RootsTech 2024 began but I didn’t watch much because I was cleaning and making sure that everything was in order for the meatballs on Sunday and for the company we will have. We did go to visit with investigators but didn’t find anyone who was home or would open the door. I can watch most of the classes online all year. The trick is to actually do it.
Richard was to have arrived in the evening but his flight was delayed and he didn’t get in until almost midnight. He stayed in a hotel and we won’t get to see him until the Celebration of Life for Ben tomorrow. Nancy flew in to come to the funeral. She stayed with Kathy (David’s sister) for a day and then came to Emily’s house. Leiann and Cary drove up from Newport Beach.
Emily, Nancy, Leiann, and I went to the concert "The Lamb of God". It is a sacred work by Rob Gardner. There was an orchestra, soloists, narrators, and a choir. It was so impressive and such a beautiful testimony of Jesus Christ and His work to provide the Atonement for all who have faith in Him and choose to repent. Thank you for taking us, Emily.
Went to bed late and got up at 5:00 AM. I was worried about getting all of the frozen meatballs fully hot and the BBQ sauce simmering in the crockpots. Lewis suggested that we put them in the oven for a bit before and it all worked out well. We first saw Richard as the car next to us honked as we were approaching the cemetary. We were nice and early and pitched in to help assemble the fruit kabobs.
The first death of one of our posterity. The Conejo Mountain Funeral Home and Cemetery is beautiful. There was a large tent with lots of tables and chairs and lots of food. At the entrance, they had three very large posters with photos of Ben's life. The program was lovely and there were little leaves and pods on a clippie pin so we could all add one to our lapel or wherever. Everything was lovely. We were able to find David, Jenny, and Andrew and saw the room where the speakers would be. There were rows reserved for the families. I should have gone back and found Nancy, Leiann, and Emily. They ended up in the secondary room but it had everything on a screen. They may have had another building opened with the ability to view the speakers. There were many, many people. It was lovely to have so many who wanted to honor and remember Ben. There was a whole group of Boy Scouts in uniform. Ben’s and Andrew’s Scoutmaster spoke first and was the person conducting. He did such an excellent job. Each of the speakers was excellent. David spoke, a friend, Albert Azouz spoke, Kody Landon sang, Andrew spoke, and his fiancée, Rylee Krowpman spoke. They were all positive and shared real-life stories of Ben. They helped us all to appreciate some of his many talents and relationships. They were both funny and solemn. I thought it fulfilled all his parents had wanted for this celebration of their precious first son.
Obituary – Benjamin David Pettingill, aged 25, died doing what he loved on Friday, February 9, 2024, near Baker, California. He was born to Treva Gregory and David Pettingill on August 12, 1998, in Provo, Utah.
Ben was an amazing young man who was loved by many. He
brought a positive attitude and willingness to accomplish anything and
everything. Many things brought joy to Ben’s life, including (in no particular
order) racing his Miata, video games, flying helicopters for work, hanging out
with his brother Andrew, activities with friends and family, and all aspects of
life with his fiancee Rylee. He enjoyed playing football and water polo during
his high school years as well as his time in Boy Scouts during which he
achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Whatever he was doing, he was fully engaged
and loved sharing his passions with others. Ben is survived by his father
David, his mother Treva, his bonus mom Jenny, his brother Andrew, bonus
brothers, Kody and Cooper and his fiancee Rylee, as well as many, many
wonderful loving family members including grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins
as well as many dear friends and co-workers.
Quote from one of
Ben’s favorite books
I wanted movement and
not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance
to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy
which found no outlet in our quiet life. I now walk into the wild.
David Jenny and Treva listening to the open mic after the formal talks.
So many wanted to say good things about Ben.
We and Emily brought enough hot meatballs for 300+ people.
