WHEW!

Why does everything happen all at once?  The week before last was slow and even boring.  Then there was so much going on this week that I had to miss some of it.

For example, my friend, Marsha Adaams, was visiting from Utah.  I couldn't even get away to have lunch with her because we were processing new missionaries.  On Wednesdays of transfer weeks we go to the Temple with departing missionaries, then dinner and testimony meetings--a  rather long day.  The next morning they all leave for home.  There is no good flight connection, however, for the Islanders.  So, I had a young Samoan companion for 48 hours while she waited for her flight.  I'm sure I'll repeat the experience next month when Sister Angimarau leaves.

On Friday morning, Val was scheduled to fly into Sacramento where we would have lunch and some face time, then continue on to Clear Lake where she does decorating work.  The Salt Lake airport was closed for all but a few hours in the middle of the day.  By the time her plane arrived in Sacramento, it was too late for her to get to her final destination.  So, Val had a sleepover with us!  We spent most of the evening un- and re-packing Sister A's suitcases, which were 40+ pounds overweight.  I'm still finding discarded stuff:  in the trunk of my car, in my apartment, and in the office.  She was heartbroken at leaving her fur-lined leather boots here.  (Really?  In Samoa?)  She was also sad to leave behind the boxes of cookie mix she was taking to show how she had learned to bake.

Today we went downtown to the art museum to see the Norman Rockwell exhibition before it leaves next weekend.  It was wonderful.  I was pleasantly reminded how much of my life was portrayed in those paintings, from eating in a railroad dining car to welcoming home a soldier-hero.  I love how he showed life at the truest level, but with humor and optimism.

The rest of the museum was good, also.  This picture is for Ben:  an AK-47 and a grenade covered with blue and white porcelain.









It was a wild week, and I'm tired.  But the longest and my second-least-favorite month of the year is coming to a close.  And we had blue skies and sunshine again.  I'm OK with missing the extreme weather back home in Utah this year.

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS

It's lemon season here, and it reminds me of zucchini season in Utah.  You can't go anywhere without someone pushing a sack of lemons on you.  I'm almost used to seeing oranges and lemons growing on trees. I got acquainted with a new tree today, a bay leaf tree.  Of course I knew that they grew on trees; they are, after all, leaves, but I'd never seen a huge tree full of them.  The cute little Chilean woman who owned the tree cut me a big branch to take home:  some for cooking, some to keep ants out of Sister D's domain, and some to keep moths out of closets.  She tells me that the tree would grow in Utah.  If so, why doesn't anybody have one?

It's 65 degrees today!  The second day in a row with clear blue skies, sunshine, and warmth.  Hard to remember that at the first of the week we were freezing.  The older I get, the more aware I am of how therapeutic sunshine is.  There is truly sunshine in my soul today.

The mission cowboy, from Moroni, Utah, had a birthday today.  He leaves for home next Thursday, so I was surprised to see a birthday "fat box" arrive at the office yesterday.  I can't imagine him wanting to stuff anything else in his suitcases; rather, they all leave stuff behind at the last minute.  It's "mail fast" week, so I'm not forwarding any mail until after transfers.  So I decided to take his package to him.  It's P-day and the sun was shining, so I drove up to Shingle Springs, then on to Placerville.  Those who've been to visit me know that Placerville is also called "Hangtown," but I'd never spent much time there.  Today I visited a very graphic historic site:

I also found a great little used book shop, and I'm well set for the remainder of my mission.  I read 99 books in 2012, the same number as in 2011.  (I have to write them down so I don't read the same ones over and over again.)  I haven't been sleeping well lately, so I've already read 9 in 2013.  If you want any recommendations, you'll have to ask me right after I finish one; otherwise, I can't remember.  But if I have total recall in the next life, imagine how smart I'll be!

MORE BIRDS

I have denied myself cute birdhouses all these years because I resented birds and didn't want to be hypocritical.  They ate the chicken feed and pooped all over the yard tools in the barn; they ate ALL the cherries off my trees and pooped all over the driveway.  So I find it odd how taken with birds I am here in California.

The latest sighting is of a pelican!  Right in my apartment complex, on the very top of a huge tree.  Seriously, right on top of the tree.  It makes me wonder how many things I don't notice at home in the busyness of life.

The mission got off to a rocky start this year.  There were four automobile accidents in the first week of January.  Yesterday a bike/car accident was phoned in.  The Church keeps their fleet in pristine condition, so every little bump and scrape is attended to, and it's costly.

Last night I got to help caravan a family of 10 to the Temple for a tour.  Elders Walker and Haufano had invited an investigator and her 9 children (5 of her own and 4 of her brother's, who is incarcerated).  They arranged for a ward member with a van for most of the kids, and I drove the mom and two youngest children.  The elders had even arranged for car seats for the little ones.  (I don't know why that surprises me.)  It was cold and the kids were rambunctious, but what a sweet experience.  The kids were smart and absolutely beautiful.  The mom is my new hero.  She's set a date to be baptized on the 22nd of this month.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's been cold here--really cold.  In the low 30's, which feels a lot colder than 30 does in Utah.  I sit in the reception area of the mission office, and the door is constantly being opened and closed.  Often, missionaries will open the door and lean outside to talk on their cell phones.  I'm beginning to understand why my predecessor shot rubber bands at them (the missionaries).

The count is in.  The California Sacramento Mission baptized 696 people in 2012; or as President Lewis puts it, the equivalent of two wards.

Pete Hart, Mr. BYU, has been bringing all his unwanted Christmas gifts to the office.  At first it was just candy and sweets.  Yesterday it was a pair of new leather gloves and a hat.  He's wonderful to these missionaries.

