Week of April 10 - 16 (Easter)

This Easter week our mission  president asked the missionaries to study and reflect on the Savior's last week of his earthly ministry, so we did. Jesus Christ taught the people so many great parables and lessons that last week. He instituted the sacrament. He suffered so much for each one of us by taking upon himself our sins, heartaches, trials, sicknesses, etc. Then he was resurrected so each one of us can be resurrected one day and live with him and our Heavenly Father! That was the most momentous weekend in the history of the world. One of our missionaries who came into the office on Friday asked why it was called "Good Friday". He thought it should be called "Bad Friday" because Jesus was crucified. Good Friday is good because as terrible as that day was, it had to happen for us to receive the joy of Easter. Good Friday marks the day when wrath and mercy met at the cross. That is why Good Friday is so dark and so Good at the same time.

Here is an interesting little tidbit:  Mary lives next door to us and Martha lives next door to her. They are both widows and both of them have moved here in just the last few months.

Thursday afternoon we picked up Grace and Jayline (they were on Spring Break) and drove to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster. The California Poppy was named the State Flower in l903. Poppies close up at night, when it is cloudy, or when the cold wind blows. It was cloudy, kind of chilly, and very windy so the poppies were mostly closed. It would have looked more like a sea of orange if they had been open.

We drove the girls down the Musical Road in Lancaster to hear "The Lone Ranger" theme song. Then we ate dinner at Sizzler before we drove home. Sizzler has a nice salad bar which I love and was good for Jayline and Grace since they are both vegetarians. James enjoyed steak and shrimp.

Friday Elder Pyfer from Castle Rock was released and returned home to get better. He said he has bad headaches and anxiety that make him unable to function. He hopes to be able to get it under control and return back to his mission in a couple of months. He has been out on his mission for about nine months and has been a very good missionary.

We saw a movie, "The Zookeeper's Wife", Friday night. It was a true story of a couple in Warsaw, Poland during World War II. He was director of the Warsaw Zoo and she loved animals. The Germans came in and killed many of the animals and took the best ones. They hid one of their Jewish friends in their home and then were able to save 300 others from the Warsaw Ghetto. It was really moving!

On Saturday we made some drop by visits to an investigator and two recently baptized members, visited, and took them some pumpkin fruit muffins.

Then we went to Jayden Harlow's baptism. He is a 19 year old who will be going to the Young Single Adult Ward. His grandfather baptized him. The baptismal font's plug was not working well, so the water was draining almost as fast as it was filling. Jayden had to sit down and then lean back to get completely immersed. His parents were not active, so he did not grow up with the church. He said maybe they will get reactivated now that he is baptized.

Sister Harmon and Sister Hayes are the sweet missionaries who taught him.                                                                

Later, we met Elder Rowley and Hulet at the church along with Mike who they are teaching. We all gave him a tour of the church building to help him get familiar with what it looks like and what takes place on Sundays and other days of the week. We answered the questions he had. He has to work tomorrow, so it will be the next Sunday before he can attend.

Sunday morning we went to the Brimhall Ward to hear Jane Morris report on her mission to Chili. She is the daughter of Matt & Patti Morris who are Church Service Missionaries (vehicles, newspaper & referrals) in our mission. We saw the Gray's (where we had dinner later) there also. He told me that another one of our high school classmates, Philip Lewis, was in the 5th Ward. The 5th Ward shares the building with our ward, Bakersfield 2nd Ward. So, when we got to our church building we asked around and found him. We had a nice reunion. His wife's brother, Eric Clyde, was also one of our classmates. Then, just before the Spanish Sacrament Meeting we were talking to the father-in-law of our group leader and found out that his wife, Sandra Page, was also one of my classmates. They are here from Simi Valley visiting their daughter and family. Sandra stayed home because she wasn't feeling well, so we didn't get to see her.  Sandra's husband graduated in 1969 like we did, but from Sky View High. He also graduated from Utah State in l974 like James did.

The music on Easter Sunday is always beautiful and taking the sacrament is extra meaningful!

We had Easter dinner at Maile & Waylon Gray's house. I graduated from high school with her. A couple months ago I saw her at the Los Angeles Temple and recognized her. They live in Bakersfield, but have their house up for sale and will soon be moving to Iowa where one of their sons live.