Lewis, Jeri, Tea, Richard, David, Jennifer, Beverly, Dan
Allison, Claire, Tea, Dan, Lewis, Emily, Beverly, Rylee, Andrew,
David, Jenny, Richard, Jeri, and Jennifer at David and Jenny's home
Richard went to his mother’s home for breakfast. David, Jenny, Andrew, Jennifer, Aly, and Claire came to our home and we went out to eat together. David was very tired but it was good to just relax and talk about favorite cars. It is easy to remember fun things about Ben. Tomorrow David and Jenny go back to work full-time. We love to spend time with all of these special people.
I woke up with a sore back. Unusual for me. Hope it goes
away quickly. We went to eat lunch with Emily. We went to Urban Café. She is
still suffering with vertigo. She got a treatment Sunday evening with Brother
Tao and it helped but it hasn’t gone away yet. We went to visit members and
investigators but could not find anyone at home again. We went to English
Connect and only had one student. It was Jose. He is making a lot of progress.
We all like him.
Picked up Emily at 8:00 and went to the Newport Beach Temple. It was a very long drive with a lot of standing still on the freeway time but we still got there nice and early. We got dressed and did some Initiatories before the Endowment. We connected with Leiann and Cary and it all was a great experience. It is a very beautiful Temple. A kind man pointed out that they have an original painting of Minerva Teichert. It is a depiction of Lehi’s dream. I know a little about her and am amazed that she made so many paintings while raising a lot of children. It is very valuable and her work is easy to love because it depicts our scripture stories. You can see the blue sky behind the great and spacious building. It demonstrated that worldly things are mostly a façade. We went to the Snyder’s new second apartment. They served us Mexican Haystacks. It was perfect. Dish up your favorites and pile it all on. We enjoyed a pumpkin chocolate cookie for dessert. We left after eating because the rush hour would only get worse. It was a long day of driving and sitting. Loved being in the temple and spending time with these precious people.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
My back is still giving me trouble. After I sit it is hard
to stand. But when things get working again, I am OK. We went to Costco. I am
out of blueberries for my hot cereal in the morning. We went to visit but did
not find Gina at home. We did get to sit and talk with Martha. She has had a very
difficult time with blood sugars all out of order but probably mostly from her
severe back pain and every other part of her body. She has been to her doctor
and is a little discouraged with how long it is taking to heal. I hope she can
find relief soon. She does have four adult sons in her apartment so she is
getting care and they are helping her. We went to the English Connect class and it went well.
We had another death in our family. Lewis' sister's daughter passed away. She has been fighting cancer for many months now but her body gave out. She was such a vibrant person it is hard to think of her gone. Lewis and his one sister, Joyce are the only ones left in their immediate family. Her husband, Danny Keliiheleua is a wonderful guy. They have now lost two daughters. But they still have three sons. They live in Oregon in the little town of Amity.
We packed up our little suitcases without wheels and went to
the Burbank Airport. It was a very long day. It took us 12 hours from the time
we left home until we got to Jennifer’s home. It would have taken 14 hours to
drive and would have saved a lot of money. But we are glad we didn’t need to do
the driving and we did not have a flat tire when there was no spare tire. We
were able to get a car from Thrifty but that was a long wait also. We had texted
Jennifer to go to bed hours ago and it was a good thing that I remembered the
gate code so we could get in and go to bed ourselves.
Jennifer went to get Tea to take her to the funeral. Dan took off a couple of hours from work to come also. We got there early to see if they needed help with anything. The Relief Society had a feast assembled. They had so many photos. Someone’s grandmother came from Hawaii with incredible floral arrangements. There were many Hawaiian people. The gathering of the family filled the Relief Society room. All ages and most were wearing a baseball cap as Marlo often did. They even had boxes of hats for others who wanted to wear one. All of her four sons, her siblings, and the extended family were there missing Marlo but happy to see so many family members. There were wonderful walls of photos of her entire life. Joyce is an amazing photographer. When we went to the chapel it was full and the walls had been folded back to open it to the cultural hall. I didn’t look back when we entered but when we left it was a whole stake conference number of people who had come to share in celebrating Marlo.
