February 2024

 

It is a rainy day. We were 2/3 of the way to the Temple when we got a call from Sister Russell. We turned around and headed back. We canceled our temple appointments and were available to take a sister missionary to the airport in Burbank. For some reason, we know nothing about, she was headed home today. She is very sweet and tired but things went smoothly. It was a busy drive but it all worked out very well. It did not rain on that trip. She had plenty of time and even the security lines were small. A lot was going on today in the mission office with the leadership meetings, lunch, and for all and several other things. We were happy we could help. It was raining again when we went to English Connect in Camarillo at 7:00. We had Marta, Jose, Carina, and Juan Carlos. It was a good lesson. The three missionaries had everyone engaged and learning. Presidente Parra and his counselors popped in to greet and he shook everyone’s hand and welcomed them all to church. He told them about the dinner at the Rivera home after our meeting tomorrow. Maybe they will come. That would be wonderful. There were more conversations as we all left.

I was able to get through all of my computer stuff and listened to a Zoom community call from Permanent. They are offering 3 G free if any of us complete a new archive of 100 photos. Maybe I can get that done in the next few months. Ella's project is to sell Girl Scout Cookies. Most people can't resist, including Grandpa.

We went to visit with Tomas Maceas and his partner Sandra. Presidente and Sister Parra also went and they took two chairs that they are not using. They are so great with people. Presidente talked about the merits and joy of going to the donut shop and eating a donut. He contrasted it with going to church which also has positive experiences. Church responsibilities are often less delicious than eating a donut but the results are very much greater and last infinitely longer. Sister Parra bore her testimony and she is always so welcoming and warm. Everyone loves her. They are in the perfect place for this branch right now. They both work 9-5 and he travels most of the time but somehow they do it all. Their children are in college or older so that is a help. Their efforts and devotion are amazing. We invited Tomas and Sandra to the Break the Fast lunch on Sunday. I hope people bring a lot of food.

For the Break the Fast event we purchased tamales from Costco. We made a big salad and a pan of cornbread to take to the dinner after church today. Not everyone understood why we fast. We do not eat two meals or fast for 24 hours on the first Sunday of every month and donate the amount of money that would have paid for the food we did not eat...or more if we can. That money is given to the church and it is shared with people who need help. We had invited so very many people to come and I was worried that they wouldn’t have enough food. In the morning the rain was coming down pretty hard. I was worried that no one would come to Church or the dinner. But the number of people at Church was about average. It was a lovely meeting. We also have a new Ward Missionary Leader. He is a young single adult who is willing to move from his YSK ward over to our branch and lead out in helping us all grow our Branch.

None of the people we invited came to the dinner but there were a lot of members. It was held at the Riveras' home. They had lots of delicious food. They had shrimp cocktails, two kinds of soup, lots of tamales and chicken lasagna, a couple of salads, and some desserts. We all ate a lot of delicious food and there was plenty left. It was Sister River’s birthday and her husband bought out a hidden cake and we all sang to her. It was a very pleasant afternoon. It rained all day. But it was worth getting wet. We enjoyed our time with this lovely collection of humans. They are kind and loving and eager to serve others. They made and purchased wonderful food to share with others. They are friendly, caring, and willing to sacrifice for others. They have created ministering in our Branch. They have 10 couples that have leadership callings and they each have been assigned two or three families. That covers everyone who is a member and has come to church so far. They have several groups on "WhatsUp" that allow them to communicate easily among themselves and I get some of it. I am not up on all the shortcuts used in texts. It works well for Presidente Parra because he is in foreign countries every week.

It continues to rain a lot. There is plenty of water but no real damage here that we are aware of. There are a lot of scary news stories but fortunately, we have not suffered. Lewis went to Miracle Ear and they replaced something in his hearing aids. They are under warranty for 3 years. Don’t know when that ends. Enjoying our leftovers from yesterday. Most of the food was eaten but not all.

I bought a $29 access to lessons for Photoshop Elements. I got the latest version for Christmas and am having trouble remembering all I used before and now there are additional options and features. I need to get back in the groove. We went to lunch with Emily. We headed for a restaurant that went out of business but connected and made it to another one. Fun to talk and eat good food. We didn’t eat in the best way today but we enjoyed it. We learned that high school seniors don’t go out on dates anymore. Only groups go to dances. No boys ask a girl to go to a dance with him or any other kind of date. That sounds sad to me. But it would have been better for my ego if that was the system when I was in High School. I helped create the Senior Prom at my High School but didn’t go to it. I did have great opportunities in High School. I really enjoyed the friends, the experiences and most of the teachers.

We had some extra time and went to drive around to see what I wanted to see. We went to the Camarillo Ranch but they are open only on special days at certain times.

 It was raining anyway. We will go again. We went to the park that is at the base of the grade. It was beautiful but needed some sprucing up after all the rain made a mess of it. We went to CSUCI. I have never been there. Never even when it was the psychiatric hospital. We drove all around. It is lovely and looks like a great place to get an education. Lots of period buildings and a fancy all-glass library. We also went into a new housing project on Camarillo Street. Long way back to it but it is nestled in the hills and is very beautiful. The model homes back up to the hills so you can see forever and it looks uninhabited. There are 3-unit townhomes $6,000+ each and single houses $9.000+. Fun to see them decorated. We couldn’t do one because all of the bedrooms are up steep stairs and they are not very big but they are impressive and fun to tour.

We had three missionaries plus us and one student in English Connect tonight. Marta came and she was just fine with all that attention. She had plenty to say and she is a good learner. She gave us information to find her membership and she wants to come back with us to the Family History room to look for her parents in Family Search. We need to learn their schedule of when they are open.

David’s birthday. He is turning 50. I sent an e-card and we have a date to take him Jenny, and Andrew out to dinner on the 21^st. It will be Andrew’s birthday on the 23^rd. We get to babysit the office during the Zone Conferences that will be held for 3 days. We can do that. All we need is to answer the phone and receive the mail and packages. I got started on my pages of information about the people we have in tools. We have made some real progress. We enjoyed our peanut butter sandwiches and fruit. But we ate a candy also. All the missionaries and the delivery people love to come here. When Sister Nixon got back, we looked up the area for each person and put it in their appropriate box. There were about 20 letters and packages today.   

Lewis said that his neck ached and was causing pain. Worked in the office most of the day. We could go out to lunch with Emily and then go back to the office to finish the tasks we were doing with Sister Nixon. Then we went directly to Camarillo and visited with Jazmin and Enrique Alarcon and got a lot of info. We plan to come back with Pte. and Hermana Parra on Friday. Tried to visit Ray Silva but no one was home again. We also went to the English lesson. Juan Carlos, Jose and his Corina, and Marta came. Marta wants to go to the FH library with us on the 21^st. She is anxious to get her parents’ information into Family Search and go from there to find her family. We look forward to helping her accomplish that.

We worked in the office for just the morning. Jeri had her second mammogram and it was declared normal. I am grateful that I do not have to deal with Emily’s situation. I’m blessed with good health and need to eat well and exercise so I can continue to be useful and helpful to Lewis and everyone else. Friday night Lewis was shaking when he was in bed. He said it was related to his neck problem. He tried to sleep sitting up but that didn’t help. He did take a hot shower and it relaxed a bit. The Alarcons postponed the visit with the President. The youngest child is sick. We went to the grocery store and also bought a heating pad for Lewis’ neck. Did some meal prep and made soup and more cornbread.

Late in the evening on Friday, February 9th, Emily heard from Nancy who heard from Missy that Ben was on a flight and did not reach his destination. Lewis called David and talked with Jenny as David was driving. They were on their way to the site to find out what had happened. It was a long day. Treva went with them as also Ben’s fiancée Rylee and her mother. They only knew that Ben's helicopter did not arrive at their destination and they were headed toward Las Vegas to find out more about the situation. 

We went to the Ward Council meeting and brought a list of corrections that needed to be made to the church records. Sister Parra and Brother Sanchez spoke. Carmen Fernandez came. She sat with us in Sacrament Meeting and went to the RS meeting also. She took part in the reading and even said a closing prayer when she was invited to do so. She has a problem with one of her legs but she can drive herself. I hope she will join us regularly. 

