I believe that I mentioned that we had 22 missionaries going home this week on Wednesday.  Well they left and Elder Wallace's father said he would take a picture of them when they arrived at the SLC airport because 16 were getting off there.  Here is the picture:

It brought a tear to my eye!  You can see the Elders on one side and the sisters on their other.  Their eyes tell the story of when they see their families.  There are also 2 elders in the middle on the stairs.  I think two were either already on the floor or stopped at the restroom because I could only count 14 and there were 16 that got on the plane!  Sister Hegstrom's mother said there was 4 planes that arrived in the SLC terminal and each plane had about 20 missionaries on it.  What a great day for these missionaries to arrive home after fulfilling a wonderful mission and giving their all!  I am sure our Heavenly Father was smiling also!

Merry Christmas

Last Saturday, our Ventura 1st ward mission leader, Brother Kay, Brother Foster and Sister Burrows (a recent convert), Elder Ruse and myself went to the LA Temple Visitors Center for a special Christmas concert and a tour of the Visitors Center.  This was the first time for Sister Burrows to go to the Temple grounds and she was so excited!  We were so grateful for this experience.  Two sister missionaries, one from Guatemala and one from Spain took a small group on a tour.  The new film about families is incredible!  They also showed us the "He is the Gift" video.  Here are pictures of our trip:

 

We took a picture of our assistants, Elder Bryson, Elder Lee and Elder Wallace because transfers are next week and Elder Wallace will be going home.  Change is always so hard!

 

Last night we were invited to dinner at Brother and Sister Nielsen's house and they had also invited Brother Rivera and Brother and Sister Lundgren.  Sister Rivera was out of town on a business trip.  While returning from Brother and Sister Nielsen's home - our odometer turned over 220,000 miles.  Therefore, before we left the apartment this morning, I took a picture to show!  2001 Toyota Highlander - it is the best.  We have to drive it until it absolutely dies, because we can't afford a new one.

I wish I would have taken a picture of Brother and Sister Nielsen's home.  It is up on a hill in Ventura and it is almost 100 years old.  They have every inch decorated - and it is amazing!  They even have walls in their kitchen that looks like marble - but it is plaster board - painted with a faux color and then shellacked.  The whole house is incredible!  It was a great night!

We recently were told that our monthly mission payment would be paid by our home ward.  I found myself in a couple of days of shock, quite humble and many thoughts going through my head.  I asked Elder Ruse - "how can we accept a gift like this?" - and he quoted the scripture, if you reject the gift, you reject the giver.  That is an amazing gift, because it isn't like it is just a couple of hundred dollars, but it is many, many hundred dollars.  How do you thank someone or many people for a gift like that?

I then realized that we all have been given a gift.  One that doesn't have a monetary value, but a value that is far greater than any of us can imagine.  It is the Gift that our Heavenly Father has given to everyone - The Gift of His Son, our Savior, our Redeemer.  How do I thank our Father for such a gift?  Of course, in my prayers - but also by the way I live my life.  By serving others, by keeping His commandments, by keeping the covenants that I have made, by sharing the Gospel with those who I come in contact with, by using the Atonement in my life to become better, to be forgiven of my sins, and to forgive others, by being concerned for their well being, and by enduring to the end!

I am so grateful for the gifts I have been given by a very loving Heavenly Father who gave His only begotten son, so that I can return to live with Him again.  As a parent, I have a very small idea of what that desire feels like for all of my children, their spouses, and my grandchildren.

So, how do we thank our ward for the gift they have given us?  By serving to the best of our ability.  By serving the people here in the California Ventura Mission.  By serving the missionaries and President Felix and his wife and doing the very best that we can do.  When we return home, we will continue to serve to the best of our ability.

Merry Christmas -

Also in November, we had 4 zone conferences - one in Santa Maria, one in Thousand Oaks, one in Camarillo and one in Ventura.  It is quite an ordeal to get all of that organized and to make sure that the Stakes remember!  We are so grateful for the support of all 8 stakes.  Each stake is assigned 2 zone conferences per year.  The Stakes ask the wards to provide lunch for the missionaries and the mission sends a check to the Stake President to cover the cost.  Each zone conference has 2 zones attend - so there are about 80 missionaries at each zone conference  The wards always do wonderful luncheons.  This year, the Spanish Branch in Ventura did the zone lunch for Ventura Stake and they really went the extra mile.  They decorated - had wonderful food and the spirit was very strong there.  They really put their heart and soul in providing lunch for the missionaries.  They even served the missionaries, used dishes that had to be washed and cleaned everything up!

