Week 15: Camarillo, CA

We had a good week. As the week progressed, I noticed that Chase Bethers was smiling a little more and that he seemed to be sleeping and eating better. Larry took him out to Chick Fil A and he ate a big sandwich with fries. That made me feel better. Chase invited us to teach a family named Chavez with two cute girls (ages 5 and 10), and we have really enjoyed getting to know this family. Both of the parents work in the strawberry fields, and they gave us some of the most beautiful strawberries that they picked. We were so grateful. They are getting married on Feb. 11, and we are going to try to make it special with a cake and punch. 

We started the week by going on a boat to the Channel Islands. On the way to the big island named Santa Cruz, we saw two gray whales and about 100 dolphins. We were absolutely delighted! It was a sunny day without wind and the trip out to the island took about two hours by boat. It was beautiful. We hiked about 5 miles along the bluffs overlooking the ocean. We brought our own water and food in a backpack because the island has no services. Then the boat came back for us five hours later. It was an adventure that we loved. The Channel Islands have never been connected to California by land, so the species on the island have evolved, like species on the Galapagos Islands. It is a fascinating place. We saw two red foxes which are only found on the Channel Islands and a Island Scrub jay, again only found on the island. 

On Wednesday, we met some sister missionaries in a park to teach a man named Mario. We learned that he is married and has four children. He was hard to understand because he had a huge white beard and moustache covering his mouth. He wore a huge sombrero. Think of santa claus in a big hat. So we asked him if he would like to be with his wife and children forever. He said he likes his wife, but his kids are like burros. Then he kept talking about burros, rolling his rs all the time, and making hand movements like a burro. He said they are stubborn, they do not work, they want him to take care of them even though they are in their thirties. All the time he was making faces and hand movements like a burro. Well, Dad and I nearly lost it. We were laughing so hard that tears were coming out of our eyes, and Mario loved it. He kept going on and on about his burros. We thought we were going to have to take a walk so that we could breathe because we were laughing so hard. The sister missionaries probably thought we were crazy. After that meeting, Dad and I thought that Mario was just a lonely old guy who likes to tell burro stories, but he came to church on Sunday and brought his wife to meet us. 

On Thursday night, Larry and I visited an English connect class that has been going for a year in Santa Paula. It was amazing. These young missionaries have become really good teachers, helping each student pronounce and speak and memorize new grammar. We loved seeing the program work for our English-learning friends.

On Friday I tried to teach piano to a 7-year-old in Spanish and it was a disaster. I don't know the words for notes, keys, treble clef, etc. But oh well, I tried. Then on Saturday, Larry and I went trying to see if people still lived at the addresses we were given. After searching for a while, Larry took me to the Thousand Oaks Stake for their preparedness fair, which I loved. I went to the gardening class, where the man said that if you live in California, you should have a garden because it's just too easy. He brought oranges from his yard for all of us to eat, and he produces 40 pounds of tomatoes a week in the summer. I had so many memories of the amazing gardens my family had growing up. And finally, church on Sunday was wonderful. We know more than half of the people in our wards, we understand a little more than half of the talks we hear, and we play and lead the music, which is fun. We are the music-leading team. 

Weeks 13 and 14: Camarillo, CA

California has been getting these atmospheric rivers that dump inches of rain at a time, and two weeks ago, Ventura County, where we live, got hammered with rain. Every six weeks, we have transfer week, where Elder Weatherford and I help transport missionaries to airports or to new assignments within the mission. Well, our transfer week happened on the same days as the atmospheric river. First, the Santa Barbara airport where we usually receive our missionaries was closed by the storm. So the 14 missionaries who were flying down from the Provo MTC were stranded in Phoenix and they had to spend the night there. Our missionary in Ojai, who was supposed to fly to Africa because his visa was approved, had to drive to Bakersfield and back because the road was washed away. There were so many stories like this. Our job was to do emergency airport runs, have missionaries stay in our spare bedroom until we could get them to their assignment, and to pick up groups with the big mission van. We were exhausted by the time Wednesday was finished. But we did it! 