We went home and brought a salad and veggies for David and his family. Emily made most of the dinner. Lots of chicken and rice and good things. Emily had also made delicious lemon bars. We delivered the food and then talked for an hour and let it all get cold. But it was so nice to have time with them. Jenny hugged all of us with such love. She is an amazing woman. David is shaken but managing everything. He said that Andrew would probably be the one most impacted. He will miss his big brother. His fiancee is devastated also. We ended up laughing as well as being very sad indeed. We love these people so very much. This is a huge blow and the loss will never go away. They all had great relationships so there are no bad feelings to regret. They will just always miss him and continue to love him. And they have a lot of things to take care of after a death occurs. We sent a text to all of our children about Ben. They all wanted to help but there was little to do except to share sadness and love and remember the wonderful man who is Benjamin. 

I decided I could give both David and Treva a collection of my photos of Ben over the years. Spent lots of time collecting, improving, and creating titles that would describe the photos. I do have a lot of Ben in the growing-up years. I was frustrated with silly obstacles that made it painful to finish the task. There are so many things I don’t know. I am not keeping up with the technology and never will. But I just take deep breaths and try again. President Rodriguez called and asked us to take the assignment of coordinating free tickets to the BYU International Dance program at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. 

Took all day but I almost finished the photo project with 99 photos I know his parents will love it because they love Ben. He is such a talented and personable young man who found his life dream of flying helicopters and choosing his true love. It is a tragedy to have his life cut short but we can remember that he brought so much joy to all who knew him. 

Sister Dinner was a fun time. We went to an ice cream place in Thousand Oaks that has a menu as well as lots of ice cream. I got a salad and soup. They had sweet potato fries, lots of sandwiches, and an in-house vegan patty for a hamburger. We were all happy with our meals. Chris, Jeanine, Emily, Gracie, Mindy, and Kathy were all there and we talked for a long time. They didn’t need our table so we continued our conversations about family members. We remembered things we did with Grandma Morris. We were comparing our food at home growing up and what we all eat now. It is lovely to have time with my sisters. We also shared our story about Ben and everyone except Kathy remembers him well from the Beach House He was always cheerful and friendly with everyone at the Beach House. They pointed out that he was friendly with the younger children as well as his peers and even the children that he was not related to. In the good old days, we had my brothers and sisters upstairs with their children and the Barnard/Pettingills and their children downstairs. It was a big crowd and we all enjoyed the annual talent shows, time in the water, and all kinds of games.

Dan posts his artwork on Facebook and I love to see his paintings and am amazed at the wide range of leather items he makes as well. 

Valentine’s Day. We enjoy that every day. We went to the dentist for X-rays and an evaluation of what might be needed. He recommended that I get $4,5000 worth of work and Lewis needed almost the same. We politely declined. My order for the photos of Ben ended up inaccurate for the printed photos. I needed to redo the quantity and everything went wrong. Finally, I got it sent with everything taken care of. Why are some simple things so hard to accomplish? We went to visit Yayo. Fun to see Sister Wooley and Sister Santa Maria again. We can’t go to their Sunday meetings now so there is only one companionship of males that we interact with. Yayo is so excited that he has a wedding ring purchased for his as yet unknown finance. He wants to be married and is working on it but I fear it will be a challenge. He said he would have to give up his perks from the government because of his handicaps if he married. But he says that is not a problem and he will find the right girl. He is a very sincere and a good man. I pray he can find someone and they live happily ever after and beyond that as well.

We left to go to the temple at about 8:15 AM and the freeway was horribly clogged. We missed our 10:30 appointment. We left our phones in the car and missed the message that Leiann and Cary were waiting for us in the parking lot. We finally found each other and did initiatories. They went with us to Subway and watched us eat. They headed home and ate at their favorite spot – Tito’s. It is good but not spicy enough for our taste. That is why they love it. I do love time with our family members. It is a blessing that we have opportunities to get together. We are going to Newport Beach Temple with Emily next month and meet them there. Leiann and Cary went to see the BYU Dance Performance last night and enjoyed it very much. I got an email saying that the photos are printed and will be sent to shipping. Yay! It might take 10 days but I hope they will be delivered more quickly. We tried to get a chance to visit with Treva but we don’t have a time yet that works for both her and us. English class had 4 students. We are getting more calls for tickets. Need to have all of that information gathered tomorrow. We had our weekly Missionary Coordination Meeting right after English class. We talked for almost an hour but hopefully, they will be shorter in the future. Two baptisms are coming up. Brother Sanchez is full of good ideas and knows all the things that should be happening. He will be a great Missionary Leader for our branch.

We were working on the tickets most of the day. By the end of the day, we had ordered 38 tickets. We washed the car at the carwash place near us. We vacuumed everything and they have a small handheld high-pressure air. It is great for blasting away things that don't vacuum well. I made Apple Hemp Muffins and a bean and salsa verde soup.  We went to the baptism at the El Camino Real chapel. The newest member speaks only Mexteco. I don’t know if that is accurate. There are a lot of dialects. We found out that two families speak the right language and also Spanish so they translated for the young woman, Yennifer Ortiz. The missionaries even translated a song and sang it to her. Sister Woolley and Sister Santa Maria taught her. Gina and her granddaughter were there. She wanted to see a baptism and the Camarillo missionaries told her of this opportunity. It turned out that she and her granddaughter will go with us to see the Dance Performance tomorrow. Marta will be with us as well.

Were able to take ticket orders until noon. We have had more. A total of 58. I’m sure that all who attend will think there are good influences from our church. We finished up our reports from visits this week for the meeting tomorrow. We went to visit David, Jenny, and Andrew. Treva had stayed with them for a couple of days but she has returned home. A neighbor brought in dinner for them tonight. They are sad but grateful for their loved ones. Sadie is there to entertain and comfort everyone. We enjoy being with them. They have determined the date for a Celebration of Life for Ben on March 3^rd at 11:00 at the Conejo Mountain Funeral Home. We had a good visit with them. 

Martha and Gina with her granddaughter Abby went with us to the big auditorium in Thousand Oaks to see the BYU International Dance Team. It was so very impressive and fun to watch. Abby enjoyed it too. Lots of dramatic dancing with musicians on stage for the music. So many countries represented and the variety of costumes and customs was amazing. I’m glad I got to go and see it. Martha and Gina and Abby too. Lewis is not a big dance fan but he drove us all there and made it happen. We had missionaries that we knew close to us. And the Parrys from the office were there as well. I didn’t see President and Sister Rodriguez but I know they were there. So many people enjoyed the performance.

That is Abby with one of the dancers in her Ukrainian costume. At church, we were happy to see that Gina was there with her Abby and Gina’s mother. Martha was there too. She even answered and asked questions in the Sunday School class. Good for her. Carmen was there again. The Zurchers are back and Veronica, her husband and daughter. The daughter Katherine is our new YW teacher. That is great. We had a missionary meeting after church with all of the leaders. We reported and we all shared about the members and investigators we have interacted with. Presidente Parra told a story about a flute player who just went through the motions and didn’t play. The conductor stopped everyone and said, “Where is the sound of the flute?”. He wants all of us to follow through with all of our efforts to contribute to having all the beauty of a large orchestra working together. This is the focus of our Ponderosa Branch for this year.  There are three goals and a scripture to be our theme this year. We will all work to be of one heart and one mind. 

 Afterward, we went over to Emily’s house to select photos of Ben for Darlene. She is a best long-term friend of Treva. We chose 20 and I will have them printed tomorrow. And we can get them to Emily on Tuesday. Darlene is making some posters of photos of Ben for the Celebration of Life. 

