All of a sudden, California is not so cold, and all the flowers are in bloom, and the whole area is stunning. We feel so blessed to be here! And we're sneezing a lot.
We had a fun week! We started by waking up at 2:00 AM to take a missionary to the airport. After we were finished, we high-fived each other and said our work was finished. Little did we know . . . . the missionaries who were supposed to come from Utah for transfers experienced a ton of snow in Utah and their Monday flight was cancelled. Then, the Tuesday flight was majorly delayed. That means that the missionaries arrived late on Tuesday night and needed to be trained on Wednesday morning. So we took the returning missionaries to the airport on Wednesday morning, and of course, all their flights were delayed, and the airline could only find flights two days later. What a mess! But after two or three hours of working, we got all five of our missionaries on flights home. What a relief! We celebrated by eating some clam chowder on the water in the Santa Barbara pier. The ocean was stunning. As usual, we were dead tired by the evening.
On Thursday, we taught piano lessons and bought some bacon avocados from a fruit stand on the way home. They are SO SO good! We had the opportunity to meet with a few of our friends this week, and we chuckled at their names in English. For example, Pedro de la Rosa is Peter of the Rose, and Jose Fuentes is Joseph Fountains, and Pedro via Lobo is Peter Way of the Wolf. Very cool names! By the time Friday came, we felt that we needed some time to relax in nature, so we drove the 20 minutes from our house to Point Mugu (pronounced Magoo). We hiked in the mountains with a view of the ocean and the first wildflowers of the season. Then we sat by the ocean and enjoyed the sunshine, the sound of waves, and the whales we saw from the beach. That night we went to the church building to meet with some friends. A woman was circling around the parking lot in her Suburban. When she saw Larry, she asked him if he could give a blessing to her son. So we asked if we could talk to him. We asked if he really wanted a blessing and how he was feeling. He said he was depressed. We asked if anything had happened that depressed him. He told us that being in jail was depressing. (He is 15 years old.) Then we asked why he was in jail. He said he was a member of a gang, and he was arrested on charges of conspiracy to murder. That's when Jenny started feeling more than a little nervous. There are definitely scary gangs here in California. But Larry gave him a beautiful blessing, and we hope that he can start over without the gang. My guess is that his life is in danger.
So again, we felt stressed. On Saturday night, we went on a date to a Thai restaurant, and we supported an English Connect lesson. On Sunday Larry translated two talks from English into Spanish, and I tried to make sure the headphones worked. We did our usual piano playing and leading, and then we had dinner with a family from Mexico. It was really good, as always. They served fish tacos and this Mexican bread pudding with raisins and nuts for dessert. Yummy! Their Easter traditions include lentil soup and this bread pudding, and we were so glad to share in these. So yes, it was a very busy week. But -- very rewarding!
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