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!