Week 4: Oxnard, CA

This was definitely a crazy week because we were only in the mission for 3 days, followed by 4 days traveling to and from my father's funeral. On those three days, we helped with zone conferences. This means traveling to a central location where missionaries meet, sing in a choir, have their cars and bikes inspected, hear inspirational talks, and eat a nice lunch. Larry and I attend to help with the lunch and take pictures of the missionaries to post on the Facebook family page. We drove to San Luis Obispo the first day, and it rained heavily the whole time. The people were so excited and grateful for the rain. But it made the drive really tough, 2 1/2 hours. We drove along the beach, but the rain made everything gray. We saw sea otters and lots of waves crashing on rocks, so we can't complain much. Even in the rain, it was beautiful! The next conference was in Oxnard, close to home. On that morning, I met on zoom with my Spanish tutor. I am really making progress in my Spanish, what a blessing! Then, we helped with the conference.

For the next day, we were asked to skip the third conference and drive an elder to the airport instead. He needs surgery and recuperation that will happen better at home in Bountiful. Yes, he graduated from Bountiful high school with my nephew, Chase, who is also serving in the Ventura mission. We picked up the elder at around 5:30 AM and drove to the LA airport. The traffic on the freeway was terrible, seven lanes in both directions, and cars were at a standstill. We are so happy to live outside of LA where life is more like life in Wyoming. After checking the elder into his flight, we went to the temple in Los Angeles and then returned for our flight to Salt Lake City.

The funeral was really nice. I saw family members there whom I have not seen for 45 years. I saw many of my cousins, and even a couple of families from Stockton for whom I used to babysit. The love at the funeral was beautiful. My siblings and I were real, but loving, and it was really good to be there. Larry and I flew home on Sunday, and instead of sitting in 14 lanes of stuck traffic, we drove on the Pacific Coast Highway to Oxnard. It was so beautiful! We walked around Pepperdine University, where dad interviewed successfully, but then the job opening didn't happen. Can you imagine how life would have been different? We drove by some beautiful hikes and beaches, which we promised to return to on Tuesday when we had a few free hours. We loved the ocean.

On Monday, we did laundry, and we went to Walmart to pick up some groceries for the week. We pulled up into the space between a Mercedes and a Porsche. The cars here are so fancy! And they shop at Walmart just like us. Ha ha! We walked for exercise and watched a possum cross a four-lane highway right by our apartment. The next day, we saw an exterminator parked right by the bushes where the possum was making his home. We think he caused a little mischief for the building.