Two lights in the kitchen needed new bulbs. Lewis couldn't get the bulbs out. The HOA people sent us a person to resolve the problem. It was more than just a new bulb because removing the bulb broke the old plastic holder. He had to remove all of the broken parts and find the proper bulb. He did it all in one day. We are grateful that we can see well in the kitchen again. We were asked to drive a missionary to the Burbank Airport. It was raining as it had been for several days. We were surprised that the GPS sent us through Simi Valley to get to Burbank. We don’t know what we missed on the 101 Freeway but we did get there in time and got home safely as well.

Spencer Cottrell’s birthday. I sent him an e-card. Emily was asked to help a friend of Treva to collect photos of Ben and create several collages with the photos they could gather. I made a small collection and had them printed in Walmart and took them to Emily. They also have an online site where people can add photos and they are visible to all who have the link. That is new to me. "dropevent.com" https://dropevent.com/benp 

We are making good progress on verifying that our branch membership information is correct. We went to check on a family that we could never find at home. Today we were able to talk to a teenager and have more names of the family members now. We need to keep going back and eventually find the mother at home. She works in Malibu as the manager of a store and is very busy. Sometimes she works days and other times she works nights. We spoke to the stepfather a couple of months ago. We stopped to talk with Jazmin as well. Their family is past the illnesses and hopefully, we can have a visit with their family soon. We also are looking for the people who live on Mobil Ave. We talked to a teenager and got a little more information for one family.

We stopped at Costco on the way home to buy more flour, frozen fruit to go with breakfast cereal and more soy milk. Lewis is still baking bread for all of the families in our Branch. We went to the English Connect class. Martha was there and the cousins were also. We confirmed our appointment with Martha at the Family History Library tomorrow. She has a lot of information in her My Family booklet and is ready to go online and begin her family tree.

We met Martha at the Stake Center. We don’t have her membership number yet. We will meet with the clerk on Saturday. Things went quite smoothly. She had the full names and about half of them with birth dates back to the third generation. Good for her! We put them all in and most of them appeared with choices and she could select her ancestor because she could see additional data that matched her information. She found three people that way. She was in tears when we found the death record of her mother. It had the names of her parents and some additional information. She was feeling the Spirit strongly. She said she has been feeling a strong desire to gather the information that she could find and was thrilled to be able to add to that. We spend an hour and a half and have an appointment for next week as well. This is wonderful for Martha and her ancestors as well. We will have a trip to the temple for the Branch next month. Hopefully, Martha will be ready to go with us.

I received the photos of Ben that I had printed by Persnickety. We took one to David and one to Treva. We had to wait an hour for Treva to return home but we were able to give them to her and talk just for a little while. I loved the big hug that we shared! It is so hard to lose your child. She said that she knows he is in a wonderful place and happy to be there but it is still so difficult to know that she won’t see him for a long time. Our family has been blessed with no fatalities for many years. But every single one of us will die. We all need to be ready for that change of location. I don’t think we will ever feel perfect and ready to go. We do our best and repent daily. My opinion is that we can continue to improve ourselves up to the time of judgment and resurrection. I'll bet we can continue to learn forever. There are so many things we have not learned yet. 

Lewis made more loaves of bread to take to families this evening. I spent a lot of time reviewing past information about members in Tools and compiling what still needs to be changed in the records. I have a long list for Alrich Zurcher who is our branch clerk. We went with the sister missionaries to visit with Yayo. He is an amazing person but trapped in a damaged body. He is always positive and keeps moving forward. He said his shoulder is bothering him. Lewis is hurting in his left wrist. He says he can’t grip anything that needs some strength. His neck is feeling better though. We went to Camarillo to visit with the Luis Dias family, The mom didn’t want to talk with us but Isaias talked with us again. No real progress. We went back to Villa Palacio and talked with the mother of the Ariza family. She was very reluctant to talk with us and wouldn’t share her phone number. But she did tell us about her mother, Margarita who recently had a kidney transplant and would like us to help care for her. We will follow up on that one and get the Relief Society involved to see how we can help. We went to the English Connect class. Only the cousins came. They are fun to work with but we missed the rest of the class members. We had our Missionary Coordination meeting with Dan Sanchez our Branch Mission Leader. He is a very capable young man and has everything all taken care of for the baptism on Saturday. Good for him. We appreciate his leadership and help. Most everyone is bringing refreshments and he is going to hand out cards for the members to write a personal note to Lourdes while they change out of their wet clothes. Her daughter and granddaughter are also almost ready to be baptized as well. They want to watch Grandma first.

The usual morning routine. Walking, breakfast, reading, some computer time. Lewis went to buy a velcro support for his right hand. Jeri got her hair cut by Emily’s favorite salon lady. I liked her too. She did a good job. I'm always surprised by how expensive things are. $50 was a lot of money in most of my years. The payment happened on the phone. I added a tip I thought but the bank didn’t show it. I will need to give her two tips the next time I need my hair cut. 

We went to Ella’s Talent Show at the Camarillo Community Center. I was amazed. Emily and Emmett were passing out drinks and snacks. Everyone got tickets to receive the things to eat. The room was decorated and all of the chairs were filled or reserved. A very nice lady said she saw us looking for seats and took us to sit in front of her. She put one chair from her row to the row in front and we had seats. So kind of her. But Edgar found us and took us to the chairs he had saved for their family. They warmed up the audience by seeing which section could yell the loudest. No one held back. They had 4 girls as the masters of ceremonies. They looked like high school girls but perhaps they were students of the junior high. They interspersed some “win it in a minute” contests from the audience, as well as dressing up little girls like Barbie and they had to move all the limbs to get them dressed, and a contest for building tall towers with red plastic cups. Lots of short but cute and silly things to watch. It was fun. Maybe we need a talent show for the Family Reunion with more of these challenges and fewer talent displays. We don’t have very many who want to perform. But they sure did in the University Preparation Charter School. The youngest one was 5 and everyone was elementary or junior high. Songs, gymnastics, martial arts, piano playing and singing as well, dances, guitar playing with all of the cool moves, a magic show, a unicycle rider, a young man with the uniform a huge sombrero singing a Mariachi song. He did it beautifully. The final performance was all of the teachers doing some very active dancing. My teachers would have never done that! I think I was most impressed by the 5-year-old. He was a comedy performance and the jokes were funny and he handled himself with incredible confidence. Ella was in a group dance. They were very impressive also. It was fun to watch and a great experience for the kids to perform before a large audience. Thank you, Ella, for our very fun and loud Friday night date.

Our next event was the first baptism for the Ponderosa Branch. The Relief Society volunteered to bring some simple snacks. I made a vegetable dip in our blender and chopped up a whole lot of veggies. We brought a bowl of olives also. There was very little left so it was a good choice. We got to the chapel early to help set up. Our Mission Leader had everything under control. There were beautiful programs. We even started on time. Lourdes was dressed in white. Mission President and Sister Rodrigues came. We had all of the leaders and some additional members. Lewis and I had been asked to be the witnesses. Presidente Rivera did the baptism. All of the missionaries that taught her were there. Her daughter and granddaughter were there and another woman that I didn’t get to meet - a relative or long-time friend. Brother Avila (Baptism) and Asu Parra (Holy Ghost) gave the usual two talks. Sister Beach welcomed her as a new member of the Relief Society and explained a little bit about the organization. President Parra gave a heartfelt welcome. He gave her a beautiful print of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus Christ and talked about how important it is as the gate to progress and all the blessings available to the faithful. During the time Lourdes was changing from her wet clothing, we were all given cards and pens to write a message to her. It was a lovely baptism and it was focused on the importance of the ordinance. Members did bring some tasty snacks. They were laid out in the kitchen and we all sat at tables in the big classroom next to the kitchen. 

Lewis and I didn’t get to sit and talk with the people because Aldrich wanted to work on removing the errors in the church records. We went with him to the Stake Clerk’s office and went through our two pages of changes. Most things are resolved. We still can’t find Marta's membership. Aldrich sent in a search request and hopefully, they can find her. 

Heather Hokanson texted me because she is giving a talk in church tomorrow about Senior Missionaries. She asked me why we were on a mission. I wrote back: “We have been so very blessed. We want to serve others to show our gratitude for our Savior. The Gospel of Jesus Christ should be offered to everyone and we all need support to get on and move forward on the covenant path. Thanks for all you do.”

