Today we had a gentleman come into the office and tell us in broken English that he had packages for us.  So, I asked him if he wanted to use our dolly and he said no - many packages.  So, I asked if I could help and he said no - many, many packages.  So I propped open our door and went out and it was a postal truck filled with our packages.  He had 4 hampers in the truck and he said they were all ours.  He said, "this is unbelievable". I told him about our 240 missionaries and that they are away from home and they are between 18 and 21 years old - and he said "unbelievable" - again.  Sister Truman and I were the only ones in the office - and he kept hauling in the hampers and Sister Truman and I kept unloading them.  Then he had to scan each package - you will see him in the pictures.  You will also see some - not so pretty pictures of me trying to get packages out of the hamper.  Elder Ruse walked in to a complete mess - so he decided to take pictures.  Here they are:

 

Along with the 185 packages, we received 400 pieces of letters and cards that had to be labeled.  We held the packages in the office and Elder and Sister Truman will go to San Luis Obispo and take zone 1 and 2 packages tomorrow - Christmas Eve and Elder Ruse and I will take zones 3 and 4 and the Assistants will take zone 6, 7, and 8 and head to Simi Valley.  We live in zone 5, so the zone leaders for 5 will come to the office and pick them up.  We will do this as soon as the mail comes tomorrow and we get it sorted.  President Castro said that last year most of the mail came on Christmas Eve.  If that happens this year - we will never get everything out by Christmas day!  I started putting labels on the letters we received on Saturday and then right into getting today's mail done and I didn't finish until 4:45 p.m.  I will let you know what time the mailman comes on Christmas Eve!

These sisters are in our area and they dropped by to carol to us one day while we were in the office and it was wonderful!

The Christmas packages are coming.  Elder Ruse put up a table for me because it was killing my back to bend over on the floor and put labels on the packages for forwarding to the missionaries.  We are now collecting the packages and will take them on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week to the Christmas devotionals.  We will take the truck and pull the trailer with all of the packages.  I am assuming that if we get any on Christmas eve, we will need to deliver them that day so that everyone will get their packages in time.  Actually, it will be fun to do that!

Elder Schwitzer gave a talk April 2010 Conference, entitled, Developing Good Judgment and Not Judging Others.  This talk has meant a lot to us lately, as we can relate to Martha.  We are learning not to be so hard on ourselves because we aren't the "Mary" in the mission.  In his talk he talks about needing both the Mary and the Martha, and that Martha isn't just always in the "kitchen".  She does have a spiritual side which we see evident in the scriptures.  We know the mission needs someone to do the Martha work and we are happy doing that.  It has been very hard on Elder Ruse to be the "Martha", but he is getting better.  Go and read his talk as it is very good.

Here are a few more pictures.  My other blog showing the Green family visit - was too full, I guess.  It was so windy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that we were glad we did as much as we could on Thursday.  When we went to the beach on Saturday, Jana was with us, and the wind was sooo bad that the kite boarders had to come in because it was too windy.  At one point, one of our buckets blew all the way across the beach to the houses behind us and so when we left, I asked Nate to drive around by the houses - and there was our red bucket - just blowing around in the street!

Here are the girls at the American Girl store lunch.  They even let Ava choose a baby and then they had baby seats for the babies to sit in at the table.  Ellie had her Kit and she even got Kit's ears pierced!

We have a really nice mall in Ventura and they had a train that the kids wanted to ride in.  You can see Nate in the caboose with the kids - he had to go because Ava is under 3, but Ava didn't want him in their car, so he had to go to the blue car.  This picture was taken before Ava kicked him out.

And, here is the windy beach scene.  I can't tell you how windy and cold it was.  I sure hope the kids come back when it is warmer on the beach.  However, don't anyone come in June because apparently here in June they call it gloomy June because that is the month that is foggy all month!

Here it is the 15th of December already and we can't believe it.  Came, Nate, Ellie, Ashton and Ava visited us the first part of the month and it was wonderful to see them!  The first night they came, we watched the news and they said the "big chill" was hitting Southern California and it would be 40 degrees.  They looked at Herriman's weather and it was 0 degrees!  They thought that was really funny.  We walked over to where we walk among the boats, and the kids played on the playground.  Of course, they were the only children there.  We see lots of dogs, but not many children.

 

 Ellie and Ava decorated our little Christmas tree.  They brought us a Christmas tree skirt that the grandkids put their footprints on, Christmas balls they had painted, and our Christmas stockings for our fireplace.  Ashton was so tired - he was asleep.

