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.
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