We just finished our first week on our mission– which is so hard to believe!  Everyone in the office went with Elder Ruse to pick up 5 cars each day – except for on one day we just picked up 4 cars.  There are 14 new cars waiting for the missionaries who will be arriving in October.   It was fun to have a “field-trip” out of the office.  I always liked the “field-trips” at BYU.   Here are the pictures of the cars – I had to do it in 2 pictures:

Yesterday (Saturday), we used the day to become better familiar with the area and do some shopping.  Emma and Rich gave us a gift card for Trader Joe’s and so we spent the morning walking around there and getting some food.  We called Emma to find out what their favorite things are and we purchased a few of those.  Then we were on the hunt for a small barbequer so that we could have hamburgers and hotdogs.  We finally found one at Lowes and then had to put it together.  We also went to Costco for a few things and boy was it crazy!  Crazier than the Costco at Draper.  However, this Costco had a car wash and so we got in the long line and washed the car.  We think a supersonic car wash like the one in Orem would do great here!  Costco charged $7.99 to wash the car – but no free vacuum.  Someone should tell Brother Roberts that there is a huge business down here just waiting for him!

Then headed home to put the barbequer together – which was only supposed to take 30 minutes – but it took us about 2 hours.  We needed those teenage grandboys here to help.  Then we finally had our bbq hamburger and that was great.  Then it was time for me to go to Camarillo to our Stake Center for the RS broadcast.  I thought I had the right address and looked it up on map quest, but after driving around for 45 minutes, I soon realized that I didn’t have the right address because I was on top of a hill and I knew the Church wouldn’t build one in that area.  I finally pulled over, and looked it up on my ipad and sure enough I had the wrong address.  I had 5 minutes to find the building so I prayed that I would be able to just drive to it – and sure enough I found it – a great answer to my prayer!  It was just a few blocks off of the off-ramp!  It was a wonderful meeting and it was great fun to see the sisters from the MTC provide the music.  In fact the older women who were singing with them were some of the MTC leadership.  They sang the songs that I mentioned in my blog – where the words had been changed to be about missionary work.  It was great and the speakers talked about covenants and the blessings we receive from making and keeping covenants.

Here are a few pictures from the week:

Elder Ruse told me to say that we are getting used to the area and that we are enjoying walking on the beach and meeting people – we are exercising and “opening our mouths” like we were taught to do.  We met a man named Albert from the Philippines and he was fishing from the shore, so we stopped and talked to him.  Because we always have our badges on, he asked us if we were Mormon after we introduced ourselves and we told him we were and asked him how he knew about the Church.  He said that he is retired now from the Government but his sister lives across the street from a Mormon church.  He then hurried and told us that he is Catholic.  We hope to see him again on the beach because he was a very nice man.

We had a great testimony meeting today and our ward is very diverse and we really enjoy it.  We had a great Gospel Principles class – which is always full.  In Relief Society today, the RS president was giving the lesson and she introduced her lesson by telling a story about how we need to get to know the Savior.  Then she had 4 gifts on the table that she was going to give one gift to each group.  Each group had to open the gift and determine from the gift a scripture, song and message about The Savior.  It was a great object lesson.  One group had a bottle of water, one group had a candle, one had a rock, and one had a stethoscope.  It was incredible what the sisters in each of the groups talked about – because you could talk about different things with each of those gifts.  Anyway, it was a great Sunday.

The Mechams from Idaho Falls, are the couple that is leaving the mission to go home after 18 months and so President and Sister Castro have invited us to their home tonight for dinner, along with the Mechams and the Trumans.

After many months of packing and cleaning and then 10 days of MTC, we finally arrived in Southern California.  We visited Kelsey’s parents and George in Riverside and then met Jana and Bill at Inland Wholesale.  After they got off work, we drove to their house in Running Springs and stayed the night with them.  The drive to Southern California went fast as we had much to talk about after the MTC and we practiced talking to investigators.

On Saturday morning, the 22^nd of September we drove down to Oxnard.  Jana and Bill went with us and we are sure glad they did.  We went to the mission office and met the couples working there and the Assistants to President Castro.  Sister Mecham had us follow her to the apartment – which is about 2 ½ miles away from the mission office.  Brother and Sister Mecham had moved in the furniture and had strawberries, flowers and some household items there for us.     It was so nice of her to do that.