 

Here we are at the beach.  Ava insisted she not have any clothes on and the kids were playing in the water in their clothes!  It was cold to us, but the kids loved it.  At least it wasn't below zero.

We had one good day to enjoy as much as possible because the wind was going to get really bad.  Here we are driving a duffy boat.  We went to Subway and purchased sandwiches and ate on the boat.

 

We even saw a sealion out in the channel!

We were headed out for a walk and the kids spotted the swimming pool right behind our apartment and they insisted on getting in.  This is the hot tub - because the swimming pool was toooo cold - but they loved it.  Of course, the neighbors thought they were nuts.  It was so warm in the hot tub, that they had to keep getting out to cool down.

 

Our ward - via Rita Penix - sent us Christmas trees she had made for all of the missionaries in the ward.  Then the young women and young men made Christmas ornaments and wrote endearing things on the ornaments.  Thank you Lindon 16th Ward!  We also received a large box of frozen food from a very, very nice neighbor.  It complete filled our freezer and our hearts!  Thank you!!

Here is Elder Ruse showing how much we love the tree.  It was a great idea!  Below is our little decorated apartment.  While Cami and family were here, our TV went black!  We thought we just had free TV and we were getting just a few channels.  Now we had nothing.  However, Cami brought us a DVD player for Christmas with a few hallmark and Ephraims Rescue and so we finally called Time Warner and got the 19.00 cable so we could get the news!  Now we just get about 5 channels.

Today is fast and testimony for December 2013 and it was a great meeting.  I love this humble ward and its diversity.  I was reading in the Deseret News that there are some women who are spending their time making the news by starting another "pants at church strike".  If they were active members in the Church, they wouldn't waste their time with this cause - and try to do something more Christ-like.  We have some women in our ward in Oxnard who wear pants - and no one says anything to them - because we don't care.  We are glad that they are where they should be on Sunday!  In fact a sister in pants bore her testimony today and it was from her heart - and it was beautiful.  We have members from Hawaii, all countries in Asia, India, Mexico and those who are Native American.  It is a great ward and we are loving being amongst them.  My message to everyone today is stop the striking and just become a member of the ward and serve where you can and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

First let me apologize for not blogging sooner.  And, Happy Birthday Andy.  We also had Emma's birthday in the month of November.  She and Rich went to India for two weeks and it is great to see her pictures.

This has been a very busy month - in fact, the time in the mission is going really fast.  We found the "rhythm of the mission".  It is two transfers (which are every 6 weeks) and then a zone conference; two transfers and then a zone conference.  We have transfers tomorrow, Monday December 2, 2013, and therefore, spent the day yesterday getting 7 new cars washed and ready for the missionaries to use.  They are Chevy cruises.  I have to admit that one of my favorite parts is being able to drive the new cars.  Friday we picked up 5 new Ford.  I like how they drove.  However, Elder Ruse didn't like them.  Here is a picture of what our parking lot looked like yesterday.  In the background you can see all of the cars along the bushes.  The ones closer are the ones we had to wash and get ready.  Luckily, the High School across the street was having a car wash and so Elder Ruse and I drove them one at a time across the street for them to wash.  The kids thought that was great - because, they refer to us as the "Church will all of the cars".  In the beginning, they thought we were bringing 32 - but we just took them 7!

The holiday mail has begun.  There is a picture of what one day looked like when the mail before thanksgiving came and the missionary supplies came.  It was crazy:

Here are pictures from our first zone conference.  The mission is divided into 4 conferences and they were on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  You won't see pictures of many missionaries, because I took one and then they caught me and told me that I am not to take pictures at zone conferences.  We were outside inspecting all of the cars until lunch - so here are the cars:

This is the picture I took of the missionaries and then I was told that I can't take pictures.  OOPS!

 

 

Our Stake, the Camarillo Stake was having Temple day - which isn't associated with Stake Conference and we were given permission to go to the LA Temple.  We were married in this Temple 42 1/2 years ago and we don't think we have been back to this Temple since 35 years ago.  It was great to be in the Temple.  A little bit awkward because we aren't used to the way this Temple does the logistics.  It was beautiful!

 

Here is Elder Ruse again by the boats.  Wanting a boat will be his "thing to deal with".

