Just a quick note!

Hey family! I just wanted to post this cute picture I took yesterday at a mission farewell for one of our good friend's son, Jordan Bylund. I think I have talked about them before to most of you. Anyway, he was called to serve in the Independence, Missouri mission speaking American Sign Language. Awesome, huh? He took ASL all through high school and requested it on his papers. It's a pretty rare and unique experience to be called to that kind of mission. I am super happy for him.

Anyway, I loved this picture of two of my handsome boys and thought I would share...

It's good to see Alex smiling again. I just wish he would cut his hair. LOL

Love you all so much!

Awesomeness

Hi All,

We have had some great experiences this week.  For starters, we visited a single sister who has severe anxiety.  She has trouble leaving her home.  She was having a very bad day, and the ladies she lives with had taken her outside on the front patio to help her calm down.  It wasn't working.  Just then, we arrived and asked to see her.  One lady said, with a big smile, "You've come to see Pamela?"  Like it was astonishing.  We went inside and talked to her, assuring her that God knows her and loves her.  She started to feel better.  We had a great visit.  When we were leaving, the other lady said, "That's what I call a God kiss."  Neat, huh?

Then on Saturday we went to the first baptism that we have a connection to.  As part of the single adult outreach that we organized, some missionaries went to a home looking for a particular sister.  She didn't live there anymore, but the lady they found had been inactive for 15 years, and the day before had prayed about how to get back to church.  She told God that if He would send the missionaries to her, she would know that was a sign to start.  The next day, they showed up!  As a result, her 3 teenage children were taught the lessons, and were baptized on Saturday.  The entire service was in Spanish, but it was great, anyway.  The Spirit was very strong.  Here they are

The Duran family, with the goofy missionaries that taught them!  Fun, fun, fun!!!!

On Friday we went to the Municipal Rose Garden, which is beautiful, and released a helium balloon for David.  Here are some pictures from there.

It was a nice day.

On Sunday, we had been asked to be part of a special presentation on depression.  A counselor had come to talk about it from a medical perspective, and we had a chance at the end to add what we had learned as a family in dealing with mental health challenges.  We had quite a few people talk to us after who suffer themselves, or know someone who does.  They are all glad it is being talked about more openly now, and happy to have someone "safe" they can talk to.  We know this issue will be a large part of our mission.  We will be doing a Stake Fireside later in the year. (yikes!)

Last night we went to the mid single Family Home Evening.  There was a guy there from India who is investigating the Church.  We took him back to his hotel, as he is here on business, and had a chance to talk to him.  He had never heard of Jesus Christ, and when the sister missionaries approached him in a park, he listened to their message with awe.  He kept saying how blessed he was to have found such friendly, kind people, and he is taking some lessons this week before he goes back home.  He is thinking about finding more missionaries in India.  He was amazing, and it is so fun to see how peoples lives start to change almost from the minute they start to hear the message of the Restoration.

We also played "Mafia" at FHE, which was very fun.  Brought back a lot of memories.  Dad was chosen as a Mafia on the first round, but didn't realize it, so messed it up!  It was pretty funny.

We love you all and miss you!

Happy Birthday Dave!!!

We just love our brother!

Thank you

Our profound and heartfelt thanks to whoever sent this beautiful plant today.  It was sent "anonymously ", but we know who loves us!  It touched our hearts on so many levels. We're so grateful to be remembered on David's birthday.  And so grateful that he is remembered as well.  He is in our thoughts everyday, as we know he is with each of you. 

We hope you each have a special way to remember him.  We'll probably go buy a bag of Skittles and a helium balloon today, and release it towards heaven, as we have done on this day for several years.  There's something about that ritual that is very healing.  You are all in our hearts and prayers, as we recognize how hard these anniversaries are, even with the passing of years.  But it's also a great day, as we remember the good times, the things he taught us, his love for his family and friends, his innate goodness, his talents and sense of humor.

We share our feelings that David is okay.  He is at peace.  Each time one of you reaches out to someone who is struggling, you represent him, and honor his memory.  We have met so many people out here who suffer from mental health issues, and feel very alone and misunderstood.  We feel we understand them on some level, and they become part of our lives.  We try to let them know that they are loved by us and by Heavenly Father.  We are blessed as we meet with them and succor them. 

We are blessed to have such a wonderful family.  We love each one of you with all our hearts.  You each bring an individual strength and a great deal of joy into our lives.  We know we can count on you always, and hope you know you can count on us.  Thank you for all you do for each other, and for your families.