On Friday night, the Balaich family arrived in Camarillo and we had three blissful days with them. We tried to go to a different part of the ocean each time, and Juliet LOVED the little sand dunes. But it rained the whole time with no break, and the oceans were full of mud, debris, and broken sewer stuff. So we definitely could not get in the water. Still, we loved being together and sharing some of our favorite things from the mission. We were able to take the Balaiches to a baptism and to church and they understood most of the Spanish. It was really fun!  By the way, we loved listening to the music from Moana in the car. 

We had many inspirational visits and meetings last week. We said sad farewells to Abraham, our friend who is so proud of his sobriety. He moved to Yuma, Arizona to pick Celery, and he will be back in Oxnard when the strawberries ripen in March. He wants to have a big party, and we are excited! We took a Spanish-speaking sister to have some small surgery, and we held 8 meetings for the teachers of English Connect. This is the time of year where there is not much work in the fields, so our friends who are learning English move, and we miss them. In English Connect, they can earn a certificate and we are trying to focus on helping them achieve the certificate. It's a great way to help people work and get better jobs. We love it!

Then, on Thursday, Brenda called to tell me that Brent had a heart attack and she asked me to tell Chase. I asked him if we could meet, and when he saw me, he saw the tears in my eyes and said, "uh oh." We hugged for at least 10 minutes as I told him. Ever since Thursday, Larry and I have had reasons to see Chase and to check in with him to learn how he is doing. He gets a little better each day. We will be flying with Chase to the funeral on Friday and Saturday. We sure have grown to love him. 

Thank you for all your love this week. Losing Brent has been very hard on my heart because I know that he wanted to grow old together with Brenda, because he was always such a positive, loving presence at our family gatherings, and because his children are quite old enough to lose their father. Larry and I have had several talks about how it felt for him to lose his father at close to the same age. I love you all very much! I'm just grateful to be alive. 

Fourth 3-week Update for President Carter

Hello dear Pres. Carter,

We're doing well and hope that you and Sis. Carter are doing the same—we pray for you both often.  We both admire your dedication and commitment to serving the Lord and these wonderful young missionaries!

In the past 3 weeks, we have given rides (to/from airports) to the following missionaries:

E. Lank (new to mission, at Burbank airport), Hna Lambert (new, at LAX), Hna Blake (new, LAX), Elder Pender (go home, SBA), 6 departing missionaries (LAX)

We also helped with the 1-week early "transfer train" for E. Hales, Hna Furstanau, Hna Tucker and Hna Ford (running to Sta Maria and back)

We attended the English Connect classes in Simi Valley by Hnas Martinez, Melville; in Camarillo taught by Hnas Palmer/Lambert; and in Oxnard taught by a member (Hna Ornellas), assisted by Hnas Allen/Waite.   All did fine with 1-3 people attending.  Hna Weatherford attended a lot of Zoom training sessions for each of the 8 zones, led by Hna Martinez and she has a much better feel for what's happening mission-wide.  in fact, we'd love to have 5 minutes with you and Sis. Carter tomorrow after Staff Meeting, if you have time, to discuss some ideas.

We attended 2 baptisms--Leah Avalos and Juan Carlos Melgar.  always so sweet to be a part of!

We were privileged to teach 10 lessons with the junior missionaries!  Always another highlight for us.  We had a few more special lessons with Abraham Torres, especially a 'farewell' one with Elders Larsen/Bethers Friday night as Abraham left Oxnard temporarily for Yuma AZ (for celery fields there for about 2.5 months).

We helped a new convert (Omar Cervantes) have an interview with Bp Corona about receiving the Aaronic Priesthood.  Gilberto Rubio is now an ordained Priest and we are planning a date to take him down to the LA Temple, once he gets his limited-use Temple Recommend (scheduled for Thursday).

We began teaching the Temple Prep class to Jose Rangel in our Camarillo group and hope to get their family sealed in the next few months.