 

A picture of our favorite walk at sunset:

 

It has been a quiet two weeks since I blogged last  and I didn't have anything new to write about.  However, this week it are zone conferences which is divided up into 4 days.  Yesterday, Tuesday, November 19th was the first one, and we did zones 2 and 3 at the Ventura Stake Center.  Because we have to make sure that the mission office remains open, Sister Truman stayed at the office yesterday and I went.  We had 26 cars that had to be inspected while the missionaries were in the Stake Center - so Elder Truman, Elder Ruse, the Castro children - Hannah and Samuel and myself inspected all of the cars.  Then at lunch time, we ate lunch with the missionaries, and awarded those who had the cleanest cars.  As it turned out, the sister missionaries had the cleanest cars!  Then Elder Ruse had to do his vehicle and bike safety presentation. The Stakes are asked to provide the lunch - the mission gives them $3.50/per missionary to spend and apparently, it is interesting what they feed them - but we are grateful for the help from the Stakes.  

One of the elders left his key in the ignition of his car in the on position and when we were locking all of the cars up, his car was dead - so we had to go back to the mission office and get the jumper cables and jump that car before we were done.  Then last night, we had a call about 7:30 that one of the sets of sister missionaries lost their key and the only one they had was locked in the car.  The assistants to the President found a spare key back at the office and were able to help them so that they could get on the road.

Today, the zone conference is in Santa Maria at he Stake Center - which is about 2 hours away.  Tomorrow it is in Simi Valley, and then Friday in Camarillo.

The weather is always the same here.  In fact, I would look at the weather everyday in the morning to determine what I should wear - but I'm not going to do that anymore - because it is always the same.

Last weekend, Jana and Bill came to see us on Saturday and spent the day.  It was great as I was very homesick the prior few days.  They had perfect timing which made me wonder if one of the girls told Jana that I was feeling "blue".  If they did - I thank them.  That was a long drive for them because they had to do it again on Sunday for Barry's memorial at the Mt. Sinai cemetery.  However, on Saturday, we went to see the movie Gravity, and then walked around the shops by the theatre in Camarillo.  It was very nice and lots of expensive shops!  We also went down to the fish restaurant that we ate at the first day we arrived in Oxnard.  As it turns out, it is a favorite of Bills.

Then On Sunday after sacrament meeting, we drove to Mt. Sinai for the memorial for Barry.  Here are some pictures of the unveiling of his headstone.  It is beautiful. 

Yesterday, we took a dresser to some missionaries in Simi Valley who needed another one and so we went to President Reagan's Library - which was very interesting.  Here is a jet fighter that they had there.  We also toured his Air Force One - but couldn't take pictures of that.  I think they said that 7 presidents used that Air Force One.  It was very, very interesting and in a beautiful location. They said that President Obama's Air Force one is much bigger because it is a 747.

 

Here is Elder Ruse at the edge of the property of the Reagan Library - overlooking Simi Valley.  When my parents first arrived in Southern California, we looked at homes out here to live in so that my dad didn't have to drive so far.  He always worked around the LA airport.  However, homes in 1967 were selling here for $27,000 and our mother didn't want to just make house payments, so we ended up in Riverside and they paid $20,000.

 

Here is the memorial for President Reagan

We took a picture of this field across the street from us as they are getting ready to plant strawberries.  We are going to take pictures now at the different stages of this field.  We are so memorized by the fields and how hard the workers work in them.  There are fields all around us and we love watching the various stages of the plants.

 

This is the field next to the one above and you can see the pickers out there.  Not too many there - but it was Sunday morning.  On the other days, the fields are full of workers with their colorful jackets bent over doing the work.  I don't know how they stand up when the day is over.

 

Here are pictures we took this morning of the boats and houses across the street from us.  So, on one side are the fields, and then other the other side are the houses and boats.  We can't decide which house and boat to buy (chuckle, chuckle) - so we are showing all of the pictures:

 

 

 

 

Which one do you like?

Our First Transfer

Last weekend was the Camarillo Stake Conference.  We attended the Saturday night adult session and it was one of the best ones we have attended.  It was well attended.  As it turns out the theme was on missionary work.  The Stake Presidency asked President and Sister Castro to attend and to speak.  There are also 34 missionaries who are serving in the Camarillo Stake and we were all there.  They had asked 3 converts to tell their story and it was wonderful.  One Hispanic sister joined the church about 11 years ago and has 3 children and they are all serving missions at the present time.  She mentioned that it was very hard converting to the Church – and changing her friends, but it has been a blessing in her life.  She said that she tries to support her children as much as she can by herself, but is appreciative of the help that the Stake has provided.  Her testimony was so touching and we really felt the Spirit.  Then the other two converts told their stories and the commonality between them all was how hard it was in the beginning, but their hard work has paid off.  President Castro told his story of conversion and how his friends in Ecuador had tried for 2 years to get him to join and he wouldn’t.  When it became close to his birthday, they gave him a wrapped up book in beautiful wrapping paper and he was so embarrassed to unwrap it – because that wasn’t the “boy” thing to do, so he hid it behind his back and unwrapped it when he was alone.  It was a Book of Mormon.  It was many months later that he read the book and eventually was converted and baptized.  His point was to never give up on anyone and don’t get discouraged when it takes a long time.  It was a great meeting.

