Service in Ojai

The Chamber of Commerce in Ojai requested our missionaries help out with directing people at 5 homes for the garden show.  We told the city 18 missionaries would be able to help out for 3 hours on Saturday.  That was suppose to include us.  Well we had 18 missionaries and with us it would be 20, so we bowed out but wanted to go and be supportive.  The Cammacks are members in the Ventura stake and they showed their yard.  They love Disneyland and have subtle signs of mickey mouse throughout.  They also have a turtle.  I didn't get pictures.  The two pictures below are from their garden.  I've never seen such big geraniums.

While there I received a phone call from a couple of missionaries saying the woman at the house they had been assigned to didn't need their help.  Fortunately Hal, who was helping with the garden show was at the Cammacks when we were and he was able to talk to the home owner on the phone right then.  

Elder Boyce and Elder Kuepper helping people to know what direction to go.

We were going to help out at the Turtle Conservancy.  Since we were not needed, the Cammacks made arrangements for us to go see it.  President has something about turtles.

This made me think of Jurassic Park.

The turtles go in through that door nightly.

Hermanas Eames and Frias were in this area to make sure all was good.  These were very friendly turtles.  President touched one and then was told he shouldn't do that.  He said the skin was very smooth.

The turtles eat oranges.  The Cammacks feed their turtle green beans and watermelon.

Elder Weiss and Elder Peterson

Turtle size is increasing.

Meet Daphane!

48 years old and 350 pounds.  It takes 4 men to move her.

I think both look happy!
We hurried off to go to a baptism in Thousand Oaks.

We finally had dinner with the President & Sister Houston in Santa Barbara.  The meal was outstanding.  Probably the best clam chowder yet.  I had parmesan crusted halibut that was so tender and Dell had a combination of sea food in broth.  The four of us shared a molten chocolate cake with ice cream.

14.26 Miles

We rode our bikes on the Ojai trail 14.26 miles round trip.  We started at Canaga Larga and rode east to Ojai.  It's been awhile since taking the opportunity.  We've never ridden the whole trail due to time (and to be honest, probably distance).  We have it as a goal to ride the whole distance.

When an assistant leaves the responsibility of being an AP, during our week of the transfer process we go to lunch and the Elder chooses where.  Today we ate at Woodranch Grill.  

The jacaranda tree is in full bloom now.  It is a gorgeous tree with purple flowers.  We see them lining the streets of Ventura.  They are beautiful but as you can see below, very messy on the streets.

On my walk/run I went past this house and the thought came to me that this was a "burning bush."

I thought these flowers were so beautiful.

Mission President's' Seminar

We drove to Burbank airport Thursday morning, May 28, to catch a 10:30 flight to Seattle for the mission presidents'seminar in Kirkland, Washington.  A shuttle picked us up from the Seattle airport  and drove us to the hotel.  We stayed at the Woodmark hotel which was off of Lake Washington.

We had read information regarding the hotel and found out they had bikes available so we planned to ride bikes after getting there for our exercise instead of getting up extra early to get our exercise in. 

We rode past Jimmy Johns and had to stop.  We haven't seen one of these since being in California.  Since we were hungry, we split a sandwich.

We had intended to get some cash before the trip but didn't so we had to look for an ATM while riding.

The town had great bike lanes on the roads.  We were able to find a trail off of the main roads.  We rode almost 8 miles.

This is the view from our window.  Lake Washington and the Olympic Mountains. The tent in the bottom right corner is where we had lunches both days.  It rained on Friday but Saturday was beautiful.

We were physically and spiritually fed!  The food was great but the training was wonderful and the spirit amazing.  Elder Hallstrom presided with his assistants being Elder Johnson and Elder Hamula.  Their wives were there also and conducted the break out session with the wives.

The topics included:

Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts

Using Time Wisely (which I enjoyed as the plan is to talk about this at our next MLC/District Leader training on the 12th).

Finding People to Teach

Talked about some of the guidelines for missionaries and senior couples.

President & Sister Ballard - Portland

President & Sister Clark - Fresno and Sister & President Russell - Eugene

President & Sister Samuelian - Salem (the VanLeeuwens are the office couple there) and 

Sister and President Burt - Canada Vancouver

The Wares - Kennewick, Schmitts - SanDiego, Ballards - Portland, Lewises - Yakima, 

President Blatter - Tacoma, Bonhams - Everett, Sister Blatter, Russells - Eugene

Ballards, Burts, Jardines - Sacramento, Marstons - Roseville, Clarks

All lived in Utah when they were called.

We thought we should start with the desserts.

President & Sister Robinson from Anchorage

Sister & President Taggart - Anaheim and the Ballards

Planes were landing and docking.

Because our shuttle would not pick us up until 5:30 we got a late check out for 4:00 and went walking.  

This picture does not show how steep the road was.

