July's Flags and Flowers

July has arrived already! The bulletin board in the office displays the flags of the 20 nations represented by our missionaries here. And Elder Monney is proudly showing off his well-pruned hibiscus flowers.

June ended gloriously with music at our zone conferences June 22-24. With Signe playing the violin obliggato, and the two American Sign Language sisters doing an incredible job of signing the words to "Joseph Smith's First Prayer," our choir of 20 missionaries, led by Gary, set the stage for a very inspiring end to each day's zone conference. It is an experience neither of us will soon forget.


Our son-in-law Matt stayed with us most of the week, visiting places hither and yon during the day on his motorbike and sleeping in our spare room. Meanwhile, his daughter Kyra and her four friends spent most of the week enjoying Disneyland, as part of their high school graduation celebration. It was nice to have some good visiting time with Matt.

Saturday the 26th was the funeral for Jim Skaggs. It was well-attended by over 500 friends and family. It was obvious to us all that his gifts and talents are needed elsewhere at this time -- and that he will eagerly await us all to see him again.

Sunday was the Newport Beach Stake Choir's patriotic concert. It was nice for us to be in the audience for a change. We were mostly there to hear Dr. James Welch play the Centennial concert for this 100-year old organ, most of it patriotric music. (For those of you who know Dr. Jack Welch at BYU, this is his brother.)

Yesterday was our ward's 25th annual July 4th pancake breakfast at Hart Park in Orange. While Signe helped to make pancake batter for 300 attendees, Gary made friends with a non-member and later talked to four homeless brothers on the fringe of our picnic area -- two of whom (Alex and Terry) took Gary's invitation seriously to go through the line and get some fruit, sausage, eggs and pancakes. Then Gary had a Gospel discussion with them and tried to find a way to get bus passes for them so that they could meet their appointments for prospective employment. (One of them had been homeless in the area for three years.) Gary was bold with them about how our Church could help them find not only employment but happiness like they have never known before.

From 4 to 11 p.m. tonight we attempted to relax. But the Mexican music from across the street was so loud that it was hard to do anything because the decibels were so high! Towards the end of the evening they dispensed with the canned music for some real live mariachi band music with two trumpets. It was nice to listen to, until it devolved to accompaniment by drunken party goers singing on a Karaoke machine and blasting their non-tunes across Memory Lane!