We are truly growing and enjoying our work here in California, if you can call eating fresh produce and going outside without a coat "working." Every week is so interesting for us. This week, we did our usual service at the Catholic Charity organization. We handed out a lot of turkey dinner packages, and we felt the love of those who donated them. People are really good and very generous. We met with our Elders Quorum president, who just happens to be Larry's first companion on his youth mission, and he asked us to go by some houses to find if the members still lived there. This was very interesting and gave us the opportunity to see parts of Oxnard that were new to us. Maybe a tiny bit dangerous? But we went in the bright sunlight and were very safe. One of the addresses was a church, specifically the "Embrace! Jesus!" church, so we went in (the door was open) and we asked if anyone there had heard of this person. It was Wednesday and the people there were running a preschool. They had never heard of her, but then they looked at our tags and said, "Oh, the Mormons! This was a Mormon church until about 5 years ago when we started renting it from them." As Larry and I walked around with the women, we could see the traces of our typical building, the accordion doors in the classrooms and the cultural hall (gym). It was surreal.
On Wednesday, we took a morning to visit Ventura Harbor, and we thought it was beautiful. We loved watching the pelicans diving into the sea for fish. We love the smell and the sound of the ocean. We love the views from these harbors, and we love watching the surfers in their wetsuits.
For Thanksgiving, we went to Golden Corral, and it was fun! We studied most of the day and we watched a little soccer. Our members here LOVE the World Cup, so we like to talk with them about it. Last Sunday, the ward clerk's office was shut during Sunday School, when he usually helps people, and when someone opened the door to ask if he was helping, they found him watching the Germany Spain match on his computer. Ha ha! On Friday, we helped in the mission office so that the other couples could go and shop. We received about 40 packages for young missionaries for Christmas. What a blessing!
On Friday night, we had dinner with the Sotos, strong members in one of our wards. Elder Soto is the Elders Quorum President and Larry's boyhood mission companion. I am going to teach Sister Soto piano lessons. She has always wanted to learn. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. I'm really looking forward to working with her. On Saturday, we spent the day driving up to Lompoc to watch and help missionaries teach an English class. On our way to Lompoc, we went to Solvang, a Danish town, and I LOVED it! I told the missionaries in our group all about Grandpa Schow and going to Copenhagen. I am very proud of my Danish heritage.
Finally, last Sunday, the bishopric counselor asked Larry and I to bear short testimonies in Spanish so we worked on writing them all week. On Sunday, he announced us as the MAIN speakers! What? We thought we were going to talk for 5 minutes each! But, the "short" talk given before our "long" talks was given by a cute older woman from Peru. She spoke for 15-20 minutes, and Larry and I wanted to hug her for it! We have learned that the members here speak a lot for long periods of time. So our 5-minute talks worked out just fine after all. And the meeting ended on time. When the meeting started, there were only about 30-40 people there, and I felt less nervous thinking that it was a small ward. Then, as we sang the opening song, another 40 slowly drifted in. The young men shut the doors after the opening song, and then when they opened the doors again, another 80 people came pouring in and filled every seat on every bench. Yikes! And this is the ward that starts at 11:30 AM.
This week, Larry and I will be very busy driving missionaries to the airport. Some Taiwan-bound missionaries got their visas, and a Brazil-bound missionary got his visa, too. We will take our first trip to the airport at 2:00 AM tomorrow. So today, we worked to clean our apartment and fill the car with gas, etc. to prepare. When Larry took out the recycling, he was surprised to find the doors to the huge dumpster garage closed. They are always open, and the trash dumpster garage was wide open. Larry opened the recycling door, and then he jumped out of his skin! A man was sleeping in the space with the recycling. He was homeless. Larry thought he was smart to sleep with the recycling instead of with the stinky trash. The weather here is good enough that we see a lot of homeless.
I want to finish with something spiritual. We taught a man, Alberto, who wants to go to the temple to do baptisms for his family. His dad was murdered when he was four years old. Larry told him that grandpa just died recently and that maybe grandpa was teaching Alberto's dad about the gospel on the other side of the veil. Elder Bethers was there, too, and he said a closing prayer that asked to bless Alberto's dad and Grandpa to be well and to perhaps find each other in the next life. It was a really special moment. I have loved working with and seeing Chase several times a week. That is only one of the many wonderful things that have happened to us and for us on this mission.
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