                               (Sunday certainly seemed to be a high school reunion day!)

Alecia and classmate, Philip Lewis and Alecia and classmate, Maile Roberts Gray

We talked to Janel and her boys on Easter. They are all in Prague. Yesterday, they had dinner at Martin's parents house. They ate rabbit. James teased the boys that they ate the Easter bunny.

We certainly missed the holiday with our family, but were so happy they carried on without us. They had Easter dinner at our house and even had the annual Easter egg hunt in the yard.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of April 3 - 9

Look who we found in California! Our son, Tony, and his two managers went to their Big O Tire Convention in San Diego Monday thru Wednesday. The convention wrapped up Wednesday after lunch, so we were able to meet them in Pomona. It was about a two to two and a half hour drive for each of us. We met at Wally Parks NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Motorsports Museum. We arrived about an hour before they did, but it was okay. It happened to be the first Cruise-In Car Show of the season out in the parking lot. James was in seventh heaven looking at all the old cars and showing off the pictures on his phone of all his old cars to anyone who was interested. Several people commented that we were "overdressed" for the occasion. Yes, we were. Finally, Tony, Nick, and Shawn got there. It was so good to see Tony after more than nine months! We enjoyed the museum and car show together. Then we ate dinner at a little Mexican tacueria that turned out to have very good food. Both Nick and Shawn each have three children and are trying to be good fathers. We gave them the little booklet, "Three Simple Ways to Become A Happier Family", during our dinner conversation. Nick seemed to be especially interested as he thumbed thru and read some of it. He said, "I think we will read this together as a family". On Monday, they had a chance to go to the Mormon Battalion Museum in San Diego which they all said was pretty interesting and cool. I had to remind Tony that he had a relative (his 4th great grandfather) who served in the Mormon Battalion. Another year at their convention in Arizona, Tony took them to the Visitor's Center at the Mesa Arizona Temple.

Then it came time to say goodbye. After the hugs, they climbed into their convertible, waved, and drove off to Hollywood. Nick had never been to California so Tony wanted him to see a few things. They had to have the top down on their Mustang even in the evening when it got a little cool, otherwise big Shawn and Nick would not fit in the car. Shawn had a real struggle trying to get his seatbelt buckled in the back seat. Finally, after about five minutes of both James and Tony helping him it was a success!

Troy called to tell us  they just had the sister missionaries over that their ward and our ward share. He said one of them is Sister Slaughter from Bakersfield. He told her his parents were on a mission in Bakersfield. Troy suggested to the missionaries that they should knock on our door when Tyson (the guy living in our house) would be home and ask for us. That would give them a good way to visit with Tyson about the church.

The Slaughter's are in our stake. We don't know them, but have heard the name. They just returned last July from being mission president in the San Antonio Mission. We were able to find their phone number and James called James Slaughter to  tell him that his daughter is serving in our home ward. They had a nice visit and Brother Slaughter had even been to Gonzales, Texas (James' birth place) a few times since it was in his mission. Small world!

We attempted to visit a couple of investigators with Elder Rowley and Elder Hulet this week, but nobody was home. We also tried to help find a homeless guy who is living here. His mother, who lives near Anaheim, called  the mission office concerned about him and also sent a small package for him. He has not shown up yet.

For some odd reason, we went to three movies over the weekend; "Going In Style" on Friday and both "Queen Of The Desert" and "Case For Christ" on Saturday.

We should have saved our pictures and information about palm trees that we posted last week until this week since today is "Palm Sunday". Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. It marks the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus Christ rode on a donkey into Jerusalem and the people laid down palm branches in his path. The donkey is an animal of peace symbolizing his entry as the Prince of Peace. Palm branches symbolized goodness and victory.  

                                                                                          Check out Prince of Peace on lds.org this week and watch the beautiful, poignant video. There are also 8 principles of peace to help us find peace in our lives. Each principle is explained with a short video.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of March 27 - April 2

We have been enjoying near perfect days and weather lately. We have also been enjoying our pretty daffodils.

