Departures/Arrivals and Zone Leader Council

Once every 6 weeks we have a Zone Leader Council.  Here we are eating during the lunch break.

President training.

Zone Leaders taking voracious notes on his every word!

Our September Departing missionaries.  Such a sad day.

Our new Arrival group. Here eager to get started. Don't they look great!!!

Mission President's Seminar

In September we attended a Mission President's Seminar held in Newport Beach. It was delightful. During the seminar we went to a session in the Newport Beach Temple.  

There were 17 other MP there from the 16 California Missions and Hawaii. Elder Christofferson of the Twelve, Elders Clayton and Arnold from the Seventy. 

This is a senior live-at-home missionary couple who just finished their mission here.  Elder Winter is 80 and Sr. Winter is 77. He uses a cane and she walks with a walker.  They move slow but have been powerhouses in the mission.  This is their fourth mission.  The last one was to New Zealand where he pushed her in a wheelchair for 1 1/2 years.  He recently got ill at a Zone Conference.  When the 911 people came, they had a hard time getting his information because he was plying them with questions about God and their beliefs. They have been assigned to help a couple of wards work with their less actives. They have known much success and been loved. They were working every day from 9AM to 

9 PM. What a privilege to have known them! 

August Zone Conferences

We created a title of liberty and purpose for our August Zone Conference.  Each missionary in the mission signed it during the ZC.

Our Area Authority Seventy- Elder Lawrence and his wife did a mission tour. We are signing the flag.

President, Elder Simmons and Kramer, our assistants, made this title of liberty.

Precision work!

This was quite the project!

The Modesto, Modesto North, Turlock and Merced Zones.

The four Fresno Zones

The Hanford, Porterville and Visalia Zones.

Sisters Dodds, Drechsel, Haws, Gonzalez, Ah Sam, Toa, Mortensen, and Lohner from the North Zones.

Latins from the Southern Zones, representing Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, and Costa Rica.

We Attended a Hmong Conference Held in the Mission

There are 50,000 Hmong people from Asia here in the Central Valley.  We have 6-8 missionaries serving in the Hmong community.  They stay at the MTC for 12 weeks to learn the language.  It takes almost a year to become comfortable.   We attended a Hmong Conference hosted here in our mission.  There were about 500 who attended.  They put on a wonderful fashion show and talent show.  They are beautiful people with a rich heritage.

These are some of the work clothes. The Hmong lived in the high mountains and were and are master farmers.  These work clothes kept them warm in the fields.

These are all active youth. 

The ceremonial clothes were exquisite.

Look at the detail in the dresses. They were beautiful. Very impressive.

President and Sister Gonzalez with the Hmong youth. President was asked to speak to the youth group.  Fortunately, they all spoke English.

A Visit to the Sequoias While Jason, Jodie, Addie and Kevin were here.

What a happy face! Of course this was the face before we forced her to be in the car for 1 1/2 hours coming down the mountain from the Sequoias.  We didn't make any more trips that week.  No one was willing to be in the car for a long time. 

J, J and A standing by the root of an fallen tree.  It was hollowed out and big enough to serve as a saloon and cavalry post more than a hundred years ago.

Walking the trail.

This is the Grant Tree, the National Christmas Tree and third largest tree in the world.

Addie loves her Uncle Kevin.  Jason has trained her to raise her hands whenever he or any male voice says, "Hallelujah!"

Jason, Jodie, Addie and Kevin came to visit in July! Oh Joy!!!

It was so good to have our family home. Kevin was a able to relax from work and school.

Addie and Grandpa at the airport. Addie was fascinated with her Grandpa. She kept pulling anyone who would go with her into his office (where he spends most of his time).

I love this picture of Mother and daughter.  Note the curls.  I'm thinking Shirley Temple.  

Grandma on toy cleanup duty. I love it!

Addie was determined to kiss Grandpa and Grandpa was not sure about the juicy kiss.  He was brave and took it on the lips.  Addie was happy.

Kevin, relaxing after Addie had worn him out in the back yard.

What a cute little face.  Addie love being outside.  The days were so hot but the evenings were cool enough to get out back and play in the yard.  It was great.

What a cute family!!!

Addie found her way into Grandpa's office often, onto his lap and handling his things. 

It makes him very nervous when anyone handles his desk things, but Addie seemed to be 

to touch anything she wanted. Very interesting.

In the airport saying goodbye. Note Addie's tee-shirt. It says, 

"Big News, I'm going to be a Big Sister!"

Yosemite with Dale and Julie- Memorial Day Weekend!

The Falls were at full force.  We all got wet being in he area.

  With Dale and Julie we drove to Yosemite the Saturday before Memorial Day.  It took us 2 hours to find a parking place.  It was madness.  We will avoid that in the future.  Once out of the car we were able to walk in the valley and it was invigorating. Beautiful and peaceful. This is a view of Half Dome from the valley floor.

Crossing a bridge along the way to the Falls.

Overlooking Yosemite Valley.

More of the valley floor and the incredible spring green.