets an email from Salt Lake and has to take action. Elder Steel took it well, but Sister Harmon hung up on James twice when he was informing her and trying to explain it to her. Sister Harmon only has one more week before her mission ends.

This week I finally submitted our 2016 Mission History to the church. It was less than two months late; "better late than never"! I have been working on it for several months and then had to wait for other people to submit their contributions and give the okay. Then it was quite an ordeal getting it all in the proper electronic form to submit to Salt Lake. The Church History Department emailed back that it was received, processed, and submitted. Then we had a couple copies printed up at Office Depot. It is 140 pages.

Friday we had a staff potluck luncheon at the mission office after our staff meeting. Sister Layton shared the scripture, Jacob 6:3 "And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard..." She and President Layton told us all how much they appreciate what we do and they would not be able to do their jobs without us. It is nice to be appreciated! We talked about the plans for the new missionaries coming Monday and those leaving on Wednesday morning. We discussed the transition for the new senior missionary couples that will be arriving June 23rd and later in July. We talked about the rash of car accidents lately and discussed ideas to help the missionaries be more safe and responsible. President Layton said the Zone Conferences will have to be longer since there are no more Zone Training Meetings to give the Zone Leaders time to train their zones. Then we got talking about baptisms. I asked the question, "What is the average number of baptisms for our missionaries?" President Layton said it is about 2.2 baptisms per year per missionary. California is on the low end, as are most missions in the United States.

Saturday morning, we drove to Arvin (about 30 minutes south) to the Bakersfield National Cemetery. Along the way we passed field after field of grapes, fruit and nut trees, onions, and other produce. Bakersfield National Cemetery opened in 2009 and is nestled in the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains. It is a very peaceful and tranquil setting. Service men and women were directing where to park and they directed our car right to the front of a row instead of all the way back where we thought we were going to have to park. We figured it must have been due to our "Disabled Veteran" license plates. We arrived just in time for  the very moving and patriotic Memorial Day program. We sang the National Anthem, said the Pledge of Allegiance, listened to a couple of speakers, enjoyed Taps and a rifle salute. The program ended with a helicopter that served in Viet Nam flying in and circling above us, stopping, and bowing its nose. James said he remembers that sound of the helicopters when he served in Viet Nam. It was a welcome sound when the helicopters were bringing the mail, supplies, or new servicemen. It was not such a welcome sound when a helicopter flew in to pick up the wounded or the dead bodies. After the program, we were handed an armful of flags and got to help place an American flag at each of the headstones. We walked among the headstones reading some of the names and inscriptions. We noticed a woman standing by a headstone for a long time who was crying. We found out it was her sister's headstone who had died in Iraq a few years ago. We talked to another woman whose husband is buried there and she will be buried beside him. She pointed out to us that the spouse's name and info is engraved on the back of the headstones. She also told us about the significance of the coins left on some of the headstones. This practice dates back to the Roman Empire, but became popular in the United States during the Vietnam War. A visitor might leave a penny if they knew them, a nickel if they were in boot camp together, a dime if they served in the same platoon, and a quarter if they were close friends who served together or were together when the deceased died.

We left the cemetery and drove to Tulare, which is about 65 minutes to the north of Bakersfield. We met my friend and her husband, Helaine and Henry Lopez, at Apple Annie's for lunch. We have been friends for 60 years! She and her parents moved to Logan and she walked into my 1st grade class on March 17, 1957. They only lived in Logan for a couple years before they moved to California, but we have stayed friends all these years. They live in Fresno, but will soon be moving to Modesto to be near her only daughter and first grandchild. Before we parted ways, I gave Helaine a Book of Mormon with my testimony written in the front and some scriptures underlined. She thanked me. That afternoon she thanked me again for the Book of Mormon when she sent me a text about how she enjoyed our time together.                            (Apple Annie has quite the toothy smile and red lipstick!)

