Doing Our Best in the CSDM: Fires, earthquakes and speaking in spanish

It has been another busy week. We are in the middle of figuring out transfers which is a change this time because we are reducing the number of zones as instructed and also we have to reduce the cars we have so biking areas have to be created. Mark definitely has the harder job right now. I am just figuring meals and ways to feed missionaries in departures and arrivals. Salt Lake changed arrivals to come in the afternoon mostly at 4pm so the missionaries aren't arriving exhausted having been up since 2 am. Only problem with that is that it puts us in rush hour traffic driving a 8 passenger van with a trailer and our van back to the mission home which will take over an hour. It is going to prove interesting. We still have to be at the airport early that morning (7am) to see the departing missionaries off to home. So we live at the airport. We also received word last minute we will be getting 2 visa waiters and two sisters from temple square. All fun but work for Mark as he figures out where to put them. (he has to think apartments, languages, cars, companionships....it is a big job)
There are fires raging north of our mission in Venture and also in Del Mar which is closer to home for us. There was also a huge fire in Tecate just across the border which we could watch from our backyard. That one is under control now. The Del Mar fire caused the power company to turn off the power in La Jolla area because it is downed power lines caused by the Santa Anna winds that start the fires. So we couldn't take the departing missionaries to the temple on Friday and instead did it yesterday.
Thursday we had a very small earthquake. It measured 4.0 in Julian which is the north end of our mission. For us it was about a 2.3 and over quick but what was interesting is the noise it made. The earth really does groan. It is a loud noise. We have felt small really tiny ones since.
Then in the crush of everything else we spoke in San Yasidro in spanish last night. I didn't have hardly anytime to practice or prepare. But the Lord blesses your efforts I find and the missionaries said they understood every word and that I was really improving. They know how to be encouraging.
Today we speak in our home ward for sacrament meeting and then go visit some of the missionaries and their contacts. In between we are trying to squish in some Christmas stuff like run Christmas greetings to our senior couples.
I also took some investigators from Rwanda to a live Bethlehem nativity set done by Faith Chapel here in Sweetwater. It really was amazing. I had the swahili speaking missionaries come and help along with another ward member. The family is large and one is in a wheelchair. The boys in the family have MD. Sweet people. They have been through a lot.
So I will try to attach some pictures which hasn't been working too well to day but here goes.