Marlo's father, Danny Keliiheleua
Marlo Noelani Keliihelena
The Bishop conducted. Her second son, Spencer Grubbe gave
the eulogy, Tyler Keliiheleua, Josh Keliiheleua, Jared Keliiheleua, and Daniel
Keliiheleua spoke. (her brothers and her father) Braden and Olivia Dredge sang
and played the piano. The name of their song was “Something Comforting”. They
are the adopted children of her only sister who died about 5 years ago. Then
each of her children spoke, from the youngest to the eldest, Owen Grubbe,
Jackson Grubbe, Spencer Grubbe, and Zac Grubbe. The closing prayer was given by
her father and then we all sang “Aloha Oe“with the Hawaiian words that were
printed in the program.
The talks were personal and wonderful. They remembered happy
times, challenges, and so much gratitude to have Marlo in their lives. They
told funny stories and everyone mentioned how well she was able to connect to
other people. I’m sure she was smiling and proud of her children and family as
they expressed their love for her and appreciated her love for them.
Obituary
Marlo Noelani Keliiheleua was reunited with her late sister
Debbie on February 29, 2024 at the age of 53. She was surrounded by her loving
family.
Marlo was born on May 7, a970 in McMinnville, Oregon. She
was the middle of 5 children and grew up in Amily, Oregon. She loved to dance,
carry a tune wherever she went and was also on her high school dance, track,
basketball, and volleyball teams. She graduated in 1988 and continued her
education at Brigham Young University.
Marlo was married to Michael Grubbe, had four children over
the course of the relationship, and parted ways. Marlo stayed in and around
Sherwood for the majority of her life afterwards moving to Beaverton to work
with her brother Tyler and moving to Florida to live with her brother Joshua.
Marlo is survived by her sons Zac, Spencer, Jackson, and
Owen, her brothers Jared, Joshua, and Tyler and her parents Danny and Joyce.
Marlo was a mother of all, her purpose was to care for everyone and spread joy
whenever she could. She always had a smile on her face and connected with
friends and strangers wherever she went. A pillar of every community she was a
part of, she never judged another and recognized the beauty in everyone. Marlo
lives on in the songs we used to sing together, the time and energy she gave to
us, and the days with her we can’t forget.
I had felt worried about them having enough food for everyone. They had enough and more. The special Hawaiian roasted pork, rice, and so many other options. It was a wonderful day.
Later that evening, the immediate family went to the Amity
Cemetery, and the sons and brothers filled in the dirt around the coffin with
shovels.
We went home to Jennifer’s house and she made a delicious
soup that we will copy.
Jennifer's church was at 9:30. Their ward is very small. They say that the boundaries need to be adjusted. There are not enough people to do all of the jobs that need to be done. We enjoyed Sacrament Meeting. The talks were very well done. The Relief Society lesson was a good discussion with women who obviously care about one another. Jennifer was in the nursery. I don’t know if that is her usual calling or if she was just substituting. I’m sure they are involved in most things. Aaron is a member of the bishopric.
Dan came over for Sunday dinner. We had delicious pork
again, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, and salad. Delicious. We got to chat with
Dan for a while. London, the dog, loves it when Dan is there and demands all of
his attention. Dan doesn’t mind. We learned more about his fiancée who is
bravely handling her many challenges. Life isn’t a walk in the park for many.
We need to be grateful for our smooth times when life is manageable and joy and
peace can be found easily.
Jennifer left about 6:30 AM to go to Japan to visit with Taylor. Long flight for her for sure. I know they will have a great time together. I hope we get detailed stories about their adventures together. We gathered up all of our stuff and met Joyce and Danny at a Thai Restaurant. The food was good and the company even better. Poor Joyce is suffering from lots of pain in her spine. She has been injured too many times and it has been a real challenge to reduce the pain even marginally recently. I hope Joyce can find time to rest and recoup her ability to move around without constant pain. Danny is always positive and cheerful. They need each other and some time to let all the stress of the last 6 months dissipate. They are such wonderful people. We feel guilty that our lives are easier than theirs have been. We were able to return our car and get on the plane. We were not home until after 10:30. But it was great to be home again and not have to get up early in the morning.
