Wednesday the 17th was another day of training, except for one humorous moment when a cockroach decided to make his home in the Xerox machine. The two elders and I finally succeeded in terminating him.

Thursday the 18th found us with more training, sending letters from the Mission President to those who had just been baptized, designing a new Supplies form, and redoing the "Mold" information for the missionary packet. (Mold is a real problem here in So. California, so we all have to learn how to take care of it.) In the evening Signe and I did some more exploring, finding a Target and Trader Joe's. We ate a nice dinner at Carrow's next door, one of my mother's favorite restaurants in Lancaster (CA). There we had a server named Violet, who told us she had a friend who goes to our church: so she was going to give us a discount! We wish we had had some pass-along cards with us to give her. This experience taught us to be prepared.

Friday was another training and work day, with a staff meeting with the President at 11. The evening was very special, for President and Sister Watrous took us out to dinner at Polly's --as a welcome to the mission. We had a delightful two hours together, talking about everything from our families and Hugh Nibley to the Mission and missionaries. What great friends!

Saturday was our P-day. We ventured a little further by finding a Sam's Club in Fullerton -- at the northernmost part of our mission. It was also laundry day. Then Gary got out the AT&T kit so that he could set up the Internet. Well, it ended up taking him three hours -- 90 minutes of that was with a tech support on the phone. But it's nice to be back online again.

Sunday the 21st in the Orange Third Ward was even warmer than last week. Steve Trumbo, who used to play BYU basketball in the 1980s, was visiting, and in High Priest, a brother Craig Miller, who works for a defense contractor, talked about his three week business trip to Turkey. The branch in Ankara had 12 members: one of them came from Romania every Sunday for 3 and a half hours on the train and bus, both directions. Talk about dedication to the Gospel!

Monday and Tuesday was more training. Gary spent a considerable amount of time both days doing his librarian thing: reorganizing and rearranging the supply room with the thousands of pass-along cards, copies of the Book of Mormon, and various pamphlets. It looks much neater now. We saw even more of the sun today, but the temperature didn't go above 72. Unfortunately, the humidity makes it seem hotter.