Here it is the middle of August. Summer is almost over, the days are getting shorter, there is a fall "tang" in the air, and school is about to start. Amazing how quickly time goes by.
We have had a busy two weeks. We went to a zone training at an incredible home in Los Gatos. The owner is the mission doctor, and his wife is a lawyer, so that is what it takes to live in a huge home here in the Bay area.
This is it. Yes, that is one home, not two. You can see some of the great missionaries we work with. The bottom picture is their fish pond, and they have a tennis court, a swimming pool that falls over the edge into a water fall, a large spa and at least 3 patios. Really nice! At our training we learned that missionary work can't go forward without the support of the members. We heard some amazing statistics about that. If the missionaries teach someone who a member referred to them, their baptismal rate is 5/1, and their retention rate is 60%. If it is someone the missionaries found themselves through door-to-door or street contacts, the baptismal rate is 60/1 and the retention rate is 8%. So that shows us how important member support is to conversion and retention. So we learned how to involve members more.
We had a great time teaching 3 children last Wednesday, and hope to return and follow-up on that lesson. It's kind of hard, as the kids range in age from 10 to 3, but we showed a "Mormon Message" about being a child of God, and told them about Heavenly Father's love for them. Cute kids!
We then wore ourselves out visiting about 20 homes, and talking to just one person from that effort. So we have decided that is not a good use of our time. We are meeting with bishops to try and figure out how to make our outings more effective. Dad's Aunt Gay said they had to serve 2 missions because it took the first one to figure out what to do, and the second one to do it! How true!
We taught a Gospel Doctrine class on Sunday, and I was pretty nervous, as that is one thing I have never done in the church, but it was actually pretty fun. We figured out how to give a missionary message along with it, so felt pretty good about it.
And we moved!! We finally had had it with the pool and all the wild parties, so we got the housing coordinator to talk to the management, and they had a vacant apartment that we went and saw, liked it, and were in it within 3 days! A whole zone of missionaries helped with the move. They are great kids, and worked hard on a hot, humid day to get us in. We spent a day packing, a day moving and a day unpacking, so it wasn't too bad. We are much happier here, and it is very quiet. We are by 2 busy streets, but hardly hear the traffic. There are a few stereos, but it is still better than the pool. We have a full-size washer/dryer, and a garage, so it is all good. Our new address is:
4135 Ellmar Oaks Drive San Jose 95136. It's the same apartment complex, on the other side.
We saw Paul and Lin last Monday. We had a very nice visit with them. They both look great.
Paul has lost weight, and Lin is beautiful. Her English is very good, and she insisted on buying us a Vietnamese lunch, and some traditional snacks (they are quite unusual). We walked around "Little Saigon", an Asian shopping, eating mall not too far from our apartment. We are going to see them again next month, and Dad is going to go biking with Paul. I don't know what Lin and I will do, but it should be fun.
We helped at a Stake YW function last week also. The girls were being taught how to get on FamilySearch.com, and we helped one young woman get started on that. Dad also found out how to fix the mistakes his cousin's husband has made on his line, so it was a productive night. We took the young Elders out to dinner on Saturday, and went to a "Taqueria", which, according to one guy is one step above a taco truck! The food was very spicy, but good.
Here are the Elders and Sisters that we work with in the Saratoga Stake.
Sisters Ellis and Christensen, us, Elders Ayotte and Babcock
Christensen and Ayotte are scheduled to be transferred tomorrow! It is hard on them, but they know that's the way the mission is run. It's kind of hard on us, too, as we get pretty close to them.
We had our outgoing missionary fireside last night. It went 3 hours! We are losing 27 missionaries, and they each bore their testimony, plus we heard from recent converts, and had a bunch of musical numbers, so it can go on, but is an amazing meeting, and very spiritual. The closing song was "The Spirit of God" and the outgoing missionaries stood when they sang about the armies of heaven. It brought tears to everyone's eyes, including mine! And then everyone else stood, and we raised the roof! We always fill the Stake Center where it is held. The members like to come and say goodbye to the people they have gotten to know.
Well, we have a dinner appointment in a few minutes. We don't get many of those, so like to take advantage of them! We love you all, and appreciate your love and support. We feel your prayers.
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