Pop Quiz

Here's a little test to give you a few hints about how our last week and a half have gone.
Ready?  The answers are below, so don't peek!

1.  Who are the only people who attend General Conference in a Stake Center outside of Utah?

2.  What should you take with you when you visit a park on a hot day?

3.  What is the one part of a Toyota Rav4 that they have to remove the entire engine to replace?

4.  What is the best thing about serving a Senior Couple mission?

5.  What happens when you go shoe shopping as a missionary?


Okay, here's the answers:

1.  The only people who attend General Conference in a Stake Center are missionaries and people who speak a different language.  In our mission, it is Chinese, Japanese and Spanish.  So we sat in the large chapel of our Stake Center with about 20 missionaries, and the people from other cultures sat in other rooms so they could hear the speakers in their own languages.  On Sunday, they have a 20+ year tradition of having a pot luck dinner between sessions, that started when they had a large contingent of Japanese members in the area.  It is now mostly Chinese, but they continue to have their luncheon.  We didn't know about it, but when they came to the stake center on Saturday and saw all the missionaries, they started calling around telling everyone to bring LOTS of food on Sunday so they could feed us.  So we didn't have anything with us to eat, and it's too far to return to our apartment between sessions, and we were just going to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves (hehe) when we got invited to their pot luck.  It was so great!  We got to know some new people, try new foods, (fried tofu, for one) and have a great meal.  People are wonderful here.

2.  When you visit a park on a very hot day, be sure to wear comfortable shoes, a hat, and cool clothing.  Ties and long skirts are not advised.  Also, take water!  We decided to visit a local park on Monday last, and failed in all those respects!  Most of the things we went to see were closed on Monday (California's Monday is Utah's Sunday), but were able to walk around a Japanese Friendship Garden.  We didn't last very long, but here are some of the pretty things we saw.

Dad under some incredibly large redwoods.  The picture doesn't do them justice!

The park had lots of wildlife; geese, fish, cranes, etc.  And Japanese sculpture.

 

It was nice to see, but too hot (around 90).  Don't know what we were thinking!

 

 

3. At the beginning of last week, Dad started to hear a funny noise in the engine of our car.  He asked another senior missionary who knows cars what he thought.  He said it didn't sound good, and to take it to a Toyota dealership.  We did.  It was the water pump.  They had to take the engine out to replace it, which was pretty pricey, but told us that most people don't realize its going out until it burns up the entire engine, which we would have had to sell our firstborn to pay for (sorry, Tracy!).  So we were blessed.  And the car is working great.  And the dealership was nice.  And Dad got to share a Gospel message with a lady he met at the shop.  So all is well.

 

 

4.  Young Elders and Sister missionaries are the greatest thing about our mission!  They are so sweet and funny and dedicated and full of life!  We got to spend time with them at Conference, take a pair of Elders to the Oakland Temple last Friday, and see the Meet the Mormons film with them last Thursday.  It was all very fun.  The film is amazing.  We hope you all get a chance to see it.  It was #10 in the country on opening night last Friday, and #1 in lots of big cities besides SLC, like New York, Detroit, Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas and Phoenix.  Isn't that great?  If you have any friends that you would like to give a good impression of the church to, take them to see it. 

 

 

5.  I needed a new pair of walking shoes, so we went to a "comfort shoe store" in the local mall.  The guy who helped me was super nice, and very helpful in getting me a pair of shoes that are comfortable for my persnickety feet.  He asked us about our name tags, and we told him what we do as missionaries.  He started to tell us about his faith as a Pentecostal from Texas, his father being a minister, and some of his beliefs.  They were remarkable similar to ours.  He said as a youth, he asked his dad why there were so many religions.  Shouldn't there be one God and one faith?  Of course, this opened the way to talk about the Joseph Smith story, and I was able to tell him about the Gospel and bear my testimony.  It was very cool!  He listened with intent, said he would go see "Meet the Mormons" with his family, and gave us his business card and asked for ours.  It was a pretty special experience. 

 

So that's our week.  We got to Skype with Bruce and Cailee on Sunday, and he seemed very excited about his baptism.  Lots of people have promised to send us pictures, so we hope that happens.  It was very hard not to be there, but we know we are where we are supposed to be.  We are learning so much, and it is a wonderful experience.  We appreciate all of your support.  We pray for you and your families, and know you are all going through hard times, but we know the Lord is aware of you and will help you through it.

 

Give all our grandkids/dogs a hug from us.  Love you lots.