  Jana also brought a bouquet of flowers and vase with her – and that instantly made it feel like home It didn’t take long to unload the car.   Because it was past noon, we took a few minutes and went down by the ocean and enjoyed some fish and chips.  It was fun to see all of the boats in the harbor.  Kelsey and Bill went right to work after lunch and hooked up the washer and dryer – which is on the patio in a closet.  The last time I had to go outside to do laundry was when we were living in Baldwin Park and had our laundry outside in the detached garage – which was about 40 years ago!  However, I am grateful for the washer and dryer and that I don’t have to go to the laundry mat.

Here is a picture of Jana at the Oxnard Harbor with a boat named Megan Marie, just like her daughter!  I knew this boat was meant for us.

While they were hooking the laundry up, Jana and I ran to Walmart to shop for items we needed for the apartment. I was so glad she was there because we had 2 very, very loaded shopping carts.  When we returned, Bill was napping and Kelsey was enjoying the lazy boy recliner.   We all worked together to put stuff away and then they left.  We stayed up late putting more stuff away – until we couldn’t keep our eyes open (from Idaho Falls) told us that they would come by on Sunday at 12:30 and we could follow them to the Church.  As it turned out, President Castro, the mission president, and two missionaries were speaking at Church.  We met Sister Castro and their 2 children.  Sacrament meeting was wonderful as President Castro shared his conversion story.  We attended the Gospel Principles class and it was full and wonderful!  It seemed very strange not being in Primary.  Here is our official California Ventura Mission picture:

Sunday night we drove down to the beach and walked for about an hour until it got too cold and we didn’t have any jackets with us.  It sure was beautiful!

Monday morning we were ready to get to work.  We were overwhelmed by time we were done, and the now Elder Ruse wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to learn it all.  He has a huge job of taking care of all of the mission cars – which will be about 92 by the end of the week.  I am responsible for taking care of the mail, making files for the new missionaries and sending out their welcome letters.  You can’t imagine how much mail there is.  All of the missionaries’ mail comes to the office and then I make labels and forward it out to the elders and the sisters.  It is an all morning job.  I also order all of the supplies from distribution that the missionaries will need and manage the cell phones for the missionaries.  I don’t know if you know this, but there are 20 missions in California.  If each mission had about 200 missionaries – that is 4000 missionaries in California alone.  H.owever, here is a place at the Ventura Harbor where we took our lunch hour after taking the mail to the post office, but we did have to share the table with a crow!

They say that the really busy times are zone conferences and transfer days.  It is my understanding that the members around the various districts help to bring the missionaries to zone conference and they do the food also.  They wouldn’t be able to do this without the members help. That is incredible!

Needless to say we are excited about being here and we are loving the area!

A few more pictures from the family dinner

We have been so busy at the MTC that I didn't have time to do a very good job of adding pictures from our family dinner, so here are a few of the others.

 Dakota with the famous horses head on

 Adam, Bodhi and Casy

 Enjoying Andy's patio

Adam, Bodhi, Dakota and Andy getting dinner ready

Andy and Leslie

Leslie, Kenzie and Cami

Andy and Cretia

 Cretia & Gaylen

 Adam, Bodhi and Riley

The Chicken - aka Bodhi

 Nate, Riley and Bodhi

 Bodhi on top of Riley and Nate

All of the Grandchildren with Grandma and Papa - with Gaylen at the top of the hill

Sunday at the MTC

This has been a beautiful day at the MTC.  It started with Sacrament meeting at 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. - wouldn't that be wonderful to always have Sacrament meeting at 7:30 a.m.?  Then we went to the cafeteria for breakfast where they keep it simple for the workers who have to be here to feed everyone.  It consisted of cold cereal, muffins and fruit - which was perfect!  They even used paper bowls and cups and plastic spoons.  We have appreciated the 4000 workers that it takes to keep the MTC running!

Then we went to the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast with all of the missionaries in building 19M.  Then the sisters stayed in that building for Relief Society and the men went to Priesthood.  Young Elders conducted the meeting and Elder Ruse said it was incredible.  He said that the Church is in wonderful hands with these young people.  Sister Edgington from the Relief Society Board spoke in Relief Society and it was wonderful. The music was incredible.  They ask the young missionaries - sisters and elders - if they have musical talents that they can try out for all these times when they need musical numbers and they have all been amazing and very spiritual.  We sang a song in Relief Society that was to the music of "As Sisters in Zion" - but the words were changed for missionary work and it was inspirational!  We also sang another song tonight where the words were changed.  My guess is that they have received permission from those who wrote the songs to change the words, but they have to keep them in the MTC.