Transfers were this week.  It starts on Monday morning when the new missionaries are picked up at the Santa Barbara airport.  10 came from the MTC in Mexico, 18 came from the Provo MTC and one was driven here by his parents.  We had 29 new missionaries.  They spend Monday in training and interviews with President Castro at the Ventura Stake Center and then they are picked up by members in that Stake and they stay the night with them.  Then we took 2 “visa waiters” (these are people who are waiting for VISAS to other countries and so they were serving in our mission for 4 months until their visas came) to the Los Angeles airport on Monday at 4:00 to catch their flight to Australia.  Here they are checking their luggage in at the airport:

 Here are Elder Jamison and Elder Castro who have been in our mission for 4 months waiting for the visas to Australia.  They are now in Australia after about a 22 hour flight.

 

We arrived home at 10:00 p.m. and had to get up at 5:00 to be to the Ventura Stake Center on Tuesday morning by 7:00 a.m.  We stopped by our office at the Oxnard Church building to pick up the many, many packages that came in for the new missionaries, and the packages we haven’t mailed in the last few days to those who were transferring to new districts.  So we loaded the van and I drove the van, Sister Truman took her car, and Elders Ruse and Truman took the truck because they had to pick up bikes in storage for those elders who were going into a bike district.

Then at 7:30 we started the new missionary orientation, and welcomed the new missionaries.  We do this in the primary room.  I gathered their licenses and passports, and make copies of all of those and returned their licenses to them.  Then I told them about the mail and how everything has to be sent to the mission office first class or priority mail.  If they don’t do that, then the package has to wait in the office for zone leaders to take it back to their areas.  And then I talked about phones.

It was just like MBA orientation.  They didn’t smile at all!  I know exactly how they feel, because that is how we felt a month ago.

Then at 10:30, they go into the “transfer meeting” in the chapel.  This is where they are told who will be their companion.  This is also where those who are being sent to another area of the mission will find out where they are going and who will be their companion.  Then the 7 leaving missionaries bore their testimonies and President and Sister Castro spoke.  It really was an incredible experience to have.  The entire chapel was filled to the brim with missionaries who were involved in the changes.

Elder Ruse, Elder Truman and myself had to go to the cultural hall when it was done and I gave the new areas a new phone, Elder Truman gave them keys to their apartments and Elder Ruse gave them keys to their new car.  As soon as I gave out my last phone, I went out to the parking lot to see if I could help Sister Truman with handing out the packages that we have been collecting – and gratefully, they all were picked up.

It was a very tiring day and we returned to the office about 2:00 and the phones starting ringing!  A set of sisters called and said that their new car’s engine was racing – so Elder Ruse called the chevy dealer to see if anyone could look at it – they drove it back to the dealer and found out that they were driving it in first gear.  Then a set of missionaries didn’t have a key for the gate around their apartment – and Elder Truman had to help them with that.  And then a set of  missionaries were in an accident – and we are grateful that no one was hurt – but the car isn’t drivable, so they had to come and get another car at the office.  WHAT A Day!

Elder Ruse and Elder Truman had to leave at 5:30 this morning to take the 7 missionaries who are going home to the airport.  It takes the truck and the van to get them and their luggage to the airport.  They spend last night in members homes in Ventura.

It really is a very busy time.

Week of October 7 to the 13th

I don’t want to sound like a broken letter, but we processed another 7 cars this week.  This week they were Toyota Corollas.  You probably are wondering what it means to process cars.  First of all it takes all four of us – us and Sister Truman and Elder Truman, and we get in the mission van and we head to the dealer.  If they are Toyota, the it is close – right by the freeway off of Victoria avenue.   Elder Ruse signs for the cars while the three of us inspect the vehicles with a check list.  We look around to make sure there aren’t any dings or dents or scratches, then we open and close the doors, and the trunk.  We turn the car on and check for sounds, roll up and down the windows, check the lights and the wipers and write down the VIN number, how many miles it has on it and the color.  They usually have between 4 and 8 miles on it.  Then we drive that vehicle back to the mission office and then get back in the van and return to the dealer until we have all the ones back at the mission office that were sent to the dealer.  The dealer in Utah that they use is now in Riverdale.  I suppose they won the contract for a while.  By time we get back to the office, it takes about 2 hours.

