Interviews, interviews and more interviews

The past two and a half weeks have been spent mostly in interviews with our 161 missionaries.  Interviewing missionaries from 11 zones really takes up about half of our transfer, and it can be emotionally tiring, but we love it.  I think I mentioned that I missed several of the zone interviews last month because of our son's wedding, and it seemed like it had been forever since I had talked to some of the missionaries.  For a few years after the mission age change and the surge of new missionaries, they had changed it to only interview every other transfer.  It would be easier, but I can't imagine not touching base with them personally for that long.  I think it was wisdom that they changed it back to once a transfer, even though it is very time consuming, I love catching up with 'my kids' one on one. 

About a year ago during interviews I had each of the missionaries write a message to their families and then I took a picture of them holding the note and sent a text or email to their parents.  I decided it was time to bring that back, so that is what I did during part of my interview time with each of them.  So, pictures speak louder than words.  Here is a pictorial of what we have been doing for the past few weeks. These are every one of our missionaries.  Aren't we so lucky to be able to spend time with each of them? They just glow!

In addition to interviews we have also filled our time with...

Baptisms

We were able to go down to Stockton a few Saturdays ago to attend two baptisms down there.  The first was Bryanna. This was the sweetest story.  She is a 12 year old girl who was fellowshipped by her elderly neighbors who kind of took her under their wing. They brought her to church with them and she wanted to get baptized but she lived with her grandparents who didn't really like the idea of her getting baptized.  The wife of the fellowshipping couple passed away a few months ago and around that time her grandparent's hearts started softening.  They agreed to let her get baptized and she had the elderly neighbor baptize her.  He was weeping with joy while he was performing the baptism.  I have no doubt that his wife got on the other side and started working on Bryanna's grandparents from her end.  It was really special and the ward members were amazing at welcoming her with open arms. 

Bryanna is the darling girl next to me holding the flowers and the others are all of the sister missionaries who helped her along the way.

The next baptism was of Pedro.  He is in his 80's (you would never know it) and is solid as a rock

We also got to attend the baptism of a darling girl named Dani. We met her for the first time when we spoke in her YSA ward a month or so ago and she is incredible as well.  She told me she passed our church on the way to her church when she was young and she always wanted to come to ours.  She had a friend who was a member through jr high and high school who finally invited her to come to church with her.  She was so excited that she actually got to come to the church she had always wanted to go inside.  She has been solid ever since.  Invite your friends!!!

Festivals

Tis the season for cultural festivals.  Last Saturday we had two that we were able to attend. The first one was put on by the Spanish Branch in the Sacramento Stake.  They invited members from 11 Spanish speaking branches or wards to attend.  I loved how they organized it. They had food from a lot of different countries and the wards got together and the people from each country worked together to prepare food.  It wasn't by ward, it was by country so there was a great mixing of people helping each other.  Also, since it was such a big event, they all brought a lot of non member friends with them.  Unfortunately we had to leave before the program started but they had dancing and in between performances they would show missionary themed mormon messages.  It was a great event and we ran into many of our friends.

We left there early because we had to get to the Chinese Cultural event that was put on by our two Chinese groups.  They had asked Scott to give some opening remarks.  It also was very well attended, with tables full of amazing food.  I wish we could have stayed for the food at that one as well.  I would have loved to have stayed all night at both of these fun cultural events, but we had too many places to be all at the same time. At least we got a taste of each of them. 

Senior Family Home Evening

We try to get together once a month with all of our Senior Missionaries for a Family Home Evening.  This past Monday we had a lesson on preparing for General Conference.  I put a quote from a recent conference from each apostle and the First Presidency on a document and gave a copy to each companionship and had them see how well they knew each 'shepherd's voice'.  They had to determine which apostle or prophet gave which quote.  It was more difficult than I thought it would be, because I put the quotes together and knew where they had come from.  I think they all had a lot of fun though, and kudos to Elder and Sister Gunnell who got 100% of them correct!  Another reason it pays to listen to a conference talk each night before bed. 

Scott partnered up with President Bitnoff because I knew the answers and Jenny wasn't there

Welcomed Visits!!!

I say all the time how blessed we are to be close enough for our missionaries to come back to visit.  We were blessed over the past few weeks to be able to see four of our wonderful formers.  

Elder Nelson hadn't been gone long, just last transfer, but since he has family here it didn't take long for he and his parents to come back to visit.  We were blessed to spend a night with them here in our home for dinner and a wonderful visit.  It just reminded us of how much we miss him. 

The picture is blurry but it's the best and the only one I got. 

Elder Stewart made the longest trip, all the way from England.  We were able to meet up with him after the Folsom Stake Conference.  We were up on the stand and it was so fun to see him smiling up at us.  We were so excited to spend some time with him, being so far away, we didn't know when we would meet up with him again. 

And finally, what a joy it was to open my front door to Elder Yorgasen and Elder Murphy who made the trip to go to the temple with their recent convert Ian, who went through the temple prior to him leaving on his mission to Japan later this month.  Ian's baptism was one of the first we attended when we arrived last summer.  The joy of these Elders was palpable.  And we were so grateful we got to spend a wonderful evening with them, eating around our table again, and we definitely didn't keep to the missionary curfew as we stayed up late talking, laughing, reminiscing and getting all caught up on their post mission lives. It felt like old times and was so good to see them together again. 

This and That...

We were able to attend District Counsel last week in the El Dorado Zone.  I got to go to Elder Schwendsen's district and participate with them.  Including some role plays.  We practiced door contacts and I thought I was on a roll until one of our 'contacts' asked me if I had been born again, and I stammered and stuttered and looked at my companions and said "you gotta help me out here sisters, I'm stumped".  Luckily Sister Gilbert and Sister McCurdy had my back and we got the return appointment. We did have a good laugh about it, but this work is not as easy as it looks!!!  Not that it looks easy. 

One of my favorite sights is pulling up beside some of our amazing missionaries on a street on their bikes.  This is Sister Tenney and Sister Hummel in Elk Grove!

Occasionally we will make videos to put out to all of the Zone Messenger Chats.  Last week our missionaries found over 300 new friends (investigators).  That is the most new friends we have found in one week since we have been here and we wanted to tell them what a great job they are doing and how much we love them and appreciate their faith to find.  We aren't very good at making videos and usually have to do several takes because we start laughing.  Here are a few of the snapshots we got of our filming process.  

There is a big rock wall on a hill as you enter our city, El Dorado Hills, that I have wanted to hike up to since we have been here.  Monday morning was the day we actually did it.  It took us way longer to find the 'trail' that it did to hike up to the sign.  Actually it was about a 5 minute 'walk', not so much a hike, but at least we can check it off our bucket list. 

There is a Ghirardelli Chocolate outlet and Ice Cream store on I-5 that we pass on our way from Stockton to Manteca.  Today we decided to treat ourselves and stopped by on our way home from our interviews.  We did 44 interviews in less than 30 hours (including sleeping time) and figured that deserved a stop at the ice cream shop.  And yes, it is just as delicious as the one in San Francisco. 

And finally, It had rained and was a little misty as we were driving home on some incredibly beautiful country roads today.  Pictures don't capture everything, but it sure made me grateful for where we get to call home for a few years.  #lovewhereyoulive

 we can see these two towers from our front yard.  It was fun to actually see them close up for the first time.