A Busy Week in Imperial Beach!

 One of favorite morning walks is the Tijuana Estuary.  It has lots of different trails and streams of water where are lots of different kinds of shore birds.  We have also seen a fox, two coyotes, many lizards, jack rabbits (they tend to run out of the bushes right in front of you and run across the road, the heart rate immediately increases!) and lots of hawks and regular birds.  It is a quiet area away from the town with different native flowers throughout it...very peaceful.

We were invited to a member's Navy Retirement Ceremony.  It was so impressive with all the men and women in their white uniforms with metals across their chests and regular uniforms.  The program was outstanding with all its pageantry and military exactness. Brother Araiza was  honored and all of his achievements were given, a great man, but when it came time for him to talk he said his greatest achievement was his family and honored his wife who had been left alone so often.  I liked that...  After the ceremony we were served a great Mexican buffet and entertained by a great mariachi band.  Great day, something neither of us had been to before.

We went to a beach party for the Imperial Beach Ward.  A great turn out, great food and had a great time  visiting with members and investigators.  It was fun to see people in a relaxed setting and enjoying one another. 

We finished one large task that Bishop Carter of the Otay Mesa Ward asked us to do.  We gave us a ward list and had marked 36 families he wanted us to touch base with.  Some he knew and others he didn't know anything about them and had never met them.  It has been a fun and most interesting assignment.  Our last man was a man who is an elder and lived out of town to the east quite a ways, so Saturday afternoon we loaded the address into our GPS and took off.  We were amazed at out much industry was out there in the middle of nowhere.  We left the freeway, it was heading into Mexico.  The whole time we drove we could see the border fence.  But our directions continued out in the desert and then a turn to the north.  We could see buildings off on the left, and our GPS told us we were arriving at our destination on the left.....the road into the state prison!  We decided to turn our findings over to the Elder's Quorum.  But we found him!!

We had a special Stake Conference, one that was not scheduled very far in advance.  Elder L. Tom Parry and two general authorities came down for a special training of Stake Presidents and Priesthood leaders in the region.  So while they were here they scheduled special stake conferences in three stakes.  Our was one of them.  It was a great conference....one of  stories our Stake President told was of a scout master getting ready to take his troop out on an overnight camping trip and emphasized that everyone needed a sleeping bag.  He said one of the fathers who was going, who was a Stake President, said that he had never slept in a sleeping bag.  The scoutmaster asked how that was possible.  The answer, I have laid in them many times but never slept!!  I loved it!!  Afterward, President Clove, our Stake President, had invited us over to his home for lunch after the conference...his wife is as incredible as he is.  He is very supportive of the Senior Missionaries, visits with us any time he happens to see us.  Elder Haney, the visiting authority, and his wife were also there.  It was a great time hearing more about what was going on with the church around the world.

We are surrounded with faithful, caring people here.  Many with very hard circumstances, but they welcome us with love.  I have probably mentioned that two sets of Elders live our apartment complex, we love it!!  The one set will stop in once or twice a week in the evening on their way home to just say hello.  So fun...I have learned not to get into my pajamas when we get home in the evening, until after 9-9:30 when they get home!!