After lunch, the missionaries always sing to the sisters who make the meal and it ALWAYS makes us cry.

In Utah Valley, we don't have that opportunity because there are so many stakes and so many wards.  We are really missing out on a wonderful experience.  I have decided when we return, we are going to do a better job of making sure that we take advantage of every opportunity to be of service!  We also are so spoiled in the fact that it takes 10-15 minutes to drive to the Temple.  Here it is an all day experience to drive 2 hours and drive home 2 hours.  We are sooooo spoiled in Utah Valley.  I have such a deep appreciation for the people living here.

Well - it is now December 4th - and I can't believe it.  We have 22 missionaries leaving on the 17th of December.  I think there are 17 going to SLC!  Wouldn't you love to be in the terminal to watch that!

In January, we have 17 going home.  I love doing the travel for the missionaries going home.  It requires lots of work to get it all done - but it is my favorite part.  It is that organization thing!

We missed Emma's birthday in November - and we know she had a great one.  The baby is growing - and still unnamed.  We are anxiously waiting.  As soon as we hear from Rich, our plan is to get permission so that we can drive straight to the hospital.  Hopefully, "cookie" (that is what they call him) will come on a Friday so that we have a long weekend to hold him!

We have 93 more days until March 7th - but who is counting????

We received a call from Jamie Gardner from our ward in Lindon and she said they were just getting on the plane to come to Ventura and they wanted to meet us for dinner on Saturday night - during Fall break.  It was the first Sunday in October.  Anyway, she said they were flying into LA and they would be in Oxnard.  I knew that the traffic is horrible in LA - but we soon heard from them and we were right the traffic was to bad to meet them.  So we went to Church on Sunday morning and just as Church was starting - I looked at the door and there were the Gardners and about 20 other people!

 It was so good to see them!  It was wonderful to see someone from home.  They didn't know that we were attending the Ventura ward and they were really surprised.  It was a great day!  We met the next night at McConnells for ice cream and the treat was on Ryan!  We loved seeing the Gardners and see how big the kids have become.

Also, in October, our niece Megan was getting married and everyone combined their resources and we rented a house in San Clemente!  It was so much fun.  Here is Kenzie getting her nails done.  Ellie and Ava are below.  Ava was so funny, she wouldn't move her hands.  Later that day, they went to the beach and played in the sand and all of their polish wore off!  Kenzie and Ellie were both in the wedding.  It was such a wonderful trip and so much fun!  I will have to find my camera to locate pictures of the BRIDE!  Jana (the mother of the bride) and Megan both looked beautiful!  It was a very special weekend.

Here is the view of the beach from the house we rented in San Clemente.  You can see all the kids down there on the beach if you look hard enough.  The only problem was that there is a train that goes from San Diego up the coast - about every 30 minutes - until about 10:30 at night and then starts again about 5:30 a.m.

Then my cousin, Launa and her husband Reece returned from their mission to the London England Temple on the 17th of October and they came to see us the first part of November. Our 2nd bedroom comes in handy - we wish we had someone there every weekend!  It was so good to see them and hear about their mission.  Of course, they have had a very different experience than what we have had.  They are all good experiences on a senior mission - just different.  Everyone is needed.  We took them on the electric boats to see the sea lions and of course the sea lions were putting on a great show.  This time they were basking in the sun on a deck instead of being in the water.  Here is Launa trying to get a picture of them.

We took Launa and Reece up to the Cross at Ventura and showed them they entire valley from the mountain to the south and all of the fields behind the cross.  It is a beautiful view.  Here we are - it is hard to believe that their mission is over and ours seems to be going by faster!



We always say that the days are so long - but the months seem to be flying by.  I am sorry that I haven't posted sooner!  December proves to be a very busy month!  We started the month of December with wishing Andy a Happy 42nd Birthday!  I just can't believe that - but it is true.

We also did the lunch for MLC - which is for 43 people.  Elder Ruse and I did stew and told the Assistants to pray for rain (hasn't rained in over a year) (we decided this on Thursday and MLC is the next Tuesday).  Well - those Elders can certainly pray because it was down-pouring on Tuesday and then we worried for the safety of all the missionaries coming to Oxnard for the meeting.  We are so grateful when prayers of safety are answered.