This is a trail that goes for miles.  We got to it from the road.  So after walking 2 plus miles we turned around to go back.  Well, we walked past the place to go to the road and had to turn around again.  Our whole walk ended up 6.74 miles and Dell got a blister on the bottom of his foot.  We made it back to the hotel to hurry and clean up and change before check out time.

I tried taking a picture of Mt. Rainier.

I was disappointed that no one sat by me as I was ready to talk about the Gospel.  Dell was on the isle.  He had his IPad and was looking at the Plan of Salvation pamphlet on it.  The woman across the isle asked him what he was watching and how could he since there was no wifi.  To make the story short, he gave her a Book of Mormon and she wanted him to write his name and telephone number in it.  We'll be praying for her.

April 20 - 23, 2016

On our way to Santa Maria on Wednesday as we were approaching Santa Barbara we saw a cruise ship.  If anyone wants to come see us and go on a cruise, we'd love it.

Dell did interviews with the Santa Maria zone and then on Thursday we were in Atascadero for the San Luis Obispo zone interviews.  While he's interviewing I vist with the companion.  At the March zone conference we introduced My Family to the missionaries.  This is a great proselyting tool to use family history.  So the missionaries need to know how to go about doing some themselves.  They are authorized to go to the family history library once a week for an hour to move forward in completing the booklet and finding stores about their ancestors.  We have encouraged our missionaries to help those they teach understand the importance of going to the temple.  It would be fantastic if within three weeks a new convert is able to go to the temple and do baptisms.  Even better, if they take their own family names.

I usually take a treat of some kind but this time I'm giving them a quote from President Boyd K. Packer:  "When we research our own lines we become interested in more than just names or the number of names going through the temple.  Our interest turns our hearts to our fathers - we seek to find them and to know them and to serve them.  In doing so we store up treasures in heaven."

In May we are having zone activities.  The missionaries are to come prepared to share a story about their ancestor and dress in the period of clothing of that era.  We know they don't have the clothing so this is a way to share this idea with others and then borrow and return clothing.

We went to the Farmers Market in SLO with President & Sister Kasper.  They close down some streets and the vendors provide... It was fun watching the people.  This is done every Thursday evening year round.  As you can see, the men got corn on the cob (kids, Dad did great in keeping his face clean) after having tritip sandwiches.  Christine and I had a veggie crepe.

Fun fact for those who know the Oswalds:  President Kasper was talking to Mac at the MTC about a missionary.  Mac told President Kasper he had served as Mission President in the mission.  It was during the time that President Kasper got baptized.  Mac asked who the missionaries were.  Since Oswalds keep in touch with their missionaries Mac said he was going to talk to the missionary.  It was arranged for the two to talk.  President Kasper has had callings in the Church that have influenced many.  His two sons have served or are serving missions.  One went to Italy and the other to Brazil. We never know how we can touch lives.  We thought that was way cool.

Friday morning we went to district meeting in SLO.  Afterwards the Astons, senior couple serving in the Morrow Bay ward, and us went golfing in Morro Bay.  All week we watched the weather and rain was predicted.  We went anyway.  After the second hole we had a down pour and then it stopped.  The breeze dried us out.

While putting, this wild turkey came stroling out of the bush.  Then two more.

Turkey crossing!

Diane and Tom Aston

We only golfed 9 holes because we were a bit cold.  As we were putting the clubs away the sun came out.

This morning we rode bikes.  We wanted to do a longer ride because yesterday we enjoyed donuts.  My favorite was Nutella filled from SLO Donut Company.

We turned off Foothill and started riding up a canyon.  Three turkey vultures perched and one flew over us.  We rode past a farm with chickens, pigs, horses, we heard turkeys, goats, sheep, cows, and a sign beware of dog.  On the road not far from there we saw several Grouse birds. We're excited to go directly there next time rather than to the end of Foothill and turn around. We'll be able to go further up the canyon.

I am so grateful for God's creations!  This land we have to live in is amazing!

More Beauty

We pass the golf course when driving to the mission office.  We need to go golfing to take a better picture.  The flowers are so vibrant.

We call this Brooke's street because she likes the look; we do too.  We ride this road on our bikes going to the bike trail by the ocean.

Yesterday morning we walked in Hidden Valley and loved the uniqueness of this landscaping.

The white stumps are avacado trees.

A few weeks ago we met Len on one of our walks.  We told him we were missionaries for the 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He told us his father had passed away.  What would any missionary say? (Do you wonder where he is?)  We weren't able to really get into a lesson at that time but he said we could visit with him another time.

We set up a time but it didn't work out.  Saturday morning we saw him again and gave him a pass along card.  He told us we could get together this week.  We texted him this morning to see if we were still on, well he couldn't this morning and he couldn't on Wednesday (we can't the rest of the week), so we'll try again next week.

Take a break from reading the Book of Mormon to eat one of the oranges picked from the back.