Lo Siento Que No Hablo Mucho Espanol

I know I sound like a broken record every time I update this blog/journal and say it's been a busy few weeks, but it really just never slows down.  When I feel tired, I just have to think of our son Preston who is on an around the world study abroad and has been in 7 countries and on 3 different continents in the past two weeks, so he may be more tired than we are, but he's also younger!  

Unlike Preston, we have stayed within our 60ish mile radius but we have interviewed over 100 missionaries, spoken in two different Stake Conferences and a missionary fireside, taught lessons with several sets of missionaries, taken another group to Coloma, had lots of meetings, cooked and served lots of food, had FHE with our senior couples, attended a wedding/baptism, and several other baptisms, worked the transfer board, welcomed a new missionary and said goodbye to a couple others, and we've been preparing to integrate 50 new missionaries and 3 new zones into our mission in a few weeks when we pick up half of the Modesto Mission due to new mission boundary alignments.  I've also now ordered and sent back 10 dresses for our son's wedding in August (I may be keeping the 11th) and tried to support our kids at home and abroad who have lots going on in all of their respective lives.  It is only through the enabling power of our Savior's atonement that we are able to do all that this calling entails and how grateful we are for Him every single day!

This is our friend Hector, he was baptized last November and we were thrilled to see him on the program to speak in the El Dorado Stake Conference.  We were honored to speak with him and we were so proud of him.  A few days after this Stake Conference, Hermana Alexander and Hermana Barrera called to see if they could have a lesson and dinner at our home with one of their friends, Gerardo (we don't call our investigators investigators, we call them friends) that they are teaching.  He is a co-worker and friend of Hector and we live about halfway in between where Hector lives and where Gerardo lives and they thought our home would be a good meeting place for a lesson where Hector could come and participate. We didn't have a night open, so we decided to have a breakfast lesson.  The Hermanas, Hector and Gerardo and his daughter Ruby came.  

It was so great to have them in our home and we had a wonderful lesson.  We have been in so many Spanish lessons, meetings and baptisms lately that I am starting to really be able to follow the lessons, but I still can't say much.  My main phrase is always "lo siento que no hablo mucho espanol" It was an honor to hear Gerardo say a heartfelt prayer and to hear Ruby pray for the first time in her life.  I have heard people say that the best thing in the world is to hear someone pray for the first time, and I have to agree now that I have been witness to that out here.  During the lesson the Hermanas asked Gerardo if he would come to Stake Conference the next day.  He said he had to work and so Scott invited him to the Saturday night session.  The Cordova Stake had Elder Carl Cook from the presidency of the Seventy coming and we wanted Gerardo to be able to meet him.  He said he would come.  There is nothing more nerve wracking than watching missionaries pace the hall and wait by the door at a meeting they are hoping a friend will come to.  The meeting started and no Gerardo.  About 15 minutes into the lesson, in he walks.  He loved the meeting and after it was over, we had him come up and we introduced him to Elder Cook.  Sister Clark and Sister Simpson also had a first time friend there named Xavier who also met Elder Cook.  We were thrilled that they had this opportunity.  

Sunday morning at 7:15 Scott got a text from Elder Cook telling him that he would like to meet with Gerardo and Xavier 15 minutes before the Sunday session of conference, that he had a few questions to ask them.  Scott quickly got on the phone with both sets of sisters and asked them to make sure those two were coming to the meeting.  The problem is that we knew Gerardo had to work and knew he wasn't planning on coming.  Scott told the Hermanas to call and invite him and tell him that one of the top leaders of a worldwide church had requested that he come and meet with him.  They did that and Gerardo called his boss, got off of work and attended the meeting Sunday morning.  Elder Cook called both he and Xavier up to say a few things during his talk.  After the meeting one of the Spanish members came right up and got Gerardo and took him to see the baptismal font and he asked how long it would take before he could get baptized. That was the first Spanish miracle. 