Once they are in the parking lot, then Elder Ruse and I make packets for all of them which includes a daily log book (this is where the missionaries write down their mileage for the day, when they got gas, how much the gas was and then they put the receipt for the gas in the envelope in the log book).  The packet also includes insurance and accident reporting information, and procedures to follow if there is an accident.  At the end of every month, they have to send Elder Ruse the receipts for gas and the sheet from the record book for that month.  It has to have the VIN number, the missionaries names and license #.  Even though we have that information on the front of their packet, sometimes that information isn’t included on their daily log when they turn it in at the end of the month.  We are working on their reporting skills.

We then make a hard file for each vehicle and then put the vehicle into the database.  We have to have a hard file, so that we can put information in the file for when we are ready to sell the cars.  The Church starts looking at selling the cars at about 50,000 miles.

So once we have the cars, it take us the next day to get the information all done.

Then every car has to have a TIWI put on the car to log information about how the missionary is driving.  I drove one on Thursday to the U Haul to have a bike rack put on, and I forgot about the TIWI – so I had to hurry and look for my TIWI card – put it by the TIWI and then it stopped saying, “driver not logged in”.  Then when you are finished driving the car, you have to put your card up to it again and it will log you out.  Elder Ruse gets a report daily of those who received “TIWI incidents”.  Then he has to call the missionaries and get a report from them.  It is a very elaborate system.

Elder Ruse has been dealing with 5 accident reports since he has been on the job – and they are close to being settled.  That will help.  It also helps when missionaries are “obeying with exactness”.  I have come to realize that is what we all must do is obey with exactness!  That is what we need to teach in young women and with the young Men.  OBEY WITH EXACTNESS.  It will bring peace and safety to their lives as well as ours!

I continue to do the mail.  One day, we had about 25 pieces of mail and I was ecstatic!  It was like a holiday, in fact that is what I told the mailman.  I told him thanks for giving me an easier day.

When it is a normal day, we get over 100 pieces of mail.  If the packages come priority or 1^st class, then we can forward them on to the missionaries.  But if they come standard, or fed ex, then we have to put them in the hall according to what zone they are in (we have 8 zones) and then the zone and area leaders will pick them up when they come in for a leadership council and deliver them to the missionaries in their area.

Anyway, it has been a very busy week.  So Saturday, we decided to just do something fun.  So we went to the sportsfishing store and found out about a deep fishing trip for when someone comes and then found a place that we can rent an electric boat and cruise around the channels and see all of the boats and the houses.  You can’t take the electric boats out into the ocean – just the channels.  So, we decided to try it out and it was very fun and relaxing.  Even the little kids would be able to drive the boats – they will have a great time.

Today we speak in Church to introduce ourselves and then talk about obedience.

This next week, we will be preparing for transfers on October 21^st.  On that day, we will get 29 new missionaries and then the next day we will send 9 home.  The ones coming in this time, come to the Santa Barbara airport and then the ones going home go to the Los Angeles airport.  Elder Ruse had to rent a bus to pick up the ones coming in and then Elder Truman and Elder Ruse will drive the truck and trailer to the airport to put the luggage in.  Then Sister Truman and I will meet them at the Ventura Stake Center for a day of orientation.  The new missionaries will stay with members in their homes on the first night.  We really rely on the members in the area to help.  They also prepare the lunch for that day.

I have been busy getting cell phones ready for the new missionaries.  I am learning a lot about cell phones.  We have a designated number to the Sprint office and they have been good to help me.

Here is Elder Ruse driving an electric boat in the channel.  That was a relaxing Saturday - but we are paying the price on Monday for not working on Saturday!

 

Here is Elder Ruse getting bike racks out of the trailer.

 

This is how we watched conference.  In a classroom with a small TV - however, when we all stood to sing the intermission song, it was wonderful.  Then the transmission to the TV died during the closing prayer and no one knew what to do until an Elder said "amen" and then we all stood up.  He said he did it or else we would be suspended in an eternal prayer!

A few more pictures from last week:

Elder Ruse on the beach - working.  We have talked to some very nice people!

Elder Ruse in "car" class at the MTC - little did he know what a HUGE job the cars would turn out to be.

Jana standing by the Megan Marie boat!

 

More cars...and more cars...