We need rain something horrible!  I just heard that president Obama will help California with the drought.  However, I think we need to pray and fast for rain.  I am not sure what President Obama can do, but I am sure our prayers will be heard by God.  This Sunday it is Fast Sunday which gives everyone an opportunity to fast for something specific.  Please include rain for California in your fast.  Also, pray for the missionary efforts around the world!  We need members' help and we also need the help of government officials around the world to not hinder the work, but see the good that we do in helping families.

We have been out now 4 months and in October, we took a picture of the property on the corner across the street from us because they were plowing up the strawberry fields and getting ready to plant a new crop of something.  Here are the pictures of the field plowed (picture was shot a different direction:

And here is the field with the new crop - 2 months later.  It is incredible how fast things grow down here.

 

Yesterday, Saturday, Elder and Sister Truman invited us to join them on a tip up the coast to see the Elephant Seals and their babies.  We picked up Elder and Sister Miles who are doing a member leadership mission and they live in Morrow Bay.  So, the 6 of us went to just below San Simeon to a rookery -  this beach.  This takes place about 6 miles up and down the coast - called the Piedras Blancas.  There are about 20,000 seals that come to this rookery - but not all at the same time.  It was very entertaining to see all the seals on the beach.  Apparently, this has been taking place here since 1990.  The pregnant females begin arriving mid-December and the number peaks towards the end of January.  The female seals will come up to the beach to have their babies.  The male seals arrive in November and December and stake out their territory on the beach. Then the female seals have their babies, feed them for 4 weeks, and then they mate and return to the sea to eat and gain back the weight they lost while on the beach - which was about a ton!  (I lost a weight at one time - but not quite a ton)  They will dive down and eat at the bottom of the sea.  They can stay down in the ocean for 2 hours at a time.  The male seals are about 5000 pounds and they will lose about 2 tons while they are on the beach!  They will leave the beach after mating and swim to Alaska.  What do you think they do in Alaska?

They look dead - but they aren't.  Every once in a while they will flip sand up on them with their flippers - even the babies start doing this.  This keeps them cool and acts as a sun-screen.  Here is my tip to you:  When you are enjoying being on the beach and you run out of sun-screen - just put sand all over your body!

Aren't God's creatures amazing?  While we were watching this someone asked the question who was near by us - how do the baby boy seals know that they need to go to Alaska?  I said, "It is the instinct they were given by God".  They just know what to do.

Here is a different shot along the beach.  You can't imagine how long this goes and how many there are.  I wish the picture had a scratch and sniff so you could smell how horrible it is!  If a mother seal has twins, then one will die, because she doesn't have enough milk to feed both seals.  The babies have to quadruple their weight in a month.

Here are the Trumans, the Miles and myself.  The other gentleman isn't Elder Ruse - this guy was just "photo-bombing".

I must have been telling a wild story!

 

We are forever in the car business at work.  We have 23 new cars that we need to disburse and bring in 23 older cars.  Not all of them will be sold because they don't  have enough mileage.  We are to get them ready by changing the oil, checking the tires and batteries, get them all detailed and then SLC will tell us what they want us to do with them.  Dealing with the cars is an endless job!!  The one thing I like about doing the mail is that once I get my labels on the 150 pieces of mail and take it to the Post Office - that part of my job is done until the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We pray every day to be an instrument to The Lord and we see his hand many times.  Today we came to work early, because we got up earlier and finished our scriptures so we just came.  A women had just pulled up with a little granddaughter.  I asked her if we could help her and she said she hoped so.  I  unlocked the office door and we went inside.  She said she didn't know where to get help.  Her son is on business trip in Taiwan and ended up in the hospital with a blood clot in his lung after flying there.  The hospital called them and then she had to call the daughter in law and let her know.  This morning she was impressed to see if we could locate the mission there to see if the missionaries could give him a Priesthood blessing.  So I opened my computer to find the missions flagged on my computer and there are 2 missions in Taiwan.  I asked her if either city looked familiar and she told me which mission it was and so I opened that page and the mission president is President Blickenstaff - which to her surprise was her old stake president!  She forgot that he went to a mission in Taiwan  and he is the only mission president she even knows.  She and I both cried and I wrote down his phone number and she will call and ask for her son to receive a Priesthood blessing.  Her son knows president Blickenstaff because they all live here.  Amazing how two different prayers are answered.  I asked her to let me know the end of the story and gave her a hug!  I am so grateful for inspiration, for prayers being answered and for the power of the Priesthood and for worthy men who hold the Priesthood!