The second came that Sunday night, but started a few nights earlier.  Hermana Peterson and Hermana Vogt called late on Thursday night and told Scott about a sister in their ward who they referred to as a 'dry member'.  Her two daughters are members and she has been attending for over 2 years but had never been baptized.  On Thursday she told the Hermanas that she thought it was time to be baptized but she wanted it to be a surprise to her daughters.  It was about 8:00 p.m. when Scott got the call and they asked if their district leader could hurry over to do the baptismal interview before her daughters got home from work.  It was kind of a crazy night but he did it and all was well.  That Sunday night the Rio Tierra ward was having a missionary fireside where Scott and I were speaking.  The missionaries in that branch are so great.  We got there and Elder Nilson and Elder Howlett had got me a translation headset, I was the only non Spanish speaker there, but they know  'lo siento que no hablo mucho Espanol.'  They were so cute, after I spoke (I try to say a few Spanish phrases and then move to a translator), they came up to me and told me I had really good Spanish.  I SO don't good Spanish AT ALL, but I love them for trying to make me feel comfortable and good about myself. 

It was a great turnout and they had it planned that at the end of the fireside, after Scott finished speaking he would announce that we would now be moving in to attend Pilar's baptism.  It was so special.  He finished talking about the blessings of being a member of the church and then said "it is easy to talk about the blessings of the gospel, but it's another thing to see them"  Then he asked if the Tovar family would come up to the stand.  The girls looked confused and Pilar was completely composed.  As they stood up on the stand, Scott announced that they were about to receive the joy of having their family all in the gospel and told them of Pilar's upcoming baptism.  I was sitting behind the girls, but I could see the tears of joy flowing down their cheeks, and it was special to see the faces of the ward members in the congregation as they heard the news.  There were tears on their faces as well.  It was a wonderful experience to be a part of.  After the meeting we all filed in to the baptismal room and were able to watch Pilar enter into a covenant and become a member of 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Seeing her and her beautiful daughters and the joy they experienced that night was a good reminder to me of what this is all about. It is about bringing the joy of the gospel to families and that night was certainly a good example of the joy that comes through the covenant of baptism.

The Rio Tierra ward was just full of baptismal surprises this past week.  Hermana June is going home next week.  We tell our departing missionaries to ask for and to expect final transfer miracles, and they do.  Hermana June has been teaching the Quintillia family and has had them on date several times. The mom is a member, but the dad and the sons have had several baptismal dates, but Brother Quintillia has some back issues that keeps preventing him from getting baptized.  We actually were hoping he would get baptized after the missionary fireside but he couldn't do it.  We met and talked with him at the fireside and Scott told him we would love to get him baptized before Hermana June went home.  He told us that he was planning on getting baptized the next week, but he wanted it to be a surprise for Hermana June.  This surprise wasn't as well kept and I think she caught wind of it, but it was an honor to be at the Quintillia baptism on Hermana June's last Saturday in the mission. 

One last Spanish teaching experience and then I'll move on to another final transfer miracle.  Sister Van Valekenburg is companions with Hermana Smith in Placerville.  We have one Spanish speaker and one English speaker together because they have both Spanish and English members in the same ward.  They called and asked if we could go teach a lesson with them to a man named Jesus, who lives with the Wixom's, some members in that ward.  Again, we were blessed to be able to see Jesus ask questions and to see light and understanding come in to his eyes.  As I said, I am able to understand or at least follow the jist of the lesson, but I kind of love not being able to understand everything because it is then that I really just let myself feel the spirit and let the spirit speak to me and the spirit was strong as they were teaching Jesus. Hopefully I have another Spanish baptism to attend and try to understand soon. My Spanish is getting better!