This week was pretty ordinary with nothing very exciting to report. We just went to work everyday and tried to keep busy. Missionaries came into the office to get large print Book of Mormons, a German Book of Mormon, media Bibles, a children's Book of Mormon, pass along cards, and their packages. A few brought in their baptismal records, car receipts, and a set of sisters brought their car so James could look at a dent and scratch. President Layton was doing interviews this week at the different stake centers in Bakersfield. Sister Layton called James Thursday morning to say they had a flat tire in the church parking lot. James went over to fix it. A man was walking his dog near the  parking lot and went to get his hydraulic jack to make changing the tire easier. That was very nice and helpful. Then James took their car to get the tire fixed and ended up buying four new tires. He didn't even go to Big O Tires because the church has used a local tire shop for a long time. James told the salesman (who was not familiar with the church account) it was the President's car, and he looked at him very strangely. He thought that James looked quite official with his white shirt and tie, and his first impression was that it was Obama's car. Then they had a good laugh about it after James explained about the mission and the mission president.

The restoration company was in and out of the office for a couple days finishing up the water heater leak problem. On the third day, I had an inspiration to ask the men if they knew that Jesus Christ's church had been restored to the earth and would they want to know more. It would have been a great conversation starter, but they did not come anymore because they were finished with their part of the work. I missed a great opportunity. A couple other guys came to put the new sheet rock up and paint. The man in charge asked us if we were Mormons. He said his mother and brother joined our church some time ago. We talked to him about it and why he hasn't joined. James ended up giving both him and his helper Book of Mormons (one English and one Spanish) before they left. They both said thank you.

We went shopping to buy me a new purse because mine broke. Purse shopping is not easy and finding the right purse (size, color, shape, straps, price, etc.) is very difficult. I think I love the third purse I brought home and will return the other two.

People in Bakersfield have always been so nice and friendly. However, we encountered two different men Friday evening when we were shopping and doing errands that were not so nice. They each seemed to want to start an argument about our religion, but we kept our cool.

Saturday we had 50 baptisms in our mission. Our missionaries have really been working extra hard!

April Fool's! Actually, we didn't have any baptisms scheduled because of General Conference.

General Conference this weekend was wonderful! We watched most of the sessions on our computer at home. It was fun to see my cuz, Alan Niederhauser, singing his heart out in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.                           (Alan is the blonde man on the far left.)

President Thomas S. Monson, President Henry B. Eyring, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

On Sunday, I made a big fruit salad and pumpkin raspberry/blueberry muffins that we took over to the potluck lunch with the Hispanic members at our stake center. They invited all the missionaries that were there to eat with them also. It is such a nice tradition they have to eat a meal together between conference sessions. They have carried on this tradition for about twenty years. Then we stayed and watched the last session of conference at the church.

There were three sets of sister missionaries watching the conference at the church and a bunch of elders. The sisters had already left when we decided to take a picture, so here are the elders.
(The elder standing to the left of James is 6'8".)

Did you know that there are 2600 varieties of palm trees? Surprisingly, there is only one kind of palm tree that is native to California, the California Palm. The others have been imported and what would California be without them. Bakersfield has lots of different kinds of palm trees. Some are very skinny and tall, some are short, and some look like huge pineapples. Palm trees make you feel like you are on vacation.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of March 20-26

I swore off sugar for now. A few months ago Sister Harmon "invited" me to stop eating sugar. She "testified" it would be a beneficial move. I told her I was not ready to accept her invitation. A few years ago I did stop eating sugar for at least six months or longer and it was a good thing. Anyway, I finally decided it was time for me to do it again. So far so good. I have not had any 🍬, 🍰, 🍨, 🍪, 🍫,  etc. all week. I feel like I have been blessed because those things have surprisingly not been much of a temptation to me.

That is the Tiwi mounted on the window.

Wednesday we went to Lancaster for Zone Conferences. We drove Sister Layton's old car down there and traded it out with another car that we drove back that some of the elders had which is going to be sold. Of course, the cars had Tiwi's in them so James had to really watch his p's & q's while he was driving. After lunch we gave all the elders and sisters new insurance cards to put in their cars. At the conclusion of Zone Conference, one elder had to view the defensive driving video. That evening we had dinner at Marie Calendar's with President & Sister Layton, Elder & Sister Richey, and three church service missionary couples who serve as housing inspectors. When we were getting ready to leave and just standing around visiting, this woman sitting at a nearby table asked me if we were going to church. I started talking to them and told them we were senior missionaries for our church. Her husband asked if the boys in black pants and white shirts belonged to us. I proudly said yes. They had a few questions and I told them what we did. They have been married 59 years and have 4 children, 7 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren who all live in Lancaster. They all go to church together each Sunday at a bible church. We told them they are very blessed to have all their family near them and they agreed. Hopefully, we spread some good will about Mormons. Then we went to a late movie at Blvd. Cinema in downtown Lancaster. The "blvd." is very nice with lots of trees and vertical parking in the center of the street. The movie theatre had $5 movies for seniors on Wednesday. The theatre had huge, leather recliners which were so comfortable. After the movie, a man on the street saw James open the car door for me and remarked to him, "What a gentleman!"