Elder Malm and his wife are visiting our mission this week.  They were having a mini-zone conference for the Camarillo and Ventura zones at the Ventura Stake Center today and Sister Felix made all of the food.  Sister Miles and I just had to show up and serve it and clean up.  I came back to the office because Elder Ruse was in the office all by himself answering all of the phones, collecting the mail and receiving 15 bike racks!  A woman came to the door of the office and said she was meeting Elder Sandholtz and Elder Hall here and then she proceeded to tell us a story that her son, Ben Sandholtz, has been here on a mini-mission.  They are from Provo and Ben has down-syndrome, graduated from Seminary and his brother Elder Sandholtz, said, "wouldn't it be wonderful if Ben could have a mini-mission?"  Well, President Felix made it happen.  All three elders told us that this morning, Ben committed an investigator to baptism, and he will be baptized in October!  It brought Elder Ruse to tears.  It was an amazing story.  I asked Ben what has been the best experience this past week, and he said all of it!  Here are the three missionaries together before Ben and his mother fly home to Provo:

Dreams really do come true! 

I am so glad I was in the office to hear this amazing story!  Thank you President Felix for making this happen.

Good things this week.  Because transfers are next week and time goes by quickly and you never know what is going to happen - and most times we miss the moment, we took the Assistants to the President to McConnell's for ice cream: Elder Wallace, Elder Lee and Elder Kleinman.   Jimmy is the manager and he immediately recognized all of the elders and even remembered Elder Teeples who apparently was a regular at the ice cream parlor!  Here are pictures of Elder Ruse with the assistants eating our favorite ice cream.  Jimmy told us that the record of small tastes in one cone, was 38 different scoops!

We did get to go to our nephew, Jeremy's wedding in Idyllwild and that was very nice.  We left early Saturday morning, and stopped to see Elder Ruse's parents and George.  It is always good to see them.  Then we drove to Hemet and went up the mountains.  We left Hemet in 1979 to move to Utah and Hemet has really changed!  It is soooo dry everywhere in California but it was extremely dry and noticeable in the mountains.  Here is a picture of Gene and Jana and me (which I hate having my picture taken).

If anyone is reading this, we are still alive!  August is about gone and we are approaching our one year mark - September 9th.  This month we missed Adam's birthday and we celebrated my birthday alone.  However, I am grateful for all of the very nice birthday wishes.  Doesn't seem to be as fun as when there are grandkids around to blow out candles!  Sometimes it seems like we have been here a very long time and in other ways it has gone by fast.  We are grateful for this experience - but it is so different than what we thought.  I am very tied to the office, where the others seem to have more freedom and that has been hard.  This week it is zone conferences - 4 days and I am "minding" the office.  (I also missed transfers (and I love transfer meeting), but for some reason, they make me stay here.  Not sure what I have done wrong - but it is what it is.  Once I get my work done, then I try to help Elder Ruse as his work is never done.  He is either working on accident reports and getting those cars repaired or making sure that vehicles get oil changes, or other problems that missionaries are having.  He also has to determine if new missionaries have turned in all of their paperwork so that they can drive.  Today in the mail we received 12 new car registrations, and I know how to process those, so I entered that information into the "cars system", copied the registrations and found out who has that car, prepared the envelope, added the memo and will wait for Elder Ruse to "check my work" and then mail them out.  I never want to get into trouble with Elder Ruse!!!

Yesterday, I spent the day pulling the files of the 21 missionaries who are going home in December and contacting their families to find out which airport they want them to fly into, so that I can start the travel arrangements.  This will be the largest group that has gone home since we've been here.  We will have to rent a bus to get them to the LA airport.  We have been adding new missionaries gradually to fill the hole that will occur when the December group leaves.  I am always working 3 months out - with those departing and 3 months the other direction with those coming in.  It is interesting work - just not what we thought we would be doing.  Also - I have the mail back, so I am doing that while working at the front desk.  That can be tricky because the front desk doesn't have as much "working room".  Plus, if it is a day where the phone is always ringing - I tend to "lose my place" when doing the labels.

We miss Elder and Sister Truman who went home to Las Vegas July 1.  We worked well together as a team.  I talked with her the other day and it was a wonderful visit.

We found out this month that we will have grand baby #10!  Emma and Rich will have a boy in January.  They will be moving to a house in Palo Alto.  I have been making baby blankets at night to keep myself busy.  I finished the 3rd one the other night and miss it, so I guess I will get more material and keep going.  Emma - how many blankets can you use in Palo Alto?

Leslie, Cami, Riley, Kenzie, Eli, Ellie, Ashton and Ava came to see us and cheer us up!  We took 2 days off and spent the time at the beach.  Their car was completely packed without a space to sit - so while here we took two cars - but it worked as we didn't leave Oxnard!  The weather was great and it was wonderful to see them.  Ava even remembered us!  They are all growing so fast and Riley is soooo tall!