Another final transfer miracle that I didn't get any pictures of was the wedding and baptism of a Marshallese couple named Junior and Obra.  Sister Koller and Sister Brown have been teaching them.  They are a young couple in the Marshallese branch who have been coming regularly to church, they have a young son but weren't married.  It is extremely hard to come to a new country where you don't speak much of the language or understand the culture.  They had wanted to get married, but frankly I don't think they knew what needed to be done or how to do it.  Sister Koller and Sister Brown took things into their own hands and made things happen.  They spent their second to last p day going with them to obtain a marriage license, they arranged for the Branch President to marry them, and following the marriage they immediately got baptized.  They are very lovely but also very shy people and I was worried they wouldn't want their picture taken.  Apparently the Marshallese people don't even like their names printed on the programs, so they just leave it blank and call on them to speak, which they will do.  I loved seeing the process of this baptism.  Scott couldn't come with me, so I arrived right as it was supposed to be starting.  The sisters, the branch president and I were the only ones there.  I was able to see the process that goes on behind the baptisms.  I was able to see the sisters ask Elder Holdaway if he would baptize them, in Marshallese and see him accept without even a pause.  The things these young missionaries do out here is nothing short of a miracle every single day.  And they all just do whatever it takes.  And they all pitch in and help.  I love it!

We did have another Coloma P-Day.  It was our third one in just a few short months.  I think I have adequately explained Coloma and the things we do there, so I will just post some pictures and let them do the talking. 

I will say something about this picture because my momma bear came out just a tiny little bit here.  We were scheduled to go gold panning at 11:00.  We got there at that time and the young man helping there that day told them all to sit on these benches and wait there.  It was about 95 degrees and he just left them sitting there in the blazing sun.  There was shade just next to the building and I asked if they could stand in the shade.  He told them they had to sit on the benches and wait and it would be about 5 minutes, then he walked in to the air conditioned building.  Well, I took things into my own hands and told them they weren't going to be sitting there in the sun and to come and stand in the shade.  When the young man in charge came back several minutes later he wasn't very happy that I had overruled his authority, but I will always have their backs!  

Two of our Chinese Elders, Elder Chen and Elder Forte, standing in front of the Chinese Store. They even know what the sign above them says

We said farewell to Elder Buckley and Elder Jones. For our friends in Salt Lake keep your eyes open for Elder Buckley.  He transferred to the Salt Lake Headquarters mission and will be such a great asset to that mission and any of you looking to do your family history.  If you see him on temple square give him a hearty handshake and an expression of our love for him.

And we welcomed Elder Barr, our new Hmong speaking missionary who came a week earlier than our other new missionaries for this transfer.  He's from Australia and you just can't beat his accent.  Also, he is going to be a terrific missionary, accent or not.

The process of doing transfers is always a revelatory experience, but it is also a lot of hard work and a lot of preparation, both spiritual and physical goes into the process.  We meet with both sets of our assistants prior to transfers to get their input.  We come to the meeting fasting and praying that the Lord's will will be revealed and that Scott will have the inspiration he needs to place people in the right places and with the right companionships.  We always joke with the assistants that it is 'game day' and Scott always asks them if they have their ankles taped.  Well, this time around, they literally came with their ankles taped.  We had a good laugh about that. 

We always end with dinner together to break our fast, which is I think their favorite part of transfer board day.  We are so sad to be losing yet another one of our assistants, Elder Yorgasen goes home next week.  They send out transfer calls where they have everyone in the zone listed, where they will be and who their companion will be.  This time as we looked them over it said "Elder Yorgasen, transferred to Hyde Park 10th ward, Hyde Park Zone with the Holy Ghost."  That made us laugh!  We are happy to welcome Elder Thompson to fill his spot.  

Finally, I just want to wish my sweetheart and the Father of my children a very happy Father's Day.  I was talking with a few of the sisters who are departing next week and they asked me how to determine if someone was worthy of marrying.  I told them to look at their prospective partner not only as their husband, but maybe more importantly as the father of their children.  Do they want their sons being raised by and growing up to be like the man they are considering marrying?  I think that is a pretty good barometer and one that I used.  I couldn't have chosen a better partner, and more importantly a father for my children.  I am so grateful to have always been able to tell my boys to be just like their dad and my girls to marry men just like their dad.  Thankfully they all listened and followed their father's example.  

Last year on Father's Day we gave our farewell talks in our beloved Brookhurst ward. This year we were able to drive up to Georgetown to go to church today.  Oh what a difference a year makes. It was a fun and beautiful Father's day drive in the beautiful Sierra Mountains.  We are grateful to have landed in such a beautiful place, with wonderful people, and the best missionaries in the world! 

