Twelfth Summary for ourselves, working under President Rodriguez

We spent a lot more time in the Mission Office doing the normal paperwork, errands and duties of Housing Coordinators (with Jenny more apartment supplies than you can imagine)

We attended the ECR ward party on 7/4 at Mandalay Beach (Oxnard) and were thrilled to see several of our recent converts getting fully integrated into the ward (Abraham, Rogelio & Otilia; whole Chavez family)

We made backup copies of several apartments' keys at La Gloria in downtown Oxnard

The absolute highlight of this period was taking Everardo Corral to the LA Temple to receive his endowment and make higher covenants with our good Lord (7/8).  we also took Daniela Ramirez with us—soon to depart on her mission to Mexico.

We attended the following farewell dinners for us—Sotos, Bp Terrys, Tenorios, ECR Ward surprise party, Zurchers and the Camarillo grupito, Chavez family, APs (E. Isaacson/Larsen) and Pte/Sis Rodriguez at the Mission Home

We gave 3 farewell talks (in Spanish) in 3 different Sacrament meetings in the same day (ECR, Camarillo, ECR late mtg)--think re Jenny's growth in the Spanish language!  We also think that's a Weatherford family record—6 talks in a single day in a foreign language.

We renewed 2 missionary apartment leases and called a dozen other apt. managers to get new leases sent our way.

I paid August rents for 77 apartments with Elder Haslam

We made one big, last trip up "north" to inspect empty apartments, drop off bikes, bring back furniture from the Miller's old place in Grover beach, visit the troublesome 'leaky stove' apartment, etc. Stops included Ventura, Lompoc, Sta Maria, SLO, Atascadero, Sta Barbara and Grover Beach.

We helped Elder/Sis Miller move out of their Grover Beach duplex as they concluded their 18-month CES mission, bringing a bunch of stuff back in the bed of our F150 mission truck.  we also attended their last Institue class at Cal Poly in SLO.

I translated the High Councilor's talk (like i do most months) in the Camarillo grupo.

We spent 3 days with Sister Peterson turning over Housing Coordinator duties

Lastly, we did new missionary training with Hna. Asdot who was reassigned from Chile.

A very busy, yet meaningful couple of weeks!

Weeks 38 - 41: Camarillo, CA

We are almost ready to head back to Wyoming. We are finishing up our mission. It's been an incredible experience, and we will really miss the beautiful days here. We used to tell people that we didn't mind living in Wyoming because the summers were beautiful. Well, in Camarillo, the summers are beautiful, too. But, the difference is that the winters in Camarillo are beautiful. So why live in Wyoming when you could live in California? Ah, the interesting questions of life. . . . .

We have been so busy and quite exhausted. As housing coordinators, we have opened and signed leases for 5 new apartments, we have closed 3 apartments, with the cleaning and moving of furniture. We have made sure that rents, utility companies, refrigerator rentals, and other aspects of apartment living are taken care of. We have had the opportunity to drive all around the mission, and we have seen flowers, trees, historical buildings, ocean, and hills. It has been really beautiful. We stayed at the historic Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. 

We have a new mission president. He and his wife both grew up in Mexico, and they bring a great understanding of language and culture to the mission. We love them already. There will be another couple working from our apartment when we leave so we are spending these last few days cleaning as thoroughly as we can and finishing up details of our housing work. We've been hoping to see the new crop planted behind our house, and it has sprouted. We now have some variety of squash or pumpkin growing behind the house. There are huge fields of small strawberries everywhere. Because of all the flooding, strawberries were not good in the spring, and so now there aren't enough jobs for our friends. The fields are just now being planted with new strawberries. But the blackberries had a great season. That's what we eat every morning. 

Because we are leaving, our ward held a surprise party for us. They told us that we needed to have a missionary meeting at 5:00 PM to talk about a new mission plan. So we showed up to this meeting and our leader talked for an hour about missionary work. After the meeting, the leader said we should take the "shortcut" to our car through the gym. It was pitch dark, but as we entered, the whole ward yelled "Surprise!" and turned on the lights. They made mole, tacos, enchiladas, soup, tamales, and more for dinner. We ate and hugged everyone there. 

The next day, our other ward had a little party with "Mexican hot dogs" which were hot dogs covered in pico de gallo and a bunch of picante chilis. Ha ha! Several people gave us gifts, like books, Mexican clothes, and pictures. The two families who I taught piano for had us over for dinner and served amazing Mexican food, also. In short, we were treated like royalty, and we really loved it. What an experience! 

During this last month, we took our friend Evarardo to the temple for his endowment. He loved being there with us, and it was a beautiful day. When we got home at around 5:00 PM, Dad and I both sat on the couch and immediately fell asleep. We're not as young as we used to be. Also during the month, our car battery died, but we didn't know that was the problem. So we had it towed out of a slightly-scary neighborhood, and the dealer checked it very carefully. We think it is ready for the trip home. 

When Dad and I were up in San Luis Obispo, we attended institute class with students at Cal Poly. We really enjoyed getting to know these kind and very modern students. The ward mission leader has both his ears pierced and some cool tattoos. When the teacher asked why we attend church, he said, "To find a wife," and two of the females in the class groaned. It was fun! 