We received word today that Camino Real is going to start a late (7p) Sacrament meeting for Spanish-speaking members on Feb. 12 and do so 2/month for those who work on Sunday morning/afternoon.

We loved our trip to the Temple with you both and the 5 departing missionaries, as well as the nice dinner in your home!

Week 12: Camarillo, Ca

This week has been a little crazy, as you might imagine. The hills around us keep becoming greener and more beautiful by the day with all this rain. There are hundreds of people in the fields planting spring crops, and everything here is muddy. Elder Weatherford and I had the opportunity to meet with a few people who love uplifting messages, sometimes we meet them at the church, and sometimes we chat in the garage because their spouse doesn't really want religion. We are grateful that they like our messages of love. On Thursday, I gave a piano lesson to a sister here. And we found a Catholic charity that is closer to our new duplex that needs volunteers, so we are excited! We will take a fingerprint test in order to protect the people who we will serve, and then we will train, and finally, we will deliver food, talk or read to elderly people, and drive them to doctor appointments. In Camarillo where we live, the population is mostly over age 65, and we enjoy the older people. We have had rain most days here.

But on Monday, the rain just started pouring, and that is the day that the Santa Barbara airport closed. The town of Carpentaria was completely cut off by flooded roads, and even our Oxnard had flooded roads and strawberry fields. There are huge puddles on the golf courses, and many spots on Highway 101 are standing pools of water. Of course, Monday was the day that 14 new missionaries arrived, Tuesday was the day that we transfer about 1/3 of the missionaries to new assignments, and Wednesday is the day that several missionaries finish their missions and go home. Most of these flights and transfers have been cancelled and postponed, but one by one, we are getting them to alternate airports, such as Burbank. Tomorrow morning, Dad and I will take a few to the LA airport, where we will drop them off, one by one, on their various rescheduled flights on Delta, United, Southwest, and American. One more day tomorrow and then we will rest. In general, we are amazed at how well the freeways were designed, and we take the main roads to the airport. Besides driving about 10 miles per hour for 20 miles, the roads are safe.

Our home is safe, too. We have a big arroyo right behind us, and it fills partly with water and provides great drainage. We are doing well, and we love the adventure. Most of our pictures below are from the Reagan Library and Air Force One museum in Simi Valley. Also, our friends, Miguel and Belia Soto, and our friend, Roberto with Elder Bethers playing the piano behind him. 

Week 11: Camarillo, CA

Welcome to the year 2023! We are welcoming it here with tons of rain, and we feel really blessed. We have seen two huge eucalyptus trees down on the 101 (Ventura Highway), but otherwise, our area is doing well with the moisture, which we desperately need. Right now, the hills are all a gorgeous green, almost like we live in the jungle. 

So what did we do this week? Well, we had some great meetings and lessons with some of our friends on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, we began the 2+ -hour drive to Santa Maria so that we could watch and work with our English Connect teachers. When we drive this far, we try to spend the night in a church apartment with another couple, so we spent the night in Pismo Beach with the Millers. The next morning, the couple showed us where they work at the San Luis Obispo Institute with students at Cal Poly. We enjoyed hearing about their mission and how much they enjoy working with the college students. On our way back home, we decided to take more time by going to see elephant seals and the Hearst Castle in the north part of the mission. It was raining a lot, but we still LOVED the crazy seals. They were pretty wild because it is birthing and mating season. We saw mothers nursing their young and males fighting for domination of the females. We enjoyed learning more about the Hearsts at the visitors center, but decided against going up the hill on a bus to the castle in the rain. We hiked in a beautiful park named Montana de Oro, and we walked out on piers looking at the California Sea Lions. It was so cloudy and rainy that we couldn't see whales, but this is the season for them. We got to see a semi truck on fire. We saw some gorgeous tidepools and a monarch butterfly garden with tens of thousands of butterflies sleeping in the trees. The butterflies blended into the trees so that at first, we didn't realize what we were seeing. Fortunately we brought the binoculars and we could see them well at close range. We also stopped at a cave with native American paintings from the 1600s. The paintings are behind a metal grate, but they are beautiful. Again, the binoculars made seeing the paintings possible. There is so much to see here and we are constantly amazed! 

