Fall, Family, Faith, Fun

We have had a great week as we were able to combine some missionary work with some family time.  Our daughter Stacie and her family came to visit last week and we had so much fun with them, showing them around our new town, introducing them to our missionaries and giving them a taste of mission life.  Since this blog serves as my journal, there is going to be some personal family stuff included and lots of pictures of my darling grandchildren, and their equally darling parents.  So buckle up, or quit reading whenever you have had enough.  
Missionary Moments this week
Even when family is here the work doesn't stop.  We still get lots of calls, one of which came on Saturday afternoon from Elder Gunn, our mission doctor.  He told us we had an elder in the hospital and he suspected it was appendicitis, but they were still running tests.  I'm not including the name of the Elder to protect his privacy, but his story is inspiring and worth recording.  

We got to the hospital around 7:30 that evening and they were still reading test results.  He was in a lot of pain, but in good spirits and Elder Gunn was with him.  He really was pretty annoyed that he wasn't out working.  When the dr. came in and told him he was going to have to have surgery that night he told the dr he would have the surgery but he needed to be released by 8:30 the next morning. Given the fact that he went into surgery around midnight, the odds of that happening did not look good.  He said "President, I need to be at church at 8:30 tomorrow, I have investigators coming to church and I need to be there."  He also placed a Book of Mormon with his nurse while he was waiting to go into surgery and he got his contact information.  Unfortunately he doesn't live in our mission, but the referral has been sent to the Roseville Mission.  It was so inspiring, that even in the hospital, he never forgot or took a break from his missionary purpose.  I'm happy to report that the appendix came out and he was back to work on Tuesday, happy to be actively engaged again.

We had zone conferences on Wednesday and Thursday this week.  We love getting to be with the missionaries.  It is a little daunting, they all look so forward to zone conferences, pressure is on to make sure they are uplifted for another 6 weeks.  They bring such a spirit with them, it is definitely a highlight of our transfer cycle.

Day 1

 Rancho Cordova Zone

 Sacramento Zone

 East Sacramento Zone

 Elk Grove Zone

Day 2

 Folsom Zone

 North Sacramento Zone

 El Dorado Zone

 Carmichael Zone

Our Assistants: Elders Murphy and Pennington, and our office Elders, Elders Ludlow and Newton.  They make our lives so much easier.

Also, on the missionary front, we had 10 baptisms on Saturday. We were so happy to be able to attend 3 of them.  One was a man named Jose that we didn't get a picture of.  The next one was a wonderful family of 5. The Roldan family, Brother and Sister Roldan and their 3 handsome sons.  They were golden and it was such a touching baptism. I was sitting right behind Lucy when her husband got baptized and the tears were just running down her face.  She got in the font next and had to wait for a bit for her husband to get dressed because he wanted to see her.  Again, she just cried tears of joy as she was standing in the font.  Then to see the joy of their sons getting baptized touched my mother heart so much.  She just wants so badly for her family to be an eternal family.  She bore her testimony and talked about how her family was falling apart and she was just searching and searching for something to help her family.  When friends introduced her to the Book of Mormon she started reading and knew that was what was going to help her and her family.  They have a goal to go to the temple in a year.  As she spoke I don't think there was a dry eye in the entire room.  You could have cut the spirit with a knife.  Those are the moments when it  just all comes together and the true purpose for being out here becomes glaringly clear.  

Scott went teaching to them a few weeks ago and the oldest son said he wanted to go to BYU Hawaii and asked if he had to go on his mission first, or if he could go to school for a year and then go on his mission.  This family is GOLDEN!  

The Roldan Family with all of the missionaries who were instrumental in their conversion.  It is quite an international group.  The family is from Mexico, they were taught by Elder Perry (Utah) and Elder He (Mainland China) and Lucy was baptized by Elder Anderson (Guam). Hermana Clark and Hermana Morris also helped teach the last lesson in Spanish to make sure nothing was lost in the translation.  Not pictured are the zone leaders, one from England and one from the Navajo Indian Nation.  

Next we were able to go to the baptism of Faith Moore.  With both of these baptisms, members were key to their becoming members of the church.  Faith was fellowshipped for years by good members who were patient and kind and just loved her.  She was apparently being a little stubborn about a few things.  Scott was actually the one who ended up inviting her to be baptized.  We met her at Stake Conference and she said she was 3/4 Mormon.  He asked her if she believed in Heavenly Father and Jesus, and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and President Monson and if she was keeping the commandments.  She answered yes to all of the questions.  So he asked her if she would be baptized on October 21 and to the surprise of the missionaries, she said yes.  She also bore a powerful and sweet testimony at her baptism.  It is a miracle to see the change of heart that comes to people when they accept the gospel.  Her bishop said a cute thing, he said 'we all need a little more faith and now we have her in our ward family."  Members are the best!

Family time this week:

We were so happy to have Stacie and Bennett and Thomas and Charlotte visit us this week. We know how blessed we are to be in a mission that is close to home where our family can come and visit us. We love and miss them so much and so this was a little piece of heaven for us to have our family with us this week.  Some of our highlights were The California Train Museum and a ride on the Halloween Train.  Exploring downtown Sacramento, The Sacramento Zoo and Fairy Tale Town, an afternoon at Apple Hill, soaking up the gorgeous fall weather and eating all things apple.  I kept seeing beautiful pictures of fall in Utah. It is my all time favorite time of year and I was afraid I was going to miss out on a gorgeous fall.  Apple Hill did not disappoint and I am happy to say that fall is alive and well in Sacramento.  We took them to Coloma for an afternoon and even made a stop at the Folsom State Prison Museum. Why, You ask?  Well, Johnny Cash made it famous and we decided to have a look for ourselves.  It was a bargain, only $2 per person, however, it probably won't be on the must see list for future visitors.  It was a funny adventure though.  Thomas and Charlotte loved looking for the bunny that lives in our front yard everyday and they said their favorite thing was just playing with toys and coloring on the white board at Mimi and Pop's.

The California Train Museum and Train Ride

A day in Sacramento, at the Zoo, the Fairy Tale Town, The State Capitol and Wall Murals

                                                                                           They were very comfortable in Pop's Office

 

Apple Hill

                                                                Folsom Prison and Coloma

We ate WAY more food than we should have, we introduced them to WAY more missionaries than they could possibly remember.  My very most favorite thing was just having them here, reading Thomas and Charlotte bedtime stories every night, playing games and talking non stop and just being with some of my very favorite people.  It was a good week!