President Layton told the missionaries that Elder Rasband and others have said there are three places  where we are on "holy ground"; temples, churches, and our homes. He talked to them about keeping their apartments clean and organized so they can be a holy place and a place where they can feel the spirit. He reminded them that Elder Oaks taught that "if we want to talk to God, we pray. If we want to listen to God, we read the scriptures." He also quoted Sister Beck, who was quoting someone else, "Don't wallow in imperfections; starve the problems, feed the opportunities."  President Layton's main theme for the conference was how the "power of the word" can bless people and how they can access it. He talked about getting to know the Savior as opposed to just knowing who he is. He told them that the great book, "Jesus the Christ" by James E. Talmage was written in the Salt Lake Temple. He also told the missionaries that the first time he read the book when he was a young man, he struggled with the vocabulary in it. Now, he understands it better. Sister Layton talked about the Christ like attribute, diligence. She stressed we have a responsibility for our time (don't waste it and use it effectively) and a responsibility for our attitude (be positive, patient, and joyful). President Layton said he did the math and figured out the missionaries have 48 hours per week to proselyte and give service. He said he wants them to be accountable for those hours in their weekly letter to him so they will be more aware of how they use their time.

We spent the night in Lancaster because Thursday we also attended the other Zone Conference so James could switch out the car and give out the new insurance cards. We left early at lunch time so we could eat at BJ's Restaurant and Brewery in Palmdale. Palmdale is just next door to Lancaster. We asked if Rob Roberts (they are the people we met at Disneyland last weekend that invited us to sit at their table) was working and were able to get seated in his area. A couple minutes after we sat down, Rob and his daughter came over looking kind of surprised, but pleased that we came. His daughter was on Spring Break and they didn't have a babysitter, so he brought her to work. She spotted us when we came in and told her dad. We had a nice lunch and a very attentive waiter. Before we left, we gave Rob a pass along card with our phone number and an invitation to have the missionaries come and teach his family how they can be an eternal family. We'll see what happens. Sophie has her Disneyland "diamond anniversary" ears on. 

The water heater at the mission office building broke and caused water damage in our office and the office next door. All of these boxes of Book of Mormons were in the closet where most of the damage was. Thankfully, the boxes were only a little water logged, but the books inside of them were okay. They had a restoration company come drill holes in the walls and extract water and dry it out with fans.

On Saturday, James picked up Chris. He met his dad and sister and said they were very nice. Chris was just baptized a few weeks ago. James asked him how his dad was doing with his decision to join the church, and he said things were much better now. James took him to the mall to shop for Sunday clothes. They went to JC Penney's and got some good bargains. James got him two pairs of slacks, a suit jacket, a belt, and two white shirts. Then they had lunch. We have a box of ties at the office that someone donated some we took him three ties on Sunday. One of the missionaries showed him how to tie a tie. Chris looked very handsome blessing the sacrament and we think he felt good.

We went to pick up Mary Vega so she could attend a baptism with us. Her baptism date is April.  Elders Rowley and Hulet met us there to help get her wheelchair in the car. They told us she had fallen and hurt her hip and were also going to give her a blessing. She invited James to give her the blessing, and he gave her a beautiful blessing of healing. She said she had just gotten back from the hospital and was not feeling up to going. She also has dialysis Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and that takes a toll on her.

Kyli with some of the young women from her ward who came to her baptism.