Here is is the 25th of July and I am getting worse at my postings!  We had a visit from Andy, Cretia, Dakota and Bodhi the week of July 4th.  We met them in Santa Monica - right by the beach on a Saturday for lunch.  It was soooo good to see them!  We sure miss all of our family and we are grateful for those who come to see us.  Here are their pictures:

After we walked through the new shops there and visited and had a wonderful lunch, we headed to Riverside to see Elder Ruse's mother who was in rehab.  She had hip replacement surgery and was in the hospital for a few days and then to rehab.  She is now home and doing well. 

We said goodbye to the Trumans and to the Castro family.  The Trumans went back to Las Vegas and the Castros are from Rexburg, ID.  Things are not the same - but we just have 7 months left!

President and Sister Felix arrived safely in the mission and they are busy visiting the missionaries and making some changes in the office.

I sound like a broken record when I say that our mission is really going by quite fast.  Today is June 29th which is so hard to believe.  This month we missed Father's day, Ellie's birthday and Cami and Nate's anniversary, which is today.  We understand that the grandchildren are growing so fast!  The pictures we receive from home are amazing of what is going on!  We miss that time with the family.  However, it is very busy here.  We spent the month of June with preparations for the new President, training Elder and Sister Miles on office duties, having MLC (missionary leadership council), transfers of new in-coming missionaries and saying goodbye to missionaries leaving, and saying goodbye to the Castros.  I was looking at pictures of Hannah and Samuel when they first came to the mission with their parents and they were so small.  Now, Samuel is as tall as his father and Hannah as tall as her mother.  They left the mission on Saturday - Elder and Sister Truman drove them to the LA airport.  They were closer to Elder and Sister Truman than any of us because the Truman's will spend all of their time with the Castros.  President and Sister Castro picked up President and Sister Felix at the Santa Barbara airport on Friday morning.  We met President and Sister Felix on Friday about 5:00 for a few minutes. The Trumans will leave on Monday to go back to Las Vegas.  We will miss  them a lot.

We have also been attending our new ward in Ventura - the Ventura 1st ward.  They are a great ward and the dentist and his family that we go to is in that ward.  They are excited to have 6 missionaries attending there now.  The 4 young elders and then us! 

Here are some pictures from last month.  The hallway with the packages show Elder Miles and Elder Truman looking at them.  These are packages that can't be forwarded to the missionaries because they come either UPS or FED EX and we just have to keep them until MLC when the zone leaders can take the packages back to the missionaries in their zone.  The packages also include their supplies that they have ordered for proselyting.

I tried to get a picture of the Castros, but there were too many people.  Below, Sister Castro is in the lavender sweater - we see her back! And, you can see part of President Castro's face to the side of her head.  You can tell that I was used to getting in trouble when I wanted to take a picture - so these aren't very good.  You know how I hate to get in trouble!!!

The picture below - is a picture of what the parking lot looks like at transfers when members help get missionaries from one place to another.

I will now do Sister Truman's job and Elder Ruse will stay doing cars.  I hope I am up to the Task of doing her job!  Only time will tell.....

 



We just can't believe how fast the weeks and months go by, but the days are quite long.  How does that work?  Here it is almost June!  We missed Bodhi's birthday, Mother's day and we will miss Casy's birthday on the 30th.  We wish we could be there for everything!!  But it won't be long.

We enjoyed a visit from Emma and Rich on a Sunday after his sister's college graduation.  It was so fun to see them and give them hugs!  We had dinner ready when they arrived after Church and then we went for a walk along the beach.  We hated to see them go - but they had a long drive ahead of them back up to San Francisco!  They are now in Maui - and oh, how we wish we were there!

We went through another transfer and had to say good-bye to Elder Reece, who had been an assistant since January.  He headed home to Canada to plant their family farm.  Here is a picture of Elder Reece, Elder Jenkins and Elder Kleinman.  We thought we would have Elder Jenkins (from Alaska) with us in the office until he went home in August, but he was needed in another area up north and we are sure he will help that area.  Now we have Elder Kleinman and Elder Lee for a while.  Elder Lee is from Lindon and Elder Kleinman from Orem.  In fact, I think that Elder Kleinman is from our old Windsor stake.  Elder Lee isn't shown in this picture.  We will have to get one of him - next time they are in the office.

Last weekend we drove to see Grandma and Papa Ruse and George.  It is always good to see them and hear what they are up to.  Papa Ruse has invested in RootsMagic to help with his geneology.  In fact, a package arrived today and thanks to his generosity, we now have the RootsMagic package.  We will have to study up the materials so we will be ready to get busy on geneology when we get home!