On New Year's Day we went on a walking tour of Sacramento.  It was really cold, but we saw parts of the city we hadn't seen before, including blue trees.  President and Sister Lewis went with us, and it was a nice, if cold, day.

BAPTISMS

Yesterday I participated in two baptisms.  In the morning, Dulcy was first married to her boyfriend and father of her daughter, then baptized.  One of the Relief Society sisters made her a beautiful bouquet of roses, and I made wedding cookies for refreshments.  Today she was confirmed a member of the Church in Sacrament Meeting.

In the evening, Farzareh was baptized.  It was odd how this came about.  The AP's got a phone call last Sunday from the Roseville Mission saying that an investigator had moved into our area and was ready to be baptized.  The sisters assigned to our ward asked me to go with them (not sure why) to visit her.  She's Iranian and had converted from Muslim to Christian about 5 years ago.  She was in an apartment with no furniture--we sat on the floor.  She's just undergone a divorce and was there with her two sons, handsome and charming boys.  She's living here temporarily, and has purchased a condo several miles away.  Her understanding was that she would be baptized in the Roseville Mission on Saturday night (last).  She was actually baptized in the ward where her condo is, which is in our mission but in an adjoining stake.  I drove the biking sisters.  Sister Agavale played the piano and I led the music.  One of our elders baptized her (his first), and the bishop from her old area in Roseville spoke.  It was one of the sweetest baptisms I've attended.  I think her sons will be right behind her.

In between baptisms, Judy Sisco and I saw Les Mis.  It's still, in my opinion, one of the finest things written about the nobility of the human spirit.  The movie version followed the Broadway production very closely, and I wasn't disappointed.

An emotional, uplifting, satisfying day.

CHRISTMAS

After Santa's run on Saturday, over 40 packages came into the office on Monday, Christmas Eve.  The office elders and assistants donned their elf hats and reindeer antlers and set off, again, to deliver Christmas cheer.

Elders Haufano and Walker



Christmas Eve was spent at the home of ward members, who served us a prime rib dinner on Spode Christmas china.  Wonderful!

On Christmas morning I hosted the six "little sisters" in our zone for breakfast.  One of them brought her family's traditional Christmas morning bread.  I made rice pudding and served egg nog with 7-up, neither of which was a hit.  But we had a good time.  They left to go skype with their families, then wash their bedding. Seems they had slept on the floor of the living room and made a nice fire in the fireplace early Christmas morning...without opening the flue.  I've been there and done that.  Undaunted, they planned another fire for Christmas night and were pretty sure they could pull this one off.  The office elders and assistants apparently had a sleepover, too.  They took the tree from the office to their home, so they could sleep underneath it.  Kind of a sweet mind picture.

One of the newer couples in the mission, the Hudnors from New Hampshire, invited us to share turkey dinner at their apartment in the afternoon.  Good food; good friends; good visit.

It rained all day.  Just as I was climbing into my flannel PJ's for an early night, the biking sisters called me to see if I would pick them up from the church where the zone was playing basketball. Still tucking "kids" into bed...

A few of my favorite things from Christmas 2012:  Elder Austin receiving a package containing his dad's missionary tag; the Star of Bethlehem flowers Brooke brought into the office, which have lasted all month; the generosity of strangers wanting to supply gifts for needy missionaries; the goofy Christmas cards the missionaries all made at Wal-Mart.

Star of Bethlehem flowers

                               


And through it all, the work went on.  We had 18 baptisms last Saturday, and 4 on Christmas Day.  A "white" Christmas and the promise of a happy new year.

HO HO HO

I'll try recap Christmas so far in the California Sacramento Mission.

Last week every missionary met with their zone at the Mormon Center for temple zone conference.  Christmas pictures were taken, instruction given, Christmas lunch provided by local Relief Societies, and a temple session was attended.  These conferences were held Tuesday-Friday, to accommodate everyone.

Meanwhile, back at the office, the last-minute packages started pouring in.  On Monday alone there were close to 200 delivered.  After weeks of carefully logging in each package, color-coding it by zone and placing in the proper "pile," things got out of control.  A sweet 87-year-old woman came in to help me.  She's very sharp and energetic and has great organizational skills.  I didn't discovered till midweek that she couldn't tell hot pink tape from florescent orange.

Some missionaries received 10-12 packages; others nothing.  We have 192 missionaries, so do the math.  We waited until the last minute to shop, since boxes were still arriving daily.  Some moms had called me ahead of time to ask for the names of Island missionaries who wouldn't be getting gifts from home, so we had extra help. On Thursday night,  after zone conferences and hauling and stacking boxes all day, we went shopping to buy pajama bottoms, sweaters, etc.  Friday night was spent loading the trailer.  I should mention here that it has been raining, seriously raining, for days now, so the loading and unloading was done in a downpour.

We left yesterday morning at 6:20 a.m., and finished our Santa run at 8:00 p.m.  After all the planning, there were still some missionaries who received nothing.  Some whom we had shopped for received packages yesterday, and the office elders waited at the office for mail delivery and then caught up with us with the day's deliveries.  But other packages that had been logged in for an individual didn't materialize.  We had some generic gifts to give them with no name tags but it was still hard to see one face in every group with nothing from home.  It's not a perfect world yet.  Everyone did receive a shopping bag full of hygiene items, candy, socks, etc., which we spent Monday night assembling.

Whew!  Santa's job is really hard.  And it's still raining.

But the up side of the week was watching the missionaries sing together, hug one another, and bear testimony of the meaning of Christmas and the joy they feel in being here, serving their Savior.  (Much like a spiritual Who-ville!)  Like them, I'll never forget my Christmas in the mission field.