Last weekend was our multi-stake conference.  Saturday night we went to the Camarillo Stake Center and enjoyed a wonderful adult conference - however, this year, they have invited 12 and older to the adult session.  Brother and Sister Black in our stake and their 4 children talked about their family "mission plan".  It was wonderful!  The youngest talked about pictures that everyone who came to their house could see hung on their walls that would let them know what is important to their family and what they believed.  Then each one of the children talked about their friends and what they are doing to be good missionaries now.  They are a wonderful family.  We have 34 missionaries who are serving in the Camarillo stake and they were all there and it was good to see them.  On Sunday, we were able to hear from Elder Eyring, Elder Arnold, Elder Anderson and Sister Burton.  That was also wonderful.  Elder Arnold was very emotional about the work of saving men being hastened.  We definitely are seeing the work of salvation being hastened here in the mission field.   Then last night, Sunday evening, we went to President and Sister Castro's home to have dinner with the Mechams (who we replaced and they were here on vacation) and the Truman's.  It was a wonderful end to a great weekend.  Elder Ruse and I know that what we are doing is important work - even the mundane work of the Church needs to be done by someone - and we are among that group! 

The other day, Elder Ruse helped Elder Truman move some missionaries to another apartment in their building! and elder ruse noticed that the mailman just left this incoming mail in a box instead of putting it in their individual mailboxes.  He took a picture of this because he knew I would be shocked.  I receive calls from missionaries who tell me that someone sent them something, but they never received it!!  Now I know why.  Can you believe this?  Where is our general postmaster?  He should see this.  Here is the picture of mail - just sitting there....

It may not seem like a big deal to you - but I receive calls from parents because their missionary didn't receive mail!

Maybe he will be a used car salesman?

Since our last blog post, Elder Ruse sold 7 more cars!  We just have 1 Chevy malibumleft, but it first needs to go to a garage to find out what is wrong with it.  It is making a horrible noise when we move it.  Our next task, will be to bing in 23 cars that have the next highest mileage and some of those will go to the fleet in other areas - maybe local missions who need them or to the fleet in Utah.

We had transfers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week and that all went well.  Two of our assistants to the President went home, and we now have Elder Reese and Elder Jenkins in the office working with President Castro.  These young men have many great leadership qualities.  We are so impressed with them.

We continue to have great opportunities to declare what we believe to people as we interact with them in our daily dealings.  When we went to the Nissan dealer to pick up a new truck, the gentleman who was helping us was so nice.  He ended up to be the father in-law of one of our students in the MBA program that I knew and we had a great discussion with him about the church.  The father-in law is not a member and his daughter converted, when she met Joel.

We continue to enjoy the beautiful weather here, but they haven't had any rain in over a year and it is very dry and now the fires are beginning.  We sure hope there aren't any fires around Jana and Bill in that mountain!

We love you all and love hearing from you!

I forgot to mention that Elder Ruse sold his first 2 cars on Friday.  He was so excited to start selling them. We have 10 old malibus and Corollas that need to be sold - so now we just have 8!  He is so grateful that he didn't have to make a living selling cars.

One of our favorite things to do is rent the duffey boats and go out in the channels.  On this day, the seals were giving quite a show.  They were really showing off.  The kids look cold because we left the beach to get on the boat by 3:30 and they were wet.  Also, when the sun starts to go down, it really drops in temperature!  And...don't say we are babies about the temperature when it drops to 60 degrees - these people were from 18 degree weather and it does feel cold on the water.

Happy New Year - 2014
Where has the time gone?  Can you believe that it is 2014?  We had a good Christmas and of course, we missed our family.  However, the weather is sure beautiful here.  We received a Christmas card from the Trumans who we are serving with (they are from Las Vegas).  Sister Truman found the Christmas card at either World Market or Whole Food - I get them mixed up, but it had on the front of the card, a quote by President Howard W. Hunter.  Here is the quote on the front of the card:
"This Christmas... Mend a quarral.  Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and, replace it with trust.  Write a letter.  Give a soft answer.  Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed.  Keep a promise.  Forgo a grudge.  Forgive an enemy.  Apologize.  Try to understand.  Examine your demands on others.  Think first of someone else.  Be kind.  Be gentle.  Laugh a little more.  Express your gratitude.  Welcome a stranger.  Glad den the heart of a child.  Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.  Speak your love and speak it again."   She was so suprised to find these cards in the store here - that she went back and bought many of them.  I thought it was wonderful!  Apparently, his son is a famous judge in this area.

We were able to deliver packages to the missionaries on Christmas Eve who live in Ventura and Santa Barbara and we loved doing that.  Our hallway in our office was complete filled with packages.  So much that I took a picture because this hallway was empty for 1 day after Christmas Devotionals and then it built back up before Christmas Eve:

Leslie, Riley, Kenzie and Elie flew in on the 29th of December to LA out of Provo and so I drove to the LA airport to pick them up.  It was great to see them.  They were so anxious to get out of the snow and cold and enjoy the beach.  Here are some pictures  **

We had great weather while they were here.  In fact, it was perfect.  Cool at night and 60 - 65 degrees in the daytime.  They were able to go to the beach, we drove a duffy boat, we had icecream at McDonnells icecream in Ventura which is fabulous.  Coy worked in St George on New Years Eve and then drove down on New Years Day.  We also ate at our favorite places like Topper's Pizza and Sea Fresh.  We also ate about 2 flats of strawberries while they were here.  We made about 5 pounds of flour into crepes during the week they were here:

Here is Riley showing a live starfish, which they found over in the rocks below: