We should be ashamed of ourselves for not posting sooner! (Well, since Elder Ruse doesn't post - I should be ashamed!)  A lot has happened since we posted last.  We now have Elder and Sister Stewart from Kuna, Idaho.  They received their call to serve as member leadership support, and President Felix assigned them to Santa Maria, and so they moved them to a hotel in Santa Maria until an apartment became available.  As time went on, it was apparent that a couple was not going to be called to replace us. Senior missionaries who are willing to do office work are hard to come by.  Therefore, before they were moved into an apartment, they asked them to come and work in the office.  They arrived down here the later part of December, and started looking for an apartment.  President Felix allowed them to find their own apartment and they chose a beautiful apartment in Ventura.  It is new and beautiful!  They are very happy in their new apartment.

We have been training them since the first of January and we are now just sitting in the shadows in case they have questions or issues.  Sitting in the shadows is very hard and makes the days go very slow.  We also included pictures, above, of the last Missionary Leadership Council lunch that we will attend, which was on February 3rd!

 On January 10th, Emma and Rich had a baby Boy!  He weighed 6 lbs. 2 oz..  After 10 days of deliberation, they named him Brock.  He is adorable.  Elder Ruse and I were given permission to drive to Palo Alto on the Saturday Emma was in labor. It is a 5.3 hour drive and is a beautiful drive on the 101.  But, the whole time we were driving we prayed for Emma and the baby to be healthy.  I walked the halls of the hospital as soon as we arrived and stood outside her labor door in hopes of hearing him cry - but eventually the doctor had to intervene and they moved her to the operating room and used forceps - as the last resort before doing a c-section.   Emma was a real trouper and he was finally delivered at 10:45 p.m.  She had been in the hospital since Thursday because of high blood pressure.  We are so grateful that Brock McComb Pompetti is here and that Emma is recovering.  We stayed a couple of days with them in their beautiful home and met Rich's mother!  It was a real treat and we look forward to a longer stay with them in the future.

A new baby in the family makes you realize how many blessings Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us.  We are deeply grateful and appreciative.  I realize more and more how much our Father in Heaven wants us to return to live with him as a family. 

We leave for home on the 11th of February.  We are thankful for this experience.  We hope we have done some good.  Elder Ruse would say, "we hope we have done more good than harm".  We look forward to returning to our family.  It is all about family.  We are going to go home with a list of things we can do better in our ward and stake!

Here are pictures of our harbor walk!  We have loved this walk.  Next to Hawaii - this is the most beautiful place we could have been assigned to....

Last weekend was Stake Conference for the Ventura Stake.  Elder Zachary Smith, a seventy, was the visiting General Authority.  He gave a wonderful talk about contracts (he is a contract lawyer) and likened contracts to the covenants we have made.  He also talked about councils and how to use them wisely.  We could have used a council here in the mission office!  It was a great talk.  President Jones, the Ventura Stake President, talked about remembering - it was one of the best talks I have heard.  We will miss this Stake and Ward.