We listened to Talking Scripture and thought it was especially good today. I appreciated the comments about seeing in our mind what Isaiah is describing and connecting it with Jesus Christ.  For example – What did the wine superintendent do to protect his grapes? 5 things. He continually does the same things for each of us as individual grapes. 

We went to Branch Council before church. Presidente Parra asked us all to go home and listen to the Conference talk by Shron Eubank in October 2020. The title is” By Union of Feeling We Obtain Power with God”. Our Branch is focusing on this scripture this year: “And the Lord called his people ^aZion, because they were of ^bone heart and one mind.” I am impressed with the unity I see among the leaders and the members. It is easier with a smaller group to get to know others and interact with them. But we did have 53 people attend this morning. That is higher than our average. Emelio Avila, Aldrich Zurcher and Presidente Law spoke today. I was sitting next to Jennifer and before the meeting began, we had time for her to give me more information so we can hopefully find her member records. She was baptized in Guatemala. I have the dates and names of her mother and grandmother and the name of the ward and the person who baptized her. That should help. She speaks English fluently and is coming pretty consistently. She told me that she had wanted to come to the baptism but needed to work. I hope she can feel at home in our branch and become very active. I sat next to Carmen Fernandez in Relief Society. She has been at church three weeks in a row now. We shared my phone and she was a help to get me to the right place in Spanish. I can get lost easily. There was a lot of conversation. Vianey even volunteered her opinion on a question we were discussing. Yay. She is shy and I hope she is feeling more comfortable. She has four children to get to church so she gets a lot of credit and we love it when they all come to church. Neither Marta or Gina were there. That is three weeks they have missed church. We need to reach out to them. We stopped by Emily’s house. We are in meetings or talking before and after church. We talked about the meatballs and BBQ sauce for the Celebration for Ben next Sunday. We came home and made Asian vegetables with rice. We both love it. Did our reading and checked on the work Aldrich did yesterday. About half of the changes are reflected in our Tools. But the other half is missing. We need to follow up. It will be so wonderful when everything is correct. That may never happen but we are making a lot of progress.

 

This is a Facebook post from the Lassens. I have loved Debi since her second child was born. This is what a missionary letter should look like. Debi Beecroft Lassen is in Frederiksberg, Denmark. 

"At the beginning of our 2nd week in Denmark, we worked along side other senior missionary couples as well as young adult missionaries, to move the Denmark Mission office to an office space down the hall. We worked for two days and the next few days we drove to a city 37 km north of Frederiksberg called Hillerød. We, along with other senior couples and young adult missionaries, moved furniture from one apartment to a newer apartment for the young sister missionaries in that city. There was lots of things to do like installing blackout curtains and roll up blinds on their windows and getting some of the necessities for a new apartment. John and I also received some training from a Danish couple there how to take over the responsibilities of the Housing and vehicle and bicycle needs of all the missionaries in the mission of Denmark, including missionaries on the island of Bornholm and on Iceland, which are part of the mission. We have some big “shoes to fill” as the previous couple, have done a marvelous job for 3 years working with landlords and car dealerships to keep things running smoothly. As part of their training to us,we were invited to their home for a delicious meal and loved working and learning alongside of them. We have also come to love the Svendsen’s who are the office missionary couple and look forward to serving along side of them and the young missionaries in the mission office.

We have another busy week ahead this week but today on the Sabbath, we walked the 5 min walk to where our ward or congregation meets each Sunday. We went early today to practice with the ward choir and found out we were singing in sacrament meeting today! We loved it! We sang the hymn, “Where Can I turn for peace” in Danish.

We loved being able to partake of the Sacrament ordinance with fellow believers in Christ to show that we always remember Him and witness that we strive to follow Him. What a wonderful renewal of the Spirit we felt.

We heard inspiring messages given from some members of the ward and our stake, bearing witness that Jesus is the way to feeling power and joy. We also had discussions in the second hour about how to find the “hallmarks of happiness” as we yoke ourselves every day to our Savior through daily prayer and keeping His commandments. We remembered that by expressing gratitude always to God, we are so much happier.

One of our Church leaders, Elder Sabin said, “How our awareness would change if every morning we awoke with only the blessings we were grateful for the night before. Failure to appreciate our blessings can result in a sense of dissatisfaction, which can rob us of the joy and happiness that gratitude engenders.” I’m grateful to be here and look forward to another week. I’m so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. What are you grateful for this week?"

Back to us - I spent time worrying and getting information about recipes for meatballs in crock pots. Simple but we need a lot ready at the same time. We went to the office. Lewis drove to Simi Valley with the 3 other men and they drove 3 new cars back for the missionaries. I helped Sister Nixon make up 11 bedding bags for the next group of missionaries coming. We got it all done and she suggested that I make a seashell cup. She has very small glasses. She spread on 1/3 of the outside of the glass her hand-made glue and showed me how to cover it with the tiny shells. She has many many shells (including those she has a home it probably really is millions.) She showed me a photo of her basement. It is floor-to-ceiling with clear plastic boxes holding all of her seashells on each of the walls. She has an Etsy shop and has sold shell art for 30 years. She was telling me about one $25,000 order. She is very talented and kind to share her passion. I really enjoyed the challenge of covering all of the outside with shells. She has small and very tiny ones so it is possible. This is a photo of the beautiful square pot she gave us for Christmas. My small won't be completely dry for several days. 

We took the rest of the food that we had for David to his home. They were not there but Lewis had been shown how to enter the garage and put things away there. We went to buy Costco meatballs,7 6-pound bags, and 10 bottles of Sweet Baby Ray BBQ sauce. Treva is expecting 300 next Sunday at the celebration of Ben. No one will go away hungry. Emily and I are doing just this one item. There are a lot of meatballs. 

We had our first Family Home Evening with the other Senior Missionaries at the Mission Home tonight. The meal is focused on breakfast foods. The others are bringing lots of eggs and bacon and sausage so I brought fruit. It is raining again. We had a wonderful time. The Parrys had a granddaughter and Sister Moon had her sister with her. It was fun to eat and talk. The food was delicious. Sister Russell gave the lesson. She used Preach My Gospel as a source and talked about the mission of Jesus Christ. We read scriptures and commented. She showed us a video that her niece made for the church. It was wonderful. The background was “This is the Christ” and used the church videos to depict many of his actions and teachings. It was very moving. We take so much for granted. He has finished the Atonement. Every positive possibility is open to us. We are proving our desires by our actions right now. We think life is long. Eternity will prove that our lifetime is just the blink of an eye. Am I remembering my Savior and doing the things He wants me to do?

Lewis made bread again. Cool but no rain for our walk. We went to lunch with Emily at Toppers in Ventura. We went to Camarillo and took a loaf to the Ramirez family. We discovered that they have two new small dogs that are very cute. They were at church last Sunday and I hope that coming every week becomes their new normal. We tried to give a loaf to Margarita Ariza who has had a kidney transplant recently, but no one answered the door. We gave her loaf to the missionaries after our English Connect class. We will try again. Gina wasn’t home either. We have been missing both Gina and Marta at the class and church. I called Marta and learned that she has had a streak of very high blood sugar numbers. I hope she can get it under control. She said she would go to her doctor and see if she needed any adjustments in her insulin.

We spent the whole day in the office today. Sister Nixon is going to the Newport Temple to do close family names with one of her sisters today. She grew up in Newport. It is nice to spend time with the other Senior Missionaries. I got to scan read a great book about how to be a member missionary by Clayton Christensen and read the booklet of rules for the missionaries. It is very detailed and leaves no wiggle room for what is considered important. It is for the safety of all and allows the missionaries to be focused and effective in their work. Mostly I worked on this blog post. 