After church we took pictures with Elder Cruz and Elder Labrum who will be transferred out of our ward on Tuesday. We will miss them!

Top:  Elder Cruz, Elder & Sister Porras
Bottom:  Melva Arce, Sister & Elder Porras, Elder Labrum

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of May 15 - 21

We had a short lesson about "Faith" at Family Home Evening tonight. Sister Hall, a single mother of six cute kids, said she has to have faith everyday to be able to take care of her family and raise her kids. Sister Medina shared that she has a strong faith that Heavenly Father will be with her when she needs His help and then she acts and goes forward. She had an example of just that last week when she took her hard earned money she saved all year and went to the flower markets to buy flowers armed with the faith that her good intentions, purpose, and hard work would pay off and bring results. It did. They were able to make the money to feed her daughters next year in college. Then we played "Mafia" for an activity. We had cookies and mandarins for a treat thanks to Elder & Sister Porras.

Wednesday morning we got up super early, drove to LA airport, and flew to Denver. Our flight was delayed more than four hours and we would have been late for graduation, so we bought tickets on another airline that got us to Denver earlier. We took a "leave of absence" from our mission for four days to attend our granddaughter's, Jackie, high school graduation. We were also going to attend another granddaughter's, Chloe, graduation, but as it turned out she was not even there. Chloe was already in the Dominican Republic with ILP (International Language Program) for the summer. Delane picked us up at the airport. We were surprised as we were walking out of the airport by Ruby, our four year old granddaughter, coming up behind us and taping James on the leg. We thought they would be at the arrival pickup area in their car. That was fun! Then we went to the school to pick up Delane's two boys. She hadn't told them we were coming, so it was a big surprise to them when they opened the car doors and saw us! You should have seen their shocked faces! It was kind of weird, but very exciting to walk back in our own house after ten and a half months of being away.

It was so nice to be at Jackie's graduation and see her family. The graduation was moved up two hours because of the bad weather coming in. It did rain during part of the graduation ceremony and was cold and windy. We enjoyed dinner at Mt. Fuji with Troy's family after the graduation.

Thursday morning we woke up to snow! It snowed all day and into Friday. We probably got about six inches of heavy wet snow and the temperature was only in the 30's. However, it was kind of fun to find my boots and have a chance to wear them.

Savy (in pink) with her project mates and their project.

We were able to attend Savy's science fair, spend time with Melissa, go bowling with Tony's family, shop with Nadezda and Amelia, play UNO with Greta, watch a movie with Troy's family, watch videos Ivaras made, go mudding in Austin's jeep, and just spend quality time with most of our kids and grandkids. (Sierra was in Logan, Chloe was in Dominican Republic, Mark, Robert, and Martin  live in  Prague, and Janel was in London, Gaby was there thru Wednesday and flew back to Hawaii Thursday morning.) James enjoyed seeing how the restoration of his '68 Corvette is coming along. I enjoyed pulling a few weeds.

Saturday morning we had a family breakfast for everyone at our house. We sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" before Cesar blessed the food. We loved every minute of being with our family and catching up on all their comings and goings and news!

Troy took us to the airport early Sunday morning for our return flight back to Bakersfield to finish the last six weeks of our mission. There was the longest check in line that anyone had ever seen. It snaked back and forth in front of the counters like usual then went to the end of the building, turned the corner past the bathrooms, turned the next corner, and went halfway down that hall. We were in line for about 1 1/2 hours. The flight was delayed about 40 minutes so all was well. Anyway, it gave us time to visit with our neighbors in line. There was a sweet girl going to Orlando for work for the week. She just got married five months ago. There was another very nice young couple going to Cancun for a vacation. They are Mexicans who live in Denver. They speak both Spanish and English, but James mostly spoke Spanish to them. We talked about family. Her mother came from Mexico  to stay with their two small children. They showed us a picture of their kids and we got to show them a picture of our family. We gave both the couple and the working girl pass along cards.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!