We truly enjoy your notes, your calls, your photos and videos, and every little thing that keeps us connected. Dad and I are now officially known as Guppa Guppa Silly (Grandpa and Grandma Silly). We are a performing group and we can sing "If you're happy and you know it" on Marco Polo. We also dance. We have a famous Donald Duck impressionist in the group. Our marco polo videos have received over 100 views in the city of Austin, Tx. And we're pretty sure we have some fans in Cheyenne, Wy, too.
This morning, we got up at 2:00 AM and drove a sister missionary to the airport so that she could fly to the Dominican Republic to serve her mission there. Her visa came in on Friday afternoon, and she had to get ready to go quickly. When we returned home from the airport at about 5:30, we had a hard time falling back asleep, like we usually have, so we are a little tired tonight. But we enjoy driving with a missionary in our car and getting to know them a little bit.
We had an amazing week last week. On Thursday, we rode on a bus with about 60 missionaries to the LA Temple. Larry's parents were married there in 1958, and it is a special temple. We helped a senior sister in the office prepare lunches for 150 missionaries the day before. She is quite forgetful, but really cute! She had us put the bread together with the meat and cheese, then place lettuce and tomato in another baggie to be added later. On Wednesday night, she stored all the sandwiches in her trunk, I think she forgot them. Thus on Thursday, another senior missionary said he was afraid to eat his. I told him that deli meat usually has a lot of preservatives, and I wasn't afraid to eat it. So we ate it and no one got sick. But we couldn't get the bread open. All the cheese and meat and bread were glued together. The cute senior sister who organized the sandwiches and forgot them in her trunk kept trying to get her sandwich open so that she could add the lettuce and tomato. Finally, I heard her say really loudly, "Well, I'll be. There's no way to get this darn thing open." And she ate it without the lettuce, as did we all.
The very next day, Larry and I picked up Brother and Sister Rangel and took them to the LA Temple for his endowment. It was a really special day and we loved being there with them. The four of us went to a middle eastern food place afterwards close to the temple on Santa Monica Blvd. Larry drove us along the Hwy 1 so that we could see Malibu and the beautiful Pacific Ocean. The next morning, Larry and I drove to the LA Temple again to meet the Rangels for their family sealing. They drove with their twin daughters in their truck and we met outside the temple. We were so delighted to see almost every member of our tiny Spanish branch there at the temple to celebrate with the Rangels. It was a very special day, probably the best day of our mission, and a fulfillment of Larry's wish to go with a family to be sealed. After the sealing, a young man who grew up in American schools, but part of the branch, suggested that we meet for tacos at the Tacos Tu Madre shop. Every time he suggested it, our members from Mexico would giggle and roll their eyes. Finally, they told us that Tu Madre is a very offensive curse word in Mexico. What kind of taco place uses a pejorative in its title? We were curious. It turns out that the "taco" place was in Persian Square and featured tacos with teriyaki sauce and tofu. They were delicious! I don't think the middle eastern owners had any idea that the name in Mexican was an offensive term.
Finally, on Sunday, we had our typical day of three sets of meetings, in which Larry led the music, I played, we both bore our testimonies, we provided food for a pot luck dinner, and we picked up our sister for her flight from Simi Valley (the place where Reagan is buried.) Our friends here love President Reagan; he found a way to offer them citizenship. We are exhausted, but very happy. Amazingly, on Monday night, Larry's fever lifted and he was able to get through our busy schedule without feeling sick. He has put 1000s of miles on our car here in Southern California. No easy task. I'm grateful for him.
From Larry -- Mom was also nice and didn’t throw me under the bus like she could’ve, because I was the guy who kept repeating the store name while walking on the Temple grounds and the branch members kept laughing louder and louder each time I repeated it, till I finally asked "does this term have some slang meaning other than your mama??"
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