 Lewis gave up and decided he was sick. He spent most of the day resting or sleeping. He wasn't hungry but just had cold symptoms. I did some house cleaning. Richard will come tomorrow. Visitors make me look around more closely and I always find things that need attention. I went by myself to visit Yayo with the Sisters. Yayo is in Alma 50 already. He is taking his Book of Mormon reading seriously. He is a good man. The sisters were doing exchanges. Sister Santa Maria from Orem and I never got the name of the other sister. They plan to have 3 baptisms on Saturday in the El Camino Real Ward. 

Then I drove to Camillo. Our English Connect class was a failure. No one came. That is the first time since we have been coming. But Brother Sanchez, who is the Ward Mission Leader, always comes after our class so we can have our weekly coordination meeting. He wanted me to stay and it took another hour. But he is being helpful and is a good leader. The missionaries are having trouble finding people at home and sometimes even when they have an appointment for a lesson. It is always a challenge. They are working hard. 

January 2024

To celebrate the new year we decided to check out the Beach House. The weather has been impressive. There had been huge waves and damage in Ventura so I wanted to see that it was OK. There is a lot of wooden debris up on the road. Plenty across the road as well next to the train tracks. There were no trailers or campers. Looks like it is still closed. But the Beach House had a lot of cars parked around it. All is well. 

We went to Winco and bought a lot of bananas. We are going to make a lot of banana bread because we found a large supply of small aluminum loaf pans in the back of a cupboard. People will be happy that we came if they like banana bread. We will have to wait a while. All of the bananas are pretty green. I read the new Come Follow Me manual and we are keeping up on our BofM reading. It was a very pleasant day. I also made a small flyer to advertise our English Connect classes every Tuesday and Thursday in Camarillo. Lewis gave me a sketch to copy and he left out Jesus Christ in the name of the church. Good thing he has me proofread.

We went to the office to cut apart our flyers. We have copied a few of the pages of the English Connect lesson for the students who come tonight. We visited all of the laundromats in Camarillo and posted where we could. The one closest to Emily’s home was full of Spanish-speaking families. We talked to one man who introduced us to another one. They were excited about the opportunity to go to a free class. The man who owns the tiny grocery store on Glenn St said we could tape one of our little posters on his window. We couldn’t find Diego but we will look again. Juan Carlos did come to the class but he was the only one. Where are our newest friends at the laundromat? Maybe on Thursday, they will come. The missionaries were happy to have copies of the lessons. Carlos does pronounce English quite well. He wants to improve and takes good notes. I hope he will continue to come. 

We got a call at about 8:00 AM asking if we could come and help with the leadership meeting this morning in the Mission Office. We could and we did. They had about 80 missionaries meeting at 10:00 and it included lunch. Sister Nixon is the food person and she had purchased all of the food and got up at 5:00 to begin baking the lasagna. She purchased lots of frozen lasagna and baked them all and put them back in the oven to reheat before serving. There was also a frozen combination of chicken, potatoes, broccoli, and onion that she baked for any who are gluten-free. She also made three very large bowls of salad. She usually makes two Ceaser Salads and one just lettuce. She has tomatoes to add and lots of choices of dressing. She predicted that they would eat all of the salad and she was right. Good for missionaries to eat green leafy things. Lots of garlic bread and 10 purchased pies that just needed to be thawed. She also had bananas, apples and oranges. They loved the food and so did we. I skipped the lasagna and just ate salad and fruit. When cleaning up I did indulge in a sliver of pecan pie. It tasted very good. I had some time with just Sister Moon and we began to share about ourselves and family. I would like to have more time with her. She is a person I would like to know better but we rarely have time together. Lewis sat at the reception desk so Sister Nixon could manage the lunch. Sister Parry took over so Lewis could eat lunch. It was a pleasant day. The elders went to Yayo’s home tonight instead of the sisters so we didn’t need to go. 

I am having fun looking at all of the Come Follow Me options. So much good stuff. I also downloaded a new app – Gospel Learning. More info than I will ever be able to swallow. But it is great to ingest some of these things. English Connect in Camarillo came together late. Lewis was translating sentences that Juan Carlos wanted to learn and he wrote them all down in his little notebook. The missionaries came and did a good job of teaching the verb “to be”. Juan Carlos wants to learn English and is actively working on it. He is also not resistant to the prayers and the scripture we have after every class. Lewis suggested the John verses that talk about baptism. We had a discussion I thought was a little long but Juan Carlos didn’t seem to object. 

Lewis has not been feeling well. Yesterday we did go walking and he made bread but he has a cold and needs to rest.  I need to go to church by myself. After all, it isn’t a foreign country.  I met with President Parra and the young missionaries before the meetings. They were asked to send Pte. Parra a message each week with the names of the people they are teaching along with something they care about, what lesson was most recently taught and maybe a suggestion of some service the branch could do for them. He wants all of the leaders involved with all of the people interested in the Gospel who might want to become a part of our Ponderosa Branch. He said they would create a new way to chat for this purpose. When I told him that Lewis was home because he was sick, he offered to bring someone and give him a blessing. I told him that we live in Oxnard. That didn’t slow him down. I thanked him but told him that it was just a cold and Lewis was not in need of a blessing for better health. We are invited to Ward Council next week at 10.15 AM. It was Fast Sunday and the members did fill the time. There were more people than usual which is good. Sister Zurcher was sustained as the new Primary president and her daughter-in-law as a counselor. The Sunday School class went well also. Talked with the missionaries about the 12-year-old daughter of Carlos. They said that they have been out of town but are back now. I had a chance to speak with Aldrich Zurcher and told him that the Ramirez family needed their four children to be added to Tools. Lourdes Sanchez, Yolanda, and her children Brian and (Priscilla) Amor were there also. Yolanda and Brian have a new business. They do mobile car washes. We need to call them and give it a try. Talked to Emily briefly after church. Emmett is now an ordained Teacher. He was set apart this morning.

Emily is a new Young Woman. Her class came to kidnap her & take her to breakfast.

          Our favorite Tuesdays are when we meet Emily for lunch in Ventura!

Lewis is feeling the same but wants to go out. We did go for a walk. I had my mammogram. We both went and it went pretty quickly. It was uncomfortable, (especially one squeeze!) but it wasn’t a horrible ordeal like Nancy and Leiann experienced. We went to Winco and bought more produce, bulk stuff and toothpicks and a pan scrubber. Then we took mail for Sister Peterson to the mission office and got a letter that contained notice of a recall on our car. Lewis made an appointment to have "whatever it was" checked. We will go on Thursday. Lewis had his blood pressure taken at the Kaiser building. President Rodriguez called and asked us to take a missionary car to Lompoc. We picked it up at the Mission Office and I followed Lewis to Lompoc. We put gas in both cars. It is a beautiful drive. The weather was cool but it was sunny and clear. We could see the ocean some of the time. We both listened to the same story on our individual phones. The drive went well and the missionaries were very happy to receive it. Elder Nixon didn’t know what we were doing so he didn’t give us a card to drive. So, Lewis listened to all of the complaints and wondered if the car would stop functioning. Fortunately, it didn’t. It labeled Lewis an aggressive driver when his rear tire went over the slanted part of the driveway at the gas station.  I continually reminded him that he was not authorized to drive the car. We didn't know about the unseen voice that monitors the driving of the missionaries. We stopped at Blaze Pizza because I like it. It was $25 for two pizzas. I did enjoy it. It was a very late lunch and I didn’t eat anything else after that. I haven’t lost any weight since we started our mission. I need to do better. 

I had time to watch some videos about improving the family diet by avoiding the worst of the questionable chemicals that are added to almost all prepared things. Buy whole ingredients and learn easy ways to make meals for our families. Tiffany of Don’t Waste the Crumbs gives free content that is sometimes well worth the time. Keeping up with Book of Mormon, Duolingo, Come Follow Me, President Nelson’s book, “The Heart of the Matter” keeps me busy. Reviewed my talk for Sunday in Ponderosa. We went to English Connect and were delighted that we had four students. Three are new and family members. Juan Carlos was back. The quality of the teaching is not excellent but the students were engaged and left with more than they previously understood. We hope it continues to help people. 