The baptism we went to was for Kyli Dudley, a fourteen year old girl. As part of the program after the talks and her baptism, Kyli shared her testimony and conversion story. She said she grew up in a nonreligious home, but knew about prayer and had faith. She was having a difficult time last summer and was praying for help and was trying to focus on the positive things in her life. Gavin, a friend from school, texted her and invited her to his church. She liked the way he acted joyous, so she went. She said she was thankful for her struggles because without them she wouldn't have found Christ. She said, "I felt comfort, gained faith, and became happy."  We were surprised that she was only 14 because she was very articulate and mature. Her mother and grandmother attended.









About a month ago we received the results of our DNA test that we did through My Heritage. The test kits came in pretty boxes. We swabbed the insides of our checks and sent them off. We had to wait about three months for the results.   Drum roll!!!







James' ethnicities are:  48.2% Europe (40.7% Iberian from South Europe and 7.5% Scandinavian from North and West Europe), 38.5% Central American, and 13.3% Middle Eastern.
Alecia's ethnicities are: 96.2% Europe (7.1% Iberian from South Europe and 3.7% East European) and 3.8% Middle Eastern.
We were both surprised about the Middle Eastern. Pretty interesting!

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of March 13 - 19

Silly Sister Zambrano rescued a stray cat and apparently kept it in her apartment for about two months. The housing inspectors saw the litter box and asked about it. The secret was out of the bag. Sister Zambrano called James to have him call her mother to see when she could come pick the cat up. President Layton asked James if we could keep it for a few days. He said no, so Bob & Vicky Ritchie (the housing coordinators) took it home with them. The cat is in the travel case, but you can't see it.











James picked these pretty flowers for me off a bush at some apartment building where he was and brought them back to me at the office. What a nice surprise!

My sewing machine has gotten a workout lately. I took in the sides of Elder Olsen's 7 short sleeve, white shirts. He has lost some weight and didn't like how baggy they had become.

Friday during our staff meeting I asked President Layton what would be the appropriate attire for us at Disneyland. He said they were told that on their Friday night date and P-day to take off their name tags, wear their jeans, and get lost in the crowd. He said he often likes to wear his name tag because it gives him opportunities to talk to people. We were thankful for the clarification again because we always wrestle with that question.  We came home about noon, changed our clothes, and grabbed our suitcase. We ate lunch at Too Fat Sandwiches before we left. It was a nice sandwich shop with painted murals on the walls and a bureau full of a pig collection. We found out later the restaurant is owned by Mormons.                                                            (You can see our reflections in the mirror.)

Then we drove to Anaheim. Traffic was terrible when we got to the Los Angeles area. It took us two extra hours to get through it. We don't know how people can handle that everyday. Sometimes we were going five or ten miles per hour. When we got up to twenty miles per hour, we felt like we were speeding. We finally made it to our hotel by about 5:30 pm. The hotel was right next to a Disney parking lot, so we were able to just walk over there and get on the tram. We made it by the appointed time of  6:00 pm to meet Xyla, our granddaughter, at the front gate of Disneyland. She came to California on a four day trip with her school band. We were so excited to see her; she is the first family member we have seen in 8 1/2 months since we have been on our mission. We ate dinner with her at Rainforest Café and caught up on all the news.

  That evening in our hotel room we heard what sounded like explosions and gun shot sounds. We opened the drapes and enjoyed the Disneyland fireworks.

Then on Saturday we entered the gates of "the happiest place on earth" and spent the day there. Disneyland really is a happy place. We did not see anyone fighting with each other. People love the music playing everywhere and skip, dance, sing, and move to the beat. Families are having a great time together. It was "the happiest place on earth" for us that day because we got to spend some of the day with Xyla. We saw the Sagewood Middle School Concert Band perform. They are really good. Xyla plays the flute.

Xyla and her friends let the "grandparents" tag along with them. We enjoyed walking around and riding the rides with them. Our name tags did cause us to be noticed; after all we were the only people walking around with missionary name tags on. Mostly it was members of the church that said "hi" and introduced their selves. We met two different couples who had recently returned home from their missions; one to Hawaii and the other couple served in Australia. Another couple wanted their grandchildren to meet us. A missionary from their ward is serving in Parker, Colorado. A young man stopped us and said he had served his mission in Anaheim, but they were not allowed to go to Disneyland. We told him we were thankful that we have special privileges. We talked to another nice family that had a bunch of kids, some of which you could tell were adopted. The mother said they would make a good Mormon family and that many of her friends were Mormon. When we were standing around with our lunch trying to find a place to sit, a cute little girl came up to us and invited us to sit at their table because they had some extra chairs. We accepted and had a very nice visit with her and her mom and dad. We found out they live in Palmdale and the man works at BJ's Restaurant. Next week, we will be in Palmdale, so we hope to see him again. The man sitting next to us on the tram said his sister is a Mormon living in Florida and he is an Orthodox Christian.

