Sunday, June 29, 2014

 Yesterday we had the opportunity to attend a baptism. This sign is the road to enter the parking lot of the church.  As the Assistants were driving us, I said oh no!" We had forgotten our badges. Hopefully that is the first and last time. This building is big. It has two chapels.
 
The Assistants had told us there were baptisms on Saturday.  We chose one in Thousand Oaks about 40 minutes away.   We were also invited to attend that same baptism from the ward mission leader and one of the sister missionaries.  Dell received a text from our very good friend in Utah, Marc. He said "give my wife a hug today at the baptism. We were confused.  Well the baptism was Marc's wife's new sister-in-law. Love connections! 
 We stopped by Costco on our way back to Ventura. We were home long enough to quickly eat left overs. Dad/Dell/president (will have to decide what name to use, he keeps forgetting to call me Sister when around others) asked the Assistants to arrange for us to go out with the missionaries.  These sweet sisters were my first experience in the mission in teaching.  A baptismal date is set for July 19th. President went with Spanish speaking Elders in Oxnard. We have both feet in.
 This is the church building in our boundaries.

Notice the rubber ?  tree. It is huge. 
For those who know my singing talents, or not--I went up and sang in a choir of relief society sisters in Sacrament Meeting; that was after President sang with the men.  We enjoyed a nice patriotic meeting.  We attended the Gospel Essential class. So neat! A man who was baptized in October of 2013 was the instructor.  How better to learn but to prepare to teach.
Today we look forward to talking to our family!


Yesterday we went hiking with President and Sis Jones from the Ventura Stake.  The park and trail is close to our mission home.
 This view is on that trail.  The ocean is in the background.  The hiking/exercise was much needed. Pres. Jones is a BYU fan and wore a cap showing such. They asked about Dell's and that brought about discussion regarding Jared, our son-in-law.  :)
 Yesterday Sis Castro pointed out the avocado trees in the backyard.  She said there was poison oak (which by the way, there was much of on our hike). The Joneses came with us after hiking to look. This view is looking up at the house. Oh, we didn't see any poison oak, yeah! The FM group must have taken care of it.
 Besides many avocado trees (which to pick them we have a special tool), there are many citrus trees. There are valencia oranges, karamanderin which i think is like clemintines and tangerines. We were told to twist the fruit from the stem when picking.    They are so good!   It sounds like due to ONE season, the trees produce year round.

I am way excited for our grandkids to come and experience picking the fruit.


                           In the back is a lemon tree.  We have a couple of them. There appears to be a newly planted plum tree. 
These flowers are beautiful.  Dell is holding an avocado that we could reach to pick along with oranges and a lemon. There are a lot of different types of vegetation.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

 We flew from Salt Lake City to Phoenix to Santa Barbara.
 The Castro family picked us up and we drove to Ventura and had lunch. They are such wonderful people. I really didn't want to let them leave.

 Here's our home for the next three years.
 The Assistants drove with us to show us where the mission office was.
They offered to help us do some moving in. The stake president and his wife bought dinner over. While visiting with them the bishop and his wife came over to meet us and to give us some banana bread.  Great people here.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

The men are high school buds from Skyline. Mark Ulrich,  Randy Ridd,  and Dell
"Rock stars" from The District 2
Our first day at the MTC.  It seems like the thing to do when there, is to have your picture taken in front of the map and point to where you will be serving your mission.