Time Flies

I can't believe it is June already.  I have let a lot of time lapse in between this post and my last one.  I can't begin to catch it all up, but here are a few highlights.

Two weeks ago, and again this coming week are full of interviews.  This picture was taken when we were in North Sac, where three of our tallest elders all serve.  We could field quite a basketball team with Elder Henrie, Elder Miller, and Elder Gove, they are giants, and Elder Shaffer is a giant of a man in spirit.  

Sister Leavitt and Sister Roberts serve in our Silva Valley Ward and we have been trying to have them for dinner for a long time, and they finally had an opening in their dinner calendar.  (These wards here treat our missionaries so well.) They left us with a message and a challenge to write in our journals more consistently.  I use this as my journal, as I'm not very good at writing nightly, but I was happy for the reminder and the encouragement to do this more often.  They also left us cards to fill out that asked the question: 'Why are you here?"  It has given us pause to think about why we really are here and it is because we love the Savior and want to serve Him in any way He asks us to.  We have made covenants to consecrate all we have to the gospel and this is our way of doing that.  It was a good reminder on those difficult days of why we are here.  We love having the missionaries in our home, and these two are terrific!

This is the worst picture of me, I am not good at selfies, but I had to document the Friday afternoon I spent with Sister Richins and Sister Gilbert at the River City Food Bank.  And can I tell you first about these two...  Every week the missionaries all have to write a letter to the President.  At the first of their transfer together, I got a card in the mail from these cute sisters telling me that they didn't think it was right that President got letters from them, but I didn't and so they have been sending me weekly cards, post cards, letters, etc. for the past two months.  At Zone Conference they gave me a thick envelope that had a notebook that said 'madam president' on the front.  They are adorable and I look forward to their weekly cards.  Anyway, I went to serve at the food bank with them, they go every Friday.  At the time we were studying the Christlike Attribute of Humility and it was a lesson in humility for me.  We were able to fill food orders for about 3 hours and it took me the first half hour before I could do my job without nearly bursting into tears.  The humble people that came through there tugged at my heart.  Each one was so polite and grateful and I hope I brightened their day a bit with some words of kindness for each of them.  I was also humbled by the people who run the food bank and those who volunteer.  I worked with two ladies who volunteer every week, one of them several times a week.  She told me she is a cancer survivor and volunteers at the food bank and a couple of other places several times a week just because she is grateful to be alive and wants to give back.  Oftentimes we only hear about the bad things going on in our societies and this day showed me that although there are people going through things I can't even imagine, there is so much goodness in people and in the world.

Sister Koller and Sister Brown are going home this transfer and this is at their last Zone Conference.  (insert sad/crying emoji).  They are remarkable, we usually don't keep two missionaries together who are both going home because that means we have to shotgun their area when they leave and we try to do that as little as possible.  But we just couldn't break these two up, they are working so hard and seeing miracles every single day.  And they make us laugh.  During their last transfer they are supposed to do a program called My Plan which is supposed to help them figure out their lives at home before they get home.  Some missionaries love it and for some it stresses them out.  I didn't realize how hard going home is when my kids were on missions.  But it is hard.  The other day Scott got a text from them that said "President, we just have one more question about My Plan"  and then immediately the next text came through saying "CAN WE STAY HERE FOREVER".  If the church would let us keep them our answer would be a resounding YES, PLEASE!!!

We had the opportunity to speak at a missionary fireside in the Fijian ward. We loved being with these wonderful people.  The Bishop spoke with a lot of power about how the ward members need to help the missionaries get more people to teach and to get more people baptized into the church.  It was awesome.  Our son Alex and his family were here with us for that and it was fun to introduce Hannah to another culture.  We told her that the people were from an island, kind of like the one in Moana, and she was excited to look for Moana and Maui.  It was so fun to see her make friends with cute kids who didn't look at all like her and were from a different culture, and to see that it didn't phase her in the least.  I loved that so much.  Later in the week we were talking about what she liked best about her visit here and the Fijian fireside was right at the top of her list.  It was wonderful. And these are the wonderful women who made the best banana bread I have ever had, and I think I make a pretty good banana bread!

