Baby geese

The geese are back!  I have been looking for new babies for several weeks, and finally saw them today.  They must be only a few days old, as I have seen the parents around for awhile but no babies. 

Aren't they cute?  I stood and watched as they crossed the road from one side of our complex to the other (a very busy road), and held my breath.  But everyone stopped and watched, as fascinated as I was. 

We have been keeping busy.  We got re-acquainted with a sister we had met about 6 months ago, Brynne.  She is not a member but wants to be.  The problem is, she is on probation, and is an addict.  We started working with her the first time, and then she disappeared; ended up back in rehab.  So she's out again, and we aren't going to teach her missionary lessons.  We will leave that to the younger missionaries to do in 8 or 9 months when she is off probation.  She can't be baptized until then anyway, so we are doing the 12 steps with her.  She also has schizo-affective disorder, which is schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder combined.  Sounds scary, but we find a lot of common ground with her.  Everything we learned from our 3 years as addiction recovery missionaries is coming back to us, and we took her to a recovery meeting up by Stanford Tuesday night.  They only hold 2 such meetings in all of San Jose, so they aren't convenient, but it was sure a good meeting.  Walking into it was like coming home.  We felt God's love there, as we did in the jail and prison all those years ago.  We are very happy to be able to get to know Brynne and hope we can help her.

The ward keeps adding more people to our list of those to teach the Temple Preparation lessons to; we are up to 5.  Its great, but the problem is that we are teaching them on a one-on-one basis.  There aren't enough free evenings for us in the week to teach that many, plus see Brynne, but we are making it work.  It's wonderful to feel so needed!  It will help our last 5 months go by even quicker. 

We continue to enjoy our work, and love the people.  We are learning so much about ourselves, and growing in many ways.  We sure appreciate the love and support from our family.  We hope you are all doing well.  October will be here before you know it!  Thanks for the cute message on Facebook, Megan!

At the Institute dinner last night, the sister missionaries asked if they could sing for us.  One of them is from Tonga, and the other from China. They performed a beautiful Tongan number for us, where they harmonized.  It was amazing!

What sweet ladies!  They work with the young single adults that come to the Institute, so they come and help with the dinner as well.  We had about 130 there last night, as it was a special dinner where they invited the high school seniors to come and check out the Center for Young Adults, attend the dinner and a class.  Everyone was thrilled that so many showed up. 

We went to our favorite beach again on Monday, and took another senior couple, the Nelsons.  It was freezing!  Foggy, windy, cold.  There was a poor little bird that was injured on the beach, and couldn't walk or fly. 

I don't suppose he survived much longer.  The beach was littered with dead jelly fish.  Strange - don't know if it happens every year or what.  Plus there weren't any sand dollars - I spent hours looking!  I guess everything has its season.

We have a service project coming up on Saturday, where we help clean up the West Valley College grounds.  It was the first thing we did last year just after we got here.  Hard to believe its been a whole year!

Well, better get busy.  Hope to hear from you all.  Love you lots.

 

Happy Easter

Easter, Conference weekend, spring.  Three of my favorite things.  We have been busy, busy, busy.  After the General Women's Meeting last Saturday, I got invited to go out to dinner with some of the MSA sisters to celebrate one of their birthdays.  We went to an upscale Mexican Restaurant and had a great meal.

Two token old ladies with 4 mid singles.  It was Claudia's birthday, the sister in black on the left.
It was so nice to be invited along.  They are such sweet sisters.

Sunday we had a fireside where 4 people who were converts from other countries spoke.  It was a good evening to a busy Sunday, where we attended lots of meetings!  Go, go, go.

Monday 4 Senior missionary couples drove up to Muir Woods.  We had a great time.  Its not too bad a drive, and the weather was perfect.

Aren't they amazing trees?  Some of the oldest and tallest trees in the world!
There were a ton of people there.  We got there early so had a good parking place, but when we went back to the van to eat lunch, cars were just streaming in, all trying to find a parking place.  We were going to just sit in the car and eat our lunch, but a lady (?) came up to us and asked if we were leaving.  We told her that we were going to eat our lunch first.  She said, "Really?  With all these people looking for a parking place,  you're going to just sit here and eat?"  Dad said, yes, we are!  She argued a bit more and then stomped off!  So we got in the car, and one of the other guys said he thought we should just go, so we did.  We drove a couple of miles down the road and pulled off to eat.  I guess it was the right thing to do, but can you believe the nerve of some people?

On Tuesday we took the young Elders out to dinner at a place called Harry's Haufbrau.  They serve pretty standard American fare, with lots of choices of meats, with mashed potatoes and gravy and salads, veggies, etc.  One of the Elders is from the Philippines, and had never had turkey. So he decided to try it, with stuffing and all.  He loved it!  He scarfed down a huge plate full in 10 minutes!  He's just a little guy, but said he has gained 13 pounds since he got here (2 months ago)!  I told him they are going to have to roll him home!

Then Wednesday we took them up to the Temple for the Zone Temple Day.  Again, a beautiful day, and we fed them lunch.  He ate it all up!  We then helped at the Institute dinner again; always fun.

Yesterday we shopped for the mission leadership luncheon we do once a month.  Had to go to 4 stores to get all we needed.  There is no such thing as convenient shopping here.  Then we taught Temple Prep to a Saratoga Mid Single sister.  She is so sweet, and is getting excited about going to the Temple in the near future.  It's such a privilege to teach those lessons, and then get to go with them to the temple.

And today was the luncheon.  We served taco salad.  They loved it, but you should see how high they pile the food on their plates!  We ran out of taco meat.  We bought enough for 80, and only served 55, but they like their meat!  We'll just get more for the next one, I guess.  We're thinking about pulled pork sandwiches.  Sounds yummy, huh?  It's fun to fix the lunch for them, and they are always so appreciative.  What great people we work with! The new couple, the Nelsons, helped us, and she made the best salsas.  One with tomatoes and the other with corn and beans.  I'll get the recipes for sure.  I'm going to be good at fixing meals for lots of people, so I guess we'll have to have everyone over when we get back.

These are all the Zone leaders, and Sister Trainer Leaders in the mission.  A great looking bunch of young people, huh?

Tomorrow and Sunday we go to the stake center to watch conference, and keep a watch out for Amy.  Can't wait!  Hope you all get to enjoy the meetings as well, and that all is well with you.  We love and miss you tons!