Rosie’s birthday is today. I had sent her an e-card and she called. She has a job that is much more relaxing but it pays only ½ of her previous salary. She is content so far.  Lots of snow and she is not enjoying that. We went back to the mission office to explain the aggressive driver issue and copy more pages from the English Connect lesson book. We also got a few fliers to pass out on our new list of people to contact. The Ponderosa missionaries gave us names in the area book that had been contacted. We will try to find them and see if they would like to come to church and/or talk with the missionaries. I made a list we could read and I’m working on new handouts. Lewis sounds so bad that he can’t talk to people. I wouldn’t want to invite him in when he has a bad cold. We went to my dental appointment. They discovered an infection under the tooth that lost the filling. I will need two new crowns and I’m not sure what else. I am falling apart apparently. Or maybe just gently rotting. We liked the dentist. Things are so different. The assistant holds the X-ray machine in one hand and there is a rod of light that is a camera that will put a photo on the screen immediately. I will go back when they have time to do all that work. Then we went to Costco. We are out of frozen blueberries, tomatoes, tofu, and bouillon. Soup and cornbread for dinner. Khristine sent us a text to let us know that she had her tubes removed from her ears and she is feeling a bit better already. The worst of the loudest noise is gone and they say it will take a whole month to heal and assess the results. She is finally feeling like it might get better. This has been so very hard for her. She couldn’t do any of the things (podcasts, movies, visits with grandchildren, etc.) she enjoys in life during the last 13 weeks. 

Lewis took the car in for a maintenance appointment and they had to replace lots of liquids and check everything so it will cost us more than $500. But we do need a car that works well. Hope they checked the supposed recall problem. Lewis drilled a hole in the bottom of the pot in front of our house and found that it had a plug. He pulled the plug. He planted the poinsettia in the back of the pot. I did the flyer with the information about time and place of the Ponderosa Branch. I watched a couple of videos by Alisia Essig. She is down to earth and very helpful with how to eat well without using up all of our money, time, and joy in life. We got a chance to talk with Leiann and Cary. They were to call someone and talk about how to be more effective MLS missionaries. They shared what they are learning and it was fun. This is their last week and they will be in CA on the weekend. Our English Connect class was great because two of the three that came last week returned. The third one was working late. Juan Carlos had texted the missionaries that he had to work and would be unable to come. But the best thing was a new woman, Marta. She has grown children and speaks English fairly well but wants to improve. She was comfortable and talked with everyone. We showed all of them where the door was that was closest to Sacrament Meetings on Sunday. Turns out that the RS presidency was having a meeting in that room. Sister Parra and Sister Beach both know her and it was great to feel that they had so much in common and were so happy to be together. Hopefully, Marta will want to join us for everything and come to church in addition to the English class.

        If you look carefully you will see Cary and Leiann in front of this painting

I reviewed and changed my talk for Sunday. Lewis wanted extra time in the El Camino Real Ward but we are the only speakers so saving time is not a problem.

Our excursion to Camarillo was a big success. Happily, we found all 4 of the investigators at the Villa Palazzo. We verified that someone there had been seeing the missionaries. We were able to talk to two women who have been to church and plan on continuing when they return from Mexico. They are leaving on Sunday and will be gone for a couple of weeks. They also expressed interest in attending the English class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Another was a mother whose son had some interest. She said she would talk with him and allow him to attend church if he wanted to do so. Another apartment did not have the person we were looking for but the girl we talked to said that several in their apartment might find that very helpful. We gave her our handout with all of the information. Another was the wife of our person of interest. She didn’t know about his interest in our church so we will have to find and ask him when he is at home. The final apartment was a father. His son was at home. We left information so the father could contact the missionaries if he wished to. We will let the missionaries and Presidente Parra know of our findings. We went to one house and didn’t find the person listed but talked with another resident there and they might be interested in learning English. We left lots of information and invitations. It was too dark to finish the list. We will go back tomorrow. We treated ourselves with Baja and Jeri was very happy to have a burrito. Lewis got a bowl and it was easier to eat. 

   No leaves but fruit on the branches. Spikey things on the trunk. Interesting tree. 

Went to Camarillo to continue our quest to find all the people on the list we were given. We are slowly making contacts so we can find out if they still live there. The people at one address gave us a different address for the member that we were looking for. We will keep trying to track people down. 

We had Branch Council this Sunday morning at 10:15. Historic Event with all of the major leaders in place. President Parra opened with lots of enthusiasm that we were making history. He said that the notes and the names of all present will be recorded as the beginning of the Ponderosa Branch. I love his enthusiasm and how appreciative he is of everything that each person contributes to the Branch. He is an excellent leader. He told us as missionaries that they would do everything they could to support the mission efforts to invite more to join us and reactivate those who are members but are not currently involved. We had President Law on the screen, (he is still in Utah), President Rivera, his wife is the YW president but she wasn’t there, the Elder’s Q President, the RS President, the Primary President, the young missionaries, us, and a clerk from the Stake to explain how the attendance will be done electronically. In each meeting, the person in charge checks each individual who in is in attendance. Every three months the ward reports to the stake and they send the info to SL. That determines how much money each unit will receive the next year. I think this includes activities so even those who are not members can be counted. We are big on investigators in our branch right now. We want and need more people.

It was our week to speak. They called us last night to say that they would have a youth speaker as well. But it was too late to shorten my talk. It was President River’s son. He is putting in his papers to go on a mission when school is out. He did a good job of explaining his motivations and bearing his testimony. I was worried about the time but I gave my whole talk. I couldn’t just drop some of it and have it still flow and make sense. Lewis went up and I thought our time was over. I worried during his whole talk about the time but I didn’t want to turn around and look at the clock. Lewis did a great job. He began with the scripture that says that every blessing is based on our obedience to the law that permits the blessing. He told his story of painting mailboxes. He used some of his tithing money to buy something he wanted and the next day no one would accept his offer to paint their mailbox. He thought about the situation and that night promised Heavenly Father in prayer that if he would help him get more work, he would pay tithing faithfully all of his life. And he has and we have been blessed. He also explained that how it works is not just how much money comes in but blessings that your car will last an extra year, you are granted health, and problems are resolved. The Lord wants to bless us but we must do our part. President Parra stood up and commented on each of the talks and amplified them. It was a good meeting. There was a good turnout. I was happy to see Carlos and Vianey and all four of their children. They are not in tools yet but Aldrich will fix that. We talked after church with Julia Zurcher. She recommended that we try to visit with Sister Bertha. I told her about Anna who was born in Portugal and lived in Spain before she moved here. She did go and visit her. She declined to come back to church right now but she will continue to talk with her. I talked with Sister Parra. She and I are going to visit Maria Gonzales on Wednesday. I left her home thinking she needed a friend. We are praying for Khristine. She has been suffering from hearing problems. She is hearing so very many painful sounds at full volume. She cannot sleep well and must have it quiet The doctor put tubes in her ears in an effort to help. 

Sister Nixon called and asked that we take charge of the mission office phone. The Nixons and Parrys were taking a free day. President Rodriguez and his wife took someone to the airport and he came to the office when they returned. Sis Rodriguez has had COViD. She was very sick but has recovered from that but still needs extra rest. The Russells are both here. They always have a great deal to do. And their work is the sensitive and important stuff. They always work longer than the others and sometimes into the night and weekends. They deserve a lot of credit for the amount and quality of their work. Brother Russell is creating a handbook. He had three days of training with the previous Finance man but that was totally insufficient. Hopefully, future people will be better prepared in the MTC. He was the only finance person and didn't get much training. This mission is like a major business and it needs to be running constantly. I spent some time creating Emergency Bags. Every new missionary gets one and is to keep it in his apartment wherever he goes. It contains an emergency blanket, rain poncho, toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, deodorant, cleaning wipes, drinking water, gloves, masks, ibuprofen, antibiotics pills, and bandages. They also get a big bag with a mattress cover, a blanket, a quilt,a pillow and sheets that they take with them each time they move. We had a Subway sandwich for lunch and got to eat with the Russells and President Rodriguez. They brought their lunches. Some packages came in. Some missionaries came to get packages. I did some of my computer stuff but not a lot.