The other highlight of Hannah's trip was meeting the 'girl' missionaries.  She was so excited to meet them, she first met four sisters at a baptism in Folsom the night she got here. She was a little star struck, and then on Sunday we went to church and Sister Leavitt and Sister Roberts were there again.  Hannah wondered if she would see the girl missionaries she met at the baptism. She was thrilled to see them sitting behind us in Sacrament meeting and she waved at them several times during the meeting. She was really happy, when after Sacrament meeting they asked her if they could have a picture with them. It made her day!

Last week our missionaries worked on Memorial Day because it is a good day to find people at home, and so their p-day was on Tuesday.  The El Dorado Zone had their zone activity at President and Sister Bitnoff's beautiful home up in the mountains of Pollack Pines and we were invited to go up with them.  They had planned a hike to a lake, but I wasn't aware of that plan and my shoes weren't appropriate for hiking.  I stayed back with Jeni, her daughter and two kids, and Allie and Porter and Hannah.  The kids played and I helped Jeni prepare lunch.  She is such an amazing woman and has become a dear friend I am so thankful for.  We had a great afternoon and were happy for the time we were able to spend with the Bitnoffs and with our missionaries. This is the only picture we took the whole day.  

We had Zone Conference last week.  We had one on Wednesday with the Elk Grove, Sacramento, East Sacramento and Cordova Zones.  On Thursday we had Folsom, Carmichael, El Dorado and North Sacramento.  Zone Conferences take so much preparation, but they may be my favorite week of the transfer cycle because we get to see everyone in the span of two days and it is so much fun and so uplifting to be with these amazing servants of our Heavenly Father.  As President Nelson referred to the youth of the church joining the youth battalion to help with the Gathering of Israel, I couldn't help but think of each of these wonderful missionaries and what a blessing it is to be part of this work with them.  This fact is always just reemphasized to us on Zone Conference weeks.  I talked about finding balance in missionary work by being balanced in the five areas discussed in Adjusting to Missionary Life.  Scott talked about having a personal conviction of what we are teaching, and the assistants did trainings on urgency and wisely using the limited time we have to actually teach and find on a mission, and on extending invitations to members that count.  We have each missionary come to Zone Conference prepared to give a talk on the Christlike Attribute we are studying at the time and then Scott chooses two to give their talks. I love to hear those, and the insights they always have, they are always so prepared.  I also love (and hate just a little bit) hearing the departing testimonies of those who will be going home.  I hate to see each one of them go, but I also love seeing the growth that occurs in each missionary through the course of their mission.  It is such a miraculous transformation.  I was talking to a few of the departing missionaries and they were lamenting about the fact that they don't want to leave the mission.  I made the comment that I wish I could get what they are feeling sometimes into the young missionaries who haven't really decided that they want to be here for sure.  But then I corrected myself as I realized that each of us has to do our own stretching and growing, and if what these missionaries have now was just 'put into their heads' they wouldn't be the people they are now.  We each have to earn our own testimonies and personal conviction with the help of the Lord, and that may be the biggest miracle of a mission.  

Pictures from Day 1, May 30 at the Vintage Park Building in Elk Grove

 East Sacramento Zone

 Elk Grove Zone

Sacramento Zone

Rancho Cordova Zone

 Celebrating our March, April and May Birthdays

 All of these sweet sisters were there from the Elk Grove Stake to feed us lunch. We love our members so much! They are so good to us. 

Day 2, May 31 at the Deseret Building in Carmichael

 Carmichael Zone

 North Sacramento Zone

 El Dorado Zone

Folsom Zone

 March, April and May Birthdays

 Singing to more amazing sisters who fed us on Day 2

Nice Photo Bomb Elder Ricedorff

 After Zone Conference Hannah was entertaining our office missionaries with her conversational skills.  She and Elder Gunnell were having quite a riveting discussion

Alex grew up with Elder and Sister Gunnell and so it was fun for him to see them as missionaries and fun for them to spend some time with his kids, it made them feel like they had a little taste of their own grandkids for a few minutes.  And Porter found a picture of someone he knows in the office. 