Monterey Aquarium

Here are some pictures of our trip to Monterey last week.  We had a great time, seeing all the fishies and having a great fresh fish dinner on the wharf.  It is quite a tourist town, but was fun and the weather was perfect.  We traveled along the 17 mile road through all the estates worth millions, and along Pebble Beach golf course and resort.  They charge $10 per car to drive their road, so that's why they are so rich!! But it was really beautiful.  They claim to have the most beautiful views of the Pacific in all of California, and I believe it.  The Monterey Cypress grove was amazing.  We saw the tree they claim is over 250 years old. 

Our ward RS had a garden party, with dinner in a couple's back yard.  Perfectly manicured flower beds, a pool and spa, a huge patio.  Beautiful.  It was very nice.  They gave us all a rose.  Here's mine:

It's been another good week.  I will try and invite all the grandkids to be publishers on our blog so we can hear from everyone. 

We enjoyed talking to all our girls yesterday for Father's Day.  Hope Rob, Shawn, and Big Dave had a great day also.  We sure love you all.  Dad appreciated the gifts and cards very much.  It's so nice to be remembered by his girls. 

We seem to have used most of our 3G of data for our hot spot already, so won't be on much, at least on the laptop, until after July 4th.  Don't know what we did to use so much, but there you go.  It's kind of a pain to have only that much available each month, but getting the internet here in our apartment is too expensive.  So we'll deal with it, and check our phone for posts and emails.  Does anyone know if our phone use counts against our hotspot?  I guess we'd better call Verizon and talk to them about it!  Technology!  It's a pain!!

Hope to hear how girl's camp went, Meg, when you get back.  Also all about Shalee and Alex's trips.  And Caleb and Nate at youth conference.  Busy, busy, busy!  Hope everyone has a great week.

2 months out. Wow!

Look how big our baby geese are getting.  The one on the left looks so awkward.  He must be in his teen years (hehe). He was the only one standing up, but they were all there, resting in the shade.  The parents aren't nearly so protective anymore, just kind of sit around while their kids eat them out of house and home!

The bottom picture is of our Mission President (in the back) and his wife at their final Senior Couple FHE.  The missionaries made them a quilt with the names of all the missionaries and volunteers from the community they have worked with over the last 3 years.  Their last day here is June 28th.  They have a daughter getting married the next week, and a grandbaby being born then also.  So they are excited to get back to their lives, but really sad, too.  This guy buys shoes, shirts, books, you name it for his missionaries.  He even bought several cars and had them driven to some outgoing missionaries homes so they could go to school.  He is really amazing.  He has told the sister m's to call him when they choose someone to marry, and he will fly to wherever they are and take the guy in a back room and grill him!  If he doesn't meet his standard, they're out!  He's very funny, but he really means it!

We had a good week.  Dad gave 2 blessings, and we went to a baptism last night.  The room was packed.  Everybody is very supportive of each other.  We continue to see more people come to the MSA magnet ward.  We had some more new faces this week. 

Our bishop sent us to a meeting for a cancer awareness relay that will take place next month.  He wanted us to be in charge of it.  It's called "Relay for Life" and is an annual event.  It's sponsored by St. Andrew's church in Saratoga, CA, and is a good opportunity to rub shoulders with the community and make missionary contacts.  We sat through a 2 hour, very boring meeting!  Our ward will sponsor a team, and they will take pledges and raise  money for cancer research.  It is very involved, so we decided we couldn't head up the team, as we wouldn't have time for our other responsibilities, but we will participate.  We thought we would walk/run for Herb Edwards and the Senior Elder we are serving with, Elder Layton.  We will also put Grandpa Crockett's name on our list.  And Carol, and Matt.  Anyone else? They have luminaries they light the night of, to remember those who have died of or are battling cancer.  We are excited to be a part of it.

Foods

So, the food we ate in Israel was not varied at all.  Every meal consisted of hummus, flat bread, and various pita stuffings of some sort.  It was always good hummus and pita, but it was always hummus and pita.  It was served at every meal.  Same with potatoes and rice.  Every meal.  They always had a carrot/eggplant/green dish at every meal too.  I missed cold cereal and hamburgers!  In Israel, mixing dairy with meat is not Kosher, so we had dairy in the morning, and meat for lunch and dinner.  Fruit was always the dessert, with some other little cakes and tarts, but not nearly sweet enough to count as a dessert.  The most amazing Baklava I had was in Egypt.  Lots of honey and super flaky.  The meats were always some variation of cubed beef cuts, fish, or chicken legs.  We went to dinner in the Jewish quarter in Jerusalem with another couple from our group.  It was an Israeli restaurant and it was my favorite meal.  I had a lamb-burger with goat cheese.  It was DELICIOUS!  Mixing of dairy and meat, so it wasn't Kosher, and so I'm surprised they even served it.  Plus it was on the Jewish Sabbath, so we were doubly surprised they were even open.  We asked the server about it (who, incidentally, spoke with perfect English in an American accent), and she gave an explanation about there being secular Jews and Orthodox Jews.  AKA Jack Mormons versus active Mormons.  lol!  The meal pictured above was also delicious.  It was one of my favorites.  The fish pictured above looks weird, but it is seasoned so well and the flat bread they gave us was the best we had the whole trip.
The food in Egypt was much the same as in Israel, but they mixed dairy and meat, so the dishes were more varied.  Again, the dessert was fruit, the main courses were cuts of beef or chicken, or sea bass.  Always sea bass.  At very meal they had sea bass.  blah.  Just as in Europe, there was never any ice, and we had to pay a fortune for diet coke.  We could at least drink the water out of the tap in Israel, but not in Egypt.  Ever.  We tried to eat as many fruits and salads as we could in Israel, because we knew once we got to Egypt, those days were over.  You can't eat anything that has been washed by the water.  More about the water associated with the Nile later.