At 11:30 we went to lunch where they served steak and shrimp - which was such a highlight for all of the missionaries.  They did post a sign that stated - please do not ask for more steak or shrimp - we have plenty of vegetables, rolls and fruit, but only enough meat for the missionaries.  After lunch it was rest time until dinner at 5:00.  At dinner, it was again simple - with salads and some kind of sandwich and desserts that have been left over from yesterday.  Before dinner, Elder Ruse and I went for a walk around the Provo Temple and there were hundreds of missionaries walking around and having district meetings on the Temple grounds.  It was so beautiful!  I told Elder Ruse that everything looks more beautiful - do you think we are looking at everything through different eyes?  Here is a picture of us on the Temple grounds:

Then we went back across the street for dinner and they had to stop people from going into the cafeteria because they had too many missionaries in the cafeteria.  Here is a picture of them in the hallway waiting to go in.  However, Elder Ruse and I were allowed in - because they always let the seniors in without waiting.  We have never seen so many in the cafeteria at one time!

After dinner we went to a departing devotional for all those who will be leaving this week.  They were at the west MTC, and we were in a large chapel and then they had to open up another room.  They gave instructions for traveling and then they had everyone stand when President Nally would say their country or state.  They were going all over the world - with a very large number going to California!  Look out California!

After that devotional, we went back to 19M for the Sunday night devotional.  It was Brother Ron Tanner and his wife Kathy.  Brother Tanner is a producer of many Church films - such as 17 miracles and Ephraims Rescue.  He talked about how that all came about, bore testimony of the work it took to do the film and the spiritual events that happened and then showed 4 segments of the film that were great.  We were glad that we saw the film this summer.  If you get a chance to see it do - when it comes out buy it!  All of his movies were based on real stories.  His cousin is TC Christensen and together they made the films.

Last Family Dinner

Before we left for our mission, Andy invited us all to his house for one last family dinner the night before we entered the MTC.  We had turkey, ham and all the fixings.  It was like Thanksgiving dinner.  Of course, all the grandchildren had a great time.  Here are some of the pictures from that day.

Casy, Bodhi and Riley - the little grandsons!

Ellie and her mother Cami

Kenzie, Ava and Nate - Ava didn't like the horse or chicken head

This was an interesting shot - notice the chicken head on top of Andy's head.

Jamie, Cami and Leslie

Notice Coy photo-bombing in this picture of the grandchildren

The kids had a lot of fun with the chicken head and the horse head that Dakot and Bodhi had.  I didn't have one of Dakota wearing it, however.

End of the First Week of the MTC

Here it is Saturday, September 14th and we just finished our first transfer!  We transferred from the Provo Marriott Hotel to the MTC - building 2M, room 315.  It has all the comforts of home (the home we have known for the last 2 months), bed, closet, bathroom, dresser and shower.  And we thank our son, Andy for those comforts!  It is actually really nice and it has some beautiful pictures in the room.  We told the MTC that we would need a fridge to put Kelsey's insulin in and they said they would have it for us.  However, our room didn't have a fridge, but it turns out that we are across the hall from the supply closet and the door is open.  We saw two fridges in there and we found the floor manager (who is also the MTC barber) and asked him and he helped us move a fridge in our room.  We plugged it in and it was noisy.  So, when he left we decided to check to see if the other one was quieter and it was so we switched them.  Then I had to iron Kelsey's white shirt and the iron in our room (and it has an ironing board) was scorched on the bottom, so Kelsey went to find another iron and he found that the room next to us was empty because the missionaries checked out and went on their mission.  Well, there was a brand new Teflon bottom iron in there, so we exchanged irons with that room.  Therefore - we are all set. This room is much better than the Marriott!  The Church sure does everything nice.