Sunday evening we had a very nice dinner at the Ball's apartment along with Matt and Patti Morris. (They are church service missionaries. Matt is the other half of the vehicle team and Patti does referrals and the monthly mission newsletter.)

Our mission office got a face lift the last couple of months. The walls were painted and we received some new artwork and a new bulletin board. I fancied the bulletin boards up with borders. The baptism board represents some of  the stories of the many people who have come unto Christ.

One of our missionaries pointed out that this painting of Christ's triumphal return to the earth looks like He is returning to Bakersfield. The landscape at the bottom of the picture looks very similar to the landscape around here. That was a very interesting observation!

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of March 6 - 12

Our mission increased by 7 new elders (5 of them Spanish speaking) and l new sister on Monday. For lunch when they arrived, I made a big salad and we had a potato bar instead of pizza. I figured that pizza and salad costs about $3.75 per person compared to baked potatoes and salad at only about $1.65 per person. We also enjoyed having dinner with them in the evening at the mission home.

               Elder Cruz has only been in the country about five months from Mexico and does not know English very well, so James was translating for him. Elder Pena is from Columbia and has lived in Texas the last six months and can speak some English. James also showed the vehicle safety video and gave a presentation on driving safely.                       Elder Atkinson and Elder Cruz are assigned to our ward.

                Elder Chamberlain, President and Sister Layton, Elder Atkinson, Elder Cruz
             Elder Stewart, Elder Rindlisbacher, Sister McMinn, Elder Pena, Elder Thomson

On Tuesday the two sisters, Sister Newhouse (or Sister "Old Shack" as some people like to tease her) and Sister Romero who have completed their missions had their departing interviews and instructions.  Then we, the Balls, and the Laytons had a repeat lunch with them like the day before. They flew home early the next morning.

Mario, from our ward, called James crying and upset because the CPS had taken his little seven year old sister and fifteen year old brother from his mother. They live in Oxnard, California and his sister had called him crying pleading with him to save her. What a tear jerker! He had been on the phone all day with other family members who are all fighting among themselves and the case worker trying to see what she can do. Mario called again later and we went over to his house to talk to him and James gave him a blessing.

On our afternoon off on Thursday we bought a new mini fridge for the office since we apparently ruined the other one. Ever since we came, the tiny little freezer compartment was caked in about five inches of solid ice. When we were chipping the ice off, we made a hole that let all the Freon out. So now we have a nice, new fridge.

Then we went on a teaching appointment with Elders Rowley and Hulett to visit Mary Vega. She grew up in McFarland and ran track for a couple years with Coach White (McFarland USA coach).  We also found out that Cesar Chavez was her godfather. She is an older woman that uses a wheel-chair. Her electric wheelchair had been at the shop for repairs for sometime because she could not afford to pay for it. We found out where it was and went and paid for it anonymously. Mary was very surprised that someone would do that. She said she had been praying for an angel to help her. She attended church Sunday and said she really liked it and would be back.

We enjoyed the beautiful day on Saturday sitting outside by a pretty fountain sharing a chocolate banana shake. We also went to the movie, "The Shack". It had a lot of good messages in it about our relationship with God (he was called "Papa" in the movie) and Jesus including; we don't have to do it alone, we can turn to them, forgiveness, and getting rid of guilt. I liked when "Papa" said, "Anything is possible when everything is possible".

The last couple of weeks we have gotten more new Toyota Corollas for the missionaries. President Layton called Salt Lake and told them he did not want them to send us any more Chevy Malibu's.  As a matter of fact, he asked them if they can trade our Malibu's out with some other mission for Corollas. He thinks the Malibu's are too fancy for our missionaries to be driving because there are many poorer areas here and they don't fit in very well.

