First week in September

Meet our oldest grandchild Keely and her two roommates Tiffany (left) and McKenna (middle). They had us over for Sunday dinner yesterday, and we hope to get together at least once a month. Finding their apartment in Irvine was yet another experience in exploring Orange County and traveling on these massive freeways, some of which are 16 lanes of traffic -- and still crowded.
The dinner ended a different sort of Fast and Testimony day for us. A new friend named Jessica (40-something years old) met us to go to church for the first time in 13 years. She's had some very upsetting things happen in her life, and we were asked by President Watrous to help her with her faith. Jessica, in fact, wants us to teach her as if she were a non-member investigating the church. (She has German, Polish and French background.) We first met her last Thursday night at our apartment, since that was most comfortable for her. It was an emotional evening, with my giving her a 'father's blessing' at the end. We asked her to consider us family. She's grafeful.

Once again the huge California fires have begun again. The Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest has burned over 90 structures and has forced thousands to evacuate their homes. We can smell and taste the air with its ashes, and many of you in Utah have complained about the smoke from this fire of 267 square miles fouling the air of Utah. When we left the mission office at 5 on Monday, this is what it looked like. It reminded us both of the Mt. Saint Helens volcanic eruption some years ago. The clouds are from the superheated air from the fire. One fire bomber, a World War II vintage Martin Mars, dropped 7500 pounds of retardant to keep the fire from burning Mt. Wilson Observatory and the nearby TV transmitters. (Gary had visited that mountain back in 1960.)

Meanwhile, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were our three zone conferences. (Since we've gotten here they've added another zone to the existing 5.) While the elders and sisters were inside getting all-day instruction from the Mission Presidency and Sister Watrous, Elder Budge and I were out in the hot parking lots all three days checking fluid levels, tires, interiors, and unreported damage for the 53 Toyota Corollas, Chevy Malibus, Mazda 3s, Dodge Caravans, and one Chevy Silverado pick-up the mission owns. Then we had to decide on which three cars (each of the three days) were so clean that they deserved cleanliness awards, what we call the Silver Purpose awards. (Gold Purpose is for missionary work, Silver Purpose is for cleanliness. Top award each day is a metal statue of a Porpoise engraved with the name of the mission.) Being on his feet for so long all three days really bothered Gary's back, so he needs to cut down on this activity in the future. His forte was putting together a Power Point slide show of 38 baptisms from the last transfer. President really appreciated that.

Finally, Saturday was the fourth Newport Beach Temple tours we are in charge of. We had almost 100 people show up for the two sessions, and we had bought the perfect amount of cookies and punch. Gary trained our new office elders, Chandler and Lee, how to set up and run the DVD projector in the chapel. Whew, what a busy week! The work never ends!