We are glad that we have completed the Preach My Gospel training as it was very hard for the seniors.  We read the Preach My Gospel before we came - but we had to learn to follow the spirit, listen to the people and keep it simple.  We learned to teach people vs. lessons.  We have come to realize that the Gift of the Holy Ghost gives us the power to teach and invite others to come to Christ.  One of the hardest things to do is to commit people to pray for their own answers; and to commit them to read the Book of Mormon and exercise faith in the promise that is found in Moroni Chapter 10: 3-5.  All of the senior missionaries were divided into districts and our trainers were young returned missionaries - in the morning we had Brother Bateman and Sister Russon.  In the afternoon we had Brother Rowe.  They are very, very patient with all of us.  Here is our district and our trainers:  From left to right:  Brother Bateman (co-trainer); Elder and Sister Singling are going to Laos; Elder and Sister Greer are going to Equador;  Elder and Sister Pack are going to Ghana; then us and Sister Russon (co-trainer). We made a great district!

Morning trainers

with Brother Rowe in the afternoon

 

 

 

Here is Elder Bateman and Sister Russon as they were teaching us to keep it simple seniors!

The next segment of Preach My Gospel was to role play that we were less active members and another set of missionaries were the missionaries. They would have to get to know us and then determine what they could do to help us have a desire to return to activity in the Church.  We each took turns being the less active couple and the missionaries.  We had to develop a plan based on what we had learned and help them resolve and over-come their challenges.

One night while we were still at the Provo Marriott, we walked down to see the construction on the Provo Temple.  It is truly amazing what they are doing.  Here are those pictures:

 

When they are finished, the underground parking lot, will have trees, grass and walkways on top of it.  One more picture of us that some elders took while we were sitting on a bench inside the MTC grounds - which are really, really beautiful!

  Day 1 of the MTC – Monday, September 9, 2013

We arrived about 10:05 a.m. and checked into the Provo MTC.  We were greeted by many senior couples who work at the Provo MTC full time as missionaries.  We parked the car, checked into the desk and that is where we found out that we will be staying at the Provo Marriott Hotel until Saturday, the 14^th until 11:00 am.  They gave us a packet of information and went through it quickly as there were 84 senior missionaries entering the MTC on this day.  There are 6 single sisters and the rest are couples.  After we received our packet, we were told to go to building M2 and then we had 4 stations to go to:  the travel office, the bookstore, the immunization office and the general office – all at the MTC campus.  At the travel office, they gave us a check to pay for mileage and 1 night of a hotel stay on the way to Ventura.  At the bookstore, we picked up a package that had everything we need for our mission – as far as books go.  Each type of mission would get a different package. For example, we have in our group many who are going on a Perpetual Education Mission, some on Humanitarian and some medical.  There are 3 couples going on an office mission.  They are going all over the world – 3 couples to different African countries; 1 to Sri Lanka, some to countries in Asia, England, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Samoa and Australia, New Zealand, India – and even Orem.  After the bookstore we went to immunization and cleared that hurdle and then to general where we gave them money for eating at the MTC.

One funny story, there is a couple here whose last name is Roos and it is pronounced just like our name.  You will never guess where they are going – to Samoa on a Perpetual Education/Self Reliant mission.  That is the one that we were trying to go to.  Do you think they got our call????  So every time they call our name, they have to spell it.

After we did the 4 stations (it was like a scavenger hunt), we were sent over to the Stadium Chapel and then were introduced to a couple by the last name of Thomas.  Their mission is to take care of all of the senior missionaries and train them and be their guide while they are at the MTC.  They are very, very nice.  After our orientation, we then went to the cafeteria where they feed about 12,000 missionaries and it is incredible to see!  They will soon have about 20,000 at the MTC!  The cafeteria is usually open for 2 ½ hours to give them all time to eat.

They have 7stations in the cafeteria – and you could even get a box lunch and eat it outside or if you have to leave before breakfast, lunch or dinner – they will do that for you.  Everything you could imagine.  And – you should see the huge plates filled with food!  In the hallway outside the cafeteria there is a billboard that will show the menu for the day.  It reminded me of when we were on the cruise ship and would hurry to the ballroom to see what the menu was and we would do that every day – first thing in the morning!

After lunch, we went back to the chapel to meet the MTC Presidency – but they were all gone on a retreat.  However, President and Sister Hacking (President Hacking was our Stake President before Jimmy Trent) were there to speak to us and that was really fun to hear from them.  He had us all introduce ourselves, tell our name, where we are going, and if this was our first mission.  There was one couple there who have been on 5 missions previously.  Some of the missionaries look really old – we look really young compared to some.

Then we had more training after lunch about what to expect during the week – and then we were dismissed to have dinner at 4:00 and go check in at the hotel.