While we were in Riverside, we met up with Jana and Bill and visited the grave site of mama and daddy and that is always a wonderful experience.  We sure are glad that they put a bench right by them because that is how we find it!  Remember kids - to put a bench by our grave site when our time comes!  We haven't been to their cemetery since we have been on our mission and the cemetery has really grown!  That whole dirt area is now full (it is true - people are just dying to get in there) and they are continuing to build up that area where they are buried.  Every grave site had a flag on it and it was beautiful.  They say that this is the largest national cemetery - even bigger than the Arlington one in DC.  You can tell that the lack of water has had an affect - which is too bad.  Everything looks dry.

On Memorial Monday, we took the day off because there wouldn't be any mail.  Elder Ruse decided to go deep sea fishing and that I could have the day to myself!  I was a little lost and lonely, but it was a good day.  Elder Ruse loved his fishing trip and finally caught....10 fish!  He is loving his fish.  I dropped him off at 7:00 a.m. and picked him up at 4:00 p.m.  The far left picture is his boat coming in.  I took about 4 pictures of other boats because I wasn't sure which was his boat - so I deleted them.  Then when I saw him walking up the plank, I could tell by his walk that it was him.

Here is a picture of Elder Ruse and our bikes - while I take the picture.  Don't you love my bike?

On Tuesday of this week, it was Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) meetings here in this building.  On the Fridays before MLC (which is once a month), the zone leaders are to call me by 3:00 in the afternoon with their supply orders for their zones.  Then I pull their orders and box them up and put them in the hallway for each zone.  It is usually 2 good size boxes of pass along cards, DVDs, media bibles, triples, various pamphlets, etc., and however many boxes of Book of Mormons that they order.  Here are pictures of our supply room:

These pictures just show some of the shelves.  I also have to pull boxes of book of mormons depending upon how many each zone wants.  However, I ask the missionaries who come to do emails in this building on the Monday after I take the orders - which is the Monday before MLC - if they will put the boxes in the hallway for me according to zone - because the boxes are soooo heavy and it usually amounts to about 40 boxes.  The missionaries are very kind to do this, and I usually have donuts or cookies to give them.  One zone didn't have their order in to me until Tuesday morning when they came to MLC.  So, they apologized, handed the order to me and went to their meeting.  They didn't have a very big order - but they had on their list 1 box of english book of mormons, and 11 boxes of spanish book of mormons.  So, I thought, I am not going to carry these boxes all the way to the hallway, so I put them on our dolly and left them there and then they could roll it out to the car when the meetings are done - and, they won't have to load them on the dolly.  When they came to get their supplies and they saw the dolly, they said they only needed 2 boxes of the spanish book of mormons.  The "11" was actually 2 hash marks.  I couldn't believe it because I had killed my back moving those boxes.  They felt really bad and I felt "dumb".  So they put them all back for me.  Here is the picture of our spanish books of mormons:  The english ones are on the other side behind a filing cabinet.

That was the excitement for this week.

Today is Elder Ruse's birthday - he is 68.  He looks pretty good for being 68.  He wanted to go fishing out in the ocean today, but too much work to do today in the office.  Maybe that will happen on Saturday.  We missed Coy and Kenzie's birthdays this month also while we are here.  We can't believe that Kenzie turned 12 - she is such a beautiful young women.  Here is a picture of Elder Ruse eating an ice cream cone outside of McConnell's ice cream - the best ice cream in the world!  On this day they were playing Beach Boy songs and he was loving sitting here.

Well - he didn't go fishing.  Saturday was extremely windy.  We did go see "Heaven is for Real", which made us grateful for the knowledge we have of the Gospel.

Pictures from last week:

These are rose bushes from the Olivas Park that was an old spanish home built in 1847.  We stopped by here one day after we dropped the mail off at the post office.  We pass this place occasionally and wondered what it was.  It is only open on Saturdays and Sundays - but we just wanted to see the grounds.  It is attached to a golf course.

Elder Ruse on a very cold, windy day on the Ventura pier - last Saturday.  Look how beautiful it is, however.  We went to the pier for his birthday fish lunch.

Elder Ruse again - wishing he was doing some yard work at home!  The white roses love the cool, moist weather here.  They are beautiful!

Here is Kenzie taking riding lessons last summer in Herriman - we sure miss all of the grandchildren!  And our children.  It is just that we are missing these young years of the grandkids.  Love you all!

If you are wondering why you never see pictures of Sister Ruse, it is because I am in charge of the blog and therefore, you won't see pictures of Sister Ruse!  I don't think Elder Ruse knows how to get to the blog - so I am pretty safe.