We went to Camarillo and found three more inactive families. Two exist and we talked with them and/or their family members. The other one no longer lives at that address. Carman Fernandes was very friendly. She is sometimes unable to get around but wants to come to church. Yay! Her son and his family are not interested at this time. They built an apartment on part of the second floor of their home for her. The ceiling goes all the way up to the peaked roof and she has a small but very complete living quarters. She can get up and down the stairs so I guess she is in pretty good health at this moment. She showed us her Book of Mormon which was given to her by the sister missionary who taught her. She was baptized in 2002. She seems to have fallen away but she knows Veronica and Julia so maybe she can become an active part of the Branch again.

I finally did weed through my copies of the Morris Directories and got all of the latest info on one, added Josh and Catalina's new address, and sent it to all of our kids. I also reminded them of the Women’s Conference and Lava Hot Springs Family Reunion this summer. Hope they all can go. David helped Lewis solve a computer problem and since we are all now in good health, we set up a new dinner appointment for next Monday. 

Went to Camarillo to go with Edler Hogges (who is a Type1 diabetic.) and someone we haven’t met since they were doing splits. We talked with an older lady Irma, who has several health challenges. She was attentive and interested. They gave a very short lesson about the Plan of Salvation and he will text her a link so she can access more information. They made an appointment for tomorrow. Then we had lunch with Emily at the Urban Café in Ventura. They have sandwiches, salads, and soups. I enjoyed my salad very much. It is one of Emily’s favorites. My salad had lots of greens, chickpeas, and roasted cubes of sweet potato. And it had a hunk of bread that was really good. I was slower and full so Lewis ate the rest.

We went back to Camarillo, to Emily’s house. She took me to Simi Valley for a Sisters Dinner. Kathy texted that she wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home. We had Chris, Jeanine, Mindy, Gracie, Emily and me. We went to Bamboo Café which serves Vietnamese food. I had a Bahn Mi sandwich because I had seen that word around town and was curious. I liked it and it only cost $8. All of the food looked delicious. We enjoyed catching up. It is their Beach House this year and they are excited. Mindy’s arm is mending. She can go back to work. She works at a dental office two days a week and for Bruce whenever he needs her help. Jeanine said she is working fewer hours now so that is good. Chris seems to be happy in her smaller home and all of the improvements are now in place. She is working on getting rid of things that she no longer needs. We all need to reduce our clutter. It is so great to be able to spend a little time with my sisters! Lewis went to the English Connect class at 7:00 and we got back not much later than he returned. It was a long day and a good one. 

             We are all happy and jealous of the Evans family's Hawaii vacation 

I had fun with several articles and videos about the Book of Mormon. We went to my dental appointment and it took an hour and a half to take off two of my crowns and dig out all of the damage in the teeth. It was not comfortable but the dentist was gentle and I am grateful that he took care of it. I would not enjoy life as much as I do without teeth. We go back in Feb for my crowns, and x-rays and cleanings for both of us. I felt very blessed because I was coughing badly when the assistant was trying to take X-rays. I prayed that I could hold still and not cough when the dentist was drilling and that blessing was granted. It could have been very frustrating and perhaps dangerous. I was going to visit one of the ladies we found recently but Sister Para who volunteered to go with me, is making dinner for a family in the branch so we will go on Friday. We also have appointments to go to the temple on Friday with Leiann and Cary. That will be a good day. We also went to visit with Yayo. We learned from Leiann and Cary that Kyrsten was poked in the ear accidently by one of her children. She is in a lot of pain. It took a while to get accurate information about her injury. It seems now that it will take a while to heal but she should have no lasting harm and heal completely. 

We made several visits and found out that a member had moved to Simi Valley. We were able to get her address and pass it on to the clerk. The Camarillo English Connect started slow with just Marta who is so very nice. We learned that she is a member - just inactive. The counselors to the Elder’s Quorum came into our class and joined in. Brother Rangel and Brother Coral might continue. They do not speak English well. It was a pleasant evening. Not sure where our missing students were. The Thursday night sports evening had a special event. The members bought Books of Mormon and gave them to all the non-members. I was told that it was a great experience for everyone involved. The non-members appreciated it and were happy that their friends had shared something that they cared deeply about. How wonderful if they will choose to read the book. 

We left home at 8:45 and went to the temple to meet Leiann and Cary for the 10:30 session. We were very early but that is OK. Lewis bought some garment tops. We enjoyed going to the temple with them. Margaret (my brother David’s first wife) was there and we were able to speak with her a little bit. Afterward, we went to Tito’s. That is a Snyder monument. We find it bland but I enjoyed my burrito. A lot of driving for Lewis but it was a good day and the people we did the work for, now have a chance to accept the covenants. I met Sister Parra at Maria Gonzales. She did not invite us in because she had company. She was receptive. Azu brought a vase of beautiful roses from her garden and I had some handouts. She said she is too old to make any changes but she was pleased that we came to talk with her. Maybe someone else will find her again. Very nice older lady but not receptive at the moment. I was so grateful for Azu. She understood every response and I did not. Azu is so generous of her time. She works full-time as an accountant and is both intelligent and loving. 

Brother and Sister Gonzales spoke in church today and a young woman I think is Veronica's daughter. We had a good Sunday School lesson. The teacher was a man and his wife who served as missionaries in the group a year ago. It was fun to see them connect with the people they knew. And he did a good class with his Spanish. We went to a missionary meeting with Pte. Parra and Pte Law. Yay, Brother Law is back and healthy. Nice to have him in person. He was part of meetings before via Zoom. We also met afterward with the RS and EQ to talk about the people we have visited in the last couple of weeks. Several have moved and we had info about most of the rest. Pte. Parra is very good about working with the missionaries. He wants us to block out Friday evenings and he and his wife will go with us to visit someone every week. The leaders all go every Wednesday to visit with investigators and new members. We did have several new (to me anyway) people in Sacrament Meeting today. Yay!

David, Jenny and Andrew came for dinner and we had a fun time. Lewis made bread after I cleaned the kitchen. So I had to clean again, but it is worth it. We had stir-fry with orange tofu, Costco Spring Rolls, a fruit salad, and banana splits for dessert. We played a new card game that Jenny taught us. Jenny said she appreciated the new Morris Directory and added the new family members to her game on the phone. She will remember everyone’s names at the Family Réunion I’ll bet. She will do better than Lewis and probably me at remembering names. 

Went to the office to help Sister Nixon with her job of making emergency bags and bedding bags for the new incoming missionaries. And they have to recycle the same things from the departing missionaries. Everything must be inspected, the fabric things washed, return the things that can be recycled, and make up new bags. It is a lot of stuff and she could use some help. We were also able to go to lunch with Emily. We went to Toppers in Ventura and happily ate a big salad and a small pizza. So great to have time to talk and relax before we all go back to work. The mission office took an hour off as well for their lunches. Went to English Connect and Jose and Carena, Marta, and another new woman who saw the little poster in the laundromat. Her name is Xochitl but it is easy if you think S0-che. It was a good evening.

We went to Camarillo to be with the elders when they visited with an older woman. Her family said she was not home. So, we stopped at Costco and bought some produce, nuts, and frozen fruit. We worked on the information we have and the questions that still need to be answered about the people who have been to church in the past. It is a big job to get all of the records complete and accurate. 

I spent hours trying to register for Women’s Conference. I even had a person at BYU who offered to do it for me. The end result was that there are 7 charges pending at the bank and BYU doesn’t see my registration. The bank balance is not what it should be. Hope it is cleared before more charges hit the bank. It turns out that both Khristine and Jennifer will be at the graduation of Nathan and I’m not sure who for Khristine. Susan is unable to go so 4 daughters, Sue Nelson, and I will fit in a dorm room. We went to the mission office to copy the pages for English Connect students and then went to Camarillo to visit with three families who were happy to receive bread and were friendly. Elder Gray is sick so Lewis taught the English Connect class. We had four students, Xochitl, Jose with his cousin Carena, and Marta. They are all eager to learn and are getting more comfortable now with each other. At the end of class, Carena (who works at Topper's Pizza) bought in a big delicious pizza that was still warm and shared it with all of us. It was the wrong time for the missionaries to miss class. We had fun chatting and eating together. So kind of her. We told Marta that we would be coming tomorrow with Sister Parra to visit with her. 