In addition to the above and many other missionary responsibilities the past few weeks, we also had some special visitors. As I mentioned, Alex and Allie came to visit the Saturday before Memorial Day and were able to stay for a week.  We dragged them along with us to a baptism, the Fijian fireside, the El Dorado Zone Activity and Zone Conferences.  We were also able to sneak in some family activities

Hannah got to go swimming every day. She would have stayed in the water all day long, every single day. She is a fish.  Porter, however, liked walking the perimeter of the pool, swishing toys in the water, and getting his feet wet as long as it was his idea.

On Memorial day we went up to The Gold Bug Mine and exploring downtown Placerville. But we started the day with a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, straight out of the Magnolia Cookbook Alex and Allie gave me for Mother's Day.  Let me just say, Joanna Gains knows her stuff when it comes to biscuits and gravy!

 Hannah wanted to find a snow globe of Sacramento and I thought, where better to go than the Placerville Hardware Store, which has everything under the sun, if you can only find it.  But alas, no snow globe in a store that is like my grandma's old basement on steroids.  

That night we had such a treat!!!  Elder Watts, who now goes by Zach came for dinner on Monday night and brought his darling fiance, Jordyn with him for us to meet.  We had SO MUCH FUN.  He ate many a meal at our table.  He was our very first assistant and saved our lives our first few months.  We love him so much and it was SO great to have him back and to have him bring Jordyn with him.  (Don't they look like Prince Harry and Meghan Markell, except only cuter?)

Porter knows a cute girl when he sees one.  He was turning on the charms for Jordyn.
We also made it downtown to explore the State Capitol Building and to go to Cantina Alley for street tacos and Rick's Dessert Diner for the most heavenly desserts.  I'm glad it took me a year to get to this place, it is dangerous.

We also had to make the mandatory stop for breakfast at Bacon and Butter and then spent an afternoon at Fairy Tale Town.

My favorite thing is snuggling and reading to the kids, and my least favorite thing is seeing them pack up and drive away.  We sure loved having them here and are so grateful they got to come and spend a crazy week with us. 

This is a terrible picture, taken through the back window of the car, but it was an awesome moment.  We were walking to the car, and of course, Scott being the great missionary that he is, stops and talks to everyone.  He met this man, Kevin, who knew a lot about the church and had taken missionary lessons, read some of the Book of Mormon and even attended church in that past.  He said the gospel makes sense, but he just didn't feel it before.  He lives in Lodi, which will be part of our mission in just a few weeks.  Scott got his contact information and immediately sent a referral to the Elders in Lodi for them to go see Kevin.  He definitely practices what he preaches.  

When people ask us if we ever have p-days or what we do in our free time, we tell them that we usually only have p-hours, never a full p-day.  One afternoon we took a few p-hours and went to an afternoon baseball game to see the Sacramento Rivercats play.  It took us back to our old life, especially when this was the first sign that we saw inside the stadium.

We also like finding good places to eat, and Sacramento has a million of them.  It is called the Farm to Fork Capital and that is evident in the many amazing places to eat.  We recently went to dinner at Grange, a restaurant I have been wanting to go to for a long time.  It did not disappoint!

So, that's the last three weeks in a nutshell.  I didn't even write about the root canals we both had to get, in the same tooth, on the same day.  That was what we did on one of our p-days.  But more importantly, I didn't write about the many baptisms we were able to attend over the past few weeks, or the fact that Scott asked our missionaries to redouble their finding efforts and the first week after that request they found 280 new investigators in one week, double the 140 per week that we usually find.  They have kept up that enthusiasm for the past few weeks, not quite reaching 280 again, but very close.  We are so proud of their faith, their diligence, their humble obedience and their desire to do anything that is asked of them.  It is an honor to serve with such consecrated servants of the Lord.  How we love, respect and honor the Elders and Sisters of the California Sacramento Mission.