Went walking and spent time catching up on my computer. Did laundry. We had lunch with Emily at Subway and got to chat and share about Marlo’s funeral. We had been asked to go to the Mission Office at 2:30. We have a new responsibility. I am looking forward to it. We will handle the internet program that keeps track of Social Media responses and assigns them to individual companionships within the missions worldwide. We will daily see what the current situation is with these referrals. We will be resolving confusion if things are inaccurate. We will follow up and see that action has taken place. The rule is to not give up until there have been 10 contacts to someone who has requested the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or a visit from the missionaries. Everything is tracked and we will follow up to be sure that people are not overlooked. Right now 97 people have made a request and have not received what they requested. When people reach out to us we need to fulfill their request! Unfortunately, there are bogus referrals as well. Missionaries spend most of their time looking for people who are interested in learning more about Jesus Christ. If someone is interested enough to ask, we need to do all we can to respond to their efforts to reach out to us. Elder Wheeler is the mission Social Media expert. He will contact us and train us on how to use the system. Sister Rodriguez showed us the basics but we need to learn it all.
Vanessa and Sabastian came to the English Connect class. Vanessa
is a lovely person. I invited her to come to church and she didn’t say “No". Elder Hogg is back, Yay! We still have Elder Jones also. They can
continue to do good work and help build up our little branch.
We slept in. I was tired. We went for a walk. I finished clearing out the emails and am up to date on the journal. Elder Wheeler called and we will meet with him at 1:00 tomorrow. We tried to contact Martha but didn’t get a response. Aldrich is not having any luck finding her member information. We need to find more details so maybe it can be found. Or, if she was never confirmed, she would not have a record and she would need to be baptized again.
Elder Wheeler spent time to teach us about our new assignment. It is amazing. Everyone who responds to a Church invitation for something is recorded in software. Often it is for a Book of Mormon or a Bible or a visit from the missionaries, etc. When they reply it goes on the church software. It happens daily, perhaps hourly and it is directed to the appropriate missionaries as dictated by their address. We now have access and our job is to help the missionaries stay on top of it. The mission saying is: Contact each referral for 10 consecutive days and in 10 different ways. The easiest way is to text but they can also visit, find them on Facebook and message them. Try their email. They are invited to give us all that information but they don’t usually give it all. It is hard to contact people in our world but there were 36 people baptized in our mission from Facebook/Instagram referrals last year. There was a great story President Rodrigez told the missionaries - A man was at his lowest point and planning his suicide. He reached out and responded to a Facebook offer and the missionaries contacted him 5 minutes later. It wasn’t too many weeks until he was planning his baptism and he is an active member today. I was impressed. We also have Elder Wheeler creating some of these offers just for our location. They have been very successful and we are one of only 11 missions who do this. The missionaries in the MTC tried to explain the importance of social media to us but I’m only understanding it now. I think we can help and look forward to making this happen. We have the time. We also went to English Connect. Yay! Martha came because she was finally well enough. Xochitl is back in town and came back. She was working in Arizona for a month. Carina brought not her cousin Jose, but another family member named Jose. I’m sad that Vanessa wasn’t there. I do hope she comes back. Hermano Sanchez the Branch Mission Leader was sick so we missed that meeting that usually takes place after the English class. Martha brought a huge bowl of Aros y Leche. It is somewhat sweet rice with cinnamon. I like it. She gave us a small bowl to take home. So kind of her. We all sat, talked, and enjoyed our treat. And we celebrated that her membership record was found in the Pleasant Valley Ward and we have her now in the Ponderosa Branch.
After walking and eating breakfast we spent hours working on our Referral Management stuff. We had a couple of questions that Elder Wheeler was able to answer. Lewis also called SLC to tell them that they are using the wrong address for the El Camino Real Ward in Oxnard. They have the old Elm building address. That building has been sold. It is no longer a Church of Jesus Christ meeting place. They are going to call us back in a couple of days. They need to figure out who can change that and make it happen. We both sent a lot of emails. I got several kind replies. This takes a lot of time because we can see the whole history and need to understand what is going on and how can they improve their chances of finding that individual. One needs to be moved to another companionship and we need to learn how to do that.