Lewis went to the office for mail and got some things at Winco. Jeri watched a free class from BYU Jan Martin that is part of the Inspire offering from BYU that gives access to past events for a monthly or yearly fee. I would love to watch/listen to them all but I won’t live that long. I am typing up all of our visits and keeping track of the information we collect. I spent an hour learning about Substack. Very interesting as a content creator or a way to find things you are interested in. It is free. (If you charge readers, you must give 10% to Substack.) If you do not charge you have access to create in many ways, like, blog, email, podcast, and maybe more.

We went with Sister Parra to visit with Marta. We were there for 2 hours and it was delightful, except for Lewis because he cannot hear well enough to get all the dialogue. Marta and Azu had fun remembering their favorite places in Mexico. They both love Campeche and say it is a divine place to visit or live. It is in the far south of Mexico. We learned about Marta’s four sons. I think there is a daughter also that lives in Mexico. Marta loves to talk and Azu could relate perfectly. In the end, we did get to family history and Azu found her mother and her father on Family Search. We must follow up on that! Azu brought her a pie and I’m sure that her sons will like that. They are big and strong. She is a diabetic and injects insulin daily.

Dan (our son and not the grandson) is coming to attend classes from Wella and he will meet us at Emily’s house tomorrow evening. We assembled all of the items we will need to take to Emily’s house. She is cooking a tri-tip for all of us. I read a very interesting booklet about the Isaiah map, written by a BYU professor. I need to spend time with it during the Isaiah chapters for Come Follow Me. It will help me better understand the geography and the history. 

We went to the Ward Council Meeting at 10:15. It was a good meeting. Veronica came in with her arm in a sling stabilized by a wrap around her waist. She and her husband were moving something tall and heavy. He went to get a drill to remove the doors to lighten the weight. She tried to shift it and the top part fell on her. She has a bit of a dent in her forward and can barely walk but she still has a smile. She said nothing was broken. She cleans houses for people all week. I don’t know how she can do that this week. Hope it works out well. Her husband is usually out of town but he was there Sunday. I hope he is here for a while. Sister Avila broke her wrist and is in a stiff-sleeved brace to support her healing. She had a fall several weeks ago and didn’t land well. So many things can go wrong. The meeting went well and everyone reported their activities and plans. We were all asked to continue after church to finish the list of changes that need to be confirmed and changed in our membership records.

One of the two speakers was the youngest of the Zurcher family. His name is Lev and I haven’t seen him before. He goes to the YSA ward. I was so very impressed with his talk. It was important and clearly explained. Charleen Bushman came in early and I sat with her. She wanted to support the Zurcher family and had invited the two women who are her house cleaners to come to church today. She has invited them often but thought they might really come today. But they didn’t. Lev had given her his phone so she could read his talk and know what he was saying. I helped her by moving it as he spoke. We both were very impressed with his message. Lev agreed to send each of us a copy of his talk. I have it in Evernote. Azu Parra gave the Relief Society lesson and we had some good discussions. We were studying President Nelson’s "Think Celestial" talk. The service missionary Sister Marz was there to hear Brother Zurcher’s talk. She translated for Sister Maddox so she didn’t miss out. She is trying to learn the language. Lewis told me later that he learned that Brother John Maddox and his wife have been called to be Mission Leaders in Costa Rica this year. Wow! Good for them.

We went back to the meeting but Victoria left early and so we did too because we needed to make dinner for Dan and the Arellanos. They were making assignments for everyone to visit someone to ensure the record. They said that we were not assigned anyone else this week because of our written report. We are making progress but there is still a way to go.

We made mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, miso green beans, green salad, and ice cream. We forgot to take the dessert. But, I had forgotten that Dan is sensitive to milk so he shouldn’t eat it anyway. We didn’t get home at the usual time. We did it all quickly and got to Emily’s at about 4:00. Dan arrived not much later. We had fun conversations. He got on the phone with Debbie. She is a beautiful woman that Dan loves. He has been talking with her for years now and has visited several times. They got serious about a future together during his Christmas visit. We look forward to getting to know her better. She is an amazing artist and a strong member of the church. She has two children at home and 3 that are young adults. The Arellano kids went to a member's home to watch the worldwide broadcast about "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ" for all of the youth. It was a very pleasant evening. Thank you for coming Dan and thank you to Emily and Edgar, who are amazing hosts. We all feel comfortable in your home. 

              These are three of Dan's recent paintings. His artistic skills are broad. 

Started the day trying to fix my registration with Women’s Conference. It hasn’t been resolved yet. We are going back and forth by email with a supervisor. I also sent Veronica the BYU Women’s Conference theme video. It has no dialog so no translation is needed. And the theme is 2 Nephi 4:34: “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever.” 

Lewis was bored and I wanted to see the area you can see coming down the grade from Newbury Park on the right. We went a long way on Santa Rosa Road. It is beautiful with lots of lovely new homes on the hills. There are still many fields of vegetables and orchards of fruit. It was a beautiful drive. We put more English Connect flyers in the laundromats in Camarillo as well.

I spent the morning on the phone with BYU. I have registered 10 times now without success. They are talking with the accountant now to get it figured out. We went to Costco and bought two big boxes of chicken pies. We visited with Cristina Avila. We spoke for probably half an hour and learned more about her family. Her hand is still painful but it has been confirmed that it is not broken. She will have to be patient for a while until it can heal completely. We learned that with the help of Nathan Martin it took them 14 years to get the OK to move to the USA. They have been here for 5 years now. They have a printing business that they operate out of the garage. One son is in Utah at school. Two boys are at church all the time. She said she has a granddaughter. She also talked about a daughter. Not sure how all that comes together. Her sister is Maritza who married Nathan Martin who was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was a policeman. She is now living in Utah. 

We also tried to visit Veronica. She was due home but delayed. A friend who is currently living with her and working in her business was there and we talked with her for a while. Veronica later sent me a photo of the chicken pot pies in the oven and thanked us for saving her time. She was actually working today so she is blessed that she is capable of doing that. 

We enjoyed a bowl from Baja Fresh. We really like their food. The English class had more teachers than students. “So Che” was there. She is smart and eager to learn. Alex Hernandez came. He has only been here for a short time and has a long way to go but he is willing to work at it and progress. 

We went to the dentist and they got my temporary teeth removed and put the crowns in place. $1400. Yikes! In addition, he says I need complete X-rays and probably more work done. We remembered the time wrong but we got there with enough time to have the work done. Next, we spent time in the mission office helping Sister Nixon with orders from the missionaries for books, pamphlets, and hand-out cards. It did go more quickly with our help. We also changed out the emergency bags that were turned in a few days ago so they are ready to be reassigned next transfer. 

The best thing of the day was that I am now registered for Women’s Conference. It took an hour but I also have the confirmation email. Now, Sue, Leiann, Christie, Nancy, and Emily can register and we can all have long discussions all together in one of the bedrooms in our dorm. And we will go to classes also. I read a wonderful booklet/talk titled, "Standing as a Witness" by Sheri Dew. It is something I want to read many times. I have it in Evernote. 

We had a good visit with Tomas Macias.  He has a female friend Sandra with him. They are newly in a nice house and still waiting to buy a table and chairs. He is young, handsome with some English but limited. His girlfriend does not yet speak English. They are both from the same city in Mexico. He has a landscaping business and is surviving. It seems he hasn’t been to church recently. He was baptized maybe 4 years ago. 

We went to visit with the sisters. Yayo does not have his electric chair repaired but he is walking every day and getting stronger. He says he walks to 5^th Street and back every day. That is impressive. We read the scriptures and discussed them as usual. He is a wise man with a lot of personality.