Here's one from Israel

The reason I haven't posted any pictures from our trip is because all of them are on Rob's computer.  I have like three from my iPhone.  This is one of them.  This is a picture of the Western Wall of the second temple of Solomon from the time of Jesus.  The rest of the wall cannot be accessed because of the Muslims.  They have built the Dome of the Rock and its grounds over the foundation of the rest of the temple.  The Western Wall is heavily guarded (meaning guarded by men with machine guns), and everyone must go through a airport-type security before going in.  One member of our group had a "Save Palestine" poster in his backpack (he bought it as a joke).  The Israeli security made him throw it away and wasn't going to let him in.  After much convincing, they let him in.  I thought it was stupid that he even bought it, but whatever.  Anyway, at the Wall, men go to pray at the wall at the left, the women go to the right.  Most people have a small prayer written on paper, and they push it into a crack they can find on the wall.  Rob put a prayer in for our family.  Many people have a prayer book they are using to pray there.  We took a tour underneath the street of another portion of the wall, and they have a prayer section under there as well.  The tunnel they excavated came at great cost to the Israeli Jews.  Lots of fighting with the Muslims.  The tension between them is palpable.  Demonstrations, many of them violent and fatal, take place in Jerusalem all the time.  There was one at the Damascus gate, leading into the Old City while we were there.  Two people were killed by Israeli guards. It was instigated by Muslims to "commemorate" their defeat in one of the many battles between Israelis and Palestinians.

some to illustrate the goofiness of my family

family pic

I almost killed everyone in this picture by the night's end.  We could've used the pictures for the obituaries.  Just a lot of goofing around on the part of the OLDER kids.  The young boys were mostly cooperative and Jennifer was completely perfect, as usual.  lol!

Mission pictures and such

Here's dad on his new bike.  He said riding it compared to his old one is like riding in a corvette compared to a Model T!  He really enjoys his exercise every morning.  There is a bike path not too far from home that he goes on.  And of course the weather is perfect for it.  Today it is 54 degrees at 9 am.  The humidity is 80%, so it feels like 40 degrees to me, but still, beautiful.  It will only get to 74 today, so we can't complain.

We drove up to the Oakland Temple again last week.  It is a beautiful building.  It is older than the Jordan River Temple, but has been kept up nicely. 

This is the Call's home, the "Italian Estate" we have talked about.  I'll try to put in a picture of their tree house also, as it is astonishing.  This was at the Memorial Day barbeque. 

There it is!  The guy on the left is a new convert, and this was his first mid-single social.  He is enamored with the gal on the right.  He even sent her flowers after that event!  So who knows.  The priesthood leadership all say the best thing that could come of this effort is a few marriages!

Here's a goofy picture of me in the institute kitchen helping with dinner on Wednesday night.  We feed about 120-150 YSA.  The couple that is in charge of it is out sick, he having just had cancer surgery.  He is doing really well, but it is an aggressive cancer.  They don't know how much longer they can stay out on their mission.  They are the sweetest people.  We feel like we have known them for years. Their names are the Laytons, so keep them in your prayers.

The next pictures we see on here should be of Israel and Egypt, don't ya think??

It's been so good to talk to some of you this week.  Meg, we'll call you on your b-day.  We were going to try to go to the Monterey Aquarium for mine, but we got too busy; maybe next week.  But school will be out by then, and it will be a lot busier, but we'll see.  A gal in the ward has passes she gives to anyone who asks, which is incredibly generous, as it is pricey.  Such nice people here!!!

We heard Carson was ordained yesterday.  Yay for him!  We are excited about that, Carson.  Get on here and tell us all about it.

Any other news?  Bring it on.  Our week will be a little hectic, but we always have time to read the blog.

Love you all.