Scattered around downtown Bakersfield you see these power boxes on some of the corners that have been painted and look so pretty. It is much better than just leaving them in their natural gray metal state.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

Week of February 27 - March 5

Tuesday morning we joined some other members of our ward at the Bakersfield airport to send off Wesley Schmidt with well wishes. He is flying to the Provo MTC to start his mission, and has been called to the Tacoma Washington Mission. Wesley is a well prepared, twenty year old young man who has been diligently working hard toward this day for over two years. He was told he couldn't go on a mission because he weighed too much, so he worked hard to loose the weight. His mom and dad are divorced and his dad has cancer and probably won't live too much longer. His dad lives in Utah and Wesley recently went to visit him and say his goodbyes. Last Saturday, I hemmed six pairs of slacks and a pair of workout pants for him. He is quite short and can't buy pants the right length to fit him. This is his first time flying also, so he was kind of nervous and excited about that. Both Wesley and his mom were overwhelmed and got tears in their eyes when we told them we were going to put money into his mission account each month to help him.

 

Another sweet missionary, Elder Beckstead, was released to go home to get better. He has been sick for weeks and not able to keep food down. He was trying to tough it out and not let anyone know. He has been on his mission since September. He left most of his belongings here and is planning to come back soon. Even though he doesn't feel well, he always has a smile on his face.

James finally received his new glasses in the mail the other day from the VA.  He has been anxiously waiting for about three and a half months. Can you tell which pair of glasses are the new ones? *

I finished the 30 day challenge again! I swore I would never do it a second time, but for some reason I did. The last day was 50 dips, 150 squats, 120 sec plank, 150 crunches, 50 pushups, 50 burgees, and I finished in 21 minutes, 2 minutes faster than the first time. Hallelujah!

Thursday we went to BYU vs CSU baseball game in Bakersfield. BYU lost 4 to 5. Elder Larsen called James during the game because that was about as close as he could get to the game. He played for BYU before his mission and hopes to again when he is released. He asked President Layton if they could attend, but the answer was no.

Friday night we had another potluck dinner at the mission home with President and Sister Layton and the mission staff. President Layton shared three wonderful experiences some missionaries shared  in their weekly letter to him. He reads each of the letters from the missionaries every week and responds to them all. That is quite a feat! We learned that Sister Layton is usually the driver as they go to Zone Conferences, meetings, and interviews all over the mission. President Layton has a laptop desk that he puts his computer on and works while his wife drives. We also learned that while her husband is having interviews, Sister Layton teaches their companions and  the other missionaries that are waiting how to polish and shine their shoes (elders) and how to apply makeup (sisters). Also, President Layton told us the sad and interesting fact that probably five missionaries in his eight months as president have gotten the news that their parents are divorcing. It is rough on them.

Our stake center was a busy place Saturday afternoon and evening. There were nine baptisms one after the other; four converts and five 8 year old Primary children. We attended the baptisms of three different teenagers. This is Emma Gillian (18). She was first on the program and told a little about her conversion and bore her testimony. She first went to church with a friend when she was 14. A couple years later she had some kind of accident that put her in a wheelchair and the Relief Society came to the aid of her family. She said over the years she has had the help and support of many members and missionaries.

Sister Seiuli and Sister Isom are in the photo with Emma.

Then Chris Ocegueda (18) from our ward was baptized. He wanted to be baptized over a year ago, but his dad wouldn't allow it and his baptism was cancelled. Other than his dad (who is not around much) his family is happy about his decision, but they did not attend his baptism. We picked him up and took him home after. Some of the young men from the ward gave the prayers and talks and the young women participated in a musical number, "A Child's Prayer". Chris is a senior in high school and a great guy. He is going  to study culinary arts in college, and serve a mission in about a year.

Elder Rowley, Chris, and Elder Crane make a handsome trio.

Chris said he wanted to stay for the next baptism, so we did. Megan Posada (17) was baptized. She has been living with her uncle and aunt, who are members of the church. The missionaries told us that at first she told them she was an atheist and didn't want to listen to their message. Over time, her heart softened and she came to know that there is a God, our Heavenly Father, and His son, Jesus Christ, sacrificed His life for her. She was so excited to be baptized!

Here Megan is with Sister Newhouse and Sister Kuang.

Guess where those "Wonderful Pistachios" that we all love come from? Yep, you are right - good, old Bakersfield is the place. It was back in 2007 when they first arrived in Safeway stores. Now they are everywhere. We even have some in our pantry.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!

(*on the right)