At the ward party, our friend Rogelio said his girlfriend made some tortillas for us, and he slipped them into Dad's pocket. When we got home, Dad opened them and found two $100 dollar bills. Rogelio paid us for working to finalize his divorce so that he could marry his girlfriend. But we can't keep the money and we are plotting a way to get it back to him. The great thing is that his divorce seems to be going through. 

We're both sad and happy to be coming home. A quick postscript...upon telling Rogelio he shouldn't have paid us for helping him, that we're happy to serve him, plus he had already paid us with strawberries, smiles and his sweet love...he replied "I'm not paying you for anything.  It was just a little gift from us because we love you so much!"

We just can't get over the generosity and kindness and love of our friends here in southern California. We added pictures (from Facebook) of our bishopric, who we grew to love dearly, Bishop Mario Corona, Jovani Ambriz, and Marlon Gonzales. 

Eleventh summary--this one for our remembrance

In an attempt to loosely summarize what we've been doing on the mission (mostly as Housing Coordinators now), i am sending the following list:

we have moved missionaries into 4 new apartments (1 in Oxnard, 2 in Paso Robles, and 1 in Santa Maria)

we have moved missionaries out of 2 apartments (both in Paso Robles) due to an unsafe neighborhood (armed robbery in the complex, and police cars there on a regular basis)

the other 2 moves were just partially vacating current 4-person apartments and letting them only have 2 missionaries in there (better for managing relationships in companionships)

in all of these moves, Hna Weatherford and i were super impressed with the young missionaries' willingness to serve us and each other!  it made us feel a LOT of hope for the future of the Church and the world with young people like that! 

we flew out to Baltimore (3 days) for Rob's graduation from his MD residency in Ob/Gyn at Johns Hopkins University.  we had a wonderful time and were so PROUD of Rob and his amazing accomplishment and also enjoyed having 4 of our kids together at the same time (Carolyn, Laura, Rob and Josh).

we both bore our testimonies in the "Departing Missionary" Zoom testimony meeting that is mission wide...not only us, but also the Haslams and Carters as senior missionaries/leaders and 10 junior missionaries.  it was a powerful meeting as the cumulative service of dozens of years and the spiritual experiences gained and miracles seen were witnessed by 16 departing missionaries.  many tears of joy and happiness were shed!

We also attended the Los Angeles Temple with the same group of departing missionaries.  i drove the Sienna minivan with 6 of us (incl. Haslams and Hnas Dickinson and Bunnell).  it was a very special day as we took the time to each do an initiatory ordinance, an endowment and witness a sealing of husband to wife and child to parents.  we got to take privately with Pres. Carter on his insights into the washing/annointing ordinances as well as a seasoned sealer.  then he gave us a tour of the very large Assembly room and a sealing room with a wood altar from the SLC Temple.  a great day overall!

we had a wonderful dinner/lesson with our dear friends, Piedad & Carmen Chavez, along with ZLs, Elders Wester and Lafferty and the APs Elder Larsen and Isaacson.  it was a special night, and her chicken/cheese stuffed quesadillas were as good as ever.  they also had manzanita gaseosa which i love.

on the Monday night before the Carters drove off, i had the prompting to organize all the senior missionaries to go over to the mission home and surprise them by singing "God Be with You" on their doorstep.  i think it greatly touched them, there were tears and a lot of good-bye hugs.  very kind words from both Pres. & Sis Carter to us about being 'workhorses of the mission' and doing double duty while also extending.  those words meant a lot to us from the normally quite shy Carters! 

We met our new Mission Leaders, Juan y Martha Rodriguez from north Texas!  they are wonderful, loving people who we are happy to serve with.  we went to their mini zone conference and really enjoyed getting to know them better and hear their testimony of the truth of this Gospel of Jesus Christ.

we also trained the newly arriving missionaries (4) in Housing and bike issues.

all in all, we have never been so exhausted—mostly a cumulative effect of 9 months in the mission field, combined with double duty of both MLS and Housing, and trying to keep up with key events in our kids' lives.  wow!  we have prayed mightily for the Lord to sustain us and He has.  how lucky are we to get to do this wonderful work!

along the MLS lines, we got Everardo Corral prepared to go to the Temple for his own endowment, by helping translate for his TR interview with Bp Terry and being there for support with his Pres. Basua interview.  we are excited to take him down to LA this coming Saturday.

we also attended the baptism of Juan Nunez and did the music like we often do.

in order to protect our mental/emotional health, we have carved out fun dates to Wood Ranch Grill, the Camarillo Greek festival and time at Zuma beach in Malibu. 

life has been very busy, but also very fulfilling and deeply satisfying!

Week 36 and 37: Camarillo, CA

We spent a busy couple of weeks with housing and moving elders. We were thrilled to see that our new missionaries developed a deep love for Abraham and continued to fellowship with him. We attended our typical First-Sunday missionary correlation meeting with the stake presidency in the Camarillo Stake where Elder Lafferty reported on mission goals. We attended a meeting in which our new mission leaders spoke and taught us, followed by lunch. We were very impressed with President and Sister Rodriguez' deep spirituality, and we loved the way they spoke with love to our missionaries. We also took pictures with our new mission leaders, and we included two missionaries who we love, Elder Isaacson (grandson of Jim Tate of Springfield) and Hermana Waite, who served alongside us in our areas longer than anyone else.