B-day celebration

 We went golfing on Saturday to celebrate my birthday.  We haven't golfed since Dell's birthday.  We golfed at Ridge River Golf course.  The weather was perfect even though we got a little sun burned.  

 We drive past this golf course on the way to the mission office. It was fun to golf here which is a par 3 (which I parred). Dell parred several. 

 Dell wants me to ride.  He gave me this bike.  I was trying it out to make sure it fit right. He has promised we will start out on a more level area. We think we'll go down to the beach and ride on the trail.

 Dell made crepes for breakfast and grilled salmon and shrimp for "linner"

 We went to church in Ojai.  We both spoke in Sacrament Meeting.   My topic was on preparing for General Conference and Dell spoke about Christ, Easter and conference. 

  We had a visit from one of our missionaries who returned to the mission with her parents. We went to an Easter concert at the Ventura Stake center to listen to the Southern California Mormon Choir.  

I received so many birthday greetings and many from missionaries.  I felt so loved.  The day was great and I didn't want it to end. 

Meet...

D rides his bike often in the morning and sometimes rides past a woman using a walker.  He stopped to meet her one morning and found out her name was Ruth and she's 90 years old.  They were close to the church and he asked her if she had ever been in it.  She said no and she wasn't interested.  Upon further conversation, she has a son who has been a Bishop in Santa Barbara and a grand daughter serving a mission in Mexico.  We met her son and daughter-in-law when we were in Santa Barbara a month ago.  They told us Ruth told her son she has a new man in her life.  It was President Felix.  

Just over two weeks ago he came across Ruth and they visited for a little while.  He invited Ruth to see Meet the Mormons.  She said no.  At stake conference in Santa Barbara two weeks ago we saw Ruth's son again.  We told him about the experience and when the movie would be shown.  He told us he would get her there.

Last night I got to meet Ruth.  She came and she enjoyed the movie.  It was great!

I call this tree the fuller brush tree.  The blossoms look like little bottle brushes and then there's the beautiful little buds.  We have this tree in our yard but the neighbors have an even fuller one.

I am always on the look out for unique looking flowers.

Yea, Janice Bagley is tending her grand daughters again and she and Eden came by while the others were in school.  She was an angel (as usual).  We found a possible Christmas ornament idea for our missionaries, discussed color of paint for the big wall going up the stairs (we are going to do an accent color), and looked for a couch cover.  She has so much energy.

Jace and Kim

Kim and Jace got to the mission home Saturday after 5:00 p.m.  We were so excited.  We went to Urbane Cafe for dinner and then McConnells for ice cream.  Everyone has to go to McConnells.

It is such a beautiful drive up north.  We decided to go to Lompoc to church.  We weren't able to go to Kassy's baptism on Saturday but she was confirmed in Sacrament meeting.

They found avacados and a couple of oranges.

Dinner consisted of tritip on the grill.  D did a good job in grilling.

We drove to the Cross and this view is on the opposite side of the cross.

We started the Monday off with waffles.  Here's Jace's creation.

We were looking forward to Monday as I had purchased tickets to go whale watching.

Kim named the seal George after the one at Sea World.  This George was smaller.

We saw many dolphins.  It was hard to catch a picture when they jumped in the air.

This pelican made a smooth landing.

We were not on the water too long before whales were spotted.

I didn't get a picture but off in the distance we saw a whale breach.  It was two different ones or one breaching twice.

The expression "slow ship to China..." We found it.  This was a big ship and slow moving.

This is the view as we were coming back to the harbor.

Lunch was at Sea Fresh.  Fortunately the Felixes were able to find something not fish on the menu.  For me -- the clam chowder was the BEST!

Tuesday they were on their own (went to the beach) as we had mission leadership council all day.  They did join us for breakfast of green eggs, ham, and green pancakes that the missionaries came to the house to eat.  It was fun doing that for St. Patrick's day.

Wednesday we walked the pier and then had tacos at the Beach House.

Jace and Kim were trying to make sad faces as they left us on Wednesday afternoon.

Los Angles Temple

Thursday morning I got a text -- "VERY first in line."

So excited for them.

Fresno

 We drove past fields of yellow flowers and many orchards.  California has so much agriculture. Prior to the mission I would think of California as just having lots of people and traffic.  The California Ventura Mission has got to be the most beautiful place in California. 

 Fresno mission home

 President Jeff and Sister Bonnie Clark

We met the Clarks at a meeting before going to the MTC. We were assigned seating by them in our training. At the October mission president's seminar we enjoyed seeing them again.  Dell told them about the possibility of some of our missionaries going to the Fresno temple because it is closer than LA for those in the San Luis Obispo Zone. We had to get it approved by Elder Nielsen.  Of course we wanted to check it out and we needed to talk to the temple president.  The Clarks invited us to stay with them.  Dell said if we can take you to dinner. (We went to Cheesecake Factory. )

We loved sharing stories and ideas.  It was very good therapy. 

 We had a wonderful experience at the temple.  We met with President and Sister Callister prior to doing a session. They are happy to have our missionaries attend. As we were leaving, the Callisters visited with us some more.  They asked me some questions regarding the Salt Lake Temple.  

Years ago he was the mission president in Mississippi.  They took six children and came back with seven. They are delightful people. 

Recovering from Zone Conferences

 We realized after we got to zone conference we matched.   It just shows we were on the same wave length.  It's called companionship unity. If you want to read about zone conferences from last week,  go to the blog I do for the parents of the missionaries. 

 Saturday we stayed in Santa Maria for Stake Conference.  We went on a date. We found a new venue to read emails.  We drove to Pismo Beach and then had lunch on the beach. Even though Dell still read and I did thank you notes for the sisters who had prepared lunches for us, the time on the beach was so needed. The change was therapy. 

 Driving back to Santa Maria we passed this field of cauliflower. We pass many green fields  all of the time and wonder what is growing. This time we pulled over to check it out. 

We were asked to speak at stake conference in Santa Maria today. We were prepared to take 15 minutes between us as requested. It is so common that the previous speakers take more time than allotted.  We were to speak before the stake President's talk at the end. I was watching the clock.  When I got up I didn't say anything that I had prepared and took maybe two minutes and Dell took five minutes.  We want to make sure the stake president gets his time. 

We drove to SLO to meet with some missionaries and are now in Paso Robles.  We will drive to Fresno tomorrow.  We're staying with the Clarks,  mission president from Utah.  They started when we did. We will be going to the Fresno temple and talking with the temple president. Our missionaries serving in the SLO zone will be able to go to that temple as the LA temple is too far away.