The MTC campus – they call it that – is huge!  But not big enough – so they will start adding on to it this fall.  Beautiful pictures hang on the walls at the MTC of missionaries in their assignments from all over the world – some are very, very old.

On Day 2 (Tuesday, September 10), we started our Preach My Gospel training with return missionaries as our teachers.  We were divided up into districts of about 8 people.  In our district Brother and Sister Singly from Santa Marita, California (which is in our mission) are going to Laos – where they will do a LDS Charities mission working on water purification.  He is our district leader while we are in the MTC.  The other 2 couples are going to Equador and Ghana.  In class we learn about how to teach lessons and then we practice on members who have volunteered to role play as investigators.  We had our first one today and Kelsey and I did okay – but we need to keep it more simple.

Later last night we went to a devotional that is held in a smaller Wilkinson Center type auditorium and they couldn’t get all of the missionaries inside because there are so many.  So, those missionaries that are in the “west campus” (the apartments that the Church is leasing) had to watch it by satellite.  Elder Martino talked and it was wonderful.  They have a certain saved section for the senior missionaries on the floor.  The young elders and sisters were in the choir and they were ½ of the auditorium.  We got back to the hotel late and we were exhausted.

Today was more training and tomorrow we will do another try at teaching another investigator.  Also, today 624 new young missionaries arrived.  We could tell when we went to dinner – because there was hardly a seat to be had in the dining room.

Here is a picture of the MTC – it is incredible and we can’t believe we are having this experience!  This map shows the buildings on the MTC campus.  You will see the red arrow below - that is building M19 and where we had the devotionals.  The small building are all dormitories for the missionaries. 

 

We are now just 7 days away from when we enter the MTC.  We had our "farewell" in our ward and all of our children (Andy & Cretia, Leslie and Coy, Emma and Rich, Jamie and Gaylen, Cami and Nate, Adam) and grandchildren, (Dakota, Bodhi, Riley, MacKenzie, Ellie, Ashton, Casey, Eli and Ava) were there; Kelsey's sister and brother-in-law - Sandra and Don were there; Kelsey's uncle from Florida - Darrell and Nancy were there; my cousins daughters- Janeal and Rebecca, and daughter in-law Melissa were there and Yvette, Shawna and Lincoln were there from work.  It was so nice of everyone to come.  Emma, Rich, Tegan and Brian and baby Beckett flew in from San Francisco and Darrell and Nancy were in Utah visiting family.  After sacrament meeting, we met at Cami's for a lunch before Emma had to fly home.  We had a great weekend and hated to see Emma and Rich leave.

We have enjoyed all the time we could with family and you will see a video that Kenzie and Ellie put together yesterday.  They sang it to us at the park last night and Cami posted it on this blog - show make sure you watch it.  It is a farewell to Grandma and Grandpa.  So cute!

We finished reading the Book of Mormon together.  It took us 1 month and 26 days!  We enjoyed reading the scriptures together and read it at the park or in Andy's beautiful backyard.  After reading the Book of Mormon again, we started reading Preach My Gospel and only have about 100 pages left to read in that and we will have that done before we enter the MTC.

This last Sunday we wanted to go to the Spoken Word on Temple Square and decided to ask Kenzie and Ellie if they wanted to go. Ellie just turned 8 and you have to be 8 to go.  Kenzie's primary has a CTR bear that they give to families and ask that the CTR bear experience good things with the families.  Well last weekend the McAffee family had the bear. So Leslie and Kenzie thought it would be fun for the CTR bear to experience Temple Square and have a field trip.  So, he went with us.  When we arrived at the parking lot of the Conference Center, Ellie said, "I sure hope they don't think that I am 3 years old!"  Well, the first senior missionary that we saw told us where the theatre was and we said we were going to the broadcast and she said that children under 8 can't go to the broadcast.  We told her that Ellie was baptized 2 months ago and she is 8.  The next senior missionary told us the same thing - and 2 more missionaries told us the same thing.  We thought that was funny. Ellie ended up being right! Then one missionary asked us about the CTR bear and we told her what Kenzie's primary does and she thought that was a wonderful idea!  Here are pictures of us at Temple Square with the bear.  The broadcast was wonderful and the girls loved it.  It was a wonderful experience for us and them.  And the primary said that was the first field trip for the CTR bear!

Farewell to Grandma and Grandpa