Korea, Mexico and Vietnam

President Watrous had asked a special favor of us for Tuesday morning: to take Elders Lee and Fraga to the airport so that they could go home respectively to Korea and Mexico to get ready for Fall semester at BYU-Provo and BYU-Hawaii. Elder Lee, pictured with us above, is one of the kindest and friendliest of the missionaries, and our love for him was especially keen because of all the help he gave us as an office missionary. It was a hard good-bye at John Wayne Airport. (And have you ever seen a taller Korean?)

Sisters Meagher and Sister Brennan are our two ASL (deaf) sister missionaries. They have been wonderful to work with during the few months they've been here. Next to them is the mission office parking lot with the cars assigned to the missionaries who were here for training.

China Garden Mall is located in Little Saigon in Westminster, California. We've passed by this mall countless times, but it has always been so busy. This past Thursday our granddaughters Keely and Cami (along with our first great-grandchild Adrienne) met us at the mission office so that we could sightsee in this Vietnamese mall. It was really quite an interesting place, with all sorts of Asian wares like you would probably see in downtown Hong Kong -- complete with the Happy Buddha and the Buddhas of Prosperity, Longevity and Fortune standing outside.

Then we went down the street to a Vietnamese supermarket. It was like a warehouse grocery store, complete with the largest fish market we've seen --including the Pike Street market in Seattle. All sorts of live fish, from crabs and lobster to catfish and tilapia. (But no one was throwing fish around!) We thoroughly explored this store, and we all bought something: our selection was a Green Grass Jelly drink, rice noodles and almond cookies. We plan on returning.

We finished our day at our favorite restaurant, Chili Pepper -- in Orange. Saturday was a full day of choir rehearsal, temple grounds tours, and stake conference. Today was our Orange Stake Conference, with some of the best music (our choir with harp, flute, oboe and organ) and speakers, including our periplegic stake patriarch who gave a wonderful talk. (He had an accident surfing at Laguna Beach 20 years ago: his wife has been a wonderful caregiver.) Our trials look miniscule compared to his.