Lewis made bread and we took a warm loaf to Martha. She
wasn’t home but we put it in the bag she gave us with the rice on her doorstep. We also
visited David and Jenny and Sophie, the dog. We had a great conversation about what we
should have in order before we die. They had some very useful perspectives we
need to think about. They pointed out several difficulties with our current
plan. We went to Winco on our way home. We do eat a lot of produce. We also
read one chapter of Book of Mormon every day. First, I look at the Spanish
version and listen to the chapter being read in English. Then I read it aloud
in Spanish and Lewis corrects my pronunciation. I’m getting better.
We walked and I picked up some sheets of tree trunk. I think it is so cool and Lewis thinks I’m crazy. We are both right. I sent out a new page on the Family Reunion that will happen in June. It will be here soon. We spent hours on our referrals responsibility. We are still struggling with how best to manage this but it is working. We need a better way to keep track of what we have done and what needs further follow-up. Elder Wheeler answered a couple of questions that helped. We made Jennifer’s good soup and Lewis made flax muffins. We get to go back to the Ponderosa Branch. We have missed it for two weeks with the funerals.
Bark that has peeled off one of the trees behind our apartment
Our Ponderosa Branch meetings were great today. There were 58 people present and 10 of them are investigators. Good work, Missionaries! The talks were great from people in our stake who speak Spanish or are willing to be translated during the meeting. One talked about Primary and the opportunity to use Come Follow Me in the home to teach our children and help them to learn to love the scriptures and Jesus Christ. The other was focused on ministering. He gave several examples of women helping each other. They were beautiful examples of meeting needs by sharing experiences and connecting with other individuals who have learned what another needs to learn. I gave the closing prayer. There was a lot of visiting before Sunday School with all of the new people. Most seemed very engaged and comfortable. There is a new young man, Sebastian, that we haven’t met before. The missionaries said he is very interested and engaged in learning. Xochitl (sounds like SoChee) was there. She had to go home to get her classes but came right back for Sunday School. Gina was there with her mother and daughter. Martha was there and we told her that her membership had been found. She is happy. It was in the Pleasant Valley Ward in our Stake. Elder Hogg found it for us! Alrich will get it moved over to the Ponderosa Branch.
The Relief Society Birthday celebration was a broadcast from Salt Lake. Our branch met with the El Camino Real Ward in their building. It began with sandwiches, a sweet pudding, a new thing that looks like a cupcake with frosting, It looks like stiff frosting. You cut it up with a fork and eat it. There is no cupcake underneath it. I had eaten with Lewis after church so I didn’t eat again, I was so worried because Xochitl wasn’t there but she did come late. She had something she had to do first but did come. She was greeted by everyone from our branch and also Sister Sota. Presidente Parra was there with his wife. They spent time with everyone too. After the food and time to chat we went into the chapel to see the broadcast. Everything was in Spanish so I didn’t get it all but it was lovely. Xochitl started tearing up and it was good I had some Kleenex. President Nelson was a lovely grand finale. I played it in English when I got home. Many talked with Xochitl again and we all went home. She told Presidente Parra that she would be at church every week. I hope things go smoothly for her. They won’t, but it appears that she recognized that this opportunity for her is very important. It is a privilege to see another person recognize the beauty in our gospel and want more. It was a wonderful day. And now we are further behind in the referrals. They will still be there tomorrow.
Connor Means is a relatively new member of our family and it is his birthday this month. Khristine posted some photos of him so I will share one. He is Beth's husband. We also got notice of Nathan's graduation from BYU in computer studies coming up in April.
Spent most of the day on the Referral Manager software sending texts to missionaries who had opportunities to contact people who have requested a visit, a book, to attend church, to learn more about Jesus Christ. We want to encourage and not discourage. There are many and some are incomplete making contacts difficult. But the missionaries are always cheerful and positive. Sometimes they reply. We are getting a little better at following what is happening and not duplicating each other. I also asked all of our children to participate in our Family Reunion. Each of our children needs to plan one activity for everyone who wants to join in. Already we have: Emily planning for floating the river, Christie for visiting the hot pots nearby. David and Jenny accepted leading a discussion about the importance of planning for our own end of life. The Barnard girls will take charge of the dinners and we will help them with that responsibility.
Lots of time on the referrals again. Don’t want to overwhelm them but do want to be helpful. Elder Wheeler can find who to assign in other states so he took over one that is in Texas. He sent us a list of all the teaching areas by Zone and a couple of suggestions for texts. The missionaries are supposed to contact for 10 consecutive days in as many ways as possible. They have a lot to manage and we help them to not forget the people who are asking for what they want to teach.
Lewis made bread. We went to visit Gina with a warm loaf but
she wasn’t home. Emily got it. Emily, Ella, and I went to Urbane Café in
Thousand Oaks. The food was good. The company was excellent. I took a page for
each of them that I made. It was a list of several ways to write and collect family
stories. They want us to come and visit them at the Beach House in June. It is the
Morris year. They do want to write stories about our parents. If we don’t, they
will all be lost. We also listened to Cohen open his Mission Call on Facebook.
He is going to Brazil!! Morgan is happy. David Pettingill, Morgan, Spencer, and Joshua have served in Brazil. He is to begin home MTC on July 1st.
I hope that can be melded into our Family Reunion!
We went to the office because everyone else was involved in the Zone Conference of the North 1/3 of our mission. We had plenty of time to work with the referral manager software and send text messages to the missionaries. We are pointing out where they can improve their contacts. It is hard to sound helpful and not critical. I hope they realize we are on their side and in awe of how much they do. Lewis took a call that was a nonmember thanking the church for the support of the missionaries at his family’s funeral. It is nice to hear compliments about our hard-working missionaries.
We went to the dentist because Lewis has a tooth that is
giving him pain. He is taking ibuprofen but needs a root canal probably. The
doctor took x-rays and says he needs an endodontist.
We have responsibility for the office today. Lewis left to get his hair cut. We had some missionaries who came to study. Another pair had a lesson. Two former missionaries came to pick up a guitar. Fortunately, we found it in the storage room. I spend almost all of the time working on the referrals. Didn’t get any taken care of yesterday. I got a lot done and am progressing in becoming somewhat more efficient. We went to Winco and bought what we needed for tomorrow and Monday. The sisters came by our house to give us the new Temple recommends for the two young people who have only been baptized for a couple of weeks to go to the temple and do baptisms.
We got up at 6:00 AM and got ready to pick up our three passengers. The first one to pick up lives in an apartment that is locked up. We called the sisters and they called the young man three times but he didn’t answer. He missed the boat. We continue to the chapel in Oxnard and didn’t have to wait too long for George and Yennifer. George has been in the USA for 10 years and works in agriculture. He does celery, and raspberries and blackberries. Celery are grown out in a field. The berries are grown in large pots inside long rows of covered space. They have metal supports and are covered with heavy plastic. He says it gets pretty hot inside. They have to be covered because rain would ruin the crop. It was raining pretty hard when we woke up but it is only sprinkling now. Yennifer is young and very pregnant. She said she has a little girl she left at home as well. We had some good conversations about where were going and what we would be doing there. They were both excited and she was a bit timid. We also played sections of the D&C that explain temple baptisms for the dead. We also played a conference talk on the same subject. The traffic was lighter than work days but not at all light. We were a bit late but it worked out fine. It was still raining but the outside of the building impressed them. Inside was even more beautiful. Yennifer wanted to just be confirmed. George wanted to do both ordinances and Lewis baptized him and some other girls as well that were waiting. Yennifer and I got to be witnesses for the baptisms of others. I was glad that the man who welcomed us inside the door of the baptistry spoke Spanish and he was happy to talk to our friends. Also, there was a group of 5 or 6 women who all spoke Spanish that were in front of us. There were more Spanish-speaking individuals than English speakers for the time we were in the baptistry. Yennifer felt more comfortable inside the temple than she did at the beginning of our morning. Afterward, we went to the Visitors Center. We had two sister missionaries guide us on a little tour of the building. One was from Mexico and the other from Venezuela. They slowly warmed up to them and then they had lots of questions and wanted to come again and go back to the Visitor’s Center also. It was a beautiful morning. Lewis had made peanut butter sandwiches and we had a lot of snacks and water bottles for the trip home. They both had not eaten breakfast so that was welcome. It was a lovely day.
Presidente Parra of the Ponderosa Branch
We had a 10:15 meeting with the branch council. It was good
as usual. New large announcements for a special multi-stake devotional with
Elder James E. Slaughter (70 of our Area). It will be in Spanish in our
building. Pte. Parra talked a bit about the necessity of the atonement for everyone. Both Justice and Mercy must be met. Jesus Christ has made that possible. In this life we have the obligation to treat others with mercy. Justice is for God. Not
as many in Sacrament Meeting as there were last week. We divided for Relief
Society and Elder’s Quorum. We had a lot of interaction and I think the sisters
feel close to each other. Even Sister Maddox who doesn’t know hardly any
Spanish hugged Jennifer and is learning about these women. Lourdes was asked a
question and she said that she was drawn to be baptized because she felt real
love from the missionaries, the members, the leaders, and most of all from
Jesus Christ. It was touching that she in essence said, “I came because I felt
the love and I have been happy ever since.” We all need to feel that love and
share it with others daily. And we need to remember to feel happy also. Jennifer
gave me a business card. She and her sister are building a house cleaning
business. Sister Maddox asked if she would consider doing construction
cleaning. She said she would be happy to look and see and determine the cost.
Hope that might work out.
Our son Dan asked Debbie to marry him and she said, "Yes". We are so happy for them. She is living in Arkansas so he will be moving there. Lots of changes and no specific plans yet.
She is wearing his ring.
We called Joyce for her birthday tomorrow. She is still in a
lot of pain in her back. She has another compressed disk. She is still trying
more doctors to see what might help. I got more reading done in Heart of the
Matter and the Liahona.
We got up early and were at the mission office at 7:30. We took Elder Thather to the Santa Barbara Airport. He has a medical issue that needs attention. He is hoping that he will be back by the next transfer. He was fun to talk with and we learned more about the referrals from the perspective of the missionaries. He said that the missionaries are grateful for the reminders because often they are juggling several things at the same time and can overlook them. It was a beautiful drive but there is a lot of road work going on. Glad we don’t make that trip often.
Spent several hours on Referrals. Made a big casserole of
potatoes, carrots, and onions with chicken broth and chicken gravy. We went to
the Senior Missionaries at the Mission Home for our once a month Family Home
Evening. The food was great. They ate my vegetables and there were lots more
vegetables in salads (There were large round slices of some kind of radish. It
was not spicy and very pretty.) and roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels
sprouts. There were wontons with meat
and some with cream cheese. There were jalapenos, filled with cheese and
wrapped with bacon, and enchiladas. Sister Russell made a delicious dessert
with strawberries. And there were very small strawberry slices in cream that
went on top beautifully. We got to meet the new couple for CES in Santa
Barbara. The Words. They married at age 40 and have 2 children who are young
adults. They have both had teaching experience. He is an architect as well. It
will be fun to get to know them better. Our lesson was a getting to know you exercise
and it was fun. Such good people. It is a treat to get to know all of them
better. The Rodriguezs are as humble and as wonderful as you can imagine. They
work so hard and do everything well. Great people.
Did some house cleaning and then spent the day with the referrals. Had a phone meeting with Elder Wheeler. He had some more things to share with us. We are making a little bit of progress but getting more referrals than clearing out the ones that they can’t find. They need to contact for 10 consecutive days in as many ways as they can before they can be marked uninterested. It takes a lot of time and effort to get all these done. The missionaries have plenty to do.
Lots of time with the referrals again. It is a bit less fun as time goes on. We hope that we are helping. Good English class. We were able to get enough books to give them to our regulars. They are very happy to be able to review and continue to learn all of the vocabulary they have been exposed to in our classes. Xochitl is one of my favorites. I have learned that she has family not too far over the border. It is a cattle ranch maybe. She spoke of cattle and horses. She has two sons. One is a lawyer and the other is an architect. She said she learned to box and had to sign a legal paper that she would not box with anyone else who was not trained because she could damage them, or even kill them. She has worked at the borders chasing illegals in the past. I’m not sure if those go together but she liked the job for a while. The sons like Mexico better than the USA. Martha was there and also Jose. Very good people. I’m glad they are in our country. Martha was born in Arizona. We went right home after class because Leiann and Cary are here to visit us and have Easter dinner with Emily. We were able to talk for an hour or so and then we went to bed.
None of us got up very early. Lewis and I went on our walk before we saw them. We had fun chatting, ate breakfast. They left for their day to review their favorite spots from their Ventura Mission memories. It is supposed to rain but they will have a good time no matter the weather. We are working on our referrals. Some are neglecting their daily contacts. Others are trying hard and not having success in contacting their people. It is challenging. At least I don’t have to communicate in Spanish. I hope we are helping them. We went to Winco to get the food we needed for Easter dinner. We have it very easy. Rolls and two veggies. Leiann is making a dessert. Snyders spend the day up north. They said there was quite a bit of rain but they had a fun time together. I had time to read through her two new books with all of the photos from their road trip last year. They are wonderful. I got to experience a taste of their travels. She is so smart to make books to hold all of the good memories. We played their Rummikubs before going to bed.
Bryce’s Birthday. I sent him an e-card. Nancy and most of her children took him out to lunch with balloons and photos and a great time spent together. I spent several hours on referrals. We went out to lunch at the two-story Toppers in Oxnard right next to the yachts where they are docked. It was worth it just for the view. But we enjoyed our salads and pizza! This is a beautiful place to come and relax. Leiann made her lemon cake for tomorrow. Emily came over to our house and joined us for dinner. We had Stir Fry with Teriyaki sauce and Orange Tofu. They all ate it with a smile. Leiann made her lemon cake for tomorrow. We all played the Rummikubs and it was fun.
Emily took Emmett and Ella to do baptisms in the LA Temple. This statue is in the Visitor's Center.
It was Bryce's birthday and Nancy and her kids took him out to lunch and celebrated his 24th birthday!
We had plenty of time to get ready for Easter Sunday church. We were listening to Mike and Bryce on Talking Scripture. Snyders enjoyed it too. They thanked me for sharing the one last week. They did listen to all of it. We drove together in our car. They went to the English-speaking Valley Vista Ward with Emily and we went to the Ponderosa Branch. It was an excellent meeting. The two counselors spoke about our Savior. Pte. Law then sang "I Stand All Amazed" in his amazing voice. Then Pte. Parra spoke. They were all wonderful talks about Jesus Christ and how important the Atonement is for us. There were 6 investigators I heard. Lots of people to meet and greet. We came early but the new ones are always late. But they came.
We went back home, trimmed and cooked the green beans and
heated the corn. The rolls were ready. We had a delicious dinner and it is fun to watch Emily’s
nephews. They are 4 years old now and very much enjoy playing with Evan, Emmett, and Ella who are very patient with them. After dinner, we played Scum a couple
of times. It was lovely to be with Emily's family, and Edgar's brother, Omar and his wife, Iris, and Emily (not our daughter but Omar’s daughter), and Ired and her boyfriend. We played Scum a couple of times. It is a fun card game and easy enough that we can talk while playing. When we quit, I was the Queen!
Cute photo of Paige Snyder with her Easter creations. Good things go on in the kitchen of our house.
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