On Saturday night, for New Years Eve, we played games with another couple who are working in the mission here. They are in charge of finding apartments for every one who is assigned to the mission and keeping everything in good repair. Then, on Sunday, I played the piano for a Hermana who sang a beautiful song in Spanish. Later that day, our mission president called and asked us to take another trip up to Santa Maria and Lompoc to pick up four missionaries who went home today in time for the Spring semester. So Larry drove the huge mission van in the rain another 6 hours to pick up and drop off a few missionaries, each with two 50-pound bags and a 30 pound backpack. They cram those things full. One of our missionaries who is going home to Park City did some skateboarding here while he was serving his mission and won some skateboards as a prize. So he donated all his clothes at the end of his mission to Goodwill and filled his suitcases with 4 skateboards. The van that Larry drives has a little female voice that says things like "please watch your speed" and other things like "warning: aggressive driving" when the mission president drives into his driveway. 

That is pretty much a typical week for us. We do all sorts of interesting things, and we love the variety in assignments and in the wonderful people we meet. We are learning Spanish together. Last week, we both heard a talk, and afterwards we compared notes.I asked him what the whole Buzz Lightyear talk was about. Larry said, "Buzz Lightyear?  I thought the speaker was saying "Bad Lawyer" Now that talk makes more sense."  Larry said that he really enjoyed the idea of believing in yourself but needing a realistic view of who you are; I didn't really understand those deep concepts in Spanish, but once I combined those with Buzz Lightyear, I got it. Ha ha! It takes two of us together to understand what some of our friends are saying. That said, Larry still has some of the very best Spanish in the mission and I'm very proud of him.

Third 3-Week Update for President Carter

Hello dear Pres. Carter,

We're doing well and hope that you and Sis. Carter are doing the same—hopefully you got some family time with Jared and Hannah.  We pray for you both often.

In the past 3 weeks, we have only given a ride (to airport) to the following missionary:

E. Strauss (home to Tokyo, Japan)

I suspect this will pick up here soon.

We attended the English Connect class in Santa Maria by Hnas Furstanua, Jorgenson and Robinson.  They did a nice job and they had 2 brother friends attend.

We attended 2 baptisms--Abraham Torres and Omar Cervantes.

We were privileged to teach 14 lessons with the junior missionaries!  Always a highlight for us.  Twice we have taught lessons with Abraham, who was baptized last week--in both cases, Abraham's powerful testimony has been the highlight of the lesson as our new friend listens to someone who has really changed his life and greatly improved his relationship with Heavenly Father and our Savior.  What a pleasure to be able to witness such powerful testimonies and feel the power of the Savior's Atonement in action!

We helped two new converts (Gilberto Rubio, Rogelio Rodriguez) have interviews with Bp Corona about receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and helped Gilberto prepare some family names to take down to the LA Temple, once he's ordained a priest.

We loved the powerful Christmas Zone Conferences as well, focused on the life & ministry of our amazing Savior Jesus the Christ...what a spiritual feast that week was!

We spoke again in the Camino Real ward Sacrament meeting.  i have also helped the ward clean up their records now that i'm offically sustained and set apart as a membership clerk (always coordinating with the Ward Clerk and EQ President, of course).  We had dinner with Hno Aparicio (Stk High Council) and his family to get to know them better.  We are hopeful to get the "LATE" Sacrament meeting idea up and running by mid-January.

The longer we are here, the more we are loving this mission and the work that we get to do each day/week.  As I mentioned on the phone, Hna Weatherford and i are considering extending our mission for a few months.  We do have some scheduling conflicts and questions that we'd love to talk to you and Sis Carter about when you have time. (maybe after transfers are over next week?)