Coyote snacks, street tacos, and departing missionaries

Another busy week in beautiful San Diego. It does get humid here and hot and my hair can look like I was in a dunking pool. But other than that it is beautiful. We told the repair man who works on things on the house that we would like to be able to leave the sliding doors in our bedroom open at night but the screens won't lock. He asked me if I was afraid of coyotes? Well not until he said that. Apparently they roam all around these parts. Nicole Green can verify that. We were walking the other day and a gentleman came by walking his tiny tiny little dog (there is a phenomen here of big huge guys with tiny tiny dogs...too funny) and somehow we got on the topic of coyotes and he said he never lets his dog out alone. A Coyote will eat it.  And Dad and I are thinking coyote snack food. There you have it.
Here is a picture of some of our lizards. There were 4 of them on the outside wall the other night right by where I was standing.  Mark didn't say a thing. I think he was waiting for me to jump a mile. But I didn't.

Monday night I went out with some of my spanish speaking sisters. We went tracting and visiting new members. They were so great. They contacted everyone they saw on the streets. Which in that section of town is a lot. Everyone is out at night to escape the heat of their little houses or apartments or walking where they have to go. We even came across a couple of little boys headed off somewhere and in talking to them find out part of them were from Syria. We gave them Mormon Battalion cards and told them it was free and they could pan for "Gold".  The member sister we visited was making excuses not to let us in but one of the sisters asked if she could use her bathroom and we were in for the next half hour.  Later I told the sister its a good thing I tell them to drink so much water. It helps in more ways than one.  They had me pray (in spanish) before we left and I did a really bad job but the sisters were very polite. They are so good. We also went to the home of an investigator from Haiti who speaks Creole.  She has read the Creole Book of Mormon to Alma 42 on her own.  She said it gives her great comfort. One of the sisters speaks French and Spanish and with the spirit comes up with Creole and speaks to her.  We each  took turns reading a verse in the Book of Mormon to help her finish up chapter 42. The one sister and the investigator would read in Creole and the other sister and I would take our turns reading in Spanish. The Spirit was incredibly strong. The sisters even complimented me on my reading. Again the Spirit.  The Book of Mormon is so powerful.
At the end they took me for street tacos. I told them I knew what cabeza and lengua were.  So I ordered pork.  They were so charming and fun in taking pictures of us at the stand. We kept trying to get the vendor to stay in the picture and finally he did and he joined in taking pictures with his phone. They invited him to check out the LDS church down the street and told him about their work. He gave us each extra tacos.

Friday (yesterday) was our big departure event. It is an all day event starting at the temple. We did a session, took photos, come back to the mission home where we feed them lunch. (We did pull porked sandwiches, thanks for the ideas Julie) Jennifer who works here at the house for us had all the food and everything else set up and ready to go. So nice. I did a Italian Soda bar for them and they told me I could only do this for the departing missionaries.  After I saw how much of the syrup they used from my brand new syrup bottles I  thought yes that is a good. Idea. Needless to say it was a success. Mark did departure interviews, the senior couples brought in dinner, we had a testimony meeting and  their companions came and picked them up.  They will actually fly out Tuesday morning where we will meet, check them in and then run over and greet the new one arriving and bring  them out to the house for the same kind of day only call it Arrival Day. Departure day was a great day. You are attached to your missionaries

even if you have only been with them for 4 weeks. But we were tired when we hit the bed. Of course we had been up way past 10:30 the night before solving a missionary problem. But that is becoming the new norm of things.

Well that is a snapshot of the week. I will not bore you with all the work Mark has in figuring out transfers.  It is huge.  He called the missionary he had picked to learn Arabic at the MTC and asked him if he was willing to learn Arabic and the Elder was ecstatic. The Church is sending us two more arabic speakers in a couple of months. We also had our second Mission Leadership Council which went well. At one point I had them develop a one minute message and then go video themselves on their pads to critic how they do.  Elder Hemingway (director at the Battalion)  told Elders to quit talking like they are in general conference and smile and use pictures like the sisters.  It was really kind of fun. Some of the missionaries have posted a quick discussion lesson on Facebook and got some really interesting contacts off it.

We love love you all so much. We love hearing from you and